Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Characters / ASongOfIceAndFireHouseBaratheonOfKingsLanding

Go To

1!!!This is a listing of members of House Baratheon of King's Landing who appear in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''.
2!!!For the main character index, see [[AC:[[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFire here]]]]
3!!!For the main Crownlands entry, see [[AC:[[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireCrownlandsHouses here]]]]
4!!!For the House Baratheon of Dragonstone, see [[AC:[[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireHouseBaratheonOfDragonstone here]]]]
5!!!For the House Baratheon of Storm's End, see [[AC:[[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireHouseBaratheon here]]]]
6
7!House Baratheon of King's Landing
8[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joffrey_sigil_coat.png]]
9
10The current royal house since the triumph of Robert's Rebellion and the deposition of House Targaryen. It was created by the marriage of Robert Baratheon and Cersei Lannister, which was arranged by Jon Arryn, Robert's first Hand of the King. Its sigil, adopted when Robert's alleged son Joffrey took the throne, is the crowned stag of Baratheon and the golden lion of Lannister, [[StealthPun comba]][[FeudingFamilies tant]].
11
12Upon the marriage of King Joffrey I with Margaery Tyrell, the royal house's main ally in the War of the Five Kings became [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireHouseTyrell House Tyrell]]. They also secured tenuous alliances with [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireHouseBolton House Bolton]] in [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireNorthernHouses the North]] and [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireHouseFrey House Frey]] at the [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireRiverlandsHouses Riverlands]] in order to preserve their rule through the war.
13----
14
15[[foldercontrol]]
16
17[[folder:King Robert Baratheon]]
18!!King Robert Baratheon, the First of His Name; r. 283-298
19!!!The Demon of the Trident, The Usurper, The Whoremonger King
20[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/robert_baratheon_woiaf.jpg]]
21->''"I'm still young, and now you're here with me, things will be different. We'll make this a reign to sing of, and damn the Lannisters to seven hells."''
22
23The King of Westeros when the story begins, he was the victor of the first civil war, known variously as "The War of the Usurper" or "Robert's Rebellion." A brave and unstoppable warrior in his youth, the death of the woman King Robert loved has caused him to degenerate over the years into a fat drunk man whose only interests are eating, drinking, hunting and whoring. Since he is uninterested in governing the realm, the real power lies with Jon Arryn. He hates the Targaryens and wishes to kill the remaining members of that House, particularly when they ally themselves with the horse lords who could pose a threat to the kingdom. He is eventually murdered by his wife Cersei, who orchestrated a hunting "accident" by switching Robert's wine with a much more potent drink.
24----
25* AbdicateTheThrone: He admits to Ned that he would love nothing more than to give up the crown and live as a sellsword in Essos. However, he feels doing so would be dishonorable, and that nothing good would come of Joffrey becoming king.
26-->'''Robert:''' Let me tell you a secret, Ned. More than once, I have dreamed of giving up the crown. Take ship for the Free Cities with my horse and my hammer, spend my time warring and whoring, [[BloodKnight that's what I was made for]]. The sellsword king, how the singers would love me. You know what stops me? The thought of [[RoyalBrat Joffrey]] [[TyrantTakesTheHelm on the throne]], with [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Cersei]] standing behind him, [[MotherMakesYouKing whispering in his ear]].
27* AbusiveParents: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. Cersei was outraged when Robert hit Joffrey and knocked out three of his baby teeth over "some nonsense about a cat." Stannis remembers Robert did it because little Joffrey had [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals disemboweled the cat]] and showed Robert the unborn kittens that he cut out, and that he hit Joffrey so hard that Stannis thought he'd killed him. Although obviously not a healthy way to deal with that situation at all, his reaction was perhaps understandable.
28* AdiposeRex: Not as obese as some, but he really lets himself go after gaining the throne. He's the fat, the unenthusiastic, PointyHairedBoss of kings.
29* TheAlcoholic: Heavy drinking is one of the (many) activities he prefers to actually governing his kingdom, and after he [[spoiler: rapes his wife in a drunken stupor]], he says upon waking that it was the wine that was responsible, not him.
30* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: His best mate, Alcohol, is prominently involved in his decision to carry on boar hunting when he could barely stand without weaving on the spot. [[spoiler:This was exactly what Cersei planned when she ordered his squire Lancel to secretly provide him with reinforced strongwine far more potent than even a heavy drinker like Robert could tolerate.]]
31* AloofOlderBrother: Perhaps the series' crowning example. Robert's relationship with his younger brothers, Stannis and Renly, was notoriously cold. Though he granted them prestigious lands and titles upon his kingship, he was never able to get along with Stannis or relate to Renly, [[AlwaysSecondBest and he cast a long shadow over both of their lives even after his death.]] He found a brother figure in Ned Stark, who, ironically, is even more unlike Robert than Robert's siblings.
32-->'''Stannis:''' I don't know that we ought to call Robert my beloved brother either. He loved me no more than he had to, nor I him.
33* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: "Hey, Edric, remember how you were conceived when I seduced your mother at Uncle Stannis's wedding? In the consummation bed? ''Before'' the happy couple had used it?"
34* AntiHero: Of the Unscrupulous Hero variety - His plan to assassinate a [[WouldHurtAChild pregnant]] [[WouldHitAGirl Daenerys Targaryen]] shows he's not above doing unsavory things while in power.
35* ApathyKilledTheCat: He could never be bothered to keep the Small Council in check, which result in King's Landing being run into the ground by their power grabs. And he didn't intervene in the conflict between the Starks and the Lannisters, which set the stage for the War of the Five Kings.
36* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: Downplayed, Robert took the Iron Throne from House Targaryen by winning the rebellion, but it was his Targaryen blood that gave him the strongest claim to the crown among the rebels, even though even he knew that Ned and Jon Arryn would have done a better job.
37** Although it's fairly apparent that the only people who cared were Ned (who's made of HonorBeforeReason) and, according to Renly, the maesters in the citadel. Renly plainly states that Robert's "right" to the throne was his warhammer, and Robert himself laments that Ned should have been the one to take the crown. Cersei even states that it would have been as simple as Ned sitting in the Iron Throne after telling Jaime to get off of it.
38* BattleOfWits: Lost this when he gained the throne after winning a war in the field. Big time. And, is bright enough to know that this is what happened; and, to get horribly depressed about it all and totally give up even trying to win the peace.
39* BerserkButton: Any mentions of Rhaegar, Viserys or Daenerys Targaryen sends him fuming. Such is his hatred that it repeatedly drives a wedge between him and Ned Stark, who would rather leave all that stuff behind him.
40* BigFun: Played with; he's a big man in both stature and girth, and he loves drinking, wenching, banqueting, hunting, and fighting. However, it soon becomes clear that he largely does these things to distract himself from the cares of the realm and his dysfunctional family, and that at times he can be a FatBastard.
41* BigGood: Deconstructed. Robert, the leader of the heroic rebels, ushers in an era of peace and prosperity never before seen, after defeating the tyrannical Mad King and the savage Ironborn raiders and showing mercy to many of his former enemies... but he [[JadedWashout absolutely hates his position]] and is partly reliant on ''other'' men doing dirty work for his rule to be maintained. As Tywin puts it, Robert thinks of himself as the hero, and heroes don't kill children (so he'll just quietly look the other way when someone ''else'' kills the child). Nor, for that matter, do they sack cities, even heavily defended ones that would inevitably develop into an uncontrolled melee if taken by force of arms; another case of Tywin saving him the dirty work. In any case, things really go to hell after he dies, and it's hard to imagine things spinning so out of control if he had lived past the first book.
42* BloodKnight: Looks back on his rebellion with nostalgia, constantly reliving the glory days as a fierce and powerful champion amidst the carnage. Now as the king in a peacetime kingdom, the only way for him to properly deal with his bloodlust is regular hunting... [[spoiler: which gets him killed in a "HuntingAccident"]].
43* BoomerangBigot: He hates all Targaryens even though he is 1/4 Targaryen (his paternal grandmother Rhaelle was the daughter of Aegon V).[[note]]to say nothing of his ancestor Orys Baratheon, who's believed by many including the Targaryens to be one of their bastards.[[/note]]
44* BrilliantButLazy: He's not at all thick or a clod-foot (no matter what Cersei thinks), being quite the charmer and rather observant. The problem is that his active, hot-blooded skill-set is not one that works well with the petty, day-to-day bickering to be found in trying to run a kingdom. Which is why he actively chooses not to look or take part. It doesn't help that he'll rather drink his sorrow than actually learn how to rule the kingdom.
45* BrokenAce: A great fighter, great military commander, a popular (despite being ineffective) king, and a charmer who could turn enemies into friends. But he also hates ruling and perpetually laments the loss of the woman he loves.
46* BrutishCharacterBrutishWeapon: Robert's signature weapon is a giant two-handed warhammer, befitting his legendary strength and fiery temper. Ned Stark and most other characters can barely even lift the monstrous weapon, but Robert swung it around with ease; during the Battle of the Trident, he famously used it to crush Rhaegar Targaryen's chest through his plate armor. With '''one''' hand because he had a shield on his other arm.
47* TheCasanova: Since reaching his teens, he gained an active reputation with women.
48* TheCharmer: Robert is noted for his ability to charm others and make them his friends, even enemies.
49* ClashingCousins: His ArchEnemy Rhaegar Targaryen also happened to be his second cousin.
50* DamnedByFaintPraise: Most people agree he's made a good king... compared to Aerys or Joffrey.
51* DeathByGluttony: [[spoiler:After his death, rumors in King's Landing abound that he died stuffing himself so full with boar at a feast that he ruptured. A little less dignified than the actual events of him being gored by a boar while drunk, but the smallfolk never let the truth get in the way of a good story.]]
52* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: In sum, that being a good general does ''not'' mean you will make a good king. He deconstructs a number of standard "fantasy hero" tropes:
53** BloodKnight: Robert enjoys fighting so much that his enemies try using it to draw him out and kill him. They eventually get him [[spoiler:by luring him into a "hunting accident".]]
54** BoisterousBruiser: His loud attitude hides how deeply unhappy he is.
55** HeartbrokenBadass: Being enslaved by Lyanna's memory and going to seed physically have not sated Robert's lust as he continues to father illegitimate kids everywhere in the Seven Kingdoms, the youngest being a one-year-old baby girl named Barra.
56** ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Jorah Mormont states that Robert would have been better off had he been born Dothraki. Fighting is all Robert knows and he sinks into physical decay without it. In this regard he's kind of like a professional boxer or MMA fighter who becomes fat after retiring because they're continuing their same dietary habits but not doing constant physical activity to compensate.
57* {{Determinator}}: It's usually Stannis who has this reputation, but Robert is this in regards to killing the Targaryens. No man was more determined to annihilate House Targaryen during the rebellion and even years after taking the throne he still wants Daenerys and Viserys dead.
58-->'''Ned:''' Have the years so unmanned you that you tremble at the shadow of an unborn child?
59* DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou: He once broached the subject of bringing his natural (bastard) daughter Mya Stone to court, only for his wife Queen Cersei to [[ShameIfSomethingHappened imply she would have the girl killed]]. He didn't bring the topic up again, and it's implied that he distanced himself from all his illegitimate children from that point onward to protect them.
60* DisappearedDad: He is this to most of his illegitimate kids. [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonforAbandoningYou Potentially]] [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that the last time he mentioned bringing one of his bastards to court, Cersei implied she would have the bastard killed.
