oh god, um. well. here goes.
stannis doesn’t get enough love, man, seriously. he’s basically one of my favorite characters in the series even though he’s a huge pile of fail. so far. actually, at the trajectory that he’s going rn, he’s being suspiciously fail-tastic. in the same way that rickon is being suspiciously irrelevant. you know something’s gonna happen to them, man.
but anyway. stannis is the middle brother, the guy with the “personality of a lobster”. he’s the military man, the leader, the guy that soldiers would definitely fight for because he’s a soldier himself. i talked this over with one of my best friends irl and she said that the baratheon brothers could’ve been the perfect rulers, if only they’d gotten along. robert is the champion, the one that people would fawn over and they’d feel safe in their quaint little houses knowing that robert is there swinging his hammer and being generally intimidating to his foes. stannis, on the other hand, is the military strategist. you’d want him in your war council, definitely. renly is the politician, he’s the one with the PR, and the entertainment, and the love of the people. if king’s landing were rome, then it would’ve been renly’s bright idea to regularly host a gladiator match to keep people from eating each other during a famine. basically.
the sad thing is that the baratheon brothers hate each other. well not so much hate but… they all found brothers in otherpeople. stannis has davos, renly has loras, robert has ned. with the exception of loras’ loverly duties, they all basically serve the same purpose to each baratheon brother: confidante, right hand man, “i can’t do this without you bro”, etc. idk if i’m just over-reading but i think this lends tension among the three of them, and that’s why i think their family’s so interesting.
stannis is the middle brother. the guy who was set up to inherit storm’s end when robert became king of the seven kingdoms. because it’s his birthright. in addition, stannis defended storm’s end, or, yanno, withstood a year-long blockade inside the damn castle with very little resources. because a) his brother told him to, b) he’s fighting the damn war for his brother. he don’t give a damn about lyanna stark. robert just raised his banners and like the dutiful brother that he is, stannis said ok ok lez make lemonade. true, he went a year without actual lemons but, yanno, the sentiment’s there. but he didn’t get storm’s end. he got dragonstone. dragonstone is the seat of the targaryens, if i’m not mistaken, and true, robert has the point of assigning a military man like stannis to a castle that requires someone who knows his shit to defend, but i can understand why stannis would be offended by it. i mean, robert gave storm’s end to renly, the youngest brother, whereas stannis got some barren wasteland this side of mordor. fuck that shit.
he’s a principled, honorable guy, and according to the prologue in a clash of kings (i think, i don’t have the book on hand), he’d much sooner break than bend. he seems boring, yes, because he is boring. in the same way that ned stark is boring. because when you follow the rules, you are boring. it doesn’t help either that stannis doesn’t seem to have renly’s charisma (if he has any charisma at all), neither does he have robert’s passion for, yanno, vice. he’s a straight-edged guy who stands for what he believes in and because of that, he’s being pulled around by melisandre. the difference, i think, between ned and stannis, in spite of a) their mutual respect for each other, b) their stubbornness, c) their self-righteousness, d) their subdued personalities, e) their soldierly attitude—oh wait, jk, they’re the same person. but no, the difference between them is that stannis left king’s landing when he had the chance. he was a smart one, probably not on his own, mind you, but he’s been a baratheon long enough to know that if he wants to get things done, he’ll have to do it alone. because his brothers won’t be the cheerleaders one would expect from, you kmnow, actual blood brothers. ned, on the other hand, is surrounded by supporters. of course his first instinct is to order people around in king’s landing. which is understandable, because he’s a leader. but he’s in king’s landing, not winterfell. winterfell loves its lord. king’s landing is every man for himself.
stannis isn’t a saint, definitely. i mean, he has melisandre, whom he knows is doing some sick mumbo jumbo shit to get things done. (i mean, including the murder of a baby… come on. come on.) but it’s part and parcel, i think, of the hard-faced bastard that he is. he know the risks of war, and he knows that marching his army northwards at the advent of winter will kill his men but he’s a soldier. it comes down to that. it may be foolish behavior what he’s doing, but he’s a guy who knows the risks and knows the collateral damage because he’s been in an actual war. and, you know, it’s heart-breaking how a desperate man like stannis (because he’s, like, the poor king lol no one loves him huhu no support huhuhu) would much rather lessen his chances of winning than just bend the knee and get it over with.
do i think that he’s the best character ever? probably not, no. do i think he’s gonna be the king to prevail? well… considering the outcome in the books…. but i love his character probably because of the insurmountable pile of shit that he has to go through to do what he needs to do. he’s not am ambitious guy. he doesn’t want to be king. but he has to, because he needs to fight king’s landing. because he’s a self-righteous prick, sure, but i love characters like that. characters that get pushed to do things and are in the process of fucking up their entire lives because of what they believe in. it’s the type of conflict that just breaks my heart, bro.
also, davos. i love davos. and i love the broship of stannis and davos. i cunt. the same way that i love the broship of robert and ned. the kind of broship that’d make you do things that question your morals and makes you think, “am i really that much of a bro or am i just being stupid now.”
