The top 15 best performances on Game of Thrones

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10. Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon

Now that we’ve talked about everyone’s favorite character, let’s talk about the guy everyone hates.

Joffrey Baratheon is a wonderful creation by George R.R. Martin. He starts out as Sansa’s perfect golden boy prince and quickly goes to whiny little rich kid and finally sadistic monster. His character resonates because we see this kind of thing all the time in the real world: the privileged child who’s been given everything and abuses his power because he’s never been told no.

Jack Gleeson brings this character to life perfectly, moving seamlessly between perfect prince, whiny brat and dangerous monster. I get chills at the look in his eyes whenever he has the opportunity to do something wicked, like showing Sansa her father’s severed head. This is a boy who only finds happiness in the misery of others.

And yet Gleeson also finds great comic moments, like when he’s baffled by how Margaery is winning the favor of the people of King’s Landing by actually being nice to people, or how he’s way too excited to tell her about all of the atrocities that have taken place at the Sept of Baelor. Joffrey is accused of being a one-note character, but Gleeson gives him a full range of emotions, even if most of them are awful.

Obviously my favorite Joffrey scenes are the ones where he gets spanked by Uncle Tyrion, but even if we love seeing him get put in his place, he’s definitely the scariest character in the show. Just imagine for a second a timeline where Joffrey doesn’t die. I’d rather be an undead slave to the Night King than live in that world. Thank the gods the stranger came for him early.