Melisandre suggested it early on, and Stannis refused to consider it. Selyse has been in his ear about R'hllor forever and a day, and Stannis ignored her. He's in a forced march, there's no turning back, winter is steepening, and now their supply lines and transport are burnt to a crisp. He's at the absolute bottom of the barrel here. It's a despicable action, yes, but narratively it makes absolute sense.


I mean, I get that you're displeased with the differences between the two mediums and that's fine, we can agree here and there or agree to disagree. I'm not trying to convince you otherwise.

But you're applying a double standard here when saying "oh they *almost* made up for their mistakes" then saying "oh they fucked it all up again." In your other post you're talking about incorporating Deepwood Motte (which has zero relevance to the viewer) then when we see WHY they diverged from the books (sometimes in a spectacular way) D&D still get shit on? Yes, they have to diverge from the books but when they do at least they're putting it towards making the *show* better. For the times they fuck up, they do deserve credit when they kill it.

And now your point is "well, fine, if Shireen gets burned in the books... but it's not STANNIS that did it!" You're on such a witch hunt to wreck the show in any possible way you're ignoring the fact that it was such an incredible sequence. You're unable to analyze the show on its own merits then evaluate it vs the books.

As a viewer, when Stannis sat with Shireen we're hearing everything he's implying, hoping it's not all true even though there's been echoes of this all season... then sitting there in as much disbelief as Selyse as we realize it is ACTUALLY HAPPENING. I don't know about anyone else, but it was a stunning bit of storytelling. Since book readers were just in the dark as everyone else, I felt the shock of the scene almost as deep as I'm sure non-book readers felt with Ned's death or The Red Wedding. I was hoping Davos was gonna swoop in outta nowhere, or Selyse breaks free and fries herself in saving Shireen. My head knew it was gonna happen but my heart was still hoping.

Being so disgusted with the entire episode just based on how you *think* the show is going instead of how it's *actually* going is kind of disappointing, honestly. You're clearly one of the best posters on here on ASOIAF but the negativity is such a bummer.

I mean, I actually thought they made niceleaps in salvaging DORNE of all things... now all we need is Jaime burning the letter and I'd be fine with it.