Why all the Joffrey hate when there's Tuco?

[Xanadu84]

1) Tuco is an asshole. That's who he is, that's how he is written. He is a bad guy who is there to be bad in an entertaining way, and that's all we expect of him. But Joffery is more of a character. We know him, we spend some time with him, we feel like he is not just a villain, but a person making choices. And those choices are TERRIBLE. So our hate feels more justified. It's like how you would feel about a dog that bites a baby versus a father that bites a baby.

2) Tuco does bad things, but Joffery does bad things for a horrifically skewed philosophical reason. His sexism and tyrannical perspective represent real world, identifiable evil on a large scale. Tuco wants stuff and tries to get it.

3) Tuco at least earned his place. Kind of. He was a viscous bad-ass who fought to get what he wanted. You can understand where he got corrupted. Joffery is a whiny little shit who had everything handed to him, and he just decided to be an asshole. He comes across as being not only evil, but weak and whiny.

4) Jofferys evil is broader. He can do in a casual decree what Tuco would need to put massive amounts of effort into. Joffery can start a war that destroys nations, Tuco can only destroy a few gangs.

 

[viranimus]

Now I am assuming Joffery refers to Game of Thrones. Which if true that makes this one of the most bizarre comparisons ive ever encountered. Now I am really baffled if that is the case.



How the hell can anyone hate Joffrey? He is one of the best chars in all of fiction, and the saddest part about Joffrey is that the kid playing him, Jack Gleason has in essence gutted his career outside of Game of thrones with how well he has done with the role. Seriously, he will be type cast and struggle for work the rest of his career.

But as a char how can anyone not adore someone so sadistic, vile, masochistic, Impetuous, downright inventive with cruelty turning it into effectively a work of art, all wrapped up in a "pretty" package and hidden behind the veil of supposed childlike innocence? (I would spoiler this, but it is Game of thrones... If they arent dead they will be soon enough) The real shame about Joffrey is the fact he met his demise far too early and we just simply only got a little glimmer of the magnificent bastard he would have become.

I remember Kevin Smith discussing Episode 3 of Star Wars, talking about the backlash against how Anakin was portrayed, and he said, Yeah, that is exactly the sort of kid that would have grown to become Vader, Whiney, power hungry, etc. Joffrey makes Anakin look like an crying infant in comparison. Now Imagine what THAT would have grown into once it learned how to wield power.

Now I can understand why people disliked Tuco. Tuco was not really anything special. If you are trying to compare Tuco and Joffrey as Villains, Joffery exhibits many traditional hallmarks of villainy. Tuco is nothing. Tuco is just a tweaker who managed, for a time to get a leg up on competition. Yes he was volitile and dangerous. But again he was a tweaker, and any bit of unpredictable volatility should have been anticipated because with a tweaker, you come to naturally expect the unexpected. Thats really the root of any power Tuco actually has and really volitile and irrational villains are almost always defeated easily. Tuco pretty much went out of power like a punk *****. And technically he was just another 2 bit distributor who got taken out of power by a DEA agent. Really sounds more like a nightly news story than a narrative with great depth.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Nobody who watches GOT is ever able to finish Oblivions main quest.

 

[madkill]

I don't understand this thread when no-one has mentioned Skylar, who manages to be the most fucking annoying character and doesn't even instigate whore fights.

Man I fucking hate Skyler.

I mean, I'm not even one of those guys who hates her for her actions. I would have probably done worse (or better, depending on your POV) things in her place.

But Jesus Christ it has been a drag this last season. I really don't like where they took her character.

She's the reason I rate Breaking Bad a 9 and not a 10.

Skyler plus some awkward meetings between the families.

Because the rest is epic.

