Stannis the Mannis

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About

Stannis the Mannis is a nickname given to Stannis Baratheon, a character in George R. R. Martin’s series of novels A Song of Ice and Fire and the adapted HBO fantasy television series Game of Thrones. In fan art, photoshopped stills and GIFs from the show, Stannis the Mannis is made to look cool.

Origin

Stannis Baratheon is the younger brother of Robert Baratheon, the currently reigning king at the start of the A Song of Ice and Fire series. He first appears in the second book, A Clash of Kings, where in the wake of Robert's death, Stannis, among others, seeks to claim the Iron Throne for himself in a bloody succession war, denouncing the children of Robert's queen as bastards fathered by the queen's brother, leaving himself as Robert's heir. Aiding him are his right hand man and reformed smuggler, Ser Davos Seaworth, and the fanatical red priestess Melisandre, who believes Stannis to be a prophesied reincarnated hero. However, his greatest obstacle is Stannis's own dour personality, which many characters note has made him incredibly disliked among lords and commoners alike in the Seven Kingdoms, leaving him with little to no popular support for his claim.

In August 2011, between the airings of the first and second seasons of Game of Thrones, an image of Stannis from the collectible card game A Game of Thrones was posted to 4chan's /tv/ board with the filename "stannis the mannis.jpg".^[11]

Spread

Stephen Dillane was cast to play Stannis in the television adaptation Game of Thrones, and first appeared in the second season premiere "The North Remembers" which first aired on April 1st, 2012.

In May 2012, a page was created on Quickmeme ^[7] featuring Stannis the Mannis image macros (shown below).

On June 30th, 2012, YouTuber dharmabro^[2] uploaded a video (below, left) titled "Game of Thrones – Stannis "The Mannis" Baratheon," which featured clips of Stannis' quest for the Iron Throne set to triumphant music. As of June 2014, the video gained over 43,000 views. On May 24th, 2013, YouTuber Kevin Blizzardous^[3] uploaded a similar clip compilation titled "Stannis the Mannis." As of June 2014, the video gained over 3,000 views.

On March 10th, 2013, the Facebook page^[6] Stannis the Mannis was created. On June 8th, 2013, Redditor theDashRendar added a thread to the /r/gameofthrones/^[7] subreddit titled "[Season 3] The 10 Reasons Why You Should Throw in with Stannis the Mannis," which outlined 10 reasons fans should root for Stannis in his quest for the Iron Throne. Within a year the post gained over 1,000 upvotes. On March 3rd, 2014, The Daily Dot^[4] published an article titled "An introduction to Stannis Baratheon, the Internet's King of Westeros," which explains the Stannis fandom.

Season Four Finale

During the show's season four finale "The Children," which originally aired on June 15th, 2014, Stannis and his army come in at the last minute to defeat the wilding army that threatened the Wall and the Night's Watch. On the same day YouTuber FatBoyStoich^[10] uploaded a video titled "Stannis the Mannis," which featured Stannis' victory scene set to a victorious techo song. In less than 24 hours the video gained over 6,000 views.

On June 16th, YouTuber Cory Baxter uploaded a video titled^[9] "Stanis the Mannis," which features the Stannis' victory scene with the Team America: World Police song 'America, Fuck Yeah' playing in the background.