61* DomesticAbuse: Robert hits Cersei once or twice. He didn't like it though. He thought it wasn't "kingly". He has no qualms about employing his MaritalRapeLicense though.
62* DumbMuscle: He understands full well how out of depth he is when it comes to politicking. He knows it's going on, but doesn't even try to play the game. He's a great fighter and military commander, but has no head for the intricacies of politics, for all he can man-manage like a champ on a one-to-one basis. What's even more ironic is that Robert is not really an idiot (he's really just depressed and lazy). If he'd actually put his mind of average intelligence and his extremely high charisma into playing the game, then he could have been an extremely successful politician. Instead, his depression simply made him throw up his hands and give up, which could give him a slightly unfair reputation as a fool.
63* TheExtremistWasRight: [[spoiler:While Robert is rather zealous in having the surviving Targaryens hunted down, he correctly predicts that Daenerys would try to use her new Dothraki warlord husband and unborn Targaryen heir to retake Westeros with a BadassArmy. While said husband and child die on the way, she still manages to hatch dragons and raise a new army, and still ''very much'' intends to retake her father's Iron Throne.]]
64** Understanding how out of his depths he was when it came to politics, he wanted to abdicate the throne, head for Essos and become a sellsword so he could do what he was good at: warring. The only thing that keeps him from leaving is the thought of [[RoyalBrat Joffrey]] sitting on the throne with [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Cersei whispering in his ear]]. Considering the mess those two made of things after his death, staying was the right thing to do.
65* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Going to the crypt to visit [[TheLostLenore Lyanna's grave]] without seeing to his family's accommodations. He rants to Ned about [[TheHedonist how great life in the South is]].
66** Even before that we have Robert and Cersei greeting Ned and Cat. Robert runs up and hugs Catelyn like a long lost sister while Cersei has Ned bend a knee in the snow and kiss her hand.
67* EveryoneHasStandards: He may be a blood knight who's prone to acts of violence and rage, but he was reported by Stannis to have been appalled by what Joffrey did to a pregnant cat out of morbid curiosity.
68* EverythingButTheGirl: Robert Baratheon went to war against the Mad King to rescue his beloved Lyanna Stark (among other reasons). When the dust finally settled, Robert has become king and commandeered all of the Seven Kingdoms, but Lyanna died regardless. He makes it no secret that he is bitter about winning a crown he never wanted and [[TheLostLenore losing a girl he did]], going so far as to say that the man who kidnapped her (whom Robert killed in a battlefield duel) won by joining [[TogetherInDeath Lyanna in death]]. In an interesting twist, it's made increasingly clear that while Robert may or may not have "loved" Lyanna, he never really ''knew'' her, and their potential married life would likely have been unhappy.
69* EvilSmellsBad: Inverted; the better Robert smells, the worse he acts. Ned comments that Robert during the Rebellion (when he was arguably at his best physically and personality-wise) smelled like leather and blood, while in the present (where he's degenerated into an AdiposeRex) he just smells like perfume.
70* FailureKnight: ...and Lyanna died during the war. Woe. Robert himself comments on this:
71-->'''Robert:''' Rhaegar won, damn him. I killed him, Ned, I drove the spike right through that black armor into his black heart, and he died at my feet. They made up songs about it. Yet somehow he still won. He has Lyanna now, and I have ''her''.
72* FatalFlaw: His need to prove he can still fight, despite his physical condition.
73** His JadedWashout tendencies and inability to let go of the past in relation to Lyanna, means he's a lousy king with no interest in ruling, with VengeanceFeelsEmpty coming into play too.
74* FatBastard: He's not a monster by any means, but he's gained a lot of weight since he became king, and this self-indulgence seems to go hand-in-hand with an increasing moral laziness. Upon seeing him for the first time in years, Ned thinks to himself that Robert has gained at least 8 stone (100 Imperial pounds); given the descriptions of him as a young man, that easily puts him north of 300 pounds.
75* FormerlyFit: Ned reminisces that Robert was once handsome and muscular. He's growing into quite the FatBastard, however.
76* FourStarBadass: One of the best of his generation. His famous skills as a warrior and general earned most of the respect people have for him, despite eventually proving to be a less competent ruler. Even Stannis regards him as a superior commander to himself.
77* FrontlineGeneral: Robert leads from the front due to his BloodKnight nature. This adds considerably to his reputation in a world where individual martial prowess is equated with leadership, a subject of constant irritation to his brother Stannis, a more pragmatic general who leads from the rear.
78-->'''Stannis:''' We all know what my brother would do. Robert would gallop up to the gates alone, break them with his warhammer, and ride through the rubble to slay Roose Bolton with his left hand and the Bastard with his right. I am not Robert.
79* GeneralRipper: Has an overwhelming hatred of all Targaryens, and has no moral qualms with sending assassins after a 14-year-old girl currently located on another continent and moving away from him. [[spoiler: (Not that he was ''wrong'' about her trying to take back the throne.)]]
80* GenerationXerox: Like his ancestor Aegon the Conqueror, Robert won a war and became king but lost the woman he loved and got stuck with a wife who eventually helped her son take the throne by killing his other children.
81* TheGoodKing: Inverted and deconstructed; while the realm has been at peace for the vast majority of his reign, much of the credit is due to the Small Council. There are some issues, such as the massive debt, but the realms are for the most part stable. Robert does have the charisma and charm to keep [[DecadentCourt everyone in the Red Keep]] from stabbing each other in the back, and him dying is what makes everything go FromBadToWorse. After his death [[TheCaligula Joffery]] and [[PuppetKing Tommen]] would succeed him; the first would plunge the continent into war, the second is barely able to keep it together after the war has ended, and both are the proxies of the StupidEvil [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Cersei]]. All three of these make Robert look like a saint in comparison. In fact, the worst thing that can be said about him is that he's a lecherous drunken oaf, instead of being an insane pyromaniacal tyrant like Aerys II, a spiteful little shit like Joffery, a spineless puppet ruler like Tommen, or the grossly unqualified collection of errors that is Cersei.
82* HatesTheJobLovesTheLimelight: He loves the spectacle, pageantry, and authority that comes with the Iron Throne, but he's long since stopped giving a damn about the actual business of ruling.
83* TheHedonist: Robert loathes being king but knows that that there's really no way out of it. So to distract himself from his unhappiness he gorges himself on drink, food, and whores.
84-->'''Sandor Clegane:''' If he couldn't fuck it, fight it, or drink it, it bored him.
85* HeelRealisation: [[spoiler:After the boar gores him, he realizes he's been both a bad king and father, and desperately pleads to Ned to call off the assassination of Daenerys and raise Joffrey to be a better man than he was. It's rather sad, particularly given what happens next]].
86* HenpeckedHusband: Frequently complains that Cersei will not stop nagging or demanding things of him. While he does often tell her off (and even [[DomesticAbuse strikes her once or twice]]), he will often just give her her way (even if he knows it's wrong, like ordering [[KickTheDog to kill Lady]]) just to get Cersei off his back.
87* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Part of the reason he fought was because of the Targaryens' ruthlessness in dealing with their enemies. He's the same way when it comes to dealing with the Targaryens.
88* HiddenDepths: Despite being a lazy, ill-tempered hedonist 99% of the time, Robert is not nearly as stupid as he might seem and is a genuinely good king when he wants to be:
89** When he has the interest and in a state of relatively sobriety, he really is a good politician and judge of character. He pardoned many of the lords who he beat but he knew never to trust them. Moreover, despite much he hates being a ruler, he refuses to abdicate because he knows he can't let someone like Joffrey become king.
90** He showed interest in taking responsibility for his bastards by bringing Mya Stone to King's Landing; Cersei implied that she would order the child harmed if Robert did so, so he refrained from bringing his bastards to Court. Even Edric Storm, his only recognized bastard, is not safe from this problem.
91** While Stannis and Cersei interpret it as a simple slight, Robert making Stannis the Lord of Dragonstone (while giving their family's traditional seat of Storm's End to their younger brother Renly) had a more pragmatic reason behind it: he needed a loyal and competent leader and administrator to run the region, as the Crownlands had historically been a hotbed of Targaryen loyalists. Considering that, 15 years later, Stannis has converted the lords of the Narrow Sea islands, Cracklaw Point, and Massey's Hook into hardcore ''Baratheon'' loyalists that follow him into battle against hopeless odds, this was a good move. WordOfGod is also that it was his somewhat misguided attempt to be generous, since normally the eldest son of the king would be Prince of Dragonstone.
92** Ned criticizes Robert for leaving Littlefinger as effective chief economist of the realm and taking out extensive loans from the Iron Bank, but it's revealed that he did this because Littlefinger genuinely ''did'' do his job well, increasing the crown's income ten-fold. He did rack up some debt, but only as a consequence of basic economics, spending money to make money (the ten-fold profit increase ''despite'' the greater proportion of feasts and tourneys under Robert indicated that the investment was well worth it), while in the process building up the crown's credit with 15 years of consistent payments to the world's largest bank. Notably, even after the economy is utterly ruined by the War of the Five Kings and the associated disruptions, it's stated in ''A Feast For Crows'' that the crown would have no trouble at all making its Iron Bank payments on time if Cersei hadn't [[TooDumbToLive intentionally withheld said payments and given all the money to a pirate because he looked like her teenage crush.]]
93** After Bran's fall Robert stayed up all night to console Eddard and Cat. Showing how much he cares for his friend despite his anger with him later on.
94** Though he was gifted countless bejeweled knives and daggers over the years as king, the only knife he used for hunting was the one Jon Arryn gave him as a boy.
95** In general, while Robert's lax approach to ruling is in no small part due to his disinterest in anything but enjoying the benefits of being king, he is smart enough to have left the role to people who are genuinely capable and his hands-off approach seems at least in part informed by a belief that allowing those who are capable room to do their work without the constant worry of having to answer to a ruler for every mistake is the best way to run a massive kingdom, especially since he took power after the Mad King who had subordinates horribly executed for every minor slight.
96* HisOwnWorstEnemy: King Robert is a symphony of self-sabotage. ''He knows exactly what he is doing wrong'', how it affects the people around him and he is smart enough to predict the war that would engulf Westeros... only, he'd much rather not do anything about it himself and escape from his responsibilities. Ironically, he'd be a decent governor if he were even a bit interested in it.
97* HotBlooded: When he gets annoyed, it's easy to see.
98* HumongousHeadedHammer: As a young man, Robert Baratheon was known for favoring a gigantic war hammer as his personal weapon, forged by Donal Noye at the Baratheon castle Storm's End. The hammer is described as having been so heavy that his friend Ned Stark could barely lift it; the younger Robert was [[BrutishCharacterBrutishWeapon simply freakishly strong]]. He became known as [[RedBaron "the Demon of the Trident"]] after using the hammer to kill Crown Prince Rhaegar in a battlefield duel by crushing his chest right through his breastplate.
99* HuntingAccident: [[spoiler:{{Invoked|Trope}} as part of an AssassinationAttempt. He goes boar-hunting with his squire Lancel Lannister, who, unbeknownst to him, is deliberately plying him with strong wine on Cersei's orders in hopes he gets drunk enough to make a mistake. Sure enough, when faced with a boar, he's not fast enough to kill it without getting gored, resulting in a fatal injury. [[TakingYouWithMe But he took the boar down with him]], and [[GallowsHumor tells Ned to have it served at his funeral feast!]]]]
100* ICallItVera: One of the flagships of the royal fleet is called ''King Robert's Hammer''. Another is [[TheLostLenore ''Lady Lyanna'']].
