That question is the new one posed as we see a completely new and unexpected site where Melisandre reveals herself at the end of Season 6 Episode 1 as a decrepit woman. The showrunners admitted that they held a conversation with George RR Martin, who told them that Melisandre is a few centuries old. While the main point in the story at this stage is to demonstrate the metaphor of her vulnerability, the appearance of “Old Meli” raises a question about her purpose/existence.

First, up until this point, Melisandre’s powers have only been shown twice. Once in her introductory episode where she drinks poison without harm. And the second when she gives birth to Stannis’ shadow baby. Beyond those two instances, you have to question whether or not Melisandre has any true powers. For instance, the deaths of Joffrey and Rob Stark could be chalked up to coincidence (since Balon Greyjoy thus far has not perished). In short, she seemed like a fraud or as they would ascribe to these types in the world of Game of Thrones, a mummer.

In unveiling her true form though, Melisandre new side in many ways abnegates the idea that she lacks any power. Her ability to be immune to poison previously may have implied she knew she would have an assassination attempt against her life and somehow made herself immune to poison (cf The Princess Bride). The shadow baby could have been smoke and mirrors, even if Ser Davos Seaworth had witnessed it first hand.

Yet in this situation, she is alone and this unveiling resembles, in a manner, her sole viewpoint chapter, where we see a small portion of what goes through her mind in the books. Here, there is no dialog just a very somber mood that hints at the same weakness where she questions her visions and faith.

Nonetheless, without her speaking a word, this transformation reveals a lot. One can assume that her life might be driven through a faith that perhaps has rewarded and misguided her for those centuries. Her rewards have only been material as she has revealed how she came from almost nothing, even slavery and risen to dine and fuck with kings. One can see potentially how she managed to survive wars and dynasties rising and falling, making her focused only in serving her deity.

The producers mentioned that Melisandre’s cold (or rather hot) sacrifice of Shireen was done only for her faith. Prior to that, her position with Shireen seemed more like an obstacle that stood in between her and Stannis. Yet her actions only have been in failure now and her faith no longer is rewarded.

From that you have to ask how long she has been going on in this manner. Has her mission since being discovered by The Lord of Light been to singlemindedly to fight the abstract darkness? Has her faith ever been shaken? Is this the last straw in a string of massive failures to find redemption?

I feel that her belief is pure but overzealous and unquestioning. I feel as though the way she looked at herself as an older woman isn’t the first time while she was alone. Yet the difference is how she saw herself from her previous times. That aged feeling is one of being worn out in being dragged around and toyed with. We see her slowly crawling into bed which resembles what one does with severe depression. She only desires to sleep, in avoiding responsibility and hoping that when she awakens, all the darkness and evil passes.

That last scene was incredibly touching for me as it’s a reminder to everyone about the frailness of life. In a brief moment, all the glamor gets swept away and the thing remaining is the memories that cling to your heart (not the other way around). You feel diseased and wretched because you cannot rid yourself of what you’ve done over your life, despite your intent to right what you perceive are wrongs.

Overall, there’s no question that she has a very large role to still play. But how will this happen? Will her faith be renewed now that she has been shattered? Can she sink any lower? Remember, part of the story is about fixing things once they are shattered. They no longer are the original object but the new form can improve upon what existed previously. Melisandre is broken, her faith has been called heavily into question, but she can slip to an even lower path before she can rise again.

The post Game of Thrones: Season 6 Episode 1, Who is Melisandre? appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

Because Melisandre is tied to the Lord of Light and that we’ve seen a previous character resurrected by another follower of R’hllor, most knowing fans speculate that she has the power to resurrect Jon Snow. The most logical theory in combining evidence/hints from the books and the show is that Jon Snow prior to being gutted worged into his dire wolf Ghost to save his life. In A Dance with Dragons, the introduction has another character with worg abilities transfer himself into an animal before his physical body perishes. Most of the Starks have been shown to exhibit some level of worging ability and it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to see Jon Snow with this ability either.

At the end of Season 5 Episode 10, there is an extremely subtle hint that Jon Snow worgs into Ghost where we briefly get a glimpse of his eyes changing to a blueish tint and the blood flow briefly turning into what looks to be an image of a wolf. Because the image appears so quickly, it’s more subliminal than something anyone can certainly say. But the showrunners have done an excellent job consistently dropping hints/foreshadowing for events in the future. So this brief glimpse is just another tiny indication that Jon Snow isn’t exactly dead, at least in spirit.

Still, there’s a lot of ground to cover in terms of dealing with the chaos that erupted from Jon Snow’s demise. First, we have to deal with the “rebellion” at Castle Black and the tenuous situation with the Wildlings. Next, we have to account for Davos Seaworth, who, despite not really having a true alliance in this situation, probably would’ve sided with Jon Snow considering that Jon has helped Stannis to a degree and vice versa. Also, we have to see how Melisandre’s character evolves here. Carice mentions that Melisandre has changed where her faith for once has not been validated. Lastly, we have to consider what will happen with Jon Snow’s physical form. Does Melisandre require the original body to enact a “resurrection?”

