Joffrey Baratheon is a fictional character in A Song of Ice and Fire series of epic fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin, and its HBO television adaptation, Game of Thrones.

Joffrey inherits the throne after Robert's death, which, along with his execution of Lord Ned Stark of Winterfell, triggers a power struggle in Westeros known as the War of Five Kings.

Joffrey is portrayed by Irish actor Jack Gleeson in the television adaptation Game of Thrones, a role for which he received international recognition and critical praise.

[1][2][3] Joffrey Baratheon is not a point-of-view character in the novels, so his actions are witnessed and interpreted through the eyes of other people, such as his uncle Tyrion Lannister and his one-time fiancée Sansa Stark.

This is best epitomized by his response when his (then) betrothed offends him: Joffrey pronounces that his mother had taught him never to strike a woman, and so commissions a knight of the Kingsguard to hit her instead.

He appears to have virtually no interests other than sadism and extreme violence, paying no attention to actually governing his kingdom or to anything involving sex, even when he is offered exceptionally beautiful women.

However, he refuses to show sympathy with the family when Bran Stark falls from a tower, until physically forced to by his uncle, Tyrion Lannister.

The battle is only won by his uncle Tyrion's use of wildfire and his grandfather Tywin's last-minute counterattack aided by the forces of House Tyrell.

Tyrion only avoids punishment when his father Tywin assures Joffrey that his uncle was drunk and had no intention of threatening the king.

Later after the events of the "Red Wedding", Joffrey gleefully plans on serving Sansa her recently deceased brother's head.

During his wedding feast, he repeatedly torments Tyrion, presenting a pair of jousting dwarves as entertainment to humiliate his uncle, whom he also forces to act as his cupbearer.

[5] Tyrion is falsely accused and arrested by Cersei, but it is later revealed that Lady Olenna Tyrell and Lord Petyr Baelish were the true perpetrators.

When the battle eventually turns in Stannis' favor, Cersei calls her son into the safety of the castle, damaging the morale of his army.

To cement the alliance between those families, Joffrey's engagement to Sansa is annulled so he can marry Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer).

The marriage is yet to take place, and rifts are growing between Joffrey, and his uncle Tyrion and grandfather Tywin, who are (in their respective ways) rebutting his cruelty.

Later, after the events of the "Red Wedding", Joffrey gleefully plans on serving Sansa her recently deceased brother Robb's (Richard Madden) head.