101* IWasQuiteALooker: As a young man, he was TallDarkAndHandsome with a HeroicBuild; tall, handsome and "muscled like a maiden's fantasy." By the beginning of the first book, he... isn't.
102* {{Irony}}: His entire life seems a huge prank by the gods:
103** Leads a war to rescue his kidnapped fiancée. She dies during the war and he ends up stuck with a kingship and a wife he didn't want,
104** Despite his achievements and being a good warrior and war leader, he is poor king material in peacetime,
105** Fathered plenty of bastards, but the kids who are supposed to be his only trueborn offspring are actually ''his wife's'' bastards. He and his wife both had biological children but never together (other than the one Cersei secretly aborted).
106** Continues to hold a seething hatred for the Targaryen family on principle despite the fact that he has more than a trace of Targaryen ancestry himself, and his ancestor Orys Baratheon helping to put the very first Aegon I Targaryen on the throne.
107* JadedWashout: Robert manages to nail pretty much every aspect of the trope, in spite of being a ''king''. Cynical, jaded and world-weary, check. Disrespected by family and friends, check. Struggling to achieve basic goals and recognition, check. Lives on past glories, ''check''. Complains about job, check. Is uninspired and lazy at job, check. Trapped in loveless marriage to woman he despises, check. Still pining for childhood sweetheart, check.
108* {{Jerkass}}: Robert became a selfish jerk after the Rebellion. He ignored or mistreated his wife and children for years, and generally acts like a prideful, drunken blowhard whenever things don't go his way. His heart of gold only comes out when he's with Ned, and even then it can disappear if Ned challenges his pride.
109* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Robert can be a real piece of work at times and has little interest in anything but eating, drinking, hunting and whoring. But he isn't without his moments of kindness and nobility and does care about the kingdom and ensuring the people he rules over are looked after.
110* TheJuggernaut: In his youth he was a killing machine in the battlefield. Exemplified in the Battle of Trident, where he crushed his way through Rhaegar's army in order to fight him in single combat.
111* KickTheDog:
112** Varys sends his bastard Edric Storm presents every year under the guise of it being Robert. When Edric writes Robert with thanks, Robert just laughs and asks Varys what he sent this year.
113** He abuses Cersei and completely ignores his "children", even the kind ones such as Tommen.
114** His hatred for Rhaegar and the Targaryens is so intense that he didn't blink an eye when the corpses of Rhaegar's infant son and toddler daughter were presented to him, despite that their death was absolutely [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath gratuitous and awfully brutal]], while in the present day he's perfectly fine to have pregnant child bride Daenerys murdered. This has strained his relationship with Ned more than once, since [[WouldNotHurtAChild Ned]] '''strongly''' disapproves said deeds. When Ned protested that Rhaegar's children were no more than babes, Robert said, "I see no babes. Only dragonspawn."
115* KissingCousins: One of the numerous women he has porked is an unnamed Lady Estermont who is also his cousin. (Cersei got her revenge that night in Jaime's bed.)
116* LadykillerInLove: He (claims to have) truly loved Lyanna with all his heart, even if he enjoyed the intimacy of other women. Ned actually reminisces about the way Lyanna doubted if Robert would truly remain faithful to her.
117* LargeAndInCharge: According to Ned, he's about 6'6" and heavily muscled, towering over the commoners.
118* LonelyAtTheTop: One of the reasons he appoints Ned Stark as Hand is so he can have his friend with him again.
119* LousyLoversAreLosers: He was a very poor lover and husband to Cersei (who wasn't even the spiteful woman she became in her later years), seemingly just because she [[LostLenore wasn't Lyanna]]. Cersei reminisces he was rough and brutish, without a care for her pleasure or comfort and she would wake up sore and raw the next morning. It only got worse as the years went on, when he began to drink and became more violent and would not care for her "objections" and claimed he was simply "[[MaritalRapeLicense claiming his rights]]".
120* LovingAShadow: Even years after her death, Robert is still in love with [[TheLostLenore Lyanna Stark]] (or at least the impression he had of her before his rebellion). Had he ever got her back like he wished, their marriage would be ruined anyway since Lyanna spent ''months'' with Rhaegar, and [[PresentAbsence Rhaegar's ghost would be always between them]]. Also Robert may have not stopped his sleeping around, as Lyanna suggested to Ned.
121 -->'''Robert:''' The woman tried to forbid me to fight in the melee. She’s sulking in the castle now, damn her. Your sister would never have shamed me like that.\
122 '''Ned:''' You never knew Lyanna as I did, Robert. You saw her beauty, but not the iron underneath. She would have told you that you have no business in the melee.
123* MagneticHero: He's described as having been a charismatic charmer who often made friends of his enemies during the war.
124%%
125%% The Marital Rape License entry has been the subject of some controversy. This wording has been agreed upon in the Discussion page. Please bring any changes there before editing. Thank you.
126* MaritalRapeLicense: Cersei thinks back to Robert "claiming his rights" as her husband with clear displeasure, recalling "lying helpless underneath him" and how sore and raw she would be the next morning. She recalls a specific occasion when she complained that he hurt her; he apologized and blamed his drunkenness, but he did not stop drinking... or "claiming his rights" over her objections and clear lack of pleasure.
127%%
128* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Robert's numerous bastards, but especially [[spoiler:Edric Storm]], are said to have the capacity to awaken dragons by spilling their blood according to Melisandre based on the fact that they have "Royal Blood" (possibly due to Robert's own Targaryen ancestry). Since no one has allowed her to kill any of the bastards, there has been no proof that this would actually happen; likewise, when she tries to kill [[spoiler:Mance Rayder's son]] for the same reason and he was taken away from her as well, she has been left with no means to achieve her ends concerning this claim.
129* MetallicMotifs: Donal Noye, a blacksmith of the Night's Watch, judges Robert to be the only "true steel" of the three Baratheon brothers, while comparing Stannis to pure iron (hard and strong, but inflexible) and Renly to copper (a pretty, shiny metal worth very little).
130* MoneyDumb: Robert is a careless spendthrift who manages to plunge the kingdom deeply into debt despite beginning his reign with a full treasury, something that has major implications for the plot. Half his debt is owed to his wife's family, the Lannisters, meaning they have tremendous influence at court because he literally cannot afford to upset them. After his death, his widow Cersei Lannister refuses to pay the portion of the debt owed to the Iron Bank of Braavos. In response, the Iron Bank begins financially supporting Stannis Baratheon, who the Lannisters are at war against, because he promised to pay them back the whole sum once he took the throne.
131* TheMourningAfter: He still visits Lyanna's grave to pay his respects. She suspected he would be unfaithful to her in life; but [[LovingAShadow her death kept him loyal to her forever]]. Go figure.
132* MyGreatestFailure: He may have won the war and got the crown, but that wasn't his goal at all:
133-->'''Robert:''' The gods be damned. It was a hollow victory they gave me. A crown...it was the girl I prayed them for.
134* MyopicConqueror: Robert was a renowned warrior and leader who marched his armies to King's Landing and defeated a dynasty that had ruled for over 300 years. Immediately after seizing control, however, he left his Hand and Small Council to handle the ruling of the empire while he indulged in personal vices. He neglected his duties so much that he even failed to legitimately impregnate his own wife and failed to notice that "his" children were the result of an extramarital affair [[BrotherSisterIncest with her own twin brother]]. This is because Robert never wanted to be King in the first place, just to recover his bethrothed Lyanna, but his insane predecessor forced his hand by declaring him and his allies to be outlaws. To top it off, Lyanna died prematurely and the circumstances of the civil war meant that Robert was now indebted to House Lannister, forcing him into an ArrangedMarriage with a woman he despised.
135* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed:
136** He is quite similar to King Edward IV, just as Stannis and Renly are to Edward's brothers Richard III and George, the Duke of Clarence. Just as Robert was the greatest warrior of his day who overthrew a dynasty and began his own, Edward was considered to be England's finest warrior at the time, and went on to reclaim the throne for the Yorkists during the War of the Roses. Both Robert and Edward fell into sedentary lifestyles during their respective reigns, which contributed to each king's death later on.
137** Robert was also inspired by [[UsefulNotes/HenryTheFourth Henry IV]]. As Lord Henry Bolingbroke, he established his own family dynasty (The Lancasters) after being slighted one time too many by the current king, Richard II, whom Henry deposed. Like Robert, Henry IV was a famed warrior and tournament champion. And like Robert, he had mixed feelings about becoming the next king and ended his life regretting the things he'd done in the past. And it's this change in the system that sets the stage for the country's next big conflict (ones which threaten to bring their new dynasties to early ends); The War of the Five Kings for Robert's kingdom and The War of the Roses for Henry's. The image quote on his page even describes Henry as the "The Real-Life Robert Baratheon."
138** Possibly of Alexander the Great and Henry VIII. Like the two, Robert is [[HotBlooded fairly mercurial]] in personality, and like the two, he undergoes a decline in rulership before his death despite his reign being inaugurated with great promise. Like Alexander the Great, Robert is an utterly fantastic general neatly married with boundless charisma, but whose administration of the empire he conquered left much to be desired, and whose death triggered a SuccessionCrisis among his former subjects that tore apart most of his gains. Like Henry VIII, Robert was the {{Hunk}} with a passion for physical activities early in life, only to descend into being a FatBastard by the end of his reign (due to an injury in Henry VIII's case, versus Robert's depression), with an AwfulWeddedLife to boot.
139* NobleMaleRoguishMale:
140** With his OldFriend Ned, as they are the BoisterousBruiser and TheWisePrince.
141** Also with his ArchEnemy Rhaegar Targaryen, as they were respectively the poster boys for BloodKnight and KnightInShiningArmor.
142* OldFriend: To Ned Stark. They both were fostered at the Eyrie by Jon Arryn and spent their teens together until the Rebellion.
143* OrcusOnHisThrone: His main role is to sit the throne and hear the realm's complaints and pleads. He hates this.
144* PapaWolf: While mostly engaging in ParentalNeglect, he did have a moment where he wanted to take responsibility for Mya Stone and bring her to the capital to be raised. When Cersei [[ShameIfSomethingHappened threatened the girl's life if he did so]], he struck Cersei for it and didn't bring Mya to King's Landing, to protect her.
145* ParentalNeglect: His usual attitude towards his children, both natural and trueborn. Of course, his "trueborn children" aren't really his children at all, but he doesn't know that, so his failure to impart decency or sense on Joffrey can't be attributed to the latter's bastardy.
146* PetTheDog:
147** Post Rebellion Robert became a lazy drunk, but he still had some good moments. He granted his brothers lands and titles rather than keep it all for his own kids, inviting Cersei on his hunts and spending all day with Jon when he was on his deathbed.
148** His affection for Ned and Jon Arryn is never shown to be anything other than deep and sincere.
149** There is one case combined with a KickTheDog. One of the times he's known to have hit Cersei was because she had threatened to have Mya Stone, Robert's bastard daughter and likely the first child he fathered, killed. Why did she threaten Mya? Because Robert was talking about bringing her to court, as Ned had done with his bastard, Jon Snow. The threat Cersei posed to Robert's bastards may even have been one of his motives for distancing himself from them.
150* ThePeterPrinciple: An epic example. A brave and outstanding warrior; a good (and happy) general; an utterly lost king.
