rare serious stannis post but i hate people being like “guys stannis would never do this clearly mel has done magic to him” especially in regards to his relationship with her mostly because 1. love potions/magic is such stupid cop out annoying bullshit and if it becomes relevant in any way to the story i will die rather than accept it, 2. stannis is his own man and makes bad decisions quite often, and 3. he is known to do things he personally dislikes or has mixed feelings on if he thinks they will help his cause or if he thinks it’s his duty. as we all know i’m a gay stannis truther but there is no denying his relationship with mel is physical even beyond when she was making evil shadow babies, which puts the onus of explanation on us homosexual crusaders for why that was happening. for the answer we have to go back to ned’s observation of him in book one, and the iconic line of him going to his wife’s bed twice or so a year like a man marching off to war. from this we know that even after shireen was born and it was known selyse was almost certainly not going to have another kid, they still tried despite his obvious dislike for it. i think he’s in a similar position with melisandre now, where at one point this endeavor did produce results in some way or another and now even after theyre not seeing the same effect there is still the hope and thus still the effort made. what we hear from stannis himself of mel at least early on is extremely unromantic which is a trend that seems to continue on afaicr, viewing her practice as a means to an end instead of a religious belief that he too holds. but of course stannis is desperate for recognition and having someone who views him as a religious figure (and is willing to say it to his face. sorry davos) after years of feeling spurned and unappreciated is probably pretty nice! complicated stuff happening in that guys head that cannot be simply waved away by saying the he has a spell on him or something