The Stannis Appreciation Thread {Only Good Guys Allowed}

[salt]

I hear people calling Stannis a 'villain' sometimes, but I really disagree with that, especially after ADWD.

Thats the interesting thing about Stannis, in any other story, he would be the villain. When the story starts he spends all day in his foreboding island lair, brooding over a map of the land and plotting his conquest, with a mysterious fire sorceress at his side . All hes missing is an evil laugh and a cat to slowly stroke.

[Frozen Soul]

:lmao: The perfect villain recipie, you should add a pinch of plans that end up in failure too. But in the end he's the complete opposite. The magic of points of view...aside from the others and creepy Qyburn I still can't think of THE villain of the story,all I see is a bunch of people fighting for their own interests and doing some "evil things" in the process.

Maybe the only evil guy around is GRRM for creating this addictive series and making us wait years while he leaves us with some serious cliffhangers, answering questions with more questions and mystery and material for so many theories...

oh by the way, I think Selyse is so devoted that she might be playing dumb with the mel/stannis affair just because well...its Melisandre who serves her beloved R'hllor

[The Oncoming Storm]

Oh, so he has a growing fanbase! I thought we were like, 5-6 obsessed people on Tumblr.

Davis is his conscience. He keeps him from doing the really bad things. If only they got rid of Mel (and Selyse)... Stannis would make a good king. He's just and he knows how to get shit done.

But if Davos turned out to be AA (possible), I still don't think he could kill his king. And if he did he would be dead inside.

[Jory]

Oh, so he has a growing fanbase! I thought we were like, 5-6 obsessed people on Tumblr.

Davis is his conscience. He keeps him from doing the really bad things. If only they got rid of Mel (and Selyse)... Stannis would make a good king. He's just and he knows how to get shit done.

But if Davos turned out to be AA (possible), I still don't think he could kill his king. And if he did he would be dead inside.

If Davos is AA, I will literally cry tears of joy.

[Talleyrand]

another reason stannis rocks: ned trusted him, IIRC, although it pisses me off more than a little that stannis wasn't as fond of ned

Ned trusted Littlefinger see how that turned out.

Another reason Stannis is awesome: Jon Arryn trusted him.

Jon trusted Lysa see how that turned out.

I'm getting a feeling that these men weren't the best judges of character.

[salt]

Jon trusted Lysa? It was a purely political marriage and he attempted to take their son away from her. Just because he wasn't actively on the look out for a poison attempt doesn't mean he truly trusted her.

[Queensmoot]

I wish he had been able to get SweetRobin fostered somewhere. Would have done the poor kid a lot of good. Wasn't he going to foster him on Dragonstone with Stannis? Way better than Robert's idea of fostering him with Tywin after Jon died.

I think that a few years with Stannis (and Davos!) would have been great for SweetRobin. He and Shireen would have gotten on well, and Stannis could make a man of him. When Stannis made him cry, he could go to Davos for comfort. Bonus - learn to eat grownup food instead of mommy.

Not exactly the intensive psychiatric care that SR really needs, but it's pretty good for Westeros!

[Chalais]

I think SweetRobin needs both psychiartric care and treatment for his epilepsy. But even fostering him off on Tywin Lannister would have been better than his mothers loving care.

[Ice Turtle]

Little off topic, but Am I the only one who thinks that GRRM have some problem with mothers. Cersei, Cat, Lysa, Asha's mother... how many of them are insane?

[Maester Hodor]

Little off topic, but Am I the only one who thinks that GRRM have some problem with mothers. Cersei, Cat, Lysa, Asha's mother... how many of them are insane?

I don't think Asha's mother is insane, I think she's just.... old.

[DukeTheGold]

In my opinion, Stannis, no, KING Stannis, is Ned Stark version 2.0. As we all know, Ned Stark is the one who gets all the fangirls and boys.

Duty, honor, loyalty, Stannis has it all. Like Ned, Stannis sticks to his code and kisses nobody's ass. Unlike Ned, Stannis knows the rules of Game of Thrones and plays it well.

Look at this folks. Ned Stark had the command of one of the eight realms, he was the hand of the king, he had the ear of the king, he had the council of Varys and Littlefinger. Somehow he managed to screw it all up. The result was that half of his families, including himself, and 80% of his retainers are dead. He sent tens of thousands of bodies to hell all for the sake of his bloody honor. Ned was a good man. He was a good soldier. But by god, he was inflexible and was no great leader.

Alright now, everybody keep on saying Stannis is as flexible as a rock or a stick of iron. Look at Stannis. He discovered Cersei's dirty secret before Ned. Unlike Ned, Stannis had the wisdom to retreat to his seat of power instead of gifting himself into the Lion's mouth after he realized the strength of Lannister hand after Arryn's assassination. We can't argue with results. Guess who is the victor of the War of Five Kings? STANNIS. He is the last living King out of the five contenders! You don't get to rule a bloody kingdom with honor. You keep it with fear and BLOOD! When you are the king, you need to make the small sacrificed to keep millions alive. Stannis knows it, and Stannis does it! He is a hard man, but never cruel. If he needs to sacrifice a 10 year old kid to win a war and save the lives of countless soldiers and peasants, he would fricking do it while Ned would have sucked his thumb. He sees all human beings as just that, humans. He doesn't care if you are a nobleborn or a bandit born. The world is not black and white to this man. If I am a peasant, I would feel safe if Stannis sits on the throne.

