Do your duty.... Or don't? (BOOK & TV SPOILERS)

[Señor de la Tormenta]

For the same reason why every King's supporters in the War thought their King was the 'rightful' King.

For all Davos, Loras the Greatjon knew Joffrey may have been Roberts son. It does not change the fact that they chose someone else as their rightful King.

To Brienne Renly was her rightful King. That is who she swore allegiance to when he was crowned.

lol. Do you know book slow minded brianne has just realized in like her last book POV that "Stannis was right" ? As to that point she tought both renly and him were equals.

[aFeastForDragons]

The greatest military commander in Westeros:

Has no guards on watch so 20 shirtless men can sneak in and set up trails of oil to burn all his siege weapons and food stores.

500 sellswords are able to ride off in the night with 500 horses even though they are stranded in a snowstorm.

A man who ate rats and books for a year when under siege burns his daughter/heir after a few weeks in the snow.

2-3000 more sellswords ride off again with no objections and ALL the horses.

Mel rides off. With a horse despite their being none.

Walks several days to Winterfell without any provisions.

Doesn't see a huge force of calvary riding against him until the last couple of hundred meters.

The writing in this show is absolute crap. Complete morons in charge who butchered a character for nothing more than Ep9 shock value.

[Kobayashi Maru]

I think they avoided showing his death because they wanted to give the character some respect. It wasn't an appropriate time for gratuitous violence.

That would be the firs time the cringe away from gratuitous violence.

I think he's aliveand he'll just end up where we left him in the books...he's at his lowest point with no way in WF when suddenly Theon and Jayne fall into his lap...

or like someone sayd they just love LF and Ramsay so much they might just give Stann's plot to those two cause they are just the most important characters now.

[Kobayashi Maru]

The greatest military commander in Westeros:

Has no guards on watch so 20 shirtless men can sneak in and set up trails of oil to burn all his siege weapons and food stores.

500 sellswords are able to ride off in the night with 500 horses even though they are stranded in a snowstorm.

A man who ate rats and books for a year when under siege burns his daughter/heir after a few weeks in the snow.

2-3000 more sellswords ride off again with no objections and ALL the horses.

Mel rides off. With a horse despite their being none.

Walks several days to Winterfell without any provisions.

Doesn't see a huge force of calvary riding against him until the last couple of hundred meters.

The writing in this show is absolute crap. Complete morons in charge who butchered a character for nothing more than Ep9 shock value.

If only Stann was raped by someone to empower him enough to get trough the battle...

[Tony Inchpractice]

To be honest, I'm not sure why they didn't leave it with Stannis preparing for the siege. It would have left things nicely poised for the next season.

[Tony Inchpractice]

The greatest military commander in Westeros:

Has no guards on watch so 20 shirtless men can sneak in and set up trails of oil to burn all his siege weapons and food stores.

500 sellswords are able to ride off in the night with 500 horses even though they are stranded in a snowstorm.

A man who ate rats and books for a year when under siege burns his daughter/heir after a few weeks in the snow.

2-3000 more sellswords ride off again with no objections and ALL the horses.

Mel rides off. With a horse despite their being none.

Walks several days to Winterfell without any provisions.

Doesn't see a huge force of calvary riding against him until the last couple of hundred meters.

The writing in this show is absolute crap. Complete morons in charge who butchered a character for nothing more than Ep9 shock value.

Bingo.

[Kobayashi Maru]

To be honest, I'm not sure why they didn't leave it with Stannis preparing for the siege. It would have left things nicely poised for the next season.

Yeah,and in the middle of preparations Theon and Sansa come out of the snow storm...why not? Nothing wrong with that....

[evilspread]

The kill was left off-screen because the image of Brienne murdering a wounded man on the ground would leave the audience with a negative impression of her character. Cutting away masks the act itself, leaving the audience to contemplate the emotional resonance of her revenge rather than the slaying itself. Similar reason as to why we never saw Sandor die, it isn't to maintain the fan theory that he's still alive, but to avoid a stain upon a character the show favours as "good".

[Tony Inchpractice]

Yeah,and in the middle of preparations Theon and Sansa come out of the snow storm...why not? Nothing wrong with that....

Not sure if you're being sarcastic or not.

But yeah, Theon is being held by Stannis as a prisoner at the start of Winds of Winter. So I think that would work.

[Kobayashi Maru]

Not sure if you're being sarcastic or not. But yeah, Theon is being held by Stannis as a prisoner at the start of Winds of Winter.

No,not sarcastic at all,mostly sad for opportunity being wasted,I even wanted to add little sigh at the end.

