tbh if they showed stannis dying, i would probably be extolling the brilliance of the writing.

i mean, if you're writing this and you have a giant red herring called stanny the manny and you want to show just how much of a red herring he is, you fucking obliterate him. you dont cut away and leave in ambiguity.

so really it's the editing that makes me think he's not dead. showing his head slice off would have been so powerful.