Tommen Baratheon

"- What kind of King do you think you'll be? - A good King?"

- Tywin Lannister and Tommen Baratheon.

Tommen Baratheon is a recurring character in the first, second and fourth seasons. He debuted in the series premiere, and was portrayed by guest star Callum Wharry in Seasons 1 and 2. Dean-Charles Chapman takes over the role starting in Season 4. Tommen is the younger brother of late King Joffrey and Princess Myrcella, and Joffrey's heir presumptive to the Iron Throne. 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.

Following Joffrey's death at his wedding feast, Tommen stands to be crowned the next King of the Andals and the First Men.

Background
Tommen is presented as the youngest son 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. 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. Tommen is eating breakfast with his mother, 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.

Season 2
"You sound like a little cat mewling for his mother. Princes don't cry."

- King Joffrey I berating his younger brother, Tommen Baratheon.

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. . 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 watches her departure from the harbor, sobbing. Joffrey mocks him for crying. As they return to the Red Keep Tyrion senses the unrest of the smallfolk and orders Tommen sent by a separate route narrowly avoiding the Riot of King's Landing.

Tommen takes refuge in Maegor's Holdfast during the Battle of the Blackwater. 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 and wolves, but he is a lion, and all will bow to him. She has gotten 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 3
Tommen does not appear on-screen in Season 3 although he remains in King's Landing.

Season 4
Tommen is present at Joffrey's wedding ceremony to Margaery Tyrell, and during the subsequent feast (known as the Purple Wedding). Upon Joffrey's poisoning and subsequent 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 grill Tommen on the traits that make a good king, ignoring Cersei's angry glares. Tommen offers holiness, justice and strength as qualities of a good king, but Tywin refutes these ideas by pointing out that Kings Baelor, Orys, and Robert were each paragons of one of these qualities, but not very good kings. Tywin is delighted when Tommen, with minimal prompting, suggests that a good king must be wise. Tywin tells Tommen that young kings with no experience must be wise by listening to their councilors, and the wisest kings keep listening even when they don't need to anymore. As he escorts Tommen out of the Sept, Tywin begins prepping his grandson on the duties of a king's marriage. On their way out, Jaime passes them and asks how Tommen is doing; the young king replies that he is all right.

Due to Joffrey's death, and speculations about Tommen's  safety and reprocaution, Cersei insists that Tommen is placed under high guard, with at least four guards at his bedroom door at night. Olenna Tyrell insists that Margaery pays a visit to Tommen before Cersei takes full control of Tommen, of course including his martial status, and making sure that Margaery does not become Tommen's wife. During the night, Margaery takes her grandmother's advice into consideration and visit's Tommen in his chambers. A surprised Tommen was not expecting Margaery, mistaking her for being his pet cat, Ser Pounce. Tommen asks Margaery how she got past the Kingsguard posted at his door, she replies "Kingsguard" seemingly pitifully and giggles. Margaery explains to Tommen that the two may be betrothed and suggests that the get to know one another before that happens, to which Tommen replies with an uncertain "Yes". Ser Ponce jumps onto Tommen's bed and introduces him to Margaery, she then says that it's getting late and that she should leave and says goodbye by at first seemingly about to kiss him on the lip, to which Tommen starts to close his eyes, but then she suddenly kisses him on the forehead.

Quotes
"-"Is Joffrey going to kill Sansa's brother?" -"He might. Would you like that?" -(pausing to weigh the question) "No...I don't think so.""

- Tommen and his mother, Queen Cersei Lannister (also, Tommen's first speaking lines in the TV series)

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Tommen is seven years old when the events of the books begin. He is a gentle boy with an interest in tournaments and kittens. He is blonde haired, green eyed, somewhat pudgy, and not very good at martial skills (though he is very young), but he does try hard. When the royal party visits Winterfell, he is matched against Bran Stark in a training fight with wooden swords and padding. He is repeatedly knocked into the mud and loses easily, but shows good sportsmanship about it and is happy that Bran was willing to spar with him so he could give it a try. This is in contrast with Joffrey, who never bothers to train and therefore has no idea how to wield a sword, but also refuses to ever admit weakness. Many characters believe he would be a better king than his brother.

Like all of Cersei's children he was mostly ignored by King Robert. While Cersei felt she doted on all of her children, she is more attached to her own mental constructs of them than the reality. As Cersei's loveless marriage with Robert dragged on year after year, she increasingly fantasized about how Joffrey would one day succeed Robert and become a great king himself, never acknowledging that he was really a petulant sociopath. Ironically, despite Cersei's defiant claims (and even earnest belief) that she is a devoted mother to all of her children, she actually became so obsessed with Joffrey (and her fantasies about him) that she all but ignored Myrcella and Tommen throughout their lives. From the moment she gave birth to Joffrey, Cersei dreamed about the great king he would grow into, and how as Jaime's secret son he would be her ultimate revenge on Robert: the births of her two subsequent children were barely an anecdote in the narrative of this mental fantasy which has already been established in her mind years before. Her younger children were pushed off to the side, and with Robert a non-factor in their lives as well, they were functionally raised by court servants, such as Septa Eglantine. Even so, Cersei will still become hypocritically enraged when anyone questions her relationship with her younger children.

