Why all the love for Stannis ?

[TheZone]

Yes Stannis is a guy who follows the rules and seems like a good commander but..

He killed his brother, I want to clear it up for people reading this..its the way he killed Renly

He wanted to kill his nephew, Edric Storm

He kills Maynce for deserting but is trying the persuade Jon to do the same

He has the Oprah syndrome meaning the thinks he is something Godly though many people seem to have this including my fave Dany and all of the recently living Targs, and some of the Lannisters

He keeps bragging that he is the Prince that was promised , When Dany says that she is the blood of the dragon everybody gets on her but the difference is that Dany really is the blood of the dragon and Stannis is not the Ptwp

He dropped everything for Mellisandre his faith,family, etc.

And he is cheating on his wife(or is that just the TV adaptation )

Or maybe Im wrong , give me something to try to sway me .....

[Im no Ser]

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/60152-why-do-people-like-stannis-i-dont-get-it/

[Helgar]

He killed his brother

You know, if I had a brother who plotted to steal everything from me by force because he knew he had the power to, and he knew that there was nothing I could do about it, a brother who was prepared to kill me if I tried to stop him, I might consider killing him too. However, Stannis did not knowingly kill Renly. Melisandre cryptically told him that if he met with Renly, he would win the best part of his brother's forces - but she "forgot" to mention that if their negotiation bore no fruit, she would kill him with sorcery. She told him the full story a while later; in the first Davos chapter after Renly's death in ACoK Stannis seems troubled. He suspects he killed his brother, but wonders how it could be, when Devan himself had seen him thrashing in his sleep while the deed was happening. She hadn't told him yet, although he suspected a fair deal.

He kills Maynce for deserting but is trying the persuade Jon to do the same

It would be a different sort of desertion though, wouldn't it? Deserters of the Night's Watch are marked for death anyway, but Jon Snow would desert to side with the rightful king, while Mance turned his cloak, declared himself King-beyond-the-Wall, and amassed a huge army of wildlings, intending to break through the Wall by force. And we know that if Jon had joined Stannis, he would be fighting against his father's enemies, which kind of makes Stannis's suggestion more sympathetic to our eyes, doesn't it?

He has the Oprah syndrome meaning the thinks he is something Godly though many people seem to have this including my fave Dany and all of the recently living Targs, and some of the Lannisters

That's just wrong. Stannis is pretty insecure about himself, especially thanks to Robert, as he grew up in his shadow. He never thinks of himself as anything more than the rightful king of Westeros, which he is.

He keeps bragging that he is the Prince that was promised , When Dany says that she is the blood of the dragon everybody gets on her but the difference is that Dany really is the blood of the dragon and Stannis is not the Ptwp

He never brags about it. I doubt Stannis knows how to brag. It is Melisandre that brags on his behalf, and makes him show the fake Lightbringer to just about anyone who passes by. Stannis feels very uncomfortable about the whole thing.

He dropped everything for Mellisandre his faith,family, etc.

I cannot fault Stannis for this. His sigil is a stag surrounded by fire; Melisandre's influence has completely engulfed him. I blame Melisandre for this, not Stannis.

And he is cheating on his wife(or is that just the TV adaptation )

It's officially canon in the books as of ADWD. Cheating is a horrible, horrible thing, and I don't know if Stannis can be absolved of that so easily. Some fans believe that Selyse is aware and doesn't really care. We know her relationship with Stannis is not really great. Either way, Selyse is not really what you'd call a likeable character, so I find it hard to feel bad for her if she doesn't feel bad herself. That's the thing with characters that you like. Sometimes you're not entirely objective with them. I for instance am willing to forgive a few faults in Stannis, but I have difficulty coming up with a good excuse for all the bad things Jaime has done, because I am not a Jaime fan.

[NachosOfIceAndFire]

There is something very appealing about his uncompromising nature. That is why Vary's and Littlefinger don't even bother to make appeals to Stannis when he is marching on King's Landing. Stannis doesn't care, he'd just execute them and be done with it. The same with killing his brother, it doesn't matter to Stannis, Renly broke the law and rebelled, all rebels get death. You know that if Stannis was king he wouldn't rule by whim, like the last three kings did.

