I agree but find that spending nearly a whole ten episodes on building up Stannis and his battle of Winterfell for it to last a few moments was very underwhelming.
The climax of the Stannis arc this season was the point where he lost everything at the beginning of this episode. After this, and particularly once we see the size of the Bolton force, the result of the battle had become such a foregone conclusion that they needn't have wasted any of their budget or the episode's runtime on showing it. I certainly wouldn't have bought any kind of Spartan-esque heroism from him and his forces with the situation they were put in (from a storytelling standpoint, this would've just been filler), so where's the interest in seeing something so one-sided?
The aftermath with Brienne, on the other hand, is something the audience is interesting in seeing. I think there's certainly a possibility she's not killed him, and taken him instead to Winterfell to exchange for Sansa. It's still more likely that he's dead but I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't.
The aftermath with Brienne, on the other hand, is something the audience is interesting in seeing. I think there's certainly a possibility she's not killed him, and taken him instead to Winterfell to exchange for Sansa. It's still more likely that he's dead but I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't.