Joffrey Baratheon and Sansa Stark had one of the most twisted dynamics on Game of Thrones. Young Sansa believed she was destined for a happy life as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms when she was first betrothed to Joffrey. Fast forward some episodes, and Joffrey revealed himself to be a monster who should have been kept away from poor Sansa at all costs. His eventual death was celebrated by fans everywhere, but the actors who brought the characters to life recently reunited, and the photo was hilarious rather than twisted:
Sophie Turner and Jack Gleeson reunited at the Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere party, which brought back a bunch of dearly (and not-so-dearly) departed cast members to kick off the final season of the show. While Sansa undoubtedly wouldn't be cuddling up to Joffrey if he was still in the mix on Thrones, Turner was clearly happy to snuggle up to Gleeson for the pic. Fiancé Joe Jones (who had to sign an NDA for Game of Thrones) was left empty-armed!
Jack Gleeson (who once shared how he thinks Game of Thrones should end) looks friendlier in this photo (posted to Sophie Turner's Instagram) than he ever did on Thrones, if you ask me! Even when Joffrey still seemed like a kinda okay (if spoiled and entitled) prince, he always had a certain sneer to him. Let no one say that Gleeson wasn't great at playing Joffrey!
Of course, it's also somewhat easier to imagine Joffrey back in the mix now that Sansa has become such a formidable character in her own right. Sansa could handle Joffrey now after her experiences with her second husband. Oh, remember the good old days before Ramsey Bolton when it seemed like no bad guy could be worse than Joffrey?
When last seen on Game of Thrones, Joffrey was looking significantly less happy than Jack Gleeson does in the photo with Sophie Turner (and poor bereft Joe Jonas). His wedding feast was disrupted with a little bit of murder, and his brief marriage to Margaery Tyrell became known among fans as the Purple Wedding after Joffrey was poisoned and went... well, purple as he died.
All things considered, most viewers probably found the Purple Wedding infinitely more satisfying than the Red Wedding. Did anybody like Joffrey other than his mom? Even Jaime never seemed too attached to Joffrey on a person level.
Jack Gleeson left Game of Thrones after Joffrey bit the dust -- or drank the wrong wine, as it were -- but not without poking fun at his character's fate. He also retired from acting after leaving Game of Thrones in 2014, so his appearance at the Season 8 premiere party was a glimpse back at the guy who played the villain fans all loved to hate. Or hated to hate. There was just a lot of hate involved.
There's clearly no hate between the actors, though, and Sansa has larger concerns on the show than her experiences with Joffrey. On top of the upcoming attack of the White Walkers and the army of the dead, Sansa will have to deal with Jon bringing Dany to Winterfell.
This will apparently lead Sansa to team up with Arya, in a reversal of the Season 1 dynamics that had Arya and Jon as a unit, and Arya and Sansa very much opposed on a regular basis. How will they feel when the news presumably gets out that Jon is their cousin rather than brother, and therefore Dany's nephew?
The wait for Game of Thrones Season 8 is almost at an end, so be sure to swing by our rundown of what we know so far about the final season in the final days before the April 14 premiere on HBO.
