Tommen Baratheon

King **Tommen I Baratheon** is a character in the first, second, fourth, fifth and sixth seasons of *Game of Thrones*. He is the younger brother of King Joffrey and Princess Myrcella. Though legally the son of the late King Robert Baratheon and Queen Cersei Lannister, his true father is Ser Jaime Lannister, the Queen's twin brother, and is thus a bastard born of incest. His sole biological grandparents, Tywin and Joanna Lannister, were also first cousins.

After his brother's death during his wedding to Margaery Tyrell, Tommen assumed the throne under the name of ***Tommen of the House Baratheon, the First of His Name, King of the Andals and the First Men, and Lord of the Seven Kingdoms***, making him the nineteenth ruler of the combined Seven Kingdoms. Many thought his reign would be a vast improvement as, unlike his brother, who was sadistic and mean-spirited, Tommen was good natured and kind towards his peers.

## Biography

### Background

Tommen is presented as the younger son and youngest child of King Robert Baratheon and Queen Cersei Lannister. Cersei and Robert made a political marriage alliance after Robert took the throne by force from the Mad King Aerys II Targaryen. Tommen's real father is Jaime Lannister, his mother's twin brother and his uncle.

He has an older brother, Joffrey, and an older sister Myrcella with the same obfuscated parentage. Tommen is good-natured and passive in contrast to his brother Joffrey, who sometimes bullied Tommen for amusement. Like his sister, he is fond of his uncle Tyrion Lannister.

### Season 1

Tommen accompanies his family north to Winterfell via litter with their mother. Upon arrival, he and Myrcella are visibly awed by the mighty castle.

Tommen is eating breakfast with his mother, (biological) father and sister as his uncle Tyrion approaches. He giggles as his uncle lifts him aside to join them. His sister asks whether Bran Stark will die and Tyrion replies that he is expected to live, much to Myrcella’s delight and Cersei’s horror. Tyrion goes on to say how he wishes to see the Wall and witness the “wintry abode of the white walkers,” exciting Myrcella and Tommen. He then says he wants to urinate off the edge of it, a comment which causes both his niece and nephew to laugh. Cersei is irritated by his words and leaves, calling the children to her.

Tommen attends the tournament to celebrate Eddard Stark becoming Hand of the King, during which he and the crowd bear witness to Gregor Clegane killing his opponent in an apparent and very gruesome accident and then behead his own stallion in a rage, both of which causes the young prince to leap out of his chair in horror.

### Season 2

Tommen attends Joffrey's nameday tournament. He is pleased when his uncle Tyrion Lannister arrives during the festivities and tells him that one day he will be as big as the Hound "but much better looking". When Joffrey orders Ser Dontos Hollard to be drowned with wine, Tommen shows visible discomfort with it and relief when Sansa convinces Joffrey to spare him. Tommen attends a dinner with Myrcella, his mother and Sansa Stark. He asks whether Robb will be killed after the war, and says that he wouldn't like that.

Myrcella is sent to Dorne as part of a marriage pact with House Martell. Tommen, who was closest to her, watches her departure from the harbor, sobbing at the loss of one of the few family members who actually cared for him. Joffrey mocks him for crying, though Sansa stands up for him. As they return to the Red Keep, Tyrion senses the unrest of the smallfolk and orders Tommen sent along a separate route to the Red Keep immediately, narrowly avoiding the Riot of King's Landing.

Tommen takes refuge in Maegor's Holdfast during the Battle of the Blackwater, dozing in a chair whilst his mother gets more and more drunk. Cersei takes him to the Iron Throne room when the battle seems lost. She tries to calm him with a tale about the supremacy of lions in the kingdom of beasts: the forest is full of vicious beasts, such as stags, wolves and dragons, but he is a lion, and all will bow to him. Tommen does not like the idea, especially since he does not see stags as dangerous since they only eat grass. She has a vial of Essence of Nightshade from Grand Maester Pycelle, which is deadly if taken in more than tiny amounts and she prepares to give it to him if the city defenses fail, to grant him the mercy of a quick death instead of being captured and tormented. She is stopped just in time when Tywin Lannister arrives to announce their victory.

### Season 4

Tommen is present at Joffrey's pre-wedding reception, ceremony to Margaery Tyrell, and during the subsequent feast. Initially, he laughs at his brother's crude play of dwarves reenacting the War of the Five Kings, but stops and looks mortified when he sees Tyrion's face. When Joffrey begins to choke and convulse from poison, Tommen looks on in shock and horror before his eyes are covered by his grandfather so he is spared the final gruesome details. With Joffrey's death, Tommen inherits the crown and is now the king and ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.

