Game of Thrones is arguably the greatest series made in the 2010s, but it still had its fair share of terrible scenes and awful moments — especially towards the end, when the series grew past the George R.R. Martin books in the story. Whenever a beloved character died, it left us heartbroken, but these are often regarded as the best parts of the series. On the other hand, some deaths were straight-up unforgivable, and one of those makes for the ultimate worst scene in the David Benioff and D.B. Weiss-led series. We're talking about Shireen Baratheon's (Kerry Ingram) death at the hands of her own father, Iron Throne contender Stannis (Stephen Dillane), in Episode 9 of Season 5, "The Dance of Dragons."
It's not easy to pinpoint just one scene to bear the infamous title of the worst Game of Thrones moment, especially because the finale was sort of like one huge terrible thing, but Stannis burning Shireen at the stake manages to be even worse than that. It's the most tragic moment in Game of Thrones both on and off-screen, a sign that points to no one really knowing what they were doing.
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What Led to Shireen's Death in 'Game of Thrones'?
Stannis was always seen as a great military leader, even if not really an inspiring one. He never had his older brother King Robert's (Mark Addy) bravado or his younger brother Renly's (Gethin Anthony) charisma. His character was very questionable, too, especially when word began to spread that a shadow with his face killed Renly in Season 2 and that he'd been burning people alive on the beaches of Dragonstone for not converting to the faith of the Lord of Light. While Melisandre's (Carice van Houten) influence on him delivered victories, it also made people doubtful.
But his situation in the war for the North was extremely dire in Season 5. While the other contenders to the Iron Throne squabbled for direct access to the chair itself in King's Landing, Stannis decided to conquer the North, the largest and arguably strongest of the Seven Kingdoms. The late Eddard Stark (Sean Bean) had supported Stannis' claim to the Iron Throne before being betrayed by the Lannisters, and that was his argument to convince the smaller houses to flock to his cause. To spread the word, Stannis made a whole tour of the North, starting by helping the Night's Watch fend off the Wildling invasion of Mance Rayder (Ciarán Hinds) and even tempting Ned's bastard, Jon Snow (Kit Harrington), with legitimacy and the promise of taking over as Lord of Winterfell. Stannis gathered a lot of respect by helping protect the Seven Kingdoms from invasion, but no military support.
In Stannis' way was House Bolton, especially their mad bastard Ramsay (Iwan Rheon). Ramsay killed his own father, the architect of the Red Wedding Roose Bolton (Michael McElhatton), and inspired a reign of terror in the North as the new Warden. His methods earned him the fear of every smaller house, and either their military support or their neutrality. So, Stannis had no one to turn to for support in his war against Ramsay Bolton, and winter finally came for him.
When the episode begins, the cold has started to take the lives of his already reduced army, and he is running out of options. He forsakes his top military advisor, Ser Davos Seaworth (Liam Cunningham), in favor of Melisandre's esoteric and flammable input, thus leading to one of the most shocking deaths of the series. Melisandre has always told him about the power of sacrificing royal blood, and the only royal blood present in Stannis' camp, beyond his own, is that of his only daughter and heir, Princess Shireen. Needless to say, burning her at the stake doesn't produce the expected results. A large part of his army deserts him, and even his wife, Selyse (Tara Fitzgerald), who has nothing but contempt for Shireen and agreed to the sacrifice, commits suicide hours later. Stannis goes on to attempt to storm Winterfell the following day with a small and insecure army, falling to the might of Ramsay Bolton's forces. He meets his end at the hands of Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie), Renly's royal guard who swore to avenge her king after his murder by a shadow with Stannis' face. And thus ends House Baratheon of Dragonstone.
Why Is This Such an Outrageous 'Game of Thrones' Moment?
"Go on, then. Do your duty." Those are Stannis' last words before being put to the sword by Brienne, who simply stumbled upon the whole battle near Winterfell and the man who killed her king. "Duty" was perhaps his favorite word, being the one he used to justify his claim to the Iron Throne as Robert's heir since his brother's three kids were illegitimate children of Cersei (Lena Headey) and Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). The crown should then go to the eldest brother of the king, and Stannis always took this as his duty. His tour of the North at the end of Season 4 and Season 5 was also based on the premise. As Ser Davos wisely put it: "A king protects his people, or he is no king at all."
The only thing that was more than a duty for Stannis was his daughter. He was never a contender for father of the year, far from it, but he never agreed to lock Shireen away as Selyse and Melisandre did because of her greyscale and, mere episodes before sending her to the stake, confessed his love for the girl. Shireen never asked for any of what was happening, and none of it interested her. She was just a child who admired her father, like many do, and tried to live as happily as possible in the midst of the war the grown-ups were waging. The only time she displayed any intention of taking part in it was shortly before being killed when she asked Stannis how she could help him. Even that was not out of ambition, though, being instead about a daughter wanting to help her father do what he was doing, whatever that was.
But Stannis killing her is a betrayal of the core principles of his character. Stannis had a complicated relationship with his brothers and family never meant much to him, granted, but he did love Shireen, and he was aware that family was a duty, too. He had been influenced by Melisandre's visions many times before, but he was always clear on the boundaries of her influence. One could argue that Ser Davos not being with him at that time is what made him do what he did, but it's still not a compelling argument. For someone who understands the importance of family as a duty, it's inexcusable. Also, even from the point of view of the race for the Iron Throne, it's about strategic thinking, something that Stannis always had as a throne contender: a king needs to have an heir, and Shireen was his only one.
Ultimately, though, Stannis killing Shireen was the moment Game of Thrones' story broke away from A Song of Ice and Fire. In the books, Stannis' story is still open, and even if he ends up doing the same thing, his character is much better established, and his plotline has more threads to follow than just "let's sacrifice her and win." That was the moment the series clearly stated it would be different from the books and that it wouldn't mind twisting characters to make its general story easier to be told, so it was awful both on and off the screen. Even the official explanation from Benioff and Weiss doesn't make sense, with the justification that Stannis had always been burning people in Dragonstone and was always influenced by Melisandre.
In the end, Stannis killing Shireen is just poor storytelling, as it shows writers were ready to come up with simplistic solutions to solve certain plots that just didn't appeal to the public, and Stannis never was a popular character anyway. So he got a shocking moment to justify his demise as a poorly-written character and allow the series to move on.
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