[Black Wolf Smith]

Just because he is BAMF Stannis Baratheon!!!!!

What else needs to be said?

[Franz95]

I like him because he is extremely unconventional. In most of the works of art the character are either selfish and work for themselves or good and therefore try to do good. Stannis is neither. Stannis does what must be done. It's true, he's done terrible things, but consider them: Renly would have killed him the following morning. He wanted to sacrifice Edric because he thought it was necessary to save the realm. He doesn't want Jon to desert, he wants help for a just cause, and in return for the help he'd given himself. He never brags about being tPtwP, most of the time he complains because he never asked for it, it's just Melisandre who's thrown that in his face. Now he thinks saving the world is his duty, and Stannis does his duty. As for Melisandre, first of all you can't say he dropped his faith and family, because his own family made him choose R'hllor. And maybe he's cheating, yes. I don't justify him for that. But compared to what most of the other characters do in the series, it's not that bad, is it?

[Lord Bronn Stokeworth]

I thought this might be a fair question. I mean, I was on the boards before ADWD, and Stannis wasn't as popular. When I came back recently, I was rather surprised.

But then, the first point brought up against him was that he killed a man who tried to kill him. That really told me all I needed about where the OP is wanting this to go.

[The Ghost of Winter]

What can I say? Many of us like people who grind their teeth and say cold yet amusing things. "He wanted to kill his nephew" do you mean Joffrey? Who isn't even related to him at all and had no claim. I bet Joffrey wanted to kill him too. (Not that the wuss could).

[Quentyn Baratheon]

He keeps bragging that he is the Prince that was promised , When Dany says that she is the blood of the dragon everybody gets on her but the difference is that Dany really is the blood of the dragon and Stannis is not the Ptwp

He does not. It seems one of the biggets misconceptions about Stannis. I honestly don't know when that come from. Surely not from the books.

[The Lord's Kiss]

"I defeated your uncle Victarion and his Iron Fleet off Fair Isle, the first time your father crowned himself. I held Storm's End against the power of the Reach for a year, and took Dragonstone from the Targaryens. I smashed Mance Rayder at the Wall, though he had twenty times my numbers. Tell me, turncloak, what battles has the Bastard of Bolton ever won that I should fear him?"

Pretty much sums it up right there. He's hilarious when it's appropriate, grim when there's no other options, and honorable above all. He saved the realm from all the might of the wildlings when no one else was willing and is the only hope we have of a just king sitting on the Iron Throne by the end of the series. But then again, your favorite character is Dany.. so I don't foresee this ending well.

[Quentyn Baratheon]

And he's akwardly hilarious too.

[Lummel]

... "He wanted to kill his nephew" do you mean Joffrey? ...

I imagine the OP meant Edric Storm

"I defeated your uncle Victarion and his Iron Fleet off Fair Isle, the first time your father crowned himself. I held Storm's End against the power of the Reach for a year, and took Dragonstone from the Targaryens. I smashed Mance Rayder at the Wall, though he had twenty times my numbers. Tell me, turncloak, what battles has the Bastard of Bolton ever won that I should fear him?"

Pretty much sums it up right there. He's hilarious when it's appropriate, grim when there's no other options, and honorable above all. He saved the realm from all the might of the wildlings when no one else was willing and is the only hope we have of a just king sitting on the Iron Throne by the end of the series. But then again, your favorite character is Dany.. so I don't foresee this ending well.

er, your quote should be spoiler text because that's from TWOW and not everybody likes spoilers :)

You make spoiler text like this

open square bracket ( [ ) then type: spoiler close square bracket ( ] ) then you have whatever it is that you want to hide. After the spoiler you type open square bracket ( [ ) then type: /spoiler then close square bracket ( ] ).

[Jayaris]

Yes Stannis is a guy who follows the rules and seems like a good commander but..

He killed his brother

Self defence

He wanted to kill his nephew

Stannis considered killing his nephew, purely out of desperation. If I thought killing my nephew was the only way to save hundreds of thousands of people, I'd have to consider it.