The way I see things go down is that immediately after killing Jon Snow, the Night’s Watch traitorous members might want to burn his body to prevent him becoming a White Walker zombie. Davos or other Jon Snow supporters might attempt to intervene and here’s where Davos might learn the truth of what happened, thus calling into him directly questioning the traitors. I’m certain Alliser Thorne will take issues with Davos since he shares some of Jon Snow’s good personality. However, Alliser Thorne, being one of the most senior people at Castle Black, probably will take control and become the new Watch Commander and order Davos banished.

Seeing that the situation has become utterly tragic, Davos might attempt to go to Melisandre and request help from her as she’s one of the few that might be able to do something about the situation. Melisandre now finds that everything she has done might’ve been futile and she resigns herself from her faith because she sees that her actions have been corrupt, including slaying an innocent child, killing a possible faithful friend (the Queen) and putting Stannis to a task leading to his death, all of which will result in the doom of the world once the White Walkers conquer Westeros.

Pretty much it’s a classic story arc of fucking up and finding some sort of redemption. Potentially, Melisandre’s journey in Season 6 will be one of piecing together Jon Snow’s past. Perhaps, with the aid of Sansa Stark, Theon/Reek and Davos, Melisandre will begin to understand the prophecies and her visions. She already had an unusual connection to Jon Snow where she detects there’s something deeper to him.

One thing you have to remember in fantasy is that a lot of writers do borrow from Dungeons and Dragons. David Benioff and DB Weiss refer to AD&D a lot and Game of Thrones is essentially one of the better fantasy pieces to utilizes a large number of AD&D concepts. One thing we have to think about is how the world is like having a large number of AD&D PCs (player characters) who are growing up in a bildungsroman type of character arc, especially when earlier drafts of proposals describe the end game survivors as the children of large families (i.e. Arya, Jon Snow, Bran Stark, Dany and Tyrion). It’s essentially the leveling up process.

With Melisandre, something to think about in the AD&D context is understanding what her corresponding AD&D level would be. The other character introduced in earlier episodes was a cleric type (Thoros of Myr) that had the ability to resurrect. It seemed as though at that point in time Melisandre did not have the same level of power as him. So perhaps she was level 5-7 or so. This season might be her way of leveling up to 9 where she gains the ability to Raise Dead. Or maybe she might be even higher level at 18 if Jon Snow’s body is left alone for too long. Either way, this character arc is just a way to show the leveling up process beyond killing monsters and finding treasure to gain experience points as per old school AD&D.

Also, we need to understand that the resurrection process described in the show is definitely taken from the AD&D version. Beric Dondarrion and Melisandre have a dialog exchange in Season 3 where Beric explains the effects of resurrection. The essence is that each time he gets resurrected, he “loses a bit of himself.” In AD&D terms, resurrection causes one to age 10 years (or 1 from a Raise Dead spell) and lose -1 to their constitution. If they fail a system shock roll, then they get obliterated. In Beric’s case, you can see that his body has been beaten up which indicates that his constitution is being slowly drained away. He also appears older than when we first received a glimpse of him in Season 1 after Ned Stark assigns him to take out The Mountain.

Now, going back to the idea of resurrecting Jon Snow, if we use what we know from Beric and AD&D, the implication is that Jon Snow will at the very least lose 1 point of constitution and age 1-10 years in the process. It might partly be like Frodo where the stab wounds from his Brothers never truly heal. But that aging of 1-10 years from the books perspective ought to put him at around age 24-27. So when he rises, he becomes a “man” just like Maester Aemon had foretold.

Those are just the physical changes. Beric never goes into detail about the psychological changes from a resurrection, which is something that the show might undertake. In Jon’s situation, if he worgs into Ghost, we don’t know what will mentally happen to him. Does he lose some sanity? Does he become more wolf-like in the process? Also, does dying mean Jon Snow goes into some spiritual realm?

Another thing to think about is how the Old Gods play a role in this situation. No one knows for certain if any gods truly exist in this realm outside of people blindly accepting certain faiths. But Jon Snow and the Starks follow the Old Gods (which will be ironic considering that Melisandre’s faith is a newer one). Because of their faith and the potential for the Old Gods to be the true gods, one must wonder if the dead Starks are able to reunite in the afterlife or if their spirits wander endlessly.

Perhaps, there’s a small moment where Jon Snow in between being resurrected is able to connect with his dead family. In the novel, we see Bran, as he’s being trained by the Three Eyed Raven, connect to his father via the Godswood in Winterfell. I have a feeling that Bran might use that power and attempt to connect Jon Snow back to his family’s spirits so that Ned Stark and Jon are able to have that promised talk about Jon Snow’s heritage.