151* PoorCommunicationKills: Per WordOfGod, he attempted to generously reward his brother Stannis by making him Lord of Dragonstone, which is normally given to the eldest son and heir of the king. The decision was also pragmatic as Robert needed someone loyal and competent to run the region and control the many Targaryen loyalists. Stannis didn't quite understand that, instead feeling he'd been slighted by being given a barren volcanic island while their younger brother Renly got Storm's End, all while wishing Robert would rely on him more.
152* ProperlyParanoid: Admits to Ned that the only thing keeping him from abandoning the throne is the thought that Joffrey will take his place. Considering all that happens after Joffrey ''does'' ascend the throne, it's easy to see that Robert had very good reason to be concerned.
153* ReallyGetsAround: If the prophecy Cersei got is to be believed, Robert has fathered 16 children (all bastards) in his time. Despite Cersei's best effort, only three are known to have been killed in her revenge. It seems his genes might stay around for some time.
154** Varys was only able to count eight bastards from Robert; at least that's what he tells Tyrion.
155* RedBaron: [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Demon of the Trident.]]
156* RedOniBlueOni: With [[TheStoic Eddard Stark]] as the Blue.
157* ReluctantRuler: The purpose of his rebellion was to take back Lyanna, not really to take over the royal throne. Though at first he tried to enjoy the kinghood, he eventually StoppedCaring because he couldn't live his life fighting like he used to and his beloved had died. When he gets Ned to be his Hand, he freely admits to him that he hates being king and wishes he never became it, and the only reason he won't AbdicateTheThrone is because he believes [[SpoiledBrat Joffrey]] would be even worse.
158* RichBoredom: Robert is king of a massive kingdom with nearly unlimited money, power and influence. And he's utterly bored to tears and desperate for ''anything'' to enliven his daily existence.
159* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The basic gist of his rebellion. He got to tenderize Rhaegar's torso at the Trident, but his actual initial intention wasn't to end the Targaryen kings and take power; the idea was to rescue Lyanna... he just ended up at the top because a rebellious leader and soldier makes a better king, right? Someone had to fill the seat, he has the closest relation to the Targaryens, and he's the one that started the whole mess, but when the adrenaline rush came down nothing was as cookie cutter perfect as anyone thought.
160* SafetyInIndifference: Devotes all his energy to drinking, tourneys, and whoring instead of running his kingdom to avoid having to acknowledge his failures as a king, father, and husband.
161* SelectiveObliviousness:
162** Ned is horrified and disgusted to learn that Robert's method of running the kingdom essentially boils down to leaving other people ([[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen usually his wife]], Hand and small council) to make decisions and turning a blind eye to things he doesn't want to see ([[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen usually his wife's]] and [[ToxicFriendInfluence wife's family's]] antics). He also drags the kingdom into massive debt because he loves throwing lavish tourneys and parties, but doesn't like hearing how much gold the royal coffers do or don't have.
163** Robert [[ParentalNeglect paid very little attention to "his" children with Cersei]], but it's still a bit odd that, despite how much the two of them despised each other, he never even ''suspected'' that she was cheating on him behind his back, even though none of the kids resembled him even in the slightest.
164* SmarterThanYouLook: It's not that he isn't TheHedonist, because he is. But, if you assume that means "as thick as a brick", you'd actually be wrong. Very wrong: he's just ceased to care about what's going on around him, not become utterly blind to it. He is quite [[TheCharmer cleverly manipulative]] in his own right, so can spot the undercurrents when others are pulling it around him. When he bothers to. That's the problem: he's smart enough to have worked out how out of his depth he is, and has given up.
165* SoldierVsWarrior: He actually earned a reputation for being both to Stannis's chagrin. He is more of a warrior with a military mind when he wants to.
166* StoutStrength: Even still, he could still carry that hammer of his easily enough and could skewer a wild boar. He'd just be a bit more winded afterwards.
167* StoppedCaring: At some point between his coronation and the beginning of the books, Robert stopped bothering with actually ruling his kingdom or taking time out for his family.
168* StrongFamilyResemblance: His bastard offspring all show a strong resemblance to Robert both physically and in being headstrong. [[spoiler:This proves to be significant, as his supposedly ''legitimate'' offspring all take heavily after their mother, despite the fact that in all other documented cases Baratheon genes are clearly dominant over Lannister ones.]]
169** Renly is said to look just like him (only shorter and considerably less brawny), minus years of drinking, overeating, and whoring.
170* TakeCareOfTheKids: His last request to Ned.
171* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:On his last boar hunt, he kills the boar that fatally wounds him. As he is dying, he orders it to be served at his funeral feast.]]
172* TrademarkFavoriteDrink: His favorite drink is a sour red strongwine. [[spoiler:Cersei takes advantage of this by having Lancel give him a skin of his favorite wine three times stronger than usual before a boar hunt, leading to him getting fatally gored.]]
173* UglyGuyHotWife: With Cersei. It wasn't always so, but he really let himself go once on the throne.
174* UncannyFamilyResemblance: All of his (numerous) children have the same black hair and blue eyes that he does. In RealLife, black hair is a dominant genetic trait, so [[ShownTheirWork no problem there]]. Blue eye color, however, [[AWizardDidIt not so much]].
175* UnfitForGreatness: He fights valiantly in a just war to dethrone a mad king, but when he takes the throne himself, he proves himself incompetent in dealing with matters of state, spends lavish amounts of money on feasts and tournaments, and his inattentiveness to his own family sows seeds of disaster. This is an unusual case in that Robert actually ''does'' have the qualities needed to be a good king: He's decisive, has a strong personality, is smart about who he trusts and leaves them to do what they do and is far more aware and savvy than he lets on. It's just that the combination of losing Lyanna, the daily drudgery of ruling and being in a marriage to a woman he shares a mutual loathing with have all chipped away at his enthusiasm and left him bored and looking for any thrill he can get.
176* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: It's heavily implied that Joffrey hired the assassin that attempted to kill Bran Stark, and did it because Robert made an off-hand comment that Bran should have a MercyKill rather than live as a cripple. Robert's off-hand remark caused the assassination attempt, which led to Littlefinger pointing Catelyn to Tyrion as the suspect. Catelyn's arrest of Tyrion and the fallout from that were major causes of the War of the Five Kings.
177* TheUsurper: He takes the throne from House Targaryen, whose supporters all consider him to be this. While it could be said that his own Targaryen blood gives him a claim, there are other heirs still alive who have a stronger blood claim than him.
178** That said it is heavily downplayed or outright subverted, in that House Targaryen won their kingdom through military conquest of other kingdoms they had no claim to originally, and had become tyrannical by the time the Mad King was in charge, breaking the feudal pact with the Lords of the realm and abandoning his responsibilities. Under the Mad King the Iron Throne was making a mockery of trials, executing anyone Aerys was even suspicious of, called for Robert and Ned's heads without a trial despite committing no crimes, and rendering Robert's Rebellion inevitable and necessary.
179* UnstoppableRage: The most fearsome thing about Robert isn't really his incredible strength and fighting skills, it's his anger. Rage against the Targaryens was what fueled his war, and it's still burning strong in the present when he orders the assassination of Daenerys and her unborn child. While typically a generous and gregarious man, Robert is capable of doing or saying truly unforgivable things if he's mad enough.
180-->'''Ned Stark:''' I promise you, no matter where you flee, Robert's wrath will follow you, to the back of beyond if need be.
181* UnsuspectinglySoused: Well, Robert is no stranger to being in his cups, but [[spoiler:under Cersei's orders, Lancel gets the drop on him during a boar hunt by giving him fortified wine three times stronger than usual, leaving him so drunk that he gets gored by the boar from neck to groin.]]
182* VictoryIsBoring: Hates the everyday drudgery of ruling a kingdom and tries to enliven things by throwing expensive tourneys. As a result the kingdom is massively in debt.
183* WorldsStrongestMan: In his prime, Robert was the most powerful warrior alive, with legendary physical strength and courage proven by his acts of daring during his rebellion and the Greyjoy Rebellion. He even fought during the Battle of the Bells while severely wounded. He suffers {{Badass Decay}} after he conquers the realm and becomes king. Though even after he's a fat, drunken slob, he's still strong enough to lift his massive war hammer, knock Jaime to the ground, and [[spoiler:drive a dagger into a boar's eye whilst it gores him.]]
184* WouldHurtAChild: Played with. He doesn't order the execution of Rhaegar's children, but is clearly relieved when [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork the Lannisters did the dirty work]] for the sake of securing the throne for him. He once struck Joffrey so hard that he knocked out two of his baby teeth and Stannis, recalling the incident, admits he thought for a moment that Robert had actually ''killed'' the boy...but Joffrey had literally just ''disembowelled a pregnant cat'' because he wanted to see her kittens and brought them to show off to Robert, so the latter's furious and disgusted reaction is somewhat understandable, if far too excessive. He does order the assassination of 13-year old and pregnant Daenerys, but regrets it [[spoiler:on his deathbed]]. And according to Ned, there is a strong chance that he would hurt Cersei's children (or at least Joffrey) had he learned their paternity... though he would probably regret it as well later. So while Robert has the morality to know that hurting children is wrong, there are instances where his opportunism, temper or blinding hatred would get the better of him.
185* YouAreWhatYouHate: Robert wants the entirety of House Targaryen exterminated because Rhaegar stole away his betrothed, Lyanna Stark. He himself is 1/4 Targaryen through his paternal grandmother Rhaelle Targaryen, to say nothing of the fact that the entire Baratheon family is descended from a Targaryen bastard.
186[[/folder]]
187
188[[folder:Queen Cersei Lannister*]]
189
190->See [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireCerseiLannister Queen Cersei Lannister]].
191[[/folder]]
192
193[[folder:Joffrey Baratheon]]
194!!King Joffrey Baratheon, the First of his Name; r. 298-300
195!!!The Young Usurper, The Illborn, The Boy King
196[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joffery_baratheon_ffg_5372.png]]
197->''"So long as I am your King, treason will never go unpunished! Ser Ilyn, BRING ME HIS HEAD!"''
198
199The firstborn son of Cersei Lanister with her twin brother, Jaime. He is believed to be King Robert's son and heir. He is betrothed to Sansa Stark, who completely falls in love with the handsome Prince. He gradually reveals what he [[TheCaligula really is]], however, and it goes downhill from there. With his actions and personality combined, he is perhaps the most universally despised character in the entire franchise.
200----
201* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Joffrey is petty, cruel, and short-sighted. Practically the only person in Westeros who loves him is his mother, and the only reason that his reign lasted as long as it did was because he had much more competent individuals such as his grandfather to prop him up.
202* AffectionateNickname: His mother Cersei calls him "Joff," while his little brother Tommen calls him "Joffy."
203* TheAlcoholic: Has shades of this, which he clearly got from his parents.
204* AmusinglyAwfulAim: His attempts to shoot hares with a crossbow result in numerous arrows scattered across the ground. He almost hits Ser Preston Greenfield in the crotch.
205* AnimalMotif: Joffrey is associated with lions -- his golden hair, his first sword named Lion's Tooth, his second sword Hearteater that bears a pommel shaped like a ruby between a lion's jaws, and his doublet studded with a double row of lions' heads. Despite bearing the Baratheon name (his "father's" House, which are associated with stags), he is really a Lannister by blood and at heart; vain, proud, greedy and savage.
206* AxCrazy: Despite being only 12 at the start of the series, he is a psychotic, murderous sadist that enjoys wanton murder and mayhem.
207* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Littlefinger, a guy who also has an evil streak, has him poisoned. In the eyes of many fans, what might have been a horrible fate become an ''awesome'' one simply because Joffrey was the victim.]]