He kills Maynce for deserting but is trying the persuade Jon to do the same

It's not deserting if a King pardons you.

He has the Oprah syndrome meaning the thinks he is something Godly though many people seem to have this including my fave Dany and all of the recently living Targs, and some of the Lannisters

I mean first off, Oprah has done more for the world than you could ever hope to in a hundred lifetimes. I don't think there's anything that Stannis does to support this, he treats Davos as his peer, he simply see's the other people as inferior to him, which in a lot of ways they are.

He keeps bragging that he is the Prince that was promised , When Dany says that she is the blood of the dragon everybody gets on her but the difference is that Dany really is the blood of the dragon and Stannis is not the Ptwp

Wrong.

He dropped everything for Mellisandre his faith,family, etc.

He was never very involved in his faith to begin with, and since there's no information on how he treated his family before, there's nothing to support he didn't treat them poorly before. He kept his daughter alive despite her having grayscale, and keeps crazy Patchface around to keep her happy.

And he is cheating on his wife(or is that just the TV adaptation )

This is clearly a hereditary flaw and thus, something he has no control over. See Also : Loveless Marriage, Common throughout Westeros.

Or maybe Im wrong , give me something to try to sway me .....

You're not wrong bro, you're trolling. "I don't like Stannis, I do like Dany" is a typical set up.

[LuisDantas]

Yes Stannis is a guy who follows the rules and seems like a good commander but..

No, not even that.

He poses as righteous, but his actual words and choices betray how little he thinks of rules. He bends them to suit his convenience and ambitions at every turn.

And he may have been a good commander in the past, but at the time frame of the books he has had neither good calls nor good results. He pushed House Tyrell towards the Lannisters, and lost Blackwater for that. He refused to submit to Renly and bathed Westeros in blood as a result.

He killed his brother

And did so in a particularly shameful, dishonorable way and likes to pretend that he doesn't know that.

Cowardy, thy name is Stannis Baratheon.

He wanted to kill his nephew

He kills Maynce for deserting but is trying the persuade Jon to do the same

He has the Oprah syndrome meaning the thinks he is something Godly

Spot on. Stannis suffers from a massive Messiah Complex that I don't think has much to do with Melisandre.

though many people seem to have this including my fave Dany and all of the recently living Targs, and some of the Lannisters

He keeps bragging that he is the Prince that was promised,

Truth be told, I don't remember he ever making that claim, although he sure isn't going out of his way to stop Melisandre from saying so often.

When Dany says that she is the blood of the dragon everybody gets on her but the difference is that Dany really is the blood of the dragon and Stannis is not the Ptwp

He dropped everything for Mellisandre his faith,family, etc.

Did he? For all that I despise Stannis Bloodbringer, I don't think that is a fair accusation to direct at him. He is as close to his family as he ever was, and I don't think he had much of a faith in the Seven to leave aside in the first place.

And he is cheating on his wife(or is that just the TV adaptation)

Or maybe Im wrong , give me something to try to sway me .....

I don't think his wife is unaware or unaproving of his follies with Melisandre, personally.

Their faults (those of all three) lie much deeper than just plain adultery.

[LuisDantas]

I thought this might be a fair question. I mean, I was on the boards before ADWD, and Stannis wasn't as popular. When I came back recently, I was rather surprised.

But then, the first point brought up against him was that he killed a man who tried to kill him. That really told me all I needed about where the OP is wanting this to go.

Who would that man be? Certainly not Renly, not according to the information we have available at this time.

Renly was perfectly willing to make his way towards King's Landing and the Lannisters and leave Stannis alone. Stannis forced his hand by invading the Stormlands. And Renly did not resort to treacherous assassination; Stannis did.

That act, in and of itself, was and will always be enough to ensure that I will never accept anything less than complete disgrace for Stannis.

[Booknerd2]

I do sort of like him and see good qualities. He tries to be honest and fair and other things...

But I can't have him as king because of the Mel thing. If that nut can hoodwink and manipulate him than he is not the right guy for the job.

Look how Jon sees right though her. Makes Stannis look really bad.

