stannis baratheon is such an underrated and misunderstood character. he is the literal definition of a middle child, always overlooked and ignored.
since he was a child, he was overshadowed by robert's strenght and renly's charm. he lost his parental figures and his older brother went away to the vale. he had to step out and act like the lord of storm's end.
then, the robert's revolution happened.the storm's end's siege started and he bodied the targaryens. he was barely an adult and he managed to keep the castle during years despite all the adversities and his lack of charisma as a leader. he was like 18 and he fought until the end, never giving up. he was an essencial part of robert's victory.
stannis has daddy issues. he just needs to be reassured by an older male figure, but he never got that. his brother was away, parents dead and then robert came back and he was an asshole. he not only overlooked him as lord's of storm's end, but he humiliated him by having sex in his bed during his wedding. he grew resentful, but he was always loyal to robert until the end.
he was a sad, lonely man whose only true friend was an ex-smuggler, not the type of person you imagine a lord associating with. he was wedded to a woman he did not love nor respect and his only daughter and heir, the only person he loved, was almost killed by a toy he bought. his life was always full of tragedy, resentment and self-pity.
he was the perfect person to be targeted by a cult and so he was. he was completely brainwashed by melisandre and the religion of r'hllor. imagine if all your life you have been the second choice, the one no one likes, that dude who is only kept around because he is useful and then a beautiful woman comes to you and tells you you're the chosen one and your fate is to save the world from complete destruction, who wouldn't have become a religious fanatic? melisandre was giving him the respect and appreciation no one gave him before.
he singlehandedly defeated renly and joffrey with just one death. and that death broke him even more and made him madder. he just killed the brother he practically raised and that was the point of no return. if he wasn't azor ahai renly's death would just be for nothing. the war he was fighting would be for nothing. all the death, all the suffering would just be for nothing.
he was possibly the best strategist and military man in the war of the five kings. tywin is just ruthless polician, not that good in the battlefield, he was constantly beaten by 16-year old robb stark. robb stark was a talented warrior and strategist, but he lacked the experience. renly was just vibes and balon greyjoy was an old man with dellusions of grandeur.
however, by no means is he innocent, he killed people in a horrific way, but he was brainwashed by a cult. he burned people and children alive, but he thought that those deaths had a purpose. what is the life of one person compared to the survival of the human race? he was not the only monarch in westeros to sacrifice people for the greater good. dany uses fire as a means to punishment and she sacrificed a person to give birth to her dragons. aegon v killed half of his family trying to get back the dragons, but we don't see those deaths that badly because we understand the endgame. dragons are needed to defeat white walkers. stannis believes he is needed to defeat white walkers.
i think most of the misunderstanding that comes with stannis comes from two places: he has the charisma of a stick and we are never in his mind. we witness his mistakes and tribulations, but we don't see why he makes that decisions. the character see him as a self-righteous prick and that's how we see him, but ned was also kind of a self-righteous prick, but he had certain middle-aged-dad charm and we were with him, we understood him.
stannis is the only king who says "fuck the iron throne i have more important stuff to deal with", he gets his shit together and he heads north to try to help the night's watch with the white walkers. no one else did that. no one else gave a fuck. just him. and book!daenerys won't be so eagered to help north immediately because she will have her own dance of the dragons to deal with, fighting the only kingdom who has a dragon body count. stannis will probably be the only king who sticks around to help in winds of winter.
stannis' fate in the books will be sad, he will probably have a horrible demise. probably in his death he will realise that all the people he burned alive was for nothing and his conscious will make him feel immense pain. he will die knowing that he lost himself trying to fulfill a prophecy that was never meant to be his. because prophecies in the world of ice and fire only bring pain, misery and death.
disclaimer: i don't condone any of his actions, i just think that he's more complex and interesting than most people give him credit for. and every girl deserves to have her middle aged villainous character she will defend until the end.
another disclaimer: in this house we stan book!stannis, if he kills shireen just for defeating the boltons, he's dead to me. (i think he will burn shireen but like for a battle against the white walkers, like a last resort kind of thing).
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