208* ArrangedMarriage: In the first book, he's promised to Sansa so that the Starks and Baratheons are finally joined, like Robert wanted to do with [[TheLostLenore Lyanna]]. It initially starts as a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage, at least until [[TheSociopath Sansa sees his true colors]]. And in the second book, he gets engaged to Margaery Tyrell to gain the support of Highgarden.
209* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: One of the EarlyPersonalitySigns of his cruel, sadistic nature is that when he was younger, he cut open a pregnant cat to see her kittens. While his father was understandably freaked out, his mother brushed it off as typical childhood mischief. He also suggested killing Bran's direwolf simply because its howling was annoying him, drops a SlasherSmile when his mother orders Sansa’s direwolf be executed in place of Arya’s direwolf, and killed Tommen's pet fawn and had its skin made into a jerkin. At one point he shoots a cat full of arrows.
210* BastardBastard: Ironically he's one of the most evil bastards (in the illegitimate sense) we see in Westeros and like Ramsay Snow, fully lives up to the bad rep bastards have, yet was successfully passed off as legitimate, wrongly bears a highborn child's name and status as prince, and has grown up believing himself the rightful heir of Robert and Cersei. In truth he's an arrogant, vicious little shit and those who know his true parentage hold him as ''much'' worse than other bastards due to being born of BrotherSisterIncest, making him an abomination on top of a bastard.
211* BeautyIsBad: Joffrey single-handedly cured Sansa from the belief that a man should be just rich and handsome to make a good husband material, especially once he decides to decorate his castle with the severed heads of her father and his followers.
212* BerserkButton: There could be little to say about a person like him in this regard, but there are a couple of examples:
213** Joffrey is especially wrathful at being belittled by Tyrion.
214** He doesn't stand receiving news about the success of King Robb Stark against his own forces. He usually vents his anger on Sansa.
215** Suggesting that he is ''not'' the king is a good way to get him red-faced and screaming for your death.
216* BigBadWannabe: Joffrey would really, really love to be the main threat of the books, but as a monumentally stupid teenager whose worst actions are constrained by his uncles and his [[DragonInChief grandfather]] his scope is genuinely limited. If he can get his hands on you though, you are in serious trouble.
217* BigBrotherBully: And how! Poor Tommen is still traumatized, while Myrcella does her best to not take any crap from him.
218* BitchInSheepsClothing: Poor [[BrokenBird Sansa]]... In the beginning, Joffrey is able play the role of a perfect prince, but with occasional red flags like wanting to kill Bran's direwolf and attacking Arya and Mycha at the Trident. By the time Sansa realizes what a monster Joffrey truly is, it's far too late.
219* BloodLust: He loves to see people kill each other and ordering the bloody deaths of others, will take any opportunity to kill either animals or peasants with his crossbow, and when he can't kill someone, will instead look for an opportunity to injure or beat someone bloody. Just as long [[DirtyCoward he's not in any real danger himself]].
220* BookDumb: Not good with numbers (or much of anything except hurting people, really) and HatesReading. Compare and contrast the heroic Stark children who are all well-educated and demonstrate intelligence and knowledge in different fields.
221-->Tyrion hopped off the last step onto the yard. "I beg to differ, nephew," he said. "The Starks can count past six. Unlike some princes I might name."\
222Joffrey had the grace at least to blush.
223* BrainlessBeauty: The rare villainous example. Joffrey's very good looking and staggeringly stupid.
224* BrilliantButLazy: Is said to be tall and strong for his age, and matched Robb Stark at Winterfell, despite the three year age difference, showing that he has potential to be a good warrior like his uncle/father Jaime. His [[DirtyCoward cowardice]] and general lack of dedication limits this, however. Also {{Subverted|Trope}} in that, regardless of his physical potential, he's really as thick as a brick.
225* TheBully: Joffrey lives to abuse, torment and kill others just because he can, and take sadistic pleasure in their suffering. He's basically just a teenage vicious bully who has been given a royal position and protection from all consequences for his abuse of others.
226* TheCaligula: A list of Joffrey's senselessly cruel acts would fill up the whole page. In the TV Series he even resembles Caligula.
227* CantTakeCriticism: Like his mother, Joffrey is unable of handling even the slightest criticism due to his narcissism, throwing a tantrum each time he's criticized.
228* TheChewToy: A villainous example; seems the gods don't like him much either. Joffrey is a toxic mixture of cruel, incompetent, and stupid as all hell, earning him the dislike and mockery of more likable characters. Chief among them is dear uncle [[DeadpanSnarker Tyrion]], who hardly lets a meeting with Joffrey go by without insulting the boy, but even in his absence Joffrey is [[IWasBeatenByAGirl humiliated with his sword thrown away by an untrained little girl]] (and gets a nasty bite from her direwolf), something "uncle" Renly unabashedly laughs at and humiliates Joff further. He later cuts himself on the Iron Throne and turns into a wailing brat in front of the assembled royal court, and gets hit in the face with dung by angry peasants.
229* ChocolateBaby: Used with a twist: Robert is black-haired, and the Baratheon phenotype is invariably dominant over the Lannister one. Joffrey and his siblings Tommen and Myrcella are all blond. Hmmm...
230* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler:At his own wedding, no less. Joffrey's poisoning is written in exquisite detail, slowly choking to death while clawing out his own neck out of absolute terror]].
231* DamnedByFaintPraise: In ''A Feast for Crows'' when thinking of Joffrey [[spoiler:after his death]], Arys Oakheart thinks to himself that the best thing that can be said about Joffrey is that he is tall and strong for his age.
232* DidntThinkThisThrough: [[spoiler: Zigzagged in his assassination attempt on Bran Stark. Tyrion notes Joffrey was at least smart enough not to use his own dagger and hire a random mook to do the killing instead of ordering Sandor Clegane, but his choice of murder weapon would have raised questions even if the Valyrian steel dagger hadn't previously belonged to Littlefinger, [[LetNoCrisisGoToWaste who readily exploited the situation for his own advantage]].]]
233* DiedInYourArmsTonight: [[spoiler:He chokes to death in Cersei's arms]].
234* DirtyCoward: Joffrey's cruelty is rivalled only by his cowardice and he turns into a snivelling wreck whenever he's in actual personal danger.
235** Slightly {{Downplayed|Trope}} during the Battle of Blackwater, where he intends to personally take part in the battle and even takes command of the trio of great trebuchets called "the Three Whores" until his mother sends out Osmund Kettleblack to bring him back to safety (which has a devastating effect on morale). However he was never really in any danger during the battle, so it's unlikely his bravado would have held if he'd actually been involved in real action.
236* DomesticAbuse: This is the one vice his mother ''did'' try to kill in him, but unfortunately he makes up his own definition on these sorts of things and she's not interested in intervening. Of course he won't hit Sansa himself the way Robert hit Cersei! ... He'll have the Kingsguard do it and then ''he'' isn't the one hitting her, see? And as Cersei doesn't give a damn about Sansa's emotional well-being and only occasionally draws the line when Joffrey [[EvenEvilHasStandards goes too far even for her tastes]], he's happy to make Sansa's life a living hell and treats her horribly, especially when he shows Sansa the severed heads of her father and her household. Sansa fears he would eventually starting treating Margaery the same as he does her, and even the Tyrells already suspected that, which is why Loras joins the Kingsguard. [[spoiler: This turns out to be what kills him: much as Cersei had Robert killed to protect her children from his rage before he could find out the truth, Olenna poisons Joffrey to protect her granddaughter before he could lose interest in playing nice and lay a hand on her]].
237* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: Joffrey's mom tells him that it's improper for a man to beat his wife, so he doesn't hit Sansa himself and has his Kingsguard do it instead.
238* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: He loves his mother and she appears to be one of the few he will listen to. Unfortunately, she doesn't see anything wrong with many of his actions. In one embarrassing incident where he cuts himself on the Iron Throne, he ends up crying for mummy who had to escort him out from the hall, in front of an audience, no less.
239* EvilIsPetty: Oh boy. Joffrey is willing to kill or torture over the slightest annoyance, or just because he wants it.
240** He wanted to have the Stark direwolves killed just because their howling annoyed him. In another and non-lethal or physically harmful instance, he cruelly hacks into pieces with his new Valyrian steel sword the rare and valuable book named ''Lives of Four Kings'' that Tyrion had offered him for his wedding, before telling his seething uncle that he owes him a new gift.
241** During the Purple Wedding he spends his last minutes cruelly and publicly bullying and humiliating Tyrion by pouring wine on his uncle's head, making Tyrion his cup bearer just so he could kick the chalice and force Tyrion to crawl under a table to get it back and have his uncle fill his wine and kneel. He was just beggining another round of petty bullying and humiliation by shoving his hand into Tyrion's pie [[spoiler: when the poison gets him.]]
242* EvilNephew: One of the best examples in Literature. Delights in bullying his uncle Tyrion and (possibly) even tries to have him killed. When Sansa is wedded to Tyrion instead of him, Joffrey threatens to rape her anyway and force her to have his bastards, even though an appalled bystander points out Sansa is now Joffrey's aunt through marriage and thus a member of his own family. [[spoiler:His last acts are even to drunkenly and relentlessly bully and humiliate Tyrion, followed by a dying Joffrey wrongfully blaming Tyrion for his murder, posthumously ruining his life for good by forever branding him as a kinslayer, and nearly getting Tyrion killed for a crime he did not commit.]] One must admire Joffrey's sheer ''dedication'' to being an Evil Nephew, if nothing else.
243** Legally speaking, Stannis and Renly Baratheon are also his uncles, he has known them since infancy as they both served on Robert's small council, and while they know he is an evil brat and not their blood, Joffrey sincerely believes he is their nephew and they are his [[EvilUncle usurper uncles]]. Though he admired and wanted the love of their brother, his "father", that doesn't seem to stop him at all as Joffrey suffers no qualms or troubled conscience in wanting his Baratheon "uncles" dead after they challenge his claim and say he's a bastard born of his mother's affair with her own brother.
244* ExactWords:
245** He told Sansa that he never said that he would [[spoiler:spare Eddard, only that he would be merciful. Had he not been, Ned would have been drawn, quartered and flayed as well.]]
246** Cersei taught Joffrey that it's wrong to beat his wife (understandable, given [[DomesticAbuse her marriage to Robert]]), so while betrothed he doesn't beat Sansa... he has his guards and knights beat her for him. (That they're much bigger, stronger, can hit harder, and often have mail over their hands as they do it, he never addresses.)
247* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: He's a handsome young PrettyBoy who can dance well and act quite gallant to his betrothed... and when he doesn't need to keep up with false pretenses, he happens to be a sadistic sociopath who has fun finding horrible new mindgames and ways of tormenting "his lady" without batting an eye.
248* FalseSoulmate: To Sansa. Dear ''god''. Even before they're betrothed, Sansa is smitten with Joffrey and thinks they'll live happily ever after just like in the songs and stories. She's convinced they're in love and either makes excuses for or is blind to Joffrey's horrid behavior. She even tells Queen Cersei about her father's plan to send her and her sister home so she can stay with Joffrey, leading to Eddard being arrested for treason and his household being massacred (Sansa's only eleven and very naive, so she initially doesn't understand the implications of her actions). It's only when her beloved prince [[spoiler:has Eddard beheaded in front of her after he promised to be merciful]] that Sansa finally realizes how monstrous he is and that he doesn't care about her, even enjoying causing her physical and emotional harm.
