Game of Thrones Question
June 8, 2013 9:54 PM   Subscribe

I have a question about the second season of Game of Thrones. [spoiler]

I haven't caught up on the books yet, so perhaps it explains more there than in the show. When Stannis Baratheon's attack on King's Landing wasn't successful, why was he allowed to return to Dragonstone instead of being punished for treason, as was Ed Stark? He was shown being captured during the attack when Lannister forces showed up, but the next episode had him comfortably at home, albeit a bit depressed. How did he get there?
posted by SpacemanStix to Media & Arts (6 answers total)
 
Best answer: Stannis wasn't captured...those were his own men, pulling him from the battle. He was then shuffled back to Dragonstone, to brood some more. (not a Stannis fan. :-)
posted by griffey at 10:10 PM on June 8, 2013 [3 favorites]


Best answer: He wasn't captured. He escaped with the remnants of his army. The scene was kind of chaotic, and focused of Tyrion, so I can see how that wasn't clear.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:10 PM on June 8, 2013


Best answer: Note also that most of the Lannister at his focused on the north, to fight Robb, so capturing Dragonstone isn't a priority.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:12 PM on June 8, 2013


Response by poster: That explains it. Thanks for the quick answers!
posted by SpacemanStix at 10:24 PM on June 8, 2013


To be really pedantic the fighting between Robb and the Lannister forces isn't in the north, it's in the Riverlands. Which is far west of Dragonstone but only a tiny smidge north of it.

Although one could interpret "on the north" to mean on the forces of the north in which case, yeah.
posted by Justinian at 11:42 PM on June 8, 2013


Best answer: As people said earlier, it was his own men dragging him back to Dragonstone. Had the Lannisters captured him, they never would have let him leave King's Landing alive.

[very mild book spoilers below]

This was one of those things that made a lot more sense in the book. In A Clash of Kings, Stannis never fought on the front lines, because doing so would have meant pointlessly risking his life and has little advantage aside from giving his men a morale boost. In the book, Stannis watched the battle from his ship instead, which makes his escape much more plausible.

Also, yeah, what Cool Papa Bell said. After losing most of his men and ships on the Blackwater, Stannis wasn't an immediate threat to the Lannisters. Attacking Dragonstone would have been difficult, and dealing with the Starks was much more urgent.
posted by Green Winnebago at 12:23 AM on June 9, 2013 [2 favorites]


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