*inhales*
Burning Shireen was fucking stupid. Let me preface this by saying it could very well happen in the book, and hell there have been many theories centered on her getting burned ("waking a dragon from stone"). However, the build up to that scene was absolutely ridiculous and in direct conflict with everything they have done with Stannis this season and prior seasons in regards to his daughter. What was the entire point of the scene with Stannis and Shireen earlier this season? To solely build up the stone men? To make the burning scene seem more ironic and impacting? It didn't work. It just made the scene seem worse. Stannis makes a complete 180 on his treatment of Shireen in a few hours. We get zero internal struggle with Stannis making this decision, he just automatically flips to "Oh well, plan B." This is the man who held Storm's End for a year A YEAR and he can't eat some horses until Davos comes back? It makes Stannis seem like he has zero foresight as well. He burns his only heir. Stannis wins, he's king for like 15 years, the end. I can't see Stannis making a decision like that whatsoever.
Not to mention how the whole thing played out was remarkably dumb. It's like D&D had the footnote "Shireen gets burned" and had to fill in the holes themselves. Instead of burning Shireen, why not punish THE WOMAN WHO CAN SEEMINGLY PREDICT THE FUTURE AND YET DID NOT SEE THIS PIVOTAL MOMENT IN THE CAMPAIGN? Big Boss Ramsay... Jesus. Stannis is perhaps the best commander in Westeros, has the backing of the Iron Bank, the most wealthy organization in the world with connections to magical assassins, and loses all of his supplies to TWENTY DUDES WITH ZERO COMBAT ABILITY. This is James Cameron and Unobtanium levels of, "Fuck it, it just happens ok just roll with it." I'm absolutely baffled. I just want to point out that Ramsay has effectively ended both the Greyjoy and Baratheon lines.
You should fear him because he has twenty good men apparently.