Tommen later stands vigil with Cersei over Joffrey's corpse in the Great Sept of Baelor. Tywin, in an unusually agreeable mood, enters and proceeds to quiz Tommen on the traits that make a good king, ignoring Cersei's protests and angry glares. Tommen suggests holiness, justice, and strength as qualities of a good king, but Tywin refutes these answers by pointing out that Kings Baelor, Orys, and Robert were each paragons of one of these qualities, but ultimately not very good kings. Tywin is delighted when Tommen, with minimal prompting, deduces that a good king must be wise.

Tywin tells Tommen that young kings with no experience can become wise by listening to their councilors, and the wisest kings keep listening even when they don't need to anymore. After admitting that Joffrey was neither good nor wise, Tywin escorts Tommen out of the Sept and begins teaching him the duties of a king's marriage (and subsequent children). On their way out, Jaime passes them and asks how Tommen is doing; the young king replies that he is all right, and Jaime assures Tommen that he will not let him meet the same end as his brother.

In response to Joffrey's death, Cersei insists that Tommen be placed under high guard, with at least four Kingsguard at his bedroom door at night, something Jaime finds a bit excessive. Tommen has been moved to Joffrey's bedchamber and has yet to redecorate; hence, he has difficulty sleeping with Joffrey's gruesome hunting trophies all around.

That night Margaery sneaks into Tommen's chambers. She suggests that they get to know one another before their marriage, something nobles in Westeros don't usually do. Tommen is unnerved by her presence until his cat, Ser Pounce, jumps up and Margaery interacts with him. Tommen sullenly reveals the cruel things Joffrey threatened to do to Ser Pounce, and he and Margaery bond over their mutual relief that they are free of him. Tommen agrees that he'd like Margaery to visit him again. Margaery departs, but not before giving a kiss on the forehead.

A ceremony is held in the Great Hall of the  Red Keep where the high septonofficially crowns Tommen as king. Margaery watches from the side, and, when questioned by Cersei, notes that he sits as comfortably in the Iron Throne as if he were born to it. Cersei and Tywin later set the date of Tommen's wedding to Margaery immediately after the mourning period for Joffrey is over: a fortnight from the day of the coronation.

On Tywin's instructions, Tommen recuses himself from presiding over Tyrion's trial for Joffrey's murder, declaring Tywin, as Hand of the King and Protector of the Realm, as his replacement. He then departs the throne room along with two Kingsguard.

## Personality

Throughout his life, it has been fundamentally clear that Tommen Baratheon's most prominent quality is his innocence. He has been the victim of his older brother Joffrey's intense cruelty, sadism and overindulgence by their mother, and this has set the two brothers apart quite considerably. Where Joffrey was arrogant, monstrous and a dolt, Tommen is humble, gentle, polite, compassionate, kind and sweet to a fault. Tommen was extremely emotional, crying helplessly when his sister Myrcella was sent to Dorne by Tyrion.

* He didn't stand up for himself when Joffrey callously mocked Tommen for crying, showing that at this point Tommen was underconfident, especially where Joffrey was concerned because Joffrey had tormented his little brother his entire life. Tommen is so kind that he heartily says he doesn't want Joffrey to kill Robb Stark in battle, despite the fact that officially the Starks and Lannisters were in a pitched war with one another.
* One of the most unfortunate elements of Tommen's innocence and kindness is that he is considerably easy to manipulate. This set him apart from Joffrey, who was willful and fearsome in his own way and had to be disciplined into following others. Both Tywin Lannister and the High Sparrow saw this weakness in Tommen, and exploited it. That being said, Tywin had the decency to say that he thought Tommen would be a much better ruler than his psychopathic older brother was. In this exact same conversation, Tommen is shown to be surprisingly intelligent and didn't require much prompting to figure out what made a good king, without taking it as a criticism as Joffrey would have done. Tommen's intelligence didn't necessarily make him perceptive of people manipulating him, though.
* Tommen's compassion stretched to shocking degrees, since he apologized and even speculated that he'd hurt Margaery when she cried out during the consummation of their marriage. Even after the mass expansion of rumors (which of course are true) that Tommen and his siblings were products of incest between Cersei and Jaime, Tommen still loved his mother, but he did gain some independent emotions towards other people despite Cersei's best efforts. Tommen loved Margaery extremely deeply and expressed uncharacteristic anger and frustration when confronting the High Sparrow and demanding Margaery's release. Tommen's love for Margaery and the faith was so powerful that, when he saw the Great Sept of Baelor explode in a blaze of wildfire, and knew immediately that Margaery, her family and thousands of innocent people who were inside and outside it had been exterminated at Cersei's doing, feeling he lost everything, he immediately removed his crown and silently, calmly, threw himself from the window to his death.