Game of Thrones Season 5 - anyone still watching? Unhidden spoilers ahead!

[TheDarkShape]

binary solo said:

TheLastStarFighter said:

Lol @ character assassination.  In his very first scene Stanis is burning family members at the stake. He has no problem sacrificing the lives of coutless soldiers or close loved ones. He killed his own brother. You clearly haven't been paying attention to who he is. But that's OK, because most don't.  As the producers said, no one cared when Stannis was killing strangers with no screen time. They wanted him to kill someone you cared about so you could feel who he is.  Cold, cruel and fanatical in his cause.

 

Stannis does intend to do a couple of morally questionable burnings in the book, but never of a direct legitimate relative, without cause. The show has been assassinating Stannis' character from the start, but burning his own daughter was merely the most egregious step they took to finally kill off any semblance of sympathy  anyone might have for show Stannis. TV show-wise Stannis' character is irredeemable unless the burning of Shirren was a ruse, which is probably isn't. And I will be very pissed at the show writers if Davos sticks with Stannis. Davos should, for lack of any better claimant to the throne, give himself the the Night's Watch, or if he can get to Mereen throw in with Dany, though I can't see why Dany would accept into her service the person who was the saviour of Storm's End during the overthrow of the Targaryen reign.

In the books we've seen Stannis burn people close to him (Maester Cressen) and favor burning children (Edric Storm).  Essentially you're arguing that the show has made Stannis 'unlikable' (he's not exactly a loveable guy in the books) because they've stripped away his hypocrisy.  He's a genuine believer that he is the true King and the only thing standing between the Others and the destruction of the world, and thus he'll do anything to succeed.  In the book, he follows his principles and claims to be fair only so far as it suits him.

It's not character assassination.  Burning Shireen is absolutely true to his character as presented, and screaming "character assassination!" is basically on the level of some shipper getting mad at a showrunner because their preferred couple didn't end up together.  You're too attached to an aspect of a story to look at the story as a whole.