I find her annoying as hell as well but its intentional, if the character pisses you off then surely you'll feeling what Walt is feeling (and is clearly shown) therefore the series should get that 10 and not a 9.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

When it comes to A Song of Ice and Fire everyone always cites Joffrey as the most annoying character. I'm guessing that's mainly because most people haven't read the books to know that

Spoiler

CERSEI is by far the most irritating character in the series. Everything that Joffrey is is because of his mother and her uncompromising grabs for power and delusions of competence (most irritatingly paired with her belief that anything that goes wrong is due to the incompetence of others). Joffrey doesn't even manage to fuck up the country as much as she does. I'm curious, does anyone else who's read at least up to the third book hate Cersei more than Joffrey?

 

[Corax_1990]

Tuco is only around for half a season or something then gets his. Joffrey will be around for at least the next two seasons of GoT.

Thank you for the Spoiler warning ... oh wait.

Aw, come on, the book that concluded Joffrey's fate was released in 2000 - and if the TV series really is the only thing you intend to put the effort of consuming into, know that you're missing out anyway... on an epic, big huge scale.

Here, have another - non-spoilery - snippet of the alternate reality original bit:

"...the only good thing that could be said of Joffrey was that he was tall and strong for his age."

So, in the books, Joffrey ain't the leptosomic, rat-faced weasel he's reduced to in the TV series. I still think it's all valid and good, since the actor is a splendid choice to the end of making Joffrey as despicable and loathsome as the character deserves.

This. The book has been out for over a decade, might spoil some more stuff for you, Darth Vader is Luke's father, Bruce Willis is a ghost the entire time, THERE IS NO SPOON!

 

[SlaveNumber23]

Because

Spoiler: Spoilers

Tuco gets what he deserves, Joffrey gets to be king.

Additionally, Joffrey is physically pathetic, which makes his smug elitist personality even more hated. He is a coward and cannot back himself up at all. Basically Joffrey is specifically engineered to make the viewer/reader really hate him, while Tuco is just a bad guy.

 

[Amaror]

Tuco is only around for half a season or something then gets his. Joffrey will be around for at least the next two seasons of GoT.

Thank you for the Spoiler warning ... oh wait.

Aw, come on, the book that concluded Joffrey's fate was released in 2000 - and if the TV series really is the only thing you intend to put the effort of consuming into, know that you're missing out anyway... on an epic, big huge scale.

Here, have another - non-spoilery - snippet of the alternate reality original bit:

"...the only good thing that could be said of Joffrey was that he was tall and strong for his age."

So, in the books, Joffrey ain't the leptosomic, rat-faced weasel he's reduced to in the TV series. I still think it's all valid and good, since the actor is a splendid choice to the end of making Joffrey as despicable and loathsome as the character deserves.

Just for the record i am reading the books right now, but it can take a while to read multiple 1000 pages novels.
It btw. doesn't matter how old the book is a spoiler is a spoiler.
Especially when most of the people who know A Game of Thrones have only seen the tv series and not read the book.
But either way i will abandon the game of thrones threads here right now, since i have noticed that your not the only spoilering Book reader on here.

 

[DugMachine]

Haven't watched GoT so can't comment on Joffrey but I really fucking hate Tuco. I actually knew a crazy person like that a few years ago and I seriously feared for my life everytime he was around. Glad the fucker is in prison.

 

[Locque]

SPOILERS AHOY FOR A SHOW THAT'S BEEN ON THE AIR LIKE 2 YEARS

Joffrey straight up kills the character believed by many to be the central protagonist. He is afforded by the story the chance to cause more personal grief to the audience owing to people's emotional attachment to the characters he harms. Also he seems less savage, less feral. His sadism seems more measured, made by a mind not clouded by meth. He also seems to relish the harm more, to really derive pleasure not just from his own savagery, but human misery and suffering in general.

captcha: bob loblaw
I fucking love Arrested Development. The love of my life introduced me to it.

 

[Latenz1134]

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

I forgot that GoT spoilerboxes might contain information from the books, not only the series.

