This post contains frank discussion of Game of Thrones Season 6, Episode 1, “The Red Woman.” If you haven’t watched yet, now’s the time to leave.
Are they gone? Good.
The Game of Thrones writers really threw fans off with that episode title, didn’t they? Those desperate to see the return of Jon Snow, and convinced Melisandre may have a role to play in his resurrection, probably thought that title was hinting at her working some of her fire magic on his corpse and bringing the Lord Commander back to life. No such luck, Jon Snow fans. The title wasn’t about him, it was all about her and, specifically, the shocking and subversive revelation that the oft-naked Melisandre is much older than she seems. Yep, she’s been glamouring herself to look younger. What, you thought that red hair was natural? Here’s everything you need to know about the latest surprising wrinkle in the Game of Thrones plot including what implications it could have for the future.
HINTS FROM THE ACTORS
This latest turn of events actually shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Way back in 2012, Melisandre actress Carice van Houten told Access Hollywood, “I don’t know how old she is, but she’s way over 100 years, so she is a wiser spirit, in a way, but it’s difficult for me to say too much because A — we want it to at least stay sort of a mystery and B — I didn’t read the books.” As you can tell, this interview was given long before the HBO show went into intensive spoiler lockdown. In an interview after Sunday’s season 6 premiere, show-runner David Benioff calls her “Several centuries old.”
Similarly, the actor who played Maester Cressen, Oliver Ford Davies, told journalists in 2013 that, according to van Houten, Melisandre is “400 years old.” She offered that fact up by way of explaining why her character survived poison in Season 2, Episode 1, and his character croaked.
HINTS IN THE SHOW
Melisandre did survive that poison, implying that she might not just be old, but also immortal. In the Season 4 scene where Melisandre spoke with Stannis’s wife Selyse from a steaming bath, she put her gleaming body on display while also discounting it as “just flesh.” Her body, she implied, was useful as a persuasive tool. In fact, she used it on Selyse in that very scene in order to get Shireen to come along with them to the Wall. And we all saw how that turned out.
Both the show and the book have implied that Melisandre’s ruby necklace is the source of her power. In that scene with Cressen and the poison it glows and pulses red, and again when she takes it off in this week’s episode and her body changes. The enchantress becomes a crone. But as you can see in the image above, Melisandre is completely without that necklace when talking to Selyse. Was that a show error? Maybe. But some fans theorize that if you watch that scene again closely it seems that Melisandre might actually be showing her true form to Selyse. Stannis’s wife is mildly horrified and completely fascinated as Melisandre tells her she doesn’t need to use “tricks” on true converts like Selyse. There’s no confirmation for this theory, but it’s a fun way to explain away an inconsistency in the show.
HINTS IN THE BOOK
So did book readers know? They had some guesses. Melisandre has her first (and only) P.O.V. chapter in the most recent A Song of Ice and Fire book which is pretty revealing. In it there’s the line, “Melisandre had practiced her art for years beyond count, and she had paid the price.” The priestess also only sleeps one hour a night (and is trying to cut out sleep entirely) and doesn’t eat, saying, “R’hllor provided her with all the food she needed but that was something best concealed from mortal men.” All this implies, again, that she is not just old but possibly immortal.
In his Dunk & Egg stories, George R.R. Martin explains that there’s a history in Westeros of black arts and youthful glamor. “Lady Shiera . . . Lord Bloodraven’s paramour. She bathes in blood to keep her beauty.” There’s a compelling theory that Melisandre is actually the daughter of Shiera and Brynden “Bloodraven” Rivers. Would any of that play into the show? It might. Bloodraven is also called the Three-Eyed Raven and will be played by Max von Sydow in Season 6. He and Melisandre could be two ancient creatures with keys to unlocking Westerosi history.
It’s also worth noting that at some point during her upbringing, Melisandre in the books was a slave. She remembers being sold as part of “Lot Seven.” That means she should have a tattoo marking her slave status (as slaves from Essos both in the show and in the books have). But both the show and book versions of Melisandre have no such mark, implying that she’s erased it as part of her glamour.
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE
There are a couple of theories (all speculation) that book readers have cooked up about why Melisandre’s old age matters. If she is actually 400 years old (as Oliver Ford Davies suggested), then she could be a survivor of the Doom of Valyria. (You might remember the show mentioning that cataclysmic event last season when Tyrion and Jorah sailed through its smoking ruins.) Melisandre could be the key to unlocking those ancient mysteries.
But if Oliver Ford Davies just misheard van Houten and Melisandre is closer to 100, then her potential connection to the Bloodraven could be interesting. In the books she sees the Bloodraven in her flames. Will this be a way to connect the Bran and Jon story lines in Season 6? And speaking of Jon, if Melisandre has cheated death in one way or another, does that mean she might know how to bring back the Lord Commander?
At any rate, it’s a fascinating turn for Game of Thrones to deliver up especially when it comes to sexual politics. Melisandre has been one of the most reliable sources of the tits half of Ian McShane’s charming Game of Thrones description (“it’s just tits and dragons”). Viewers who turn to the show just for titillation are forced to confront the fact that the women they’ve been objectifying (and who has been using her youthful body to gain power) for five seasons is in fact elderly. The actress knew it, the show creators knew it, and book readers probably knew it, too. Not a bad twist, and we’re only one episode in.
