u/Keremay77

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The explanation given in the show is that about half of Stannis' army—primarily the sellswords—desert during the night after witnessing him burn Shireen alive, taking most of the horses with them.

But if you examine it closely, there are some reasons why this feels inconsistent:

• Sellswords are, by definition, mercenaries. Their loyalty is generally to payment and survival, not to their employer's morality. Throughout both the books and show, mercenary companies are portrayed as willing to serve cruel rulers as long as the money keeps coming.
• They had already joined a claimant to the throne who:
  • burned prisoners alive,
  • followed a foreign religion,
  • employed Melisandre, a priestess who practiced blood magic. Burning Shireen was certainly a far greater atrocity, but it wasn't as though Stannis' camp had previously been free of religious executions.
• From a purely practical perspective, deserting in the middle of a Northern winter, surrounded by enemies, is also an enormous risk. If you're a mercenary who's expecting to be paid after victory, abandoning the army before the decisive battle isn't necessarily the safest choice.

Not really sure if someone made posted something about this bad writing here before but I just wanted to share my opinion.