Stannis for the IRON THRONE!

[Son of Jon Snarkgaryen]

I think Stannis is one of the truly heroic characters in ADWD. True he has his flaws *cough* burning people alive *cough*, but he actually tries to be a good King and actually went to the Wall when they needed help!

Edit: Also him and Mel are totally getting it on. Given her religious devotion, Selyse might even approve.

I like Stannis a lot! But in all fairness, going to the Wall was Davos' idea, not Stannis, and it was a gamble at best.... Davos thought it might cost him his life, as it was immediately after he smuggled Edric Storm out of Dragonstone and "betrayed" his king. Stannis was pissed, and Davos thought he might take his head. Without Davos' urging, Stannis never would have gone to Jon's aid, so praise be to Davos!! Also, about Selyse approving of Mel and Stannis... Not so sure... She seems like kind of the denial type of woman to me....

[Frozen Soul]

Call it denial or just ignoring the issue, so far she hasn't shown signs of caring or anything really, well its not like we see her a lot either but the point is that everyone came to see Melisandre as Stannis' Queen and I imagine many assumed the same thing some of us did.

Davos...where would Stannis be without his conscience! He always pointed in the right direction and his advice was important

I like Stannis a lot! But in all fairness, going to the Wall was Davos' idea, not Stannis, and it was a gamble at best.... Davos thought it might cost him his life, as it was immediately after he smuggled Edric Storm out of Dragonstone and "betrayed" his king. Stannis was pissed, and Davos thought he might take his head. Without Davos' urging, Stannis never would have gone to Jon's aid, so praise be to Davos!!

:agree:

[Jory]

I like Stannis a lot! But in all fairness, going to the Wall was Davos' idea, not Stannis, and it was a gamble at best.... Davos thought it might cost him his life, as it was immediately after he smuggled Edric Storm out of Dragonstone and "betrayed" his king. Stannis was pissed, and Davos thought he might take his head. Without Davos' urging, Stannis never would have gone to Jon's aid, so praise be to Davos!! Also, about Selyse approving of Mel and Stannis... Not so sure... She seems like kind of the denial type of woman to me....

This, right here? This is where Stannis became worthy of the throne. This is where Stannis became a hero where he had been the villain. This is where Stannis became the best of all of them, and the only one of them worth the ground they walked on. Not because he was Robert's brother, or because he was the trueborn heir. Because he listened. He listened, and he realized. He realized that the throne is a duty, not a right. It was at that moment - no, not before, not until that moment, that microsecond when he gave the command - that Stannis became the TRUE King of the Andals, and the Rhoynar, and the First Men, LORD of the Seven Kingdoms, and LORD Protector of the Realm: AZOR AHAI REBORN.

[Lemon Cake]

My impression of Selyse is that she's such a religious fanatic that she either accepts the fact that Melisandre is sleeping with her husband, or she willfully turns a blind eye to it. She'd probably react differently if it were any other woman, but she's got Melisandre on one hell of a pedestal and doesn't seem to think that anything she does is wrong. Selyse has probably convinced herself that it's all part of R'hllor's will or something, so she goes along with it. That's my take on it, anyway.

[Stannis the Great]

You also have to consider that without Stannis, someone like Davos would be irrelevant or executed. Stannis raises him to Knight, Lord and eventually Hand of the King due to merit not birth. We've seen Stannis evolve throughout the series. He is at first referred to as the Iron Baratheon brother - he is unwilling to compromise or adapt. However it is clear now that he is the true steel of the Baratheon family.

[Winterfell is Burning]

I like Stannis a lot! But in all fairness, going to the Wall was Davos' idea, not Stannis, and it was a gamble at best.... Davos thought it might cost him his life, as it was immediately after he smuggled Edric Storm out of Dragonstone and "betrayed" his king. Stannis was pissed, and Davos thought he might take his head. Without Davos' urging, Stannis never would have gone to Jon's aid, so praise be to Davos!! Also, about Selyse approving of Mel and Stannis... Not so sure... She seems like kind of the denial type of woman to me....

It was Davos idea, but Stannis had never even got the letter from the Old Bear, he couldn't know about the problems in the Wall.

[Frozen Soul]

Maybe Selyse changed Stannis for R'hllor and Stannis traded her for Mel? :dunno:

No Davos = Stannis the evil bitter teeth grinding plotter of Dragonstone. Like Jory said, thanks to Davos he became a hero and he rewarded Davos for his services accordingly, perhaps with more honors and titles than he would've liked, but naming him hand of the king also shows just how much he trusts Davos.

[Frozen Soul]

Sorry DP

[Son of Jon Snarkgaryen]

My impression of Selyse is that she's such a religious fanatic that she either accepts the fact that Melisandre is sleeping with her husband, or she willfully turns a blind eye to it. She'd probably react differently if it were any other woman, but she's got Melisandre on one hell of a pedestal and doesn't seem to think that anything she does is wrong. Selyse has probably convinced herself that it's all part of R'hllor's will or something, so she goes along with it. That's my take on it, anyway.

OK. Let's say this is true. Stupid question here.... maybe it's already been asked and answered.... Does that mean that if Stannis and mel are getting it on, that the shadow baby thingy that she birthed beneath Storm's End (was it Storm's End) beside Davos, was impregnated in her by Stannis', you know, seed....? Gross!