It's been 10 years since Joffrey Baratheon was served his just desserts — pigeon pie, to be specific, followed by a golden goblet of strangler poison.

I should preface by saying I don't relish death of any kind. And yet that moral principle is hard to square with "Game of Thrones" fandom, thanks to series author George R.R. Martin and HBO adaptation creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. As any loyal viewers of HBO's popular series know, one should never get too attached to a character, lest they end up decapitated, flayed, skewered or incinerated by dragon fire.

That being said, I know I'm not alone when I say that Joffrey's (Jack Gleeson) death was a satisfying watch, especially since the entire fan base was still reeling from the Red Wedding massacre of House Stark that transpired not long before. Surreptitiously poisoned by Lady Olena Tyrell of House Hightower (Diana Rigg) at the dinner following his wedding to her granddaughter, Margaery (Natalie Dormer), Joffrey's demise is not pretty: The newly minted king gags on poisoned wine before asphyxiating, blood running from his nose, twitching in purple-faced contortions as his mother, Queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) wails over his body.

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Rivaled only by Ramsay Bolton and his gruesome affinity for siccing hounds on his victims, Joffrey's predilection for cruelty landed him a proportionate end. Knowing that his claim to the Iron Throne was by all suspicions illegitimate — as he was likely the product of a forbidden relationship between Cersei and her bother, Kingslayer Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) — made his death even more palatable.

As Weiss said on a recent episode of Josh Horowitz's "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, "With 'Thrones,' there was so much killing of good guys, and we finally got to really kill both Joffrey in season 4 and Ramsay Bolton in season 6. It was fun to go back to the old-fashioned joys of just killing off a really bad guy. It felt like it was balancing the scales a little."

Here's a list of reasons why the "Purple Wedding" made fans breathe a collective sigh of relief a decade ago.

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QOSHE - All the reasons why "Game of Thrones" villain Joffrey Baratheon deserved his "Purple Wedding" - Gabriella Ferrigine
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All the reasons why "Game of Thrones" villain Joffrey Baratheon deserved his "Purple Wedding"

27 8
14.04.2024

It's been 10 years since Joffrey Baratheon was served his just desserts — pigeon pie, to be specific, followed by a golden goblet of strangler poison.

I should preface by saying I don't relish death of any kind. And yet that moral principle is hard to square with "Game of Thrones" fandom, thanks to series author George R.R. Martin and HBO adaptation creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. As any loyal viewers of HBO's popular series know, one should never get too attached to a character, lest they end up decapitated, flayed,........

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