Understanding the lessons in the arc of Stannis Baratheon.

[three-eyed monkey]

“Stannis is pure iron, black and hard and strong, yes, but brittle, the way iron gets. He'll break before he bends.”

Donal Noye is often quoted when it comes to defining Stannis. The smith knows Stannis well from his time at Storm’s End, but that was seventeen years ago. The first thing to say is that Stannis does have a character arc, he is on a journey, and it is changing him. His character is obviously very relevant to this discussion but there has been reems written about him over the years so for the sake of keeping this relatively short, I’m going to skim a lot of the familiar stuff. I’m happy to discuss or expand on any element of his character or plotline below, but the OP will focus on a handful of pivot points upon which his arc will turn, and what they can teach us about the story at large.

Stannis’s arc is constructed in a standard manner. He has a wound that motivates him. He has a goal to strive for. There is demonstrable progression of character. It’s not a straight line because he faces challenges along the way that force him to pivot and change position internally, creating his literary arc. Some of these challenges come in the form of questions and dilemmas that the character must answer and solve correctly if he is to succeed in attaining his goal, and the answers generated by Stannis will help inform the resolution of the main plot, which is what gives his arc its purpose and place in the overall story, as we shall see.

The character of Stannis is far deeper than is presented at the surface, though perhaps that’s not so obvious given that we do not have his pov. That he rewarded the Onion Knight for his heroics at Storm’s End and still took his fingers as punishment for smuggling shows the complexity of his character. Let it never be said that Stannis does not reward those who serve him. And let in never be said that Stannis is a man to go against the law. In dealing with Davos the way he did, he was trying to preserve his image in both respects, but sometimes it can prove difficult to serve two masters.

“Lord Stannis in particular. His claim is the true one, he is known for his prowess as a battle commander, and he is utterly without mercy. There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man.”

Before we ever met Stannis, he was presented as a just and lawful man. His claim is the true one so he is the true king, in a legal sense at least. Ned describes him as stern, humorless, unforgiving, grim in his sense of duty, all of which makes him rather unpopular in the corridors of power and the butt of many jokes, despite his prowess.

Stannis grew up in his older brother Robert’s shadow. That provides part of his motive to succeed of course, but there is a double meaning here, which should emerge as we progress. When Robert rose, Stannis held Storm’s End eating rats and boot leather while the lords of the Reach banqueted in sight of the walls. Then he built a fleet and took Dragonstone from the last of the Targaryens, only to be granted the smouldering rock while Renly was rewarded with the family seat. Still, Stannis gritted his teeth, grinding them in resentment, and continued to do whatever his king asked of him because it was his duty.

When Robert died and Joffrey succeeded him, Stannis felt most aggrieved, given that he had uncovered the truth about Cersei’s children. He was Robert’s true heir, by law. Joffrey, on the other hand was an abomination born of incest. Still, the supposedly noble lords of the Seven Kingdoms did not want to know. They have no love for him but that’s not what bothers him. Love is the death of duty so Stannis has no need for it. He does not want their love he wants their swords. If the lords of Westeros had a shred of honor they would do their duty to their king, as he did for Robert, for the sake of the realm and the laws of the Seven Kingdoms. Instead, several had the audacity to declare themselves kings, including his more popular but unproven younger brother, Renly.

This injustice is the wound from which his motive grows, and as Jon once observed, Stannis Baratheon with a grievance was like a mastiff with a bone; he gnawed it down to splinters. Stannis wants justice. The realm needs justice. Laws should be made of iron, not pudding. The rot in King’s Landing must be stopped, law restored, and those who made the realm bleed for their own gain must be punished. He had once advised Robert to scour the court clean of men like Littlefinger, the Kingslayer, and the Spider, only to be ignored. Robert had failed to bring justice to the realm, which meant Stannis now had a clear opportunity to show the realm that he was the better man and finally emerge from Robert’s shadow and into the light, where he can cast a shadow of his own.

His attitude towards Mel and her Lord of Light was skeptical at first. Stannis stopped believing in gods the day his parents died. He didn’t know how much power she had, if any, but men feared her and he needed every advantage he could muster as his rivals for the crown all had more men and ships than he. He remembered the lesson of Proudwing. The Seven never brought him as much as a sparrow. It was time he tried another hawk. A red hawk. Wooden statues of the Seven became the first casualties of the red god’s fires, so that Lightbringer could be drawn from the flames. His skepticism remained, no doubt, but he was willing to play along to see what the red woman could do.

At Storm’s End we got our first glimpse of Mel’s sorcerous power, as she conjured the murderous shadows that killed Renly and Ser Cortnay Penrose, winning the castle and the swords her king needed.

