Stannis the Mannis

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 and photoshopped stills and GIFs from the show Stannis the Mannis is made to look cool.

Origin

Stannis Baratheon (played by Stephen Dillane),^[5] brother of Robert Baratheon, who rules as king of the realm until his death in season one of Game of Thrones, first appears in the show’s second season premiere “The North Remembers” which first aired on April 1st, 2012. As Robert’s eldest brother Stannis is the heir to the Iron Throne, though few see him as a threat initially because few know Joffrey and Cersei’s other children are Jaime’s illegitimate offspring. Stannis tries to gain the Iron Throne with the help of his right hand man, Ser Davos Seaworth, and Lord of the Light priestess Melisandre. In May 2012, a page was created on Quickmeme^[7] featuring Stannis the Mannis image macros (shown below).

Spread

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.