249* {{Foil}}: To Robb Stark. Both become Kings at a young age but while Robb quickly proves a heroic, brave and brilliant commander, Joffrey is an incompetent coward who delights in cruelty. Also both [[spoiler:are murdered at weddings.]]
250* ForTheEvulz: The whole reason he does anything--deep thought, impulse-control and introspection aren't his specialities.
251* FreudianExcuse: Considering his two younger siblings are genuinely nice people, it's implied that part of the reason he's such an (literal) evil bastard was a combination of being Crown Prince, Cersei passing down her twisted ideas of what kingship is, and Robert's whoring, boasting about his war kills, abuse of Cersei, and neglect. Even after Robert's death Cersei continues to encourage his behavior, seeing nothing wrong with it.
252* GenerationXerox: A bit complicated. He's inherited every negative trait [[RoyalBrat Cersei]] and [[SmugSnake Jaime]] possess (which Cersei has nurtured), yet tries his damnedest to emulate the negative traits of his false father [[BloodKnight Robert]], who he seems to have actually looked up to (which no one has nurtured). Subverted in that Joffrey lacks Cersei's cleverness, Jaime's skills, and Robert's strength and courage. Though to be fair, Joffrey was only a kid.
253* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: {{Invoked}} and subverted. Sansa originally thinks he's beautiful, kind, noble, just like the KnightInShiningArmour she always dreamed of and often references his beautiful golden hair. His "beauty" is just a coverup for his completely insane and rotten personality.
254* HateSink: From the moment this irredeemably monstrous brat shows his true colours, he is deliberately meant to be as hated as possible by the readers.
255* HatesReading: Joffrey clearly dislikes books and views reading as an unmanly activity, dropping all pretense of courtesy when Tyrion offers him a copy of the prestigious and beautifully ornamented book "Lives of Four Kings". He disdainfully shoves it aside without any interest, tells Tyrion and Kevan that his father had no time for books, and begins humiliating his uncle over his marital problems by telling him that maybe it wouldn't happen if he didn't spend his time reading instead. Finally after getting his new Valyrian steel sword, Widow's Wail, he tests it by savagely hacking the book into pieces, shows total disregard for its rarity when Garlan Tyrell tells him about it, and crows to Tyrion that he now owes him a new wedding gift.
256* HiddenDepths: For all of his stupidity and incompetence in other domains, Joffrey has shown great dancing skills during Tyrion and Sansa's wedding, during his dance with Margaery Tyrell, with Sansa wondering how a monster like him can dance so beautifully.
257* HighCollarOfDoom: Wears one when he shows [[spoiler:Sansa the heads of her father and septa]].
258* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: In-universe, a song is sung about the Battle of the Blackwater at his wedding, portraying him as a noble and valorous young king fighting against his EvilUncle Stannis who wants to steal his throne.
259* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Even though his favorite weapon is a crossbow, given to him by Tyrion, Joffrey is a terrible shot who embarrasses himself when he tries to hunt hares with it, comically missing the hares and nearly hitting Ser Preston in the groin instead. It takes a long time for him to finally hit one, with Tyrion remarking it must have been a slow one.
260* InbredAndEvil: Joffrey's grandparents were [[KissingCousins first cousins]], his true parents are [[BrotherSisterIncest siblings]], and he's TheCaligula up there with Mad King Aerys himself.
261* JerkAss: He's incredibly spoiled, cruel, and hot-tempered. Throughout the series, he murders and tortures people for no other reason than to relish in their pain and suffering.
262* KarmicButtMonkey: Joffrey is the victim of lots of misfortune and humiliations such as him being mauled by Nymeria and humiliated by Arya, slapped and put in his place many times by Tyrion, thrown dung at by peasants, comically missing hares while trying to hunt with his crossbow, cutting himself on the Irone Throne and crying for his mommy in front of the whole court, and [[spoiler: being poisoned and dying at his own wedding after having been ridiculed one last time by Tyrion]]. Though given how much of a horrible little shit he is, it's impossible to feel sorry for him, and the great majority of the times it's the direct result of his own cruelty, impulsivity and stupidity backfiring on him.
263* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Not too many readers were unhappy to see him go out as painfully as he does.]]
264* KickTheDog: Or disembowel the pregnant cat, as the case may be.
265* KillThePoor: In ''A Clash of Kings'', when starving peasants come to the Red Keep demanding food, Joffrey leads the castle's garrison in shooting at the mob, then tells the survivors [[ImAHumanitarian they have his leave to eat the dead]].
266* LonelyRichKid: Cersei mentions that he had no friends growing up, and was always alone. Knowing him, it's not hard to see why.
267* MamasBoy: A strange case. He would argue loudly he isn't and she'd back him up on this one: control him she can't. And, they'd both be kind of right--after all, he ''does'' try being what he thought Robert wanted in a son and actively fights his mother, even though she is one of the few people he actually cares anything for. The thing is, he still manages to be all of Cersei's inadequacies, self-serving beliefs and blinkers writ large, as well as bluntly, and painted male. Even if neither realize or acknowledge this. Others in the books, however, do come to this view: particularly Jaime. He's her "bold" little boy, alright... [[spoiler: and, when dying, it's his mother he reaches for after indicating the one he thinks is behind it, not his new wife]].
268** There's also that time he got mad and slammed his hand down on the razor armrest of the Iron Throne, cutting himself and immediately starts wailing for his mom, who comes and takes him away in her arms. Despite the fact that he's thirteen. And the King. And in front of the ''entire'' royal court.
269* MercyKill: [[spoiler: It's suggested the reason he had to send an assassin to kill the comatose and crippled Bran was he overheard Robert drunkenly saying that death would be a mercy. Of course, being Joffrey, he didn't care at all about Bran's quality of life, he just thought at the time [[WellDoneSonGuy Robert would be pleased with him]] if Bran died and Joffrey revealed it was his work. Like Joffrey killing a pregnant cat by cutting it open and showing Robert the kittens though, it serves to demonstrate Joffrey's LackOfEmpathy of what would please Robert. Bran dying a natural death would be one thing, but Robert was never going to react well to learning his best friend's child was murdered in cold blood on his violent "son's" orders.]]
270* TheMillstone: A huge case to the Lannisters [[spoiler: (even more than his mother turns out to be)]]. While the family might be content to put one of their own on the throne, Joffrey's personality and uncontrollable behavior regularly put in danger or even killed off his relatives' political agendas. Without his impulses, Tywin's and Tyrion's lives as Hand would have been a lot easier. Each of his SpannerInTheWorks moments have had wide-ranging and horrible impacts not just on his own family's standing, but the Kingdom at large. There are points where various POV characters quietly wish horrible fates on him... even those who are supposed to be on his side. [[spoiler:Eventually, some go much further than merely wishing...]]
271* {{Misblamed}}: Joffrey is considered responsible for the War of the Five Kings by characters such as his uncle Tyrion; in reality, both the turmoil caused by the Mountain at the Riverlands by Tywin's orders, and Cersei's political maneuvers leading to Joffrey's ascension to the throne and the capture of Ned Stark were the aspects that led to the North's declaration of war against the crown. Joffrey's actions indeed caused peace to be unreachable by surreptitiously executing Stark.
272** He actually holds more responsibility than most know, even himself. See UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom below.
273* NamedWeapons: Joffrey has a tendency to give his swords ridiculous and grandiose names. His first two swords are named Lion's Tooth and Hearteater, then he receives a Valyrian steel sword from his grandfather at his wedding that he names Widow's Wail.
274* {{Narcissist}}: Joffrey is even more conceited than his mother, and with far less skill or wit to back it up. Sansa figures out that one of the very few ways to pacify Joffrey is by stroking his massive ego. Joffrey's so vain and stupid, he'll not only accept flattery from people who obviously hate him, but he will ''believe'' it.
275* NeverMyFault: A defining personality trait of Joffrey's. Whenever something goes wrong, he ''always'' puts the blame on somebody else, even if he's clearly the one at fault.
276* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: Prince Edward of Westminster. Also known as Edward of Lancaster (Lannister), he was the spoiled son of a ruthless queen. Though there were those who questioned his paternity, he was determined to succeed his father as king. Like Joffrey, Edward had a penchant for cruelty, despite his young age; he was rather zealous about having captured Yorkists (Starks) beheaded. Unlike Joffrey, Edward was at least brave enough to take part in battle. [[spoiler: And they both died badly while still just barely boys, failing to consummate their marriages or truly reign as kings.]]
277* NotSoHarmlessVillain: The likes of Cersei, Littlefinger and Varys thought Joff could be brought to heel [[spoiler:until he went off-script and executed Ned Stark and kicked off a war instead of allowing him to confess treason and take the black as Cersei and Varys intended]].
278* PaperTiger: Joffrey was noted to be strong and tall for his age (likely inherited from [[WorldsBestWarrior Jaime]]), being comparable to Robb and Jon in size despite being three years their junior. He was even able to spar on equal footing with Robb. Unlike Jaime or Robert, Joffrey is still a DirtyCoward at heart who believes people wouldn't dare touch him due to his status, and folds like wet paper once he fights someone outside of a practice spar in a courtyard. Just ask Arya and Nymeria.
279* PetTheDog: With all of his horrendous attitude problems and many acts of cruelty towards everyone with less social standing and political power than him, Joffrey is never explicitly shown to be cruel to his younger sister Myrcella ([[BigBrotherBully Tommen is a different story]]). In fact, she openly sasses and stands up against him to protect their youngest brother Tommen.
280* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain:
281** Joffrey is noticeably misogynistic even by the standards of the setting, constantly bringing up how "a good queen should know her place" whenever Sansa attempts to openly defy him or "the weakness of women" [[EvilCannotComprehendGood whenever she shows kindness or empathy for someone else.]] This makes [[IWasBeatenByAGirl his humiliation at Arya's hands]] in the first book taste all the sweeter. [[spoiler:It also eventually seals his fate in a way Joffrey never saw coming, thinking he could get away with pulling the same PrincelyYoungMan act on Margaery to keep the Tyrells happy with him as he did with Sansa, and not considering that word of his cruelty towards Sansa might make it to the Tyrells' ears and give them reason to not want Margaery married to him. His abuse of Sansa makes the Tyrells suspicious of how he'll treat Margaery, the Tyrell women question Sansa in private, learn from her that he is a monster Margaery wouldn't be safe with, and quickly and briskly arrange for Joffrey to be disposed of and swiftly replaced with his kinder, more pleasant brother. Joffrey never learns or considers that it was a woman who killed him, or that she did it to protect her granddaughter from him.]]
282** He is also prejudiced toward Dornishmen, frequently repeating jests about Dornish that he has picked from Mace Tyrell's men-in-arms. Tyrion has to welcome the Dornish delegation for Joffrey's wedding in his nephew's stead, as Joffrey would doubtlessly have murked it up and offended them.
283* PrettyBoy: Joffrey's pretty looks are described as a combination of his sister Myrcella and his uncle/father Jaime.
284* PrinceCharmless: Sansa sees him as a PrincelyYoungMan, but he's in fact a sadistic, petty child, though he knows how to [[BitchInSheepsClothing pretend to be charming]] when the ArrangedMarriage is set and he has to court his betrothed. Outside of Sansa, the target of his wooing he's trying to impress with his best behavior and (luckily for him) the one who happens to be naive and predisposed to believe the best of Joffrey anyway for being a handsome prince, virtually no one who spends any length of time around him likes him or falls for his act.