Either way, Jon Snow will change via the resurrection. I think that there’s some hidden notes that will legitimize him via Robb Stark and perhaps Stannis as well (since Stannis did promise him in Season 5). His body will change too where he appears older and thereby being able to receive more respect. This will be important not only for Castle Black but the whole of the North where Sansa and Jon will attempt to rally the North to quell the Bolton rebellion. But I also think something psychologically will change within him. Perhaps, in speaking with Ned Stark, he will finally stop knowing nothing and discard honor as a fallacy in learning how to rule properly. Perhaps, Jon Snow will become darker and more blood thirsty due to his treatment after the betrayal. I feel that George RR Martin will retain some flaw in him to keep him interesting rather than making him out to be a pure badass with too much of a tweener/popular character archetype like Stone Cold Steve Austin or The Rock.

The post Game of Thrones: What A Potential Jon Snow Resurrection Implies appeared first on Kontroversial Keith.

Perhaps, you could see Stannis’ fate coming the moment he sacrificed his daughter, Shireen. Thus far, we have been led to believe that Melisandre does have real power and a connection to the Lord of Light, which is the same expectations that has lead Stannis to sacrifice everything he held dear. Melisandre herself foretells of these events beforehand in a previous episode and Stannis seems content at that point in time to fulfill his destiny.

However, that’s the cornerstone of what partly makes Stannis tick: his notion of destiny. Somehow Melisandre has tricked Stannis into believing far too much in her visions of what he was to become. However, anyone with half a brain could pick through the faulty and foundationless arguments that Melisandre provides. If anything it feels as though he uses the notion of destiny (perhaps the idea of Manifest Destiny) to justify his actions of deeper problems that the show attempts to flesh out with his character.

Remember what Stannis essentially is: the middle brother who received nothing. Are there any other famous middle siblings that you can recall who suffer the identity crisis of the forgotten child? Perhaps Fredo from the Godfather? And how did Fredo turn out?

Stannis claims to not outwardly desire the path that supposedly has chosen him, but I argue that Melisandre was simply baiting his true desires whenever he attempted to rationalize a saner path, especially when someone like Ser Davos Seaworth proposed something.

At the same time, Stannis is the type of person who believes in absolutes. Someone once described him as a lawful neutral type in the AD&D alignment universe. He is hard but fair and does not seek the moral right but only looks at what he describes as “the hard truths.” In that sense, he is an utterly determined person who uses anything as a tool to claim what he believes is rightfully his.

From a larger point of view, if we look at the show as, indeed, a large game involving “real” lives, then Stannis’ play is lost at this point. While he suffered a major defeat in King’s Landing, the loss against the Boltons wasn’t merely a military setback but a soul crushing one as everything that mattered to him was destroyed. You could say that at this point, Stannis is off the board, even if he was alive still.

But the question is what made him lose? Was it his utter determination and lack of balance? Certainly, he seemed like a smarter version of Ned Stark. Unlike Ned who had a moral compass, Stannis’ sternness allowed him to make the power plays and high risk moves that took Ned out quickly. If anything Stannis was simply someone who believed far too much in the hard truths and lacked the flexibility and patience. He was able to see the ultimate threat of the White Walkers but utilized that motive unrealistically in trying to seize the North by force rather than by diplomacy. He’s the type of person that reminds me of a zerg type of player in a game like Starcraft: build up as many forces as possible, create a slick formation then blindly charge in hoping to topple your enemy over by sheer numbers and brutal force.

However, he’s very short sighted and only makes snap decisions, leading him to lose the faith of his men. His idea of rule by brutal justice like a rigid cop or court system demoralized his men because only he had a sense of the ideal world. I think when you look at him, Robb Stark, Ned Stark and maybe even Jon Snow to a small degree, you realize that gaining favor with people does not mean stringent absolutes but exceptions need to be made as well as heeding council when the obvious situation is around you.

Will this be the end of Stannis the Mannis? Most likely, yes. In the incarnation of the person who fatefully believed too much in a vague destiny, that Stannis the Mannis is gone. Will the character be gone from the show/book? It’s hard to say. We did not see a true end to him but there’s little reason for us not to believe Brienne would not honor her vow to avenge Renly. Both are soldiers and mutually understand the price of war. That’s something Ned Stark had talked about prior to his beheading about his own character.

Should it be the end of Stannis? From the point of view of a player in this world, yes. His role is done. The idea of the stringent leader backed through blind destiny and rigid justice is a losing proposition. So figuratively and literally he ought to be dead.

From a character point of view, Stannis should be kept around. I’ve mentioned it before that the story partly is about breaking someone apart so that they have the ability to be rebuilt. We’ve finally seen some characters like Reek/Theon take a step for a positive change. Stannis is still a very relevant, important and fascinating character overall. With his army shattered, his family dead, his priestess abandoning him and the woman who swore revenge for the brother he helped murder, Stannis as the person we know is defeated. But he stands as a person that can be reborn as a changed person, seeing the things from his past and amending them for the future. It’s a dream story that makes sense for such a character. But as Ramsay Snow has emphatically stated, “If you think this has a happy ending, then you haven’t been paying attention.”

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