I too made the same mistake, it is a dark day today -_-

 

[hermes]

When it comes to A Song of Ice and Fire everyone always cites Joffrey as the most annoying character. I'm guessing that's mainly because most people haven't read the books to know that

Spoiler

CERSEI is by far the most irritating character in the series. Everything that Joffrey is is because of his mother and her uncompromising grabs for power and delusions of competence (most irritatingly paired with her belief that anything that goes wrong is due to the incompetence of others). Joffrey doesn't even manage to fuck up the country as much as she does. I'm curious, does anyone else who's read at least up to the third book hate Cersei more than Joffrey?

I am in the third book, so maybe I lost something; but so far Cersei is less fucked up than Joffrey. So far, she has been incredibly pragmatic and, while power hungry, not incompetent at grabbing it.

Joffrey, on the other hand, is so mentally fucked that he is just incapable of being competent. He is a coward, a weakling, a sadistic, and just irredeemable as a character. That is my main problem with him... while I can see Cersei's motivation clearly, she is always acting in favor of it; Joffrey's motivation is just "being an asshole". While she has proven several times why she is still the regent queen, he has made sound political mistakes, like

Spoiler

killing Ned Stark and humiliating Sansa

just because...

Not that he is the most hated character, in my opinion. I consider it a feat of Martin's part that even the "heroes" can be, lets call it, less than flawless... But during the entire first two book, he is the most irredeemable character, by far.

 

[tappajasieni]

Am I the only one who absolutely loves Joffrey?

Sure, he's a whiny little ***** and a sociopath to boot but isn't it a great feeling when you have a character you can totally and completely hate? That's what makes him likable to me: I despise him.

I gotta admit, he's one of my favorite characters (although no-one can ever beat Tyrion.)

 

[TheScientificIssole]

Because Tuco is old shit!

I don't understand this thread when no-one has mentioned Skylar, who manages to be the most fucking annoying character and doesn't even instigate whore fights.

Man I fucking hate Skyler.

I mean, I'm not even one of those guys who hates her for her actions. I would have probably done worse (or better, depending on your POV) things in her place.

But Jesus Christ it has been a drag this last season. I really don't like where they took her character.

I love where they took her character, she didn't really have very much character until season four, and at that point they make sure that you know that she is manipulative. And that's what she is in season five.

 

[Lord Flashheart]

When it comes to A Song of Ice and Fire everyone always cites Joffrey as the most annoying character. I'm guessing that's mainly because most people haven't read the books to know that

Spoiler

CERSEI is by far the most irritating character in the series. Everything that Joffrey is is because of his mother and her uncompromising grabs for power and delusions of competence (most irritatingly paired with her belief that anything that goes wrong is due to the incompetence of others). Joffrey doesn't even manage to fuck up the country as much as she does. I'm curious, does anyone else who's read at least up to the third book hate Cersei more than Joffrey?

I am in the third book, so maybe I lost something; but so far Cersei is less fucked up than Joffrey. So far, she has been incredibly pragmatic and, while power hungry, not incompetent at grabbing it.

The fourth book really cements Cersei as a more reprehensible character, I think. Joffrey is cruel in a thoughtless way, taking his power for granted and using it at his pleasure. Cersei does everything she can to retain her positions of influence, but even when she's scheming up her evil plans she fails to see the big picture. Problems mount, she gets more desperate and her plans get crueller.

The fourth book is pretty dull until about 3/4 in, in my opinion, but boy does it get going.

Incidentally, to those worrying that Joffrey's actor in the show will be typecast, he's quitting acting to resume his academic career. Good on him too.

 

[TheScientificIssole]

I love where they took her character, she didn't really have very much character until season four, and at that point they make sure that you know that she is manipulative. And that's what she is in season five.

Really? I see her as a desperate mother who's at the end of her wits, desperately doing anything she can while enduring mental breakdowns.

Manipulative? Theres one scene in particular that shows how good she is at that... Not very.

I think the show is very clearly depicting that she isn't mentally damaged at all. I remember her saying that all the break down stuff was faked to get the kids out of the house, when she threatens to fake worse things.