"Then I Brienne of Tarth, sworn member of the Rainbow Guard of His Most Honorable and Rightful King Renly Baratheon, do hereby sentence you Stannis Baratheon to death. Any last words?"
"Go on, do your duty."
MISSING SCENE
Brienne takes a downward swipe at Stannis, but the magic of the Valyrian sword itself is diverted-- Ned Stark's old sword ICE. Ned knew Stannis is the one true rightful king, and the sword remembers-- the North Remembers - the SWORD REMEMBERS!
"I do not know what to say. how could this has happened?" asks Brienne.
"Ah, Brienne of Tarth, Knighted warrior of the Rainbow Guard, it is I, Lord Petyr Baelish, a very good friend of your sworn, Catelyn Stark. Cate would have wanted you to spare King Stannis, as it is true just as Lord Stark had declared, Stannis is the one true King. So here, allow me to give you 1,000 gold dragons for your troubles. ... You know Stannis, that leg of your's looks pretty bad-- it's going to have to come off -- Brienne, you have that sharp Valyrian steel blade, would you help King Stannis out?"
Brienne amputates Stannis' leg with ICE (fOathbreaker)
After a brief recuperation, King Stannis -now a broken man on the mend, reconciles his life, and realizes his must be a different pathway of cooperation and reaching the crown itself is not as important as defeating the greater immediate enemy - THE BOLTONS!
Stannis is seen working with Littlefinger writing some sort of letter on pink parchment skin- later, a lone one-legged man is assisted in donning Bolton colors prior to mounting up for a ride towards Castle Black.
So, what does this mean? Ned's blood on ICE remembers! And, the other half of ICE, where ever it is in King's Landing, will be the device that kills Cersai (or Jamie- whichever, you can have both if you prefer ...) DAWN I suspect is a Targaryen-blood oriented blade. - Magic in sword's ya'all! IT'S HAPPENING! GRRM you devious devil - your old Dungeon and Dragon magic is being revealed!
I knew there was a pathway for Stannis to live- just had to think it out.
STANNIS BARATHEON - the One True King!