Joffrey Baratheon Is a Humanitarian IRL?

Game of Thrones might be the end of the showbiz road for Jack Gleeson. The man who brings the demented King Joffrey Baratheon to life told Ireland's Independent that he will quit acting after the hit show. What will Gleeson do instead? Well, he's been attending Trinity College AND doing humanitarian work, and he seems to enjoy both. Perhaps he will continue to pursue the paths of academia and charity. Recently, he visited Haiti with aid agency Goal and said he'd "been looking to use the celebrity [he's] got from the show to bring awareness for causes Goal supports." Whoa, way to be the opposite of King Joffrey, Gleeson.

This is all speculation, but I can't help but think that playing the evil King Joffrey drove Gleeson to the other end of the spectrum: He has to do good in order to wash away the Joffrey stench! Or maybe he's just a do-gooder at heart. It's a pretty commendable move either way. It is a bummer that we won't see any more performances from the promising young actor, but hey. He's got to do what he's got to do.

Joffrey is a vile monster who does vile monster things. It'd be intense to take on that particular character. How does one become Joffrey Baratheon? Actually, never mind. I don't want to know. If you think watching Joffrey's behavior is tough, fellow viewer, imagine sitting in Gleeson's front row seat. It could push a person over the edge. Again, this is purely speculative, but there miiiight've been a Joffrey moment that made Gleeson think, That was the last Baratheon straw. I need to go be a saintlike human now. I have a few guesses to which scene could have pushed him over the edge:

When He Has Ned Stark Executed

Aw, man. This is brutal. Joffrey has Ned Stark beheaded. Ned Stark is the father of his fiancé, Sansa. Joffrey. That isn't the way to celebrate an engagement.

When He Forces Sansa to look at Ned's decapitated head

Joffrey takes Sansa on a tour of some decapitated heads. One of the decapitated heads once belonged to Ned Stark. He makes Sansa look at the severed head of her father. Once again, pull it together, Joffrey. You won't be winning a "fiancé of the year" award any time soon.

When He Orders the deaths of poo-slinging peasants

Dude. Joffrey. It's just poop. Did you really have to kill a bunch of peasants because of a poo-poo? You should count your lucky stars that it wasn't a flaming turd. Try a little optimism, Baratheon.

His Entire Relationship With Sansa

Any and all Joffrey/Sansa interactions belong on this list. For example, Joffrey's mother tells him a king shouldn't hit his queen, so he orders his men to beat Sansa on his behalf. Or, there is the time when Joffrey ditches Sansa in a riot. Does Joffrey have a change of heart and rescue her? No. Instead, The Hound saves her right before shit is about to take an even worse turn. Fortunately for Sansa, Joffrey eventually breaks off the engagement in order to form an alliance with Margaery Tyrell/House Tyrell.

When He Tortures Prostitutes

When uncle Tyrion hires two prostitutes for Joffrey, the young king draws a crossbow on the two women and orders one to beat the other. I'm going to be real: I stopped watching the show for a while after I saw this scene.

Oof. After revisiting those moments, Joffrey makes me want to quit acting, and I'm not even an actor. He's just that despicable. Such is the power of the Baratheon.

Image: HBO Tumblr(3); awesome gifs