Board Thread:TV Show Discussion/@comment-5014364-20150621151627/@comment-5014364-20150621165504

It's not a matter of respect but a matter of looking powerful and not weak.

Even so, Roose said in very strong terms that it made more sense to just wait out Stannis behind a strong defensive position - he wouldn't just throw that opportunity away. Though I see Ramsay's ideology of "attack attack it makes you look strong" -- which is of course the whole contrast between father and son; Ramsay doesn't think about preserving his resources for tomorrow's fight.

I still think Stannis's arc was going reasonably well, despite Shireen condensations (they're in the next novel, but in this context? no)....up until how they played it up as a pointless sacrifice by making it an off-screen curb-stomp battle.

Now I...HOPE that this was a fake-out, and that Ramsay won....not a Phyrrhic victory, but heavy losses he couldn't afford and didn't need (a third of his men might be a bit much, but let's say like a fourth).

So if this turns out to be just a fake-out cliffhanger thing, and we find that Stannis's entire storyline wasn't in vain, and wasn't that far from the major point of the books; even if Stannis loses, the Boltons will lose men fighting him they can't afford.

So now I"m shifting into a "wait and see" attitude.