For a long time the king did not speak. Then, very softly, he said, "I dream of it sometimes. Of Renly's dying. A green tent, candles, a woman screaming. And blood." Stannis looked down at his hands. "I was still abed when he died. Your Devan will tell you. He tried to wake me. Dawn was nigh and my lords were waiting, fretting. I should have been ahorse, armored. I knew Renly would attack at break of day. Devan says I thrashed and cried out, but what does it matter? It was a dream. I was in my tent when Renly died, and when I woke my hands were clean."

Stannis didn’t fully understand what happened. He was in his pavilion when Renly died, still asleep, even though his camp had risen for battle. He dreamed of Renly’s death but when he woke his hands were clean. He claims he loved his brother, despite being vexed by his peach. He is a self-righteous man and as such could never acknowledge, even to himself, that he was a kinslayer, so the blame for Renly’s death he placed with Renly and the choice he made when he decided to usurp his older brother’s lawful claim. He justified his brother’s murder by calling it justice. That fit much better.

It’s important to understand that the shadow is not just a magical plot device to win Storm’s End, but an important aspect of Stannis’s character and increasingly a driving force in his arc. The shadow is, in Jungian terms, someone’s dark-side. Often lurking in the unconscious, it is the part of a someone that the person does not want to or is unable to consciously acknowledge. From Stannis’s point of view, his shadow is where his deepest desires reside, beyond conscious constructs like duty or law or honor. It’s the part of him deep-down that wants the crown and will do anything to get it, even kill a brother who he consciously believes he loved, and Mel’s dark sorcery has given it life. The shadows come to dance, my lord.

Stannis’s belief in Mel began to waiver after his defeat at the Blackwater. The comprehensive defeat should have put him out of the war but Stannis will fight to the bitter end and then some. He will never quit. He cannot quit. He could not suffer the injustice. He says he does not want the crown, he never asked for it, but it is his by law and he has a duty to the realm. Deep-down he thirsts for vengeance though, against those lords who turned their backs on their true king. Deep-down he wants the crown so bad it burns. The actions of his shadow prove it.

Mel began to restore her king’s faith in her with three leeches and a parlor trick. As false kings began to die, she promised more. She wanted to sacrifice Edric Storm to wake dragons from stone and show the realm a sign of Stannis’s power. He was Azor Ahai reborn and the Seven Kingdoms needed to know it. Edric was blood to Stannis, kingsblood, and innocent besides. R’hllor cherishes the innocent, according to Mel, and sacrifice is never easy or it is no true sacrifice at all.

"Azor Ahai tempered Lightbringer with the heart's blood of his own beloved wife. If a man with a thousand cows gives one to god, that is nothing. But a man who offers the only cow he owns . . ."

Clearly, a dragon would be a great help towards winning the throne. Stannis considered it. The leeches and dead kings. The red woman had power. He was starting to see things in the fires himself. A king with a melting crown, burning… burning, Davos. Stannis did not do it however, thanks to his trusty Hand who acts as his conscience, the good angel who sits on his shoulder opposite Mel, and who went on to remove the temptation by placing Edric beyond the king’s reach. Mel’s definition of a true sacrifice was never tested as a result. The question of true sacrifice has been raised and is a key element of the arc, but as Stannis did not follow through, we didn’t get to see if Mel was right. The question remains unanswered for now.

Instead of hatching dragons from stone, Stannis found a more conventional way back into the war. The wolves had too few heirs and the kraken too many. Both regions were unstable as a result, and could potentially be won if he could bring stability under rulers loyal to him. Then Davos brought his attention to the plight of Castle Black, insisting that a king protects his people or he is no king at all. Stannis agreed as he no doubt saw it as a way to show the realm a sign of his power, by repelling the Wildling invasion at the Wall and saving the kingdom.

“Yes, I should have come sooner. If not for my Hand, I might not have come at all. Lord Seaworth is a man of humble birth, but he reminded me of my duty, when all I could think of was my rights. I had the cart before the horse, Davos said. I was trying to win the throne to save the kingdom, when I should have been trying to save the kingdom to win the throne."

As such we can see a change of position here. Stannis began with a claim as the true king, by law, who would win the throne and save the realm from chaos. Now, thanks to his Hand’s advice, he will save the kingdom and prove by his actions that he is the true king, not only as defined by the laws of succession but by the act of saving the kingdom. This raises a question, one that is raised in multiple arcs. What makes a true king? Is it because his claim is the true one, as Varys said to Ned, or is it someone who protects his people, as Davos insisted?