TV viewers who haven't read the books may find it odd that while the children of the current generation of House Stark are given a large amount of screentime, the younger children of the current generation of House Lannister barely appear at all. This is much as it was in the earlier books of the series, and is actually a key plot point: the almost total absence of Myrcella and Tommen from the inner dynamics of House Lannister is indicative of just how little importance they have to Cersei. People are aware they exist, but rarely even pause to consider treating them as individuals with their own emotions or agendas (between the two of them, they had only a single throwaway speaking line in the entire first season, "is Bran going to die?" - Rickon Stark had more dialogue in Season 1 than both of them combined). At best, Cersei will argue over their treatment on general principle, such as when she opposed "selling" Myrcella off to a political marriage in Dorne. However, Cersei was more angered in the sense that she felt something was being taken which belonged to her.

Thus it is all the more shocking when in later books, as they grow older, Myrcella and Tommen increasingly turn into major characters in the very midst of House Lannister, on the scale of Arya or Bran Stark, where before they were treated as non-entities. The other family members and courtiers (and by extension, the readers or TV viewers) are even criticized for ignoring them this entire time, and simply assuming they were content. The smiling children seen in public at the Tourney of the Hand in book/Season 1 hide a darker and empty family life. Later books also retroactively reveal that Myrcella and Tommen have lived in terror of Joffrey their entire lives. Joffrey killed and skinned several of Tommen's childhood pets, yet Cersei continued to dote on him.

At one point Tommen even says that he used to "go away inside" mentally when Joffrey did certain things to him and Myrcella, though the exact extent of what he did (killing his pets or something far more sinister) has not been made clear.

However, despite their parents' loveless marriage, absent father, sociopathic and abusive older brother, willfully blind and functionally absent mother, Myrcella and Tommen still seem to have a good and genuinely loving relationship between the two of them, as fellow-sufferers sharing a household with Cersei and Joffrey. Thus Tommen burst into tears when Myrcella left on her ship for Dorne, because in many ways he was losing the only family member who he loved, and who reciprocated his love.

Tommen goes to the tournament for Joffrey's nameday, having been given permission by Cersei to do a practice mounted sword fight against a quintain with a straw filled mannequin as his opponent. Joffrey sees that the quality of the jousting is poor (the Hound says they are all gnats, and Ser Dontos Hollard shows up drunk), and Joffrey decides to cancel the whole thing. Tommen and Myrcella protest, as Cersei said Tommen could take part, and Joffrey can't just cancel it. When Joffrey says they are acting childish, Myrcella responds, "We are children. We are supposed to act childish." The Hound laughs and says, "She's got you there." Joffrey relents and Tommen enthusiastically tries, but is knocked off of his horse, to Sansa and Myrcella's concern and to Joffrey's raucous laughter. Then Sansa realizes that Tommen has picked himself up and wants to try again. She realizes that even at eight years old, Tommen has all the bravery, determination, and character that Joffrey lacks and she wishes she was to marry him instead.

Tommen is not present in King's Landing during the Battle of the Blackwater in the books. Instead, while Cersei viciously punishes subordinates who flee the city, she hypocritically sends Tommen to the nearby town of Rosby so he will be safe during the battle. Also, she had been furious when Myrcella's marriage contract and transport to Dorne had been arranged by Tyrion without her input, and she wants Tommen away from King's Landing and out of Tyrion's power. Tyrion learns of it and decides it's a good idea, as it will ensure both Tommen's safety and that there is still a claimant to the throne for their faction, should the approaching Stannis Baratheon take King's Landing and have Joffrey executed. He lets the plan go through, but then sends gold cloaks under Ser Jacelyn Bywater to intercept Tommen on the road so Tyrion's own forces will be in control of Tommen's security at Rosby. Cersei is incensed, and she has Ser Boros Blount stripped of his white cloak of the Kingsguard for letting them just take over security and have Tommen, instead of what he should have done, which was dying fighting them. Cersei later takes the prostitute Alayaya prisoner, thinking that she is Tyrion's lover Shae, threatening her safety if Tyrion lets anything happen to Joffrey or Tommen during the battle (in the TV series, the prostitute was changed to Ros, and the subplot about Tommen in Tyrion's custody was cut, so Cersei only warned Tyrion about Joffrey's safety).

According to the TV series official pronunciation guide developed for the cast and crew, "Tommen Baratheon" is pronounced "TAH-min Buh-RATH-ee-un", as opposed to "Tom-men", etc.