Check out some of the concept art behind Stannis’ scenes in “Mother’s Mercy”

CAUTION: BEWARE SPOILERS FOR “MOTHER’S MERCY”

One of the most surprising things about Game of Thrones’ fifth season finale, at least if you were a book-reader, was the unexpected death of Stannis Baratheon, a major character who’s alive and well in the novels (well, he’s alive, anyway) to this day. In “Mother’s Mercy,” Stannis’ fortunes changed very rapidly for the worse, although his downfall didn’t pass without giving us a few memorable moments. There was the bit where Brienne finally confronted Stannis about his murder of Renly Baratheon back in Season 2, and there was the stirring bird’s eye shot of the enormous Bolton army bearing down on Stannis’ ragtag band, recently shrunk to a fraction of its size following the desertion of several soldiers intolerant of leaders who burn their own daughters at the stake.

Emmanuel Shiu, a prolific concept artist and designer with a long list of credits in the entertainment industry, mocked up the concept shots for the Bolton-Baratheon battle, such as it was, and recently posted his work on his blog. Check out his conceptualization of the the bird’s eye shot before the special effects artists at HBO brought it to life.

Apart from removing all of the foot soldiers in back, which would have made the battle even more of a slaughter, the finished shot looked a lot like this. Man, Stannis never stood a chance, did he? Even if he hadn’t sacrificed Shireen, it probably wouldn’t have made a difference. Sure, he would have retained much of his army, at least for the moment, but without Shireen’s sacrifice to clear up the weather, it would have remained mired in the snow.

Shiu posted a few more concept shots of Stannis’ story, including a couple of the would-be king’s snowbound camp, over on his blog. Feel free to check it out, along with the rest of Shiu’s evocative work.

H/T io9

• Published on 06/16/2015 at 4:15 PM CDT
• Last updated on 06/16/2015 at 4:15 PM CDT