Game of Thrones begins....

[Habbaku]

[spoiler]"he never would have done that in the books!"[/spoiler]

I gotta keep repeating that to myself.

[spoiler]Apparently, it is one of the things that GRRM told the show writers as a future book event.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Them taking an event that happens in the book (a character death) and changing the circumstances entirely is not the same as it being a 'future book event'.  I fully believe that the character is probably headed for the pyre in some fashion in the next book, but in the same circumstances?  No chance.  This smacks of major-event-rushed-into-a-small-time-frame-for-TV.[/spoiler]

[Martinus]

Incidentally, I wonder if feminists and the like are going to freak out over a little girl being burned alive the same way they freaked out over a woman being raped two episodes ago.

[Berkut]

[spoiler]"he never would have done that in the books!"[/spoiler]

I gotta keep repeating that to myself.

I was wondering how the Stannis Fan Club would react...

"But he is the true king!"

[Neil]

[spoiler]"he never would have done that in the books!"[/spoiler]

I gotta keep repeating that to myself.

I was wondering how the Stannis Fan Club would react...

"But he is the true king!"

Well, he still is.  But a lot of people could at least respect Stannis because even when he did monstrous things, there was some justice to it.  But this is kind of a moral event horizon, one that Davos saved him from before when Melisandre was trying to burn Robert's bastard.  So now, he's going to be seen as a bad guy.

[Josephus]

Incidentally, I wonder if feminists and the like are going to freak out over a little girl being burned alive the same way they freaked out over a woman being raped two episodes ago.

Nah...child killing is fine.

[Berkut]

There is kind of a fucked up, twisted "honorable" logic to it, and it is consistent with the books background on the Lord of Light.

It is easy to say "We must sacrifice this preumptive innocent for the greater good" when that innocent is some other person, like Gendry. It is quite another when the sacrifice is someone dear to you - it is a true sacrifice.

And in the books, the first Lord of Light prophet guy killed his own wife, IIRC, to gain the power to defeat evil, right?

In this case, I imagine Stannis would have much rather stuck his wife on the stake instead of his Shereen...

[KRonn]

The dragon scene with Dany was awesome. Loved it, was expecting it as I remember if from the books.

I was a bit shocked at Stannis killing his daughter for some kind of godly favor. Many of his soldiers looked pretty shocked also, and I wonder if that will hinder the morale of his forces. He's already has some troops run off, mercenaries though but his army is still in a tough situation in the cold.

[Berkut]

It is interesting how they chose to do that - not just killing Shereen, but doing so in a extremely public manner.

I sure as hell would never follow the man afterwards, no matter how loyal I was to start.

[Admiral Yi]

It is interesting how they chose to do that - not just killing Shereen, but doing so in a extremely public manner.

I sure as hell would never follow the man afterwards, no matter how loyal I was to start.

One thing neither the book nor the series are terribly interested in is the POV of the rank and file.

[Berkut]

It is interesting how they chose to do that - not just killing Shereen, but doing so in a extremely public manner.

I sure as hell would never follow the man afterwards, no matter how loyal I was to start.

One thing neither the book nor the series are terribly interested in is the POV of the rank and file.

That is true - Martin never really seems to consider things like moral, for the most part, which of course in that period would be pretty critical.

[HVC]

a starving trapped armies moral isn't much better. Some might abandon him, but if the sacrifice works he'll still be ahead.

[Admiral Yi]

Did anything happen after the sacrifice? (I missed the episode.) Did meatball subs and fleece hoodies magically fall from the sky?

[The Minsky Moment]

My recollection is that in Greek drama, the line and file troops were the ones pushing for Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter, so at least as a literary trope, it wouldn't necessarily have a negative impact.

[Habbaku]

It is interesting how they chose to do that - not just killing Shereen, but doing so in a extremely public manner.

I sure as hell would never follow the man afterwards, no matter how loyal I was to start.

Which is why the scene doesn't work for me.  In the books, at least, we have a contingent (maybe 1/4th of Stannis' troops) that are die-hard R'hllor followers.  Presumably, those still exist in the series.  But the other 3/4th?  They're there due to feudal obligations, or because they believe Stannis is their king, or because they're Northerners that have signed on to help.  That entire group would desert en masse at such an instance of kinslaying.

[Berkut]

Yeah, certainly no nothern troops would stand for that.

I mean, they didn't just kill her, right? They burned her alive.

However, I do not agree with you that this is necessarily a break from the books (even the theoretical books) - I think the entire Stannis story arc is pointing very firmly at Stannis, at some point, having to decide just how much the ends justify any means. He was either going to have a "Come to Jesus" moment where he rejects Melisandre/LoL, or a moment where he completely falls to evil.