[The Young Shark]

Stannis has always been my favorite character because if I got a chance at voting for any leader in Westoros, I would vote for Stannis

[The Young Shark]

A righteous and just leader

[butterbumps!]

I'm ot going to whitewash his character. Like you, there are things about Stannis that I dislike, but there are also some redeemable parts that make me like him a lot. What is also important is that his arc takes a more positive note as it progresses, that is, he starts off being difficult to get behind, but by the end, he's someone you want to see succeed, imo.

He killed his brother

I don't really have a problem with his killing Renly, since they were in open conflict. But, I don't like the fact that he did it with magic and treacherously. I think there's an argument to be made that doing it this way prevented many more inevitable deaths in the battle, and I sort of sympathize with this utilitarian argument. I'm not crazy about the way this happened, but I suppose I accept it.

He wanted to kill his nephew

Again, there's a utilitarian argument here, albeit a supremely misguided one. The idea is that by killing this one innocents, thousands of lives would be spared. While I can stomach this argument when the person to be killed is an open aggressor, I can't when it pertains to someone completely innocent. I am thankful that Davos has good sense and a moral compass here.

He kills Maynce for deserting but is trying the persuade Jon to do the same

Anyone who wants to kill Mance is a jerk in my book. I found this deplorable not because of the supposed hypocrisy of it (which is more complicated), but because the mode of death was fire.

He has the Oprah syndrome meaning the thinks he is something Godly though many people seem to have this including my fave Dany and all of the recently living Targs, and some of the Lannisters

I don't know if he actually thinks he's a god-- the AAR thing seems to embarrass him-- not that I think this makes it much better. I think it's more that he believes himself the rightful king than any sort of divine quality.

He keeps bragging that he is the Prince that was promised , When Dany says that she is the blood of the dragon everybody gets on her but the difference is that Dany really is the blood of the dragon and Stannis is not the Ptwp

Er....not really. Again, I think it embarrasses him. Mel's the one who keeps calling him that, and when she does, Stannis grinds his teeth. I think there's an argument for the fact that he doesn't believe in Rahloo but is willing to look like he subscribes in order to further his goals, but he, himself, doesn't seem to think that he's actually the PtwP.

He dropped everything for Mellisandre his faith,family, etc.

This doesn't bother me in and of itself. I think the fact that Rahloo as a religion seems terrible to most of us is what makes this so difficult to like. The other problem I have with this goes back to the hypocrisy of using the religion without subscribing to the tenets. But the most problematic thing about this is the fact that he engages in religious intolerance.

And he is cheating on his wife(or is that just the TV adaptation )

This really doesn't bother me at all. It was an arranged marriage in the first place. And Selyse is not a very nice person.

I agree with you about some of this. Despite the fact that I like him, I can't make excuses for his religious intolerance, willingness to give lipservice to a ruthless religion, and his complaisance with burning people alive. But here are some good aspects:

1. He is a just man. He's not one to pander to sycophants for favors. Indeed, he's maintained that when he gets the throne he's going to clean up the cesspit of corruption in KL.

2. He can see merit. Raising Davos to Hand and seeing his worth is his greatest accomplishment, imo. When Davos says that the other lords won't like this, Stannis says "I'll make new lords." Priceless.

3. He's the only king who came to the aid of the NW (granted, Davos brought the need to his attention, but he brought aid, nonetheless). He gets that Winter is Coming.

4. He said that he had to prove to the people that he is rightful through actions. That he must earn the throne if he expects to rule, and devoted his efforts to helping the realm, rather than just fighting to press his claim.

5. He's hilarious.

6. He's bringing justice to the realm, fighting a cause I'm personally sympathetic to (Bolton occupation of the North).

[RenlyIsNotRight]

Stannis is imperfect and grey just like most of the other characters in this series. I personally happen to love him, but I can definitely understand why others wouldn't like him (though I will say he does get "better" starting in the latter half of ASoS and especially in ADWD).

Funny though, I have a friend who only watches the show who doesn't like Stannis because he "killed his own brother", and his favorite character is Tyrion...I wonder whats gonna happen when he finishes ASoS...