Speculation regarding Stannis (book spoilers)

[Truly Just Man]

And one more thing. The show made Ramsay look badass, but He in fact is clumsy with the sword, according to what we know from books Roose. And I always believed that He's at least a bit coward and a sissy. Would never march with 20 men vs Stannis' army. This show is messing so many things up, I might even stop watching it. So much nonsense.

[Naren1987]

No way Stannis dies. If he and Shireen die (which means Davos dies too because he'll have no one left to fight for, same for Selyse) and with Jon dying, the viewers will be pissed and probably stop watching. Too much bad has happened this season for them to continue watching. The viewers can only take so much of the bad guys winning. The good guys have to win sometime, and Stannis is the only guy who can bring justice to the evil people in the world at this moment.

Yep, D(umbshit) and D(oofus) thought they were being edgy with that Sansa scene, they just had their ratings drop by a good measure, compare that with the Cersei scene and Craster's keep, you can say that endings like these are creative, that they have some, special artistic element to them, but you can never claim that they are profitable, they can experiment and kill Jon and Stannis for good, but they will have to put up with plummeting viewership, and this show costs money to make.

[Red Tiger]

And one more thing. The show made Ramsay look badass, but He in fact is clumsy with the sword, according to what we know from books Roose. And I always believed that He's at least a bit coward and a sissy. Would never march with 20 men vs Stannis' army. This show is messing so many things up, I might even stop watching it. So much nonsense.

Oh for fucks sake...

[Swineherd]

Also, the pink letter isn't going to translate to the screen because Stannis is a POV character. They might use it as reason for Jon to march south (but given the battle in Hardhome, it doesn't seem like he would want to do that). But it's not going to have any impact since we will know it's BS.

I think the show will replace the pink letter with a letter from Sansa asking Jon for help.

[aliunde]

I think the show will replace the pink letter with a letter from Sansa asking Jon for help.

so much for killing everything we readers hold dear...

[White Harbors Wrath]

Unabashed Stanfanism aside. I'll try to be objective and get inside ding and Dongs heads.

I think part of Ding and Dongs reason for Sansa's trauma was to make Ramsays end that more "satisfying". Up until now, he's just an psychoric a-hole, cutting up Theon/Reek. There's a lot of grey area since Theon is a turncloak, but now Ramsay is the mustache twirling bad guy.

Sansa now knows about Bran and Rickon (I thought America was invaded by owls Sunday night I heard so many "who's" echoing in the distance)...maybe SHE's the one who sends Davos after him. If the Boltons go down, she is the defacto heiress of the North. She could easily agree to side with Stannis if he helps her return her brother.

Ultimately...who knows. I can't even begin to guess what these guys will do. Balon could come riding in on a skeletal kracken and kidnap Shireen for all we know.

[aliunde]

Unabashed Stanfanism aside. I'll try to be objective and get inside ding and Dongs heads.

I think part of Ding and Dongs reason for Sansa's trauma was to make Ramsays end that more "satisfying". Up until now, he's just an psychoric a-hole, cutting up Theon/Reek. There's a lot of grey area since Theon is a turncloak, but now Ramsay is the mustache twirling bad guy.

Sansa now knows about Bran and Rickon (I thought America was invaded by owls Sunday night I heard so many "who's" echoing in the distance)...maybe SHE's the one who sends Davos after him. If the Boltons go down, she is the defacto heiress of the North. She could easily agree to side with Stannis if he helps her return her brother.

Ultimately...who knows. I can't even begin to guess what these guys will do. Balon could come riding in on a skeletal kracken and kidnap Shireen for all we know.

De jure de factoque the only rightful heir to the North is Lord Bran Stark. Next in line is Lord Rickon Stark. Sansa is only third in line of succession, and since their succession laws are quite similar to our lex salica (in contrapposition to Dorne, which clearly adopts a different succession law), if and when both Bran and Rickon are dead the next heir to the North is Tyrion Lannister, whose marriage with Lady Sansa Stark has never been declared void. The marriage with Lord Ramsay Bolton was posterior, therefore void ex tunc.

Of course all of the above if and only if Jon Snow is never legitimized. Such a decree would abruptly make him the rightful heir to the North, with a claim even stronger than that of Lord Bran.

[White Harbors Wrath]

De jure de factoque the only rightful heir to the North is Lord Bran Stark. Next in line is Lord Rickon Stark. Sansa is only third in line of succession, and since their succession laws are quite similar to our lex salica (in contrapposition to Dorne, which clearly adopts a different succession law), if and when both Bran and Rickon are dead the next heir to the North is Tyrion Lannister, whose marriage with Lady Sansa Stark has never been declared void. The marriage with Lord Ramsay Bolton was posterior, therefore void ex tunc.

Of course all of the above if and only if Jon Snow is never legitimized. Such a decree would abruptly make him the rightful heir to the North, with a claim even stronger than that of Lord Bran.

