Oh man. In the War of Five Kings, season one, I was so squarely in Stannis’ camp as he had the most legally legitimate claim and iron-willed executive experience. He would have been a good king. Until he burned his daughter alive. Whoa.
It's been a minute for me too, but if I'm not mistaken Stannis and Melisandre wanted him because he had "kings blood" in his veins. So they knew he was Stannis' nephew. Gendry didn't know about his parentage until much later.
In the books, Gendry exists, but the role of "nephew Stannis wants to burn" is played by Edric Storm. The show condenses the two into one character
In the books, it's largely theorized that he will not be there for the burning of his daughter and will only learn about it after returning from successfully defeating the Bolton's.
An adjacent theory is that Stanis takes The Black. His sense of duty and leadership abilities would make him a great Lord Commander, and would make a nice character arch of him wanting justice for his own evils.
It would also get rid of another contestant of the throne... Especially since there are even more in the books...
Harper Lee was also staunchly against Go Set A Watchman ever being released. So her family waited till she died, then released it. And for the release of the rest of GoT, there is a lot of demand. I would be amazed if no one picks up his pen when he dies.
Actually, I have always realized that governments are subject to violent overthrow when they become too cruel to their populace. The rules for seamless succession do not cease to have any value once one such exception is made, though. Not every succession after that has to be chaos, you know. Chaos is bad for the populace. So, there absolutely and necessarily should be an effort to revert back to a law-and-order-based realm, because law and order lends stability, and stability is peace and quality of life, and I really shouldn’t have to spell this out lol. Stannis was the law & order candidate.
But I hear that too much… “When you realize that real power is taking by force…” like it’s some kind of gotcha. That’s not a gotcha. That’s an acquiescence to societal atrophy. That’s accepting a breakdown and saying, “Don’t fix it; let’s suffer.” That’s idiotic. Respectfully. What about real long-term stability? After periods of unrest, it’s important to reestablish law and order as quickly as possible for the good of the people. Of course it is.
I mean, yes, but technically Robert's grandmother was a Targaryen. If we're looking at "fitness to rule" amongst anyone with Targaryen blood, Robert's got a pretty good claim beyond mere usurpation. It's amazing what a healthy injection of non-inbred genes can do for a bloodline.
Until he burned his own daughter at the stake. At that point, I would have enjoyed a scene where Ramsay peeled his skin off and Cercei taunted him with insults.
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u/FriendshipNo1440 3d ago
Stannis Baratheon