I wasn’t sure about that, and it did occur to me that they were Stannis’ men, but that doesn’t mean he’ll escape.
With things looking the way they do, getting Stannis out of the city, onto a boat, and away free and clear looks a lot less likely than Stannis getting captured.
Which isn’t to say that Stannis definitely won’t escape, just that if he does I’ll be wanting a better plotted reason than plain dumb luck.
Loras was loyal to Renly. With Renly dead, that loyalty is finished. That means Loras can join any side he wishes except for Renly’s killers without being accused of changing sides.
If your side goes out of business, then picking a new side is not disloyalty, it’s exactly what a knight has to do. You can be loyal to dead man, but you can’t* be loyal to a dead cause, and Renly’s cause died with Renly. Therefore; no side to be on, and no side to be disloyal to.
*Unless you are batshit insane, which is always possible in the real world and in fictional worlds, but we’re operating on the assumption that Loras is not batshit insane.
No, a knight will kill a man in battle with honour, he won’t murder anyone. I think we can safely assume that Loras is an honourable knight.
He could have dropped the war business and focused on private revenge, 47 Ronins style, though. Hell, he could have marched straight into Stannis’ camp and demanded a duel. That would have been knightly and romantic too.
But fundamentally, I believe you’re thinking about this solely from Loras’ perspective, which while valid is not necessarily the best P.O.V. to assess shifting allegiances. I mean, a guy could sell nuclear secrets to the Russians with the best, most altruistic intentions and what he believes is the best interest of all mankind at heart ; he’s still a spy, right ?
Look at Loras’ actions from other, less partial perspectives: from the Lannisters he was an enemy, now he’s an ally. From the Starks he’s the liege of a guy who was more or less allied with Robb for a common, worthy cause ; who’s now turned his back on it and joined their mutual, sworn enemy. From Stannis’ admittedly askew perspective, he’s a guy who swore allegiance to Renly Baratheon, hence to House Baratheon no matter who runs it, and as such should have joined him like every other bannerman of Renly’s.
But really, it’s just a minor point of contention. We can agree to disagree on this, and focus on how fucking awesome that green 'splosion was instead 
Manner of speaking, manner of speaking. I meant murder as in “make very dead” (which, no matter the reason, I would be hard pressed not to take a little bit personally if someone wanted to do to me), not in a dagger in the back sense - not that I ever really was one to establish distinctions between “killing” and “murdering”. Dead’s dead.
Plus when you’re as good as Loras is with a lance, “in battle with honour” doesn’t give the other guy much more of a chance, does it ? 
Well, once he accepts that retreat is necessary, I wouldn’t put it past Stannis to just carve a bloody swath in a straight line to the nearest boat. He might fight like a suicidal lunatic, but that seems to work for him
Or he could slink into the same tunnels Tyrion used: he’s apparently familiar with King’s Landing, and even if the Lannisters thought to look for him down there at all that’s still 50 miles of catacombs to comb through, leaving him plenty of time to sneak back out when the heat has died down a bit and most of Tywin’s forces have fucked off to meet Robb.
Tyrion’s plan was
i) use the “greek fire” to destroy as many of Stannis’s ships in the harbour.
ii) Employ his land forces to engage the guys who got on shore
iii) use the tunnels to outflank them if it seems that they were about to break through.
As it was the battle went pretty much according to plan. Note they did destroy the guys who were with the Rams, and pretty much won the battle then.
If they had permitted Stannis to break in, well Stannis would have a foothold in Kings landing and that would be difficult to dislodge. If Stannis gets a foothold, he can reinforce it at his discretion and while the troops in the breach will experience hell on…(?)Westros(?) they battle would he his.
Deal.
That makes sense.
I thought it was left hanging whether Sansa would go along. Perhaps I missed something.
When you use a term like “turncoat,” you have to look at it from that perspective. So far as Loras is concerned, the cause/nation that he formerly supported no longer exists. He has no coat to turn. He’s entirely free to choose any side.
Thanks much. I was confused by the turncoat thing, and figured I missed a scene altogether or maybe didn’t know who Ser Loras was. For Loras to be a turncoat he’d have to turn against Renly.
That’s how it looked to me, too. Given Sansa’s options:
You can see how option 2 might seem the best bet to Sansa at that point.
Yes, that’s what I was saying. Loras’ vow of loyalty ended with Renley’s death, from that point on he was a free agent. Since there is no “House of Renley” there is nothing to be loyal to once Renley himself is dead.
Actually the battle was pretty much lost until Tywin and the Tyrells came riding in, Tyrion managed to kill the few guys who were banging at the gate but then hundreds or thousands more came charging in.
I thought those that were charging in were Tywin’s men. Am I wrong?
Why did Tyrion wait for Stannis’s boats to make it to shore before launching flaming arrows at them? Wouldn’t they have been easier to hit while still on the water?
No first a ton of Stannis men charged Tyrion’s small force, then when Tyrion was down the Lannister/Tyrell cavalry charged in.
Why do you presume that the Hound wishes to errr…seduce Sansa?
Whenever a commander asks their archers to hold fire I assume it’s because of range. They’re supposed to have the best eye for that kind of thing. Also he probably didn’t want to waste fire arrows on the water. Better to have burning corpses and burning ground when the first men land on the shore.
“Oh, fuck me…”
Remember the old Band-Aid brand adhesive strip jingle? I sung a version of it during the wildfire scene.
I am stuck on napalm
'Cause napalm sticks to me!
Not a lot of love so far for the amazing performance of “The Rains of Castamere” that played during the credits and that Bronn was singing. I thought it was freaking perfect.
I liked it over the credits. I wonder who sang it.