There’s another subtle switch here. Saving the kingdom has become the means, and for that part he will further embrace the fiery mantle Mel had thrust upon him, but winning the throne is now the end. Save the kingdom and win the throne. Isn’t that how it always goes for the hero at the end of the stories? They accomplish both and live happily-ever-after. That’s the trope but in A Song of Ice and Fire no character gets to have their lemoncake and eat it too. There are no dragons without parents grieving over the charred bones of their children. For every gain a character makes there are costs to pay and difficult choices to make. Stannis is no exception.

Burning Lord Sunglass on Dragonstone brought fair winds to the Wall. Victory over Mance followed, but the North remained unimpressed with the king. He had to send his conscience to White Harbour to win Lord Too-Fat. After that he skirted the law and swapped the oath-breaker Mance for Rattleshirt, another gift for R’hllor. He then took Deepwood Motte then marched to the crofters village where he spent much time staring into the fires, as well as burning more people. Four men this time, as desperation grew and Stannis gave more freely to the red god. There is a clear progression here and every time a burning is followed by a victory, especially an unlikely victory, the case for divine providence will only grow stronger in Stannis’s mind.

From his current position, victory seems impossible but Stannis fans rest assured, he must take Winterfell and win the North. Davos will come to his king’s aid once more, no doubt, but one way or another Stannis must return to power or else the dilemma between saving the kingdom or winning the throne becomes a moot plot-point as he can do neither. We can be certain that once Stannis does return to a position of strength, he will be put in a position where he must make that choice between winning the throne by marching on King’s Landing, or saving the kingdom by marching against the Others.

Faced with such a dilemma, how might Stannis choose? Will he set his ambition aside and fully embrace Mel’s prophesy? Not necessarily. With every burning along the way the king’s dark-side has been emerging more and more. Any increase in the king’s religious fervor will only make things worse, because historically the belief that one is guided by a divine hand has been used to excuse many a dark deed. Stannis’s shadow will only grow in the light of R’hllor, taking more and more control. And remember, his shadow is driven by his deepest desire, and that is the throne. His shadow did not kill Renly to save the kingdom or defeat the Great Other. While his shadow needs no justification for its actions, outwardly Stannis always does, but he can still justify the decision by flipping once again and claiming that he must win the throne to save the kingdom, a position for which a logical case can be made, such as the realm will be stronger and better prepared to face the true enemy if it is united under the true king.

This move was foreshadowed in A Storm of Swords when Stannis stood over the painted table. The king moved, so his shadow fell upon King's Landing. Indeed, because it is his shadow that’s driving the decision.

As Stannis moves towards his goal, in the second half of Winds, the situation will be changing in King’s Landing. Kings and queens will rise and fall, no doubt, but eventually Dany will arrive to put herself between Stannis and the throne. The set-up for this conflict has been long established. Stannis featured in Dany’s vision at the House of the Undying. Dany has lies to slay. Stannis is not truly Azor Ahai reborn. And Dany has dragons.

Stannis needs to be faced with unwinnable odds once again before he can go on to answer the second main question of his arc. Would he burn a single child to save millions from darkness? Will he give his only cow to R’hllor? Sacrifice is never easy or it is no true sacrifice, right? He’s facing dragons, fight fire with fire, he needs to wake dragons from stone. Greyscale. Stone Men. A little girl who dreams of dragons. It’s an unthinkable act but the shadow wants the throne and will do anything to get it, even burn a daughter Stannis truly loves, and by now the shadow has come to stay, my lord.

"The shadows come to stay, my lord, stay my lord, stay my lord."

Here GRRM is playing with words and their multiple meanings. It’s not only a reference to the Long Night. Stay, my lord. Stay my lord. The commas make a difference. Stannis is Patchface’s lord. Stay also means curb. In a legal sense a stay is the act of halting a judicial proceeding, which is a good metaphor for Stannis’s campaign. A jester’s job is to speak truth to power. Patchface is alluding to the fact that it is Stannis’s shadow, his dark-side, who will stay him. Ultimately, Stannis will defeat himself.

Stannis is not the blue-eyed king with a red sword who cast no shadow. Not only does he cast a shadow, it will consume him until nothing but shadow remains. The blue-eyed king with a red sword who casts no shadow is actually Jon, someone with the strength to put the need of the realm ahead of their wants and personal desires. On several occasions he turned down Winterfell because his sword is sworn to the Watch. (Yes, I’m aware Jon’s eyes were grey when they last closed.) No, Stannis is the stone beast that took flight from the smoking tower of Dragonstone, breathing shadow fire every time his dark-side burned another sacrifice along the way. As Jon once said of Stannis and Mel, He is stone and she is flame.

Dany does not take well to the killing of innocent children. When Stannis burns from dragonfire his crown will melt, symbolic of how his burning desire for the crown destroyed him. The same fate as Viserys and for the same reason.

