Brienne of Tarth wasn’t responsible! No, not Melissandre.
The responsible people were:
Show writers!
I just watched the Battle of Ice (outside Winterfell) again and the way they handled this was very very stupid!
First, I love the show and I understand that they have time and budget requirements.
But that doesn’t mean that they can just go and butcher a character like that.
I have read it many times on reddit and also feel from watching the show that show writers hate Stannis. He’s a much better character in the books.
Show Stannis is a joker in comparison!
Otherwise, I can’t find any explanation for the best military commander in Westeros doing mistakes like he did! Take a look at next paragraph and you will notice that show writers didn’t have ‘military commander’ in mind when writing the episode!
The best military commander on the continent:
- Has all his food and supplied burned by twenty good men! (This whole premise of twenty good men is so ridiculous in itself!)
- Does not send any scouts or gather intelligence.
- Loses half his army (3000?) overnight and doesn’t know about it till morning! Did he not have guards? Did he not consider increasing guards after twenty good men wrecked havoc in his camp?
- Casually walks to front gate of Winterfell without any military formation.
- Has Halberds and Spears, yet doesn’t even try to bring his men in formation when charged by cavalary!
- Has a small hill just behind him (high terrain is always an advantage), yet does retreat!
- Has forest a bit behind him where cavalary is ineffective and doesn’t use that!
Inaccurate battles are nothing new for any medieval era movie/tv fan but Game of Thrones has taken the inaccuracy to new heights.
Add the fact that whole inspiration of Brienne killing him is invalid. Even Maryn Trant would have known that Stannis was the elder brother and was rightful heir instead of Renly. I still believe he had a good claim to the throne.
And wasn’t Brienne leaving the watching spot after weeks of watching the broken tower a bit too dramatic?
If I had a choice, I’d sacrifice show writers to the Red God to improve Stannis’s chances.
Now, only thing that I can hope is that Stannis is somehow alive. Maybe Lady Stoneheart will save him. Or some other miracle will happen.
But definitely, all my outrage towards Stannis has been pointed towards D&D now.