Fresh news out of the San Diego Comic-Con: Stannis Baratheon, the rightful king of Westeros, is dead.

Some of you may be thinking something along the lines of, “Well, duh.” After all, the last time we saw Stannis, his neck had an appointment with the business end of Brienne’s sword. Nevertheless, there were those who held out hope that everybody’s favorite filicidal grammar Nazi would survive, as we didn’t actually see the blade make contact, nor did we see a body. Still, David Nutter, the director of the Season 5 finale, confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that Stannis was indeed dead.

“From the very beginning, and [through] the script process, that was the intent – he’s dead.”

And there you have it. Now let’s see if we can’t get confirmation on that other slightly ambiguous death…