Yes, I understand all this. Littlefingers whole "wardeness of the north" scheme clearly demonstrates that Ding and Dong don't...or just don't care to explain it. So until Bran or Rickon is found, her "wardeness-hood" is still applicable to whatever nonsensical cannon they're creating and my speculation is still valid.

[aliunde]

Sure, it was more of a rant towards the nonsensical D&D's plot-editing.

And I really hope they don't intend to go down the "Sansa gets pregnant from Ramsay" path, which would be really pathetic.

[idio]

Or could the series end with a Sansa/Theon escape (aided by a Brienne assault on Winterfel?), to make their way to Stannis' camp. This would put Theon into Stannis' hands as in the books.

Stannis could choose to burn Theon, who has Kingsblood, saving Shireen and helping him attack Winterfel to fell the Boltons?

[aliunde]

That would be the lesser evil, I think. With the character development they gave Stannis this whole season, it'd be pure craziness to just have Stannis think about burning his own daughter. He has to keep saying no categorically. Theon, or Yara, may very well be dispensable. Theon is a turncloak, so he would be sentenced to death anyway; Stannis never had a problem burning Gendrick too, and he wasn't even guilty of anything more than being the bastard son of King Robert.

[GeorgeIAF]

Maybe Euron's name would be spoken in this episode ?

[White Harbors Wrath]

Plus I have a strong feeling Euron is going to be the mustache twirling baddy in S6.

1. They're speaking about Bran and Rickon for a reason. Ding and Dong even talk about it in the Inside the Episode. So at the very least we know there's SOME element of an heir to Winterfell search.

Bran is not going to be gone a second season...so while most of his story may be visions/flashbacks...it still will be screentime.

2. Sansa's story probably related to #1 more than anything else...with maybe some Vale/Littlefinger byproduct

3. Jon/The Wall/Others.

4. Ironborn (if they're casting Euron, we can assume the Reach gets attacked or he's attacking something)

5. KL...they're not ditching Cersei storylines. Plus the Tarly Casting.

6. Arya.

7. One could safely assume Dorne (or the introduction of Doran would be an even larger mistep than it seems)

8. Tyrion and Dany...more than likely with an initial separation if she flies off somewhere.

They're trying to make the show smaller...the addition of Euron/Ironborn story, would tend to make me think Stannis marches somewhere south to be involved in another story. The Boltons aren't "marching" anywhere...I can't see there being much screentime for them. Their number may be up.

[Denam_Pavel]

De jure de factoque the only rightful heir to the North is Lord Bran Stark. Next in line is Lord Rickon Stark. Sansa is only third in line of succession, and since their succession laws are quite similar to our lex salica (in contrapposition to Dorne, which clearly adopts a different succession law), if and when both Bran and Rickon are dead the next heir to the North is Tyrion Lannister, whose marriage with Lady Sansa Stark has never been declared void. The marriage with Lord Ramsay Bolton was posterior, therefore void ex tunc.

Of course all of the above if and only if Jon Snow is never legitimized. Such a decree would abruptly make him the rightful heir to the North, with a claim even stronger than that of Lord Bran.

King Brandon and Prince Rickon, to be more exact. they were with Robb, not any King of KL last we heard.

[Winterfell's Crypt]

Reverse pink letter? Ramsey gets caught and Stannis puts him in a cage, sending a letter to Roose?

Love this idea.

[Señor de la Tormenta]

I'm not saying he'll fight them head on. But a sneak attack is not expected exactly for the reasons this is stupid. And again, you can't feed 6,000 men from one baggage wagon. Also, Stannis' men are mostly braavosi sellswords. Why would those just be southern men?Can I just say how ridiculous these sentiments is? Renly is from the South, you think he knows the Westerlands and Dorne like the back of his own hands too? The North is near as big a place as the other Seven Kingdoms combined. It's not very densely populated but it is an utterly massive place to travel through.Sneak in. Yes, do significant damage to cripple a thousands of men strong army when you are in there, then sneak back out of the camp and make a clean escape back to Winterfell is another thing entirely.

stannis said he had 6500 men in his meeting with the iron bank. The show has no logic.

And his soldiers look mostly as westerosi.

[lilix96]

what if theres a drgon underneath winterfell heard rumors about that :D

[Noneofyourbusiness]

This "Melisandre wanting to burn Shireen" subplot is a change I really don't like, because if Shireen died, Stannis would have no heir. It's foolish of her to even suggest it.

[White Harbors Wrath]

Mel is not worried about Stannis having an heir. She's worried about him saving the world from darkness. He can always work on an heir if he survives. What good is a dead Stannis and a dead Stannis heir?

[Noneofyourbusiness]

Mel is not worried about Stannis having an heir. She's worried about him saving the world from darkness. He can always work on an heir if he survives. What good is a dead Stannis and a dead Stannis heir?

She should know better than to expect Stannis to see it that way, especially given his total lack of luck in producing a heir besides Shireen so far. Stannis is fixated on being rightful king first, Azor Ahai second. At least, Book!Stannis is. That argument might work on Show!Stannis.