"I know the cost! Last night, gazing into that hearth, I saw things in the flames as well. I saw a king, a crown of fire on his brows, burning . . . burning, Davos. His own crown consumed his flesh and turned him into ash. Do you think I need Melisandre to tell me what that means?”

But wait, didn’t Mel say she saw Stannis with Lightbringer in hand, standing against the dark. Mel was wrong in one of two ways. If the dark she saw was indeed the Long Night, then it was Jon in her vision. If it really was Stannis she saw, then I suggest the dark is Drogon’s shadow falling on the king and his glamoured sword. There’s a certain poetry to the darkness in which Stannis finds his doom being a shadow and not the Long Night. And is there a more fitting way for Stannis to die that by burning? Let Stannis, not Robert, be king of charred bones and cooked meat.

If we return to Donal Noye, Stannis was said to be iron, he’ll break before he bends. That may have been true to begin with but characters change as they progress along their arcs. Robert went to rust in many respects. Stannis changed too. The iron was tempered in the furnace on the Blackwater, and like quenched-steel Stannis emerged tougher and more flexible when we might have expected the defeat to break him. Instead, Stannis bent. To bend the knee means to submit, and Stannis bent his knee to his shadow in the end.

But when he wed himself to the fire of R’hllor, which in turn brought forth his shadow, which in turn ruined him, it was akin to Thoros setting his sword aflame. A bad marriage, for if you remember, Gendry told us that wildfire ruins the steel. "My master always scolded him about his flaming swords. It was no way to treat good steel, he'd say.” And R’hllor is wildfire, he cannot be controlled. Even those who sacrifice and pray to him are not safe, for every time he reaches out and touches them their prayers soon turn to screams, because sorcery is a sword without a hilt, there’s no safe way to grasp it.

That’s the first of three main lessons we can take from Stannis’s arc, all of which have implications for the main characters at the climax of the story. Stannis failed in his choices and any other potential heroes will have to do better if they are to succeed, but they can only do that if they understand why Stannis failed.

The red priests of R’hllor see Dany as a messianic figure, born of salt and smoke to make the world anew. Instead of one red priestess in her ear she’ll have a thousand. Dany shares many of Stannis’s motives. Win the Iron Throne. Bring justice. Take vengeance against those who usurped her claim. She must tread carefully and avoid any Faustian pacts with the red god. The Long Night is a problem people must solve. Salvation will not be granted by the gods, old or new.

The second lesson is this. Stannis chose winning the throne over saving the realm, and failed. The true king or queen will have to put saving the kingdom ahead of winning the throne. Stannis has already tried to drag Jon into the game of thrones, so has the author of the pink letter (which should tell you something about that particular mystery, but I digress). The lesson for Jon if ever he finds himself facing a similar dilemma, and he will, is that he must continue to resist the temptation of the throne and stick to saving the kingdom instead. That’s what will make him a true king, not his claim.

Finally, the third lesson is this. Stannis chose to sacrifice his only beloved daughter, and failed. Mel was wrong again. Giving your only cow, or your only daughter, or your beloved wife is not a true sacrifice. The lesson here is that the only true sacrifice is self-sacrifice. But if that’s the case then what about Azor Ahai and Lightbringer? Yes, but Azor Ahai is not the real hero of the story. It was Nissa Nissa who bared her breast willingly. It was her self-sacrifice that enabled Azor Ahai to win the dawn. And this lesson is for Dany, who has long pondered the notion of self-sacrifice for the good of her people and already knows the truth of it. It’s the reason she married Hizdahr in Mereen, though the stakes will be greatly increased the next time. Only death can pay for life.

“My people are bleeding. Dying. A queen belongs not to herself, but to the realm.”

The relevance of these lessons to major characters highlights their importance, and if those characters are to resolve the main plot, then they must take heed or else go the way of Stannis. However, if some characters grow to learn these lessons and ultimately succeed, as we all expect, then their actions at the climax and the result of those actions will prove the theme of the story to be true. For example, if the theme of a book is, united we stand - divided we fall, and the divided characters unite and survive as a result, then the actions of the characters prove the theme is true.

The theme is the message in the story, and for a series as complex as this there will be multiple aspects to the theme, covering a range of topics. The thematic points being contributed here relate not only to the political leadership of the Seven Kingdoms but also to every individual in Westeros. Saving the kingdom must be prioritized above winning the throne. You might say the needs of all outweigh the wants of an elite few. That’s a significant change from the world we entered when we first picked up A Game of Thrones. There can be no such change without true sacrifice, and the only type of true sacrifice is self-sacrifice.

When these points are further combined with the learnings of similar lessons from other character-arcs, concerning topics like justice, duty, honor, vengeance and power, only then will the whole theme or point of the story be revealed. But for now, these are the lessons we should take from the arc of Stannis Baratheon.

Thanks for reading.