285* PuppetKing: Is ''assumed'' to be this by everyone outside the Royal Court, but noticeably averted because Joffrey thinks being king means he doesn't have to listen to anyone. When Tywin arrives to King's Landing however, Joffrey actually becomes this as Tywin has the political and natural authority to force Joffrey to behave, to a degree.
286* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: For his wedding to Margaery, he receives a Valyrian steel sword with red and black ripples in the metal which he names Widow's Wail. Thankfully he never gets to use it.
287* RoyalBrat: A prince who's {{spoiled|Brat}}, entitled, and rotten to the core, not maturing one whit after he becomes king.
288* {{Sadist}}: Joffrey takes absolute delight into using his power to abuse and torment others, and he enjoys executions, mutilations and forced duels to the death. It's implied by Tyrion his abuse of Sansa specifically might be driven by twelve-turned-thirteen-year-old Joffrey's emerging sexual urges translating in [[TheSociopath Joffrey]] to sexual sadism, with Tyrion thinking Joffrey tried to have her stripped and beaten to look at her chest, and planning to have him taken to a brothel in hopes [[YouNeedToGetLaid it might get the worst of it out of his system]]. Even after her marriage to Tyrion and his betrothal to Margaery, he continues to taunt Sansa and torment her with the idea that he can still rape her with impunity as King, and initially plans to give her [[spoiler:her brother Robb's severed head]] until Tyrion [[EvenEvilHasStandards and Tywin]] put an end to it.
289* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: As it happens, Robert had excellent reason to fear leaving Joffrey to take the Iron Throne. Joffrey thinks being king means he can do whatever he wants and it turns out he's much more interested in using his power for fun little things he wants to do, like, oh, having killing peasants and the Kingsguard beat Sansa bloody, than in trying to do anything for his subjects. The result is a kingdom plunged into complete chaos as an impulsive 13-year-old bully gets to act out his morbid and violent interests and fantasies essentially unchecked.
290* SmugSnake: Has all of Cersei and Jaime's arrogant superiority but none of their intellect.
291* TheSociopath: It gets to the point that both his "fathers" were disturbed by him, with Jaime even thinking [[spoiler:he deserved to die for being so vile]]. Martin clearly intended to write this trope true to life, with Joffrey's sociopathy always present, as Cersei mentions in ''A Storm of Swords'' that Robert once knocked out a few of his baby teeth over "some nonsense over a cat". She is referring to an incident where a young Joffrey cut open a pregnant cat to see its kittens.
292** Unusually for this series and fiction in general, Joffrey appears to be a very low-functioning sociopath, as he is noticeably unintelligent and determines almost everything by whatever his most sadistic impulse is at that exact moment without ever being able to stick to a plan for more than a few minutes.[[note]]This is TruthInTelevision; contrary to the popular belief, most sociopaths in real life aren't the scheming, cunning geniuses often portrayed in fiction, but tend to have below-average intelligence and very poor impulse control.[[/note]]
293** Some psychologists have even diagnosed him as either suffering from [[UsefulNotes/PersonalityDisorders Anti-Social Personality Disorder]] or some form of Conduct Disorder like [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadistic_personality_disorder Tyrannical Sadism]].
294* SoreLoser: To say that Joffrey doesn't take loses well would be a huge understatement, as seeing with his furious reaction to his forces' defeats at Robb Stark's hands which he took out on Sansa, and his angry reaction upon missing hares while trying to hunt them with his crossbow, with him loudly screaming to send more and nearly hitting Ser Preston in the crotch while trying to get at least one.
295* SpannerInTheWorks: When Joffrey goes off-script, problems happen and snowball ''rapidly''. Few people can keep up with his StupidEvil tendency towards random cruelty and there are many scenes when you can ''feel'' the Small Council lose collective years off their lives fearing what is about to come out of his mouth. Or that he'll bother actually turning up to cause trouble, even. About the only people to truly get him to stick to a script? [[spoiler:Cersei, Tywin, Littlefinger and, to some extent, Margaery]] -- each using rather different means. Everybody else is playing roulette, however much they think they've weighted the outcome. [[spoiler: Varys]] is bright enough ''not'' to try directing this particular spanner at all, but work around him... or, just try to tidy the resulting rubble.
296* StealthPun: Joffrey becomes king of Westeros near the end of ''A Game of Thrones''. His family's sigil is the lion, known as the KingOfBeasts.
297* StepfordSmiler: Our sweet little Joff is a Type C, a variation where the smile ''isn't'' covering up tragedy.
298* StupidEvil: One thing that becomes blindingly apparent about Joffrey is that for all his cruelty, he is stupid and naive. Combined with his impulsive nature, he does things that even other ruthless and cruel kings of the past would have had second thoughts about.
299* TeensAreMonsters: Joffrey turns thirteen at the beginning of the second book, and is utterly insane.
300* TooDumbToLive: Joffrey thinks that because he's king, he can get away with being obnoxious and cruel to anyone without consequence. [[spoiler: Not surprisingly, he ends up assassinated at his own wedding, and the list of possible suspects is so long that it's difficult to know for sure who was responsible.]]
301* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: "Joffrey of the Houses Baratheon and Lannister, the First of his Name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm".
302* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Once he ultimately inherits the throne. His reign proved to be disastrous due to [[WhileRomeBurns his apathy]], and [[ItsAllAboutMe he's too proud to acknowledge]] that he isn't "ten times the king" Eddard ever was. Even the denizens grumble about his rule, but the dam breaks when Olenna poisons him at his own wedding.
303* UndignifiedDeath: [[spoiler:The young king dies a horrible, agonizing death from being poisoned with the strangler at his own wedding feast, clawing his throat bloody trying to breathe as his face turns black. An awful way to go, but if anyone in Westeros deserved it, it was Joffrey.]]
304* UnwantedSpouse: At first Sansa thought getting a match with Joffrey was a dream come true, but after he had her father executed at the end of the first book, she wanted nothing more to do with him. Too bad she became the Lannisters' hostage and was ''still'' bound by law to marry Joffrey due to how seriously marriage pacts are taken, giving him free rein to drop the PrincelyYoungMan act and terrorize his betrothed day in and day out as much as his sadistic little heart desires, now that he doesn't need to keep her or her family happy. When the betrothal is set aside in the second book to allow Joffrey to marry Margaery and bring the Tyrells in as an ally, Sansa couldn't be happier and has to work hard to keep from letting it show in public or Cersei will be furious at the implications that'd cast on her son. For his part Joffrey seems slightly disappointed he doesn't get to marry Sansa after all and reluctant to release her, but decides he can keep her as a mistress anyway and continues to treat her as one of his toys, even after her [[spoiler:forced marriage to his hated uncle technically makes her Joffrey's aunt and part of his family]].
305* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom:
306** [[spoiler: Joffrey thought he was performing a MercyKill and taking after his "father" when he paid a catspaw assassin to murder the comatose Bran Stark. It fails, but leads Catelyn to suspect the Lannisters were involved with Bran's fall. She then travels to King's Landing to investigate further, where she is misled into believing Tyrion was the one who ordered the assassination. When the two unexpectedly cross paths, Cat captures Tyrion and incurs the wrath of Tywin on the Riverlands and Jaime on Ned. The fallout from this, eventually brings the Starks into direct conflict with the Lannisters. There's no way Joffrey could have known any of this, but his blundering MurderIsTheBestSolution mentality is what gets the War of the Five Kings brewing, as well as what makes it finally boil over.]]
307** The War of Five Kings itself is kicked off because [[spoiler: Joffrey gets impulsive and decides to have Ned executed rather than following through with the conspiracy to have Ned exiled and forced to join the Night's Watch. Had Joffrey stuck to the plan, Robb Stark would have no cause to rally the North into Seccession and war for their independence, Balon Greyjoy and the Iron Islands similarly would not be able to take advantage of the war to make claim their own Independence, and [[OpportunisticBastard Stannis and Renly would lack the legitimacy to try and make claims for the Iron Throne in the chaos]].]]
308* VillainBall: Twice so in the first book, as outlined above in UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom. While Joffrey is largely oblivious to the political subterfuge that was brewing around him, his violent impulses essentially lights the fuse to the powder keg.
309* VillainHasAPoint: At one point Sansa calls him out for killing her pet direwolf, Lady, but he rightfully points out that it wasn’t him but her father that did the deed.
310* VillainousBreakdown: Has a partial one, though he manages to cover it when [[spoiler: Tyrion surreptitiously accuses him of being behind the attempt on Bran Stark's life in front of the entire court]].
311* WeaponSpecialization: Joffrey's favorite weapon is a myrish crossbow, that was given to him by Tyrion to occupy him, though he's a terrible shot with it.
312* WellDoneSonGuy: In a very twisted way, Joffrey inflicts so much pain on others because he wants to look "tough" and impress his neglectful father Robert. Among these acts was [[spoiler: sending an assassin to kill Bran Stark after he was crippled to put him out of his misery after he overheard a mournful and drunken Robert say that dying would be better than living like that.]]
313-->'''Cersei''': Joffrey had no love for Robb Stark, but the younger boy was nothing to him. He was only a child himself.\
314'''Jaime''': A child hungry for a pat on the head from that sot you let him believe was his father.
315* WhoMurderedTheAsshole: So many people wanted to kill him that this becomes a legitimate DrivingQuestion. Joffrey gets poisoned and the investigation gets stanked at the "Who would want to do it?" point due to the [[AssholeVictim immense number of suspects]].
316[[/folder]]
317
318[[folder:Myrcella Baratheon]]
319!!Princess Myrcella Baratheon
320[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tiziano_baracchi_myrcella_baratheon_asoiaf_ffg.jpg]]
321->''"We're children. We're ''supposed'' to be childish."''
322
323Myrcella is an eight-year-old girl and the only daughter of Robert Baratheon and Cersei Lannister. She is sweet-tempered, nice and gentle to everyone, as well as being mature for her short age and, unlike her brother, is not intimidated by Joffrey. In ''Clash of Kings'', Tyrion arranges for her to marry Trystane Martell, and she is later sent to Dorne to gain the support of House Martell.
324----
325* AltarDiplomacy: Her uncle Tyrion arranges for her to be sent to Dorne and marry Trystane when she's older to broker an alliance with the Martells. This also has the purpose of keeping her out of harm's way during the War of Five Kings; should Stannis and/or Renly succeed in taking King's Landing, they would kill her to remove any claim she has to the throne.
326* ArrangedMarriage: To Trystane Martell.
327* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: [[spoiler:Averted; Myrcella loses an ear and has her face scarred by Darkstar.]]
328* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler:She is disfigured during a failed assassination attempt.]]
329* TheBusCameBack: In the fourth book, she appears once again, as part of the story started to be situated in Dorne.
330* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In ''A Game of Thrones'', Myrcella is described as being ditzy and shallow. When she gets more focus in ''A Feast for Crows'', she is shown to be [[WiseBeyondTheirYears very smart for her age.]] Tyrion also thinks to himself that she doesn't let anything, even Joffrey, intimidate her. It's worth noting that in ''A Game of Thrones'' she's being described by Jon, who's jealous of the attention she's showing Robb, and in later books by people who think well of her.
331* ChildrenAreInnocent: [[spoiler:At least until ''Feast of Crows''.]]
332* ChocolateBaby: Like her brothers, Myrcella has none of the normal traits of the Baratheons, but instead shares numerous physical features with her mother and her uncle Jaime...
333* CoolBigSis: To Tommen.
334* TheCutie: Owing to her kind personality and good looks.
335* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler:Implied to happen BecauseDestinySaysSo. Maggy's prophecy didn't explicitly say that Cersei's children will all die before her, but Cersei certainly believes that to be the case. While no one was sad to see ''Joffrey'' go, it'll be a shame if/when she and Tommen do.]]
336* {{Doppelganger}}: When she's sent to Dorne, Tyrion assigns her cousin Rosamund as her handmaiden to be used as potential protection. Rosamund is nearly [[IdentityImpersonator identical to Myrcella]], save for her straight hair (which pokers, plaiting, binding and curlers can easily fix). [[spoiler:Arys Oakheart and Arianne Martell use her to scamper Myrcella out of the Water Gardens]].
337* EarAche: [[spoiler:Poor Myrcella loses an ear and gets her face slashed open after being attacked by Darkstar.]]
338* FallenPrincess: She is terribly scarred by the events in Dorne.
339* {{Foil}}:
340** To her mother. Like Cersei, Myrcella was born as the only girl beside two brothers, which put her on a dead end of the chain of inheritance. But while Cersei just ''feels'' she is more competent than any of her brothers, Myrcella could easily actually be smarter than both of hers, is certainly more stable than Joffrey and may be stronger than Tommen... and, would probably be better ruler material than any of them, as a result -- [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen including better than their own mother at it]]. Not exactly ''hard''.
341** To Arya Stark. She is every bit the child princess Arya refused to be, yet with none of the disadvantages Arya saw in the position. She was basically sent to what constitutes every princess's utopia, betrothed to a friendly exotic prince in a beautiful foreign land that's the least sexist of the Seven Kingdoms. [[spoiler:It doesn't quite work that well for her when Arianne Martell tries to conspire using her, but she stays loyal and strong to her position nevertheless.]] Arya refused her highborn heritage and her betrothed (though they didn't even know each other when they met and went their separate ways) and has seen nothing but suffering since then.
342* GoingNative: She adapts quickly to Dornish culture, learning to enjoy the spicy food and becoming a skilled ''cyvasse'' player.
343* GoodPrincessEvilQueen: Unlike her BitchInSheepsClothing mother, who plays GodSaveUsFromTheQueen straight, Myrcella is a genuinely sweet and good-natured princess.
344* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: As opposed to Joffrey, she and Tommen are nice people.
345* HeroicBastard: A princess born of incest and adultery, to be sure, but with a much sweeter disposition than her older brother.
346* MatureYoungerSibling: Amongst the three children, it's Myrcella who's the most mature, especially for a child as young as herself. She's sharp and very strong-willed, in contrast to her cowardly, stupid and utterly vicious devil-spawn of an older brother.
347* ModestRoyalty: She's not interested in shoving her position in other people's faces.
348* MoralityPet: Despite the Martells's murderous hatred of her family [[spoiler:including the Dornish prince Doran]], not one of the Martells ever suggest harming her despite their ample opportunities to do so and her lack of agency as a 10 years old girl. Arianne even hatched the Queenmaker scheme to crowning her queen in place of her younger brother Tommen. [[spoiler:This is severely deconstructed by the end of the Queenmaker storyline, with her being caught in the crossfire and severely injured with a huge scar on the side of her face and one of her ears cut off. The Martells also casually discuss killing her beloved younger brother Tommen, something which would probably severely upset Myrcella, showing that even if the Martells do not murder her on sight, they are still capable of some very bad actions that would make her life miserable]].
349* NiceGirl: Neither she nor Tommen have inherited Joffrey's TheCaligula tendencies. Tyrion notes that she has inherited 'all of her mother's beauty and none of her nature'.
350* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage: It looks like Myrcella's marriage to Trystane may become this [[spoiler:if she avoids her prophesized fate]].
351* PrecociousCrush: She swoons a bit over Robb Stark during the Baratheons' visit to Winterfell in the first book, but nothing comes out of it, although Littlefinger tries to advise Ned to betroth Robb to Myrcella (and Arya to Tommen) to shore up his position after Robert dies.
352* PrinceAndPauper: For her trip to Dorne, Myrcella was assigned her (relatively poorer, certainly not as noble, possibly better trained and almost certainly better raised) cousin, Rosamund Lannister of Lannisport, as a lady-in-waiting/decoy. Although Rosamund is a little older and has straight hair instead of curls, they look remarkably alike, so can pull off Jaime and Cersei's old switcheroo game with relative ease.
353* ProperLady: She remains calm, dignified and composed when being sent away to Dorne.
354-->To be sure, her smile was a shade tremulous when her brothers took their leave of her on the deck of the Seaswift, but the girl knew the proper words to say, and she said them with courage and dignity. When the time came to part, it was Prince Tommen who cried, and Myrcella who gave him comfort.
355* PuppyLove: With Trystane Martell.
356* PutOnABus: Halfway through ''Clash of Kings'', when she's sent to Dorne to seal an alliance.
357* ScarsAreForever: [[spoiler:Unluckily for her, after Darkstar's failed assassination attempt.]]
358* SmartPeoplePlayChess: She and Trystane play ''cyvasse'' together, the closest equivalent to chess in the world of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', and she usually wins.
359* UnaffectedBySpice: She loves the food served in Dorne, most of which is so spicy that even her bodyguard Ser Arys Oakheart can hardly eat more than a bite or two without reaching for wine.
360* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: She's afraid of wolves (the animal, that is, not the [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireHouseStark other sort of wolf]]). [[TomboyPrincess Arya]] thinks little of her because of this.
361* WiseBeyondHisYears: Arianne mentions in ''Feast for Crows'' that Myrcella is much smarter than what she should be for her age, [[spoiler:which is part of why she wants her crowned as queen of Westeros.]]
362[[/folder]]
363
364[[folder:Tommen Baratheon]]
365!!Tommen Baratheon
366!!!The Boy King
367[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tommen_baratheon_ffg.jpg]]
368
369->''"When I'm king in my own right, I'm going to ''outlaw'' beets."''
370
371The third child of King Robert and Queen Cersei, later revealed to be, like his siblings, the son of Jaime and Cersei, Tommen is a seven-year-old with a kind heart, but very docile and innocent. He loves his uncle Tyrion and is very obedient of his mother. After Joffrey's death in ''A Storm Of Swords'', Tommen is named king of Westeros, and later marries Margaery Tyrell in ''A Feast For Crows''.
372----
373* ArrangedMarriage: To Margaery Tyrell right after the not-so-tragic death of her previous husband, Tommen's big brother Joffrey.
374* BigBrotherWorship: He views Margaery like this, rather than as a romantic partner, due to his young age. Loras as well -- he even wishes to train under him to become a great knight, much to his mother's dismay.
375* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler:His father and brother die (even though Joffrey was a horrible brother, Tommen still misses him), then his grandfather Tywin, then Cersei starts abusing him more.]]
376* CheerfulChild: In spite of the various tragedies in his life, Tommen is a very cheerful and balanced child, if a little idealistic for such a dark world.
377* ChildrenAreInnocent: Tommen loves his kittens and his family, bears no ill will towards the Starks and is very defensive of Margaery.
378* ChocolateBaby: Same as Joffrey and Myrcella, Tommen displays no similarities to Robert, as we learn early on the series...
379* TheCutie: For the same reasons as Myrcella.
380* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler:Implied to happen BecauseDestinySaysSo. Maggy's prophecy didn't explicitly say that Cersei's children will all die before her, but Cersei certainly believes that to be the case. While no one was sad to see Joffrey go, it'll be a shame if/when he and Myrcella do.]]
381* DoesNotLikeSpam: He doesn't like beets.
382* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: As opposed to his brother Joffrey, Tommen and Myrcella are genuinely nice people.
383* HeroWorshipper: He idolizes Loras.
384* HeroicBastard: Like his siblings, he is a product of his mother's incestuous affair, but at the end of the day he is just a sweet little boy who never chose to be born into such royal and political turmoil.
385* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Tommen Baratheon proves himself to be one of the most decent people in the setting... notably, he even misses his brother Joffrey Baratheon, though he was rather frightened of him.
386* KindheartedCatLover: Tommen really likes his kittens, which Margaery gives him. He names them [[FormallyNamedPet Ser Pounce, Lady Whiskers]] and [[Literature/PussInBoots Boots]]. It also shows how different he is from Joffrey, who once killed a pregnant cat. Tommen seems to be more interested in playing with his cats than playing the Game of Thrones.
387* TheKlutz: He's a clumsy dancer.
388* LesserOfTwoEvils: From the High Sparrow's perspective, neither Tommen nor his uncle Stannis should be sitting on the Iron Throne, with the former being a bastard born of incest (something the High Sparrow is almost certainly aware of) and the latter being a R'hllor fanatic willing to burn people alive and sacrifice statues of the Seven. But for now, he's willing to believe Cersei's claim that Tommen is Robert's son, as long as it keeps Stannis from claiming the crown.
389* ModestRoyalty: He is not interested in shoving his position in other's faces.
390* MommasBoy: Tommen is completely dominated by his mom Cersei. That does '''not''' bode well, and his wife Margaery tries to reverse it but it doesn't really work either.
391* MortonsFork: Poor Tommen just can't please his mother after becoming king. She's troubled by his meekness and wishes he would be more stubborn like Joffrey, but when he does stand up to her in defense of Margaery, she punishes him for his defiance by forcing him to beat his whipping boy.
392* NiceGuy: Tommen is probably one of the nicest people in Westeros.
393* NiceToTheWaiter: Implied by the fact that one of the ways Cersei punishes him is by forcing him to beat his whipping boy.
394* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage: Tommen and Margaery Tyrell get along famously. She takes him hawking, out for visits among the smallfolk in King's Landing, gives him a litter of kittens as a gift, and lets her brother Loras teach him how to joust. Because of their age difference, though, Tommen looks up to her like a CoolBigSis rather than as a romantic partner. It's telling that when Cersei makes an offhand comment about cutting Margaery's tongue out, he puts his eight-year-old foot down and stands up to her for the first time in the series.
395* PuppetKing: Although it's really no secret, considering he's a child. [[spoiler:Thing is, while the Lannisters initially have control over his strings, the Tyrells later wrest the strings from their control, and out of treating him very well, no less.]]
396* SiblingYinYang: With Joffrey. While Joffrey was a heartless sadist, Tommen is so kind-hearted that the mere threat of beating his whipping boy in his place is enough to make him behave.
397* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Applecakes and cream cakes; it seems he has a SweetTooth.
398* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: [[spoiler: Same titles as Joffrey after his death (see above), except for Protector of the Realm, which is held by Kevan Lannister as Tommen is still a child.]]
399* TheUnfettered: Being TheKlutz, he gets knocked down a lot (by Arya in the first book, and during the tourney in the second). Rather than feel hurt or humiliated, he gets back up and resumes. Even Sansa, who hates most of his family, admires this quality in him.
400* WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent: When we get a look into her head in ''Literature/AFeastForCrows'', it's revealed that Cersei laments that Tommen is not as "willful" and "strong" as his older brother Joffrey. Of course, when Tommen finally does start to show some inner strength, [[{{Hypocrite}} Cersei]] punishes him for it by [[KickTheDog forcing Tommen to beat his whipping boy]].
401* YankTheDogsChain: [[spoiler:It looks like Tommen will be raised by his noble, kind and sensible great-uncle Kevan. Then Varys has Kevan cruelly murdered, and makes it his plan to overthrow and usurp him, which will likely involve him dying.]]
402[[/folder]]

Top