[VeraAgnes]

They always show the results...Example, Neds head on a spike, the flying head in the Mereen pit fights, shattering White Walker, Cat Starks throat cut, Robb Starks stabbing then the wolf head/ horse ride, Joffrey poisoning, Meryl Trants throat cut...So, Stannis maybe alive...interesting how the avoided the slicing and went to Ramsey....no evidence, thus cannot confirm.

[Bayard]

This discussion made sense if it was the books, for the show it doesn't. He's dead!!! Why? Because that's the story D&D wanted for him from the beginning. They hate his character and wanted to punish him for being a religious fanatic (even if he isn't in the books, but hey, who said they understand GRRM?). So, it's the perfect arc for him, he sacrifices Shireen for nothing, he is betrayed by the religious figure and he loses everything.... keeping him alive would basically give him a second chance and that would undermine everything they've written for him to this point.

[Tony Inchpractice]

No,not sarcastic at all,mostly sad for opportunity being wasted,I even wanted to add little sigh at the end.

My apologies. But, yes, a big opportunity wasted indeed. That would also have been a better cliffhanger for Theon and Stansa than the 'leap of faith' one.

[Tony Inchpractice]

Actually, that could work really well. Sansa and Theon are grabbed by Batatheon soldiers, whilst hiding, taken to Stannis, and Stannis thinks they are Bolton spies. Admittedly, it is very similar to Faramir wih Frodo and Sam, but at least it would obey the laws of physics unlike jumping off the wall of Winterfell.

[aFeastForDragons]

keeping him alive would basically give him a second chance and that would undermine everything they've written for him to this point.

Ahem, Sansa

[Bayard]

Ahem, Sansa

Yes, what about her?

[Kobayashi Maru]

I found this interview browsing around and it's mostli regarding Jon's death but they quote Weiss and here's what he said regarding death on screen :

Weiss noted that when filming a show or movie, the ambiguity of Martin’s final Dance with Dragons chapter is tougher to pull off—a producer typically has to clearly commit to a character’s fate, one way or the other. “In a book, you can present that kind of ambiguity,” Weiss said. “In a show, everybody sees it for what it is. It’s that rule: ‘If don’t see the body then they’re not really dead.’ Like when we cut Ned’s head off, we didn’t want a gory Monty Python geyser of blood, but we needed to see the blade enter his neck and cut out on the frame where the blade was mid-neck—it was longest discussion ever of where to cut a frame; two hours of talking about whether to cut at frame six or frame seven or frame eight. And that’s all by way of saying we needed Ned’s death to be totally unambiguous. I remember reading the book and going back and forth, like, ‘Did I miss something? Was [Ned] swapped out for somebody else?’ There’s a level of ambiguity because you’re not seeing something starkly represented. In the book, you can write around things to preserve a certain level of mystery that you have to commit to on screen.”

So they talked two hours about to show or not to show Ned's beheading and they concluded if they don't show it it will be too ambiguous. I guess we'll see was that talk for talk alone or do they still believe in what Weiss said in that interview...and we see Stann alive and kicking next season.

[Jameson Snow]

I have my qualms with their changes to Stannis' story, but I was especially disappointed by his death scene. Although wonderfully acted, it felt comical to me. Like in a sitcom where someone has had a bad day and then says "How could today get any worse?!" Then a car speeds through a puddle and splashes water all over them. He's lost everything, including the war he sacrificed everything for. He kills two soldiers and just wants to sit and find a bit of a reprieve, and who should show up? Stannis should have just looked at the camera and the theme from Curb Your Enthusiasm should have played.

It simultaneously kinda diminishes Briennes big revenge arc. That wasn't very satisfying... she just finds him already beaten and lops his head off... idk, thought it was lame for how long she's waited.

[Khal Boner]

Let's say Brienne did not kill him... what's the point of keeping him alive now? He's lost everything. And by everything I mean Every. Thing.

To use his Kings blood to resurrect Jon. Stannis to be burned for the crime of burning Shireen. I reckon he's dead but not happy with Brienne slaughtering a wounded man in cold blood.

[RedViperHD]

http://www.accesshollywood.com/game-of-thrones-liam-cunningham-on-saying-goodbye-to-his-co-star_article_108851

Stannis is dead. I'm a huge fan of Stephen Dillane and I really thought that he brought some depth to Stannis. I'd love to see him back for Season 6. I'd love to believe that his character isn't dead because they cut away, but D&D are just not that clever. In fact, they are more simple than we can ever imagine and pretty bad filmmakers too. We know from most films that a cut away leaves things open for interpretation but with D&D, it just means they spent too much money on Hardhome and didn't have the money to buy the prop that would have been Stannis's head. It was probably easier on the schedule and cheaper on the budget to film it that way. Trust me. D&D or GRRM are just not that clever. So yay, we lost another interesting and complex character in favor of Brienne and all her cartoonish qualities.