5 Worst Things Joffrey Baratheon Did On Game Of Thrones, Ranked

This article contains discussions of sexual assault.

When it comes to villains on "Game of Thrones," few loom as large as King Joffrey Baratheon. Played by Jack Gleeson and introduced as a young prince — supposedly the eldest son and heir to King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy) and Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) — this character, lifted directly from the pages of George R.R. Martin's fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire," isn't actually a prince by any metric. In fact, he's the illegitimate product of a decades-long affair between his mother, the queen, and her own twin brother Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), as are his siblings Myrcella (Aimee Richardson and Nell Tiger Free) and Tommen Baratheon (Callum Wharry and Dean-Charles Chapman, the latter of whom played two roles on "Game of Thrones").

With all of that preamble out of the way, the point we're trying to make is that Joffrey is horrible, even compared to some of the show's sickest characters like Iwan Rheon's sadistic Ramsay Bolton. Joffrey's origin as a child born to two siblings — twins, no less! — may or may not be a factor, but as Cersei's spoiled and petulant eldest child, he gets whatever he wants whenever he wants it, which is what makes him into such a terror.

So what are the actual worst things that Joffrey does on "Game of Thrones" before — years-old spoiler alert — he dies in the second episode of Season 4 at his own wedding? It was actually tough to narrow it down to five, but we did our best. Here are the worst things Joffrey Baratheon does on "Game of Thrones," ranked from most to least awful.

After Joffrey becomes king in the wake of Robert's death — more on that later — he goes to drastic lengths to ensure that nobody will challenge his claim to the throne. (Honestly, this does seem like a move that one would make if they knew they didn't have a legitimate claim to said throne, but there's no canonical evidence that Joffrey knows he's a bastard borne of incest.) So what does he do? He orders that all of the late king's known illegitimate children must be murdered, including a newborn baby ripped from its own screaming mother's arms at Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish's (Aidan Gillen) house of ill repute.

Robert Baratheon was a well-known playboy who fathered many, many, many bastards — including Joe Dempsie's Gendry, who manages to escape King's Landing before Lannister forces can take him out — but there's still no excuse to have children and babies slaughtered in cold blood just because one kid is experiencing a wild power trip. It's honestly incredible to consider that this isn't at the top of the list. That's exactly how bad Joffrey is throughout "Game of Thrones."

By the time we get to Season 3 of "Game of Thrones," everyone knows precisely how awful Joffrey is ... and he manages to prove that by torturing a pair of women and then killing one of them. This all comes about when Littlefinger, angry that Ros appears to be working against him with spymaster Varys (Conleth Hill), decides to "give" Ros and another women to Joffrey as playthings. Joffrey, unfortunately, makes pretty quick work of the situation, and before long, everything takes a horrifying turn.

When Ros and a companion join Joffrey in his private chambers, he takes full advantage of the situation, but not in the way that you'd probably expect. Joffrey makes Ros hit Daisy (Maisie Dee) repeatedly with a barb-covered scepter, and later, when he receives Ros in his chambers after he comes into possession of a crossbow, we don't actually see what happens. What we do see is the arrow-ridden dead body of Ros strung up on Joffrey's four-poster bed, so we don't really have to guess.

Honestly, Joffrey isn't nice to anybody on "Game of Thrones," but he saves some of his worst behavior for his uncle Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage). Tyrion's only crime, as far as his demented nephew is concerned, is being born short — he's referred to throughout "Game of Thrones" as both "the Imp" and "the Half-Man" — but that doesn't matter, because just like his mother Cersei, Joffrey loves toying with Tyrion like a predator toys with its prey. That's what makes it all the more satisfying when, in the show's second-ever episode, Tyrion slaps Joffrey when the teenaged prince becomes absolutely hysterical amidst a riot in King's Landing. (To be slightly fair to Joffrey, Tyrion's own father — Charles Dance's Tywin Lannister — also hates Tyrion, and apparently, Dance kept apologizing to Dinklage for his rudeness on set.)

Every single thing that Joffrey does to Tyrion is meant to shame and humiliate his uncle, including on Tyrion's wedding night to Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), when he threatens to deflower the bride. He's also almost definitely behind a plot to murder Tyrion during the Battle of Blackwater Bay, and his torture of his uncle is just ... relentless. That's why, when we see Joffrey poisoned at his own wedding in Season 4 of "Game of Thrones," we understand why someone like Tyrion might kill him (though Tyrion is innocent, to be clear).

If there's one person that Joffrey loves torturing more than his uncle Tyrion Lannister, it's Sansa Stark. When "Game of Thrones" begins, a young and impressionable Sansa wants nothing more than to marry the "handsome prince" (unfortunately, she does mean Joffrey), but when she actually meets Joffrey, she does change her tune just a bit. As soon as Sansa's father Eddard "Ned" Stark (Sean Bean) — more on him in just a minute — is named as a traitor, Sansa's status in King's Landing becomes entirely dependent on Joffrey's good graces. Unfortunately for her, Joffrey doesn't have any good graces.

Throughout their engagement, Joffrey forces Sansa to look at her father's severed head on a pike, commands his soldiers to sexually brutalize her (thankfully, this doesn't come to fruition), threatens to sexually assault her on her wedding night, and just generally terrorizes her. Thankfully, Sansa is really smart, so she gets in some good barbs when she can. As the Battle of Blackwater Bay approaches in Season 2, she asks Joffrey a question about the warfare and gets called "stupid," at which point she invokes his enemy — her brother Robb Stark (Richard Madden). "I'm sorry, Your Grace. You're right. I'm stupid. Of course you'll be fighting in the Vanguard," she says of the front lines. "They say my brother Robb goes where the fighting is thickest, and he is only a pretender." Like pretty much everyone watching "Game of Thrones," Sansa is immensely relieved when Joffrey dies, even if she is accused of his murder alongside Tyrion.

Nothing else could be number one on this list. During the first season of "Game of Thrones," the unfailingly honorable Ned Stark makes a startling discovery: namely, he goes through official records of the royal line and realizes that Cersei's three blonde children are somewhat conspicuous. After directly confronting her, Ned realizes that he's right, and all of Robert Baratheon's heirs are illegitimate — and the issue, at this point, is that Robert is dead and a new king needs to be crowned.

Desperate to hold onto his shaky claim, Joffrey arrests Ned for treason and has him imprisoned, and Ned is too honorable to lie ... even in his final moments. Though Sansa and Cersei both think that Joffrey might see fit to send Ned to the wall or devise some other punishment, Joffrey impulsively decides to behead Ned Stark in the middle of King's Landing. This death starts the War of the Five Kings as multiple noble Westerosi Houses vy for the Iron Throne, and frankly, that war never would have happened had Joffrey not chopped a guy's head off for no good reason.

"Game of Thrones" is streaming on HBO Max.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).