8. A Very Swift Victory
Sacrificing your only daughter in such a brutal manner is hardly going to gain awe and admiration in your followers, and it comes as no surprise that, when Stannis awakens on the morning of the long march to Winterfell nearly half of his army have deserted, including all of the sellswords and their horses. To make matters worse, his wife has taken herself quietly into the woods as hung herself from a tree, pushing morale to the lowest ebb possible. Still, while many might have expected that these depleted forces would have made the siege of Winterfell more difficult to pull off, the sight of the Bolton army hurtling towards Stannis' meagre forces came out of the blue. Stannis Baratheon's dream of being king of the Seven Kingdoms came to a crushing close in a matter of moments - that the final blow came from Brienne of Tarth, avenging the murder of Renly Baratheon at Stannis' figurative hands, added an unexpected level of closure to the scene.