Melisandre, the Red Woman, is a truly interesting character and also the most consistent magic user we've seen in the show. She starts off as an advisor, of sorts, to Stannis because she (mistakenly) believes that he is Azor Ahai reborn. The signs she's read in her flames pointed her to Dragonstone, but she confused the clues and thought R'hllor was showing her Stannis when really it was just to put her on a path to find Jon Snow. And for 4 seasons, we watched as her visions came to be true, however a bit sideways then what she initially thought.
Melisandre has proven herself to be a powerful and intriguing character. However, like all strong characters, in the last season Mel has hit a wall (while at the Wall haha). Her faith in the Lord of Light might be restored because of Jon's resurrection, but after being banished from the North by Jon, she is more lost than ever before. So where does such an interesting character go from here? Well, she's definitely going to meet Arya! That's for damn sure! She says as much to Arya when the meet in season 2. A lot of the interesting theories surrounding Melisandre take place in season 2, specifically when she meets with Thoros of Myr and the Brotherhood without Banners. If you go back to my post about Jon's resurrection, you'll see that I developed my theory based on a scene from this very moment. Right after the scene between Thoros and Mel happens, she departs, but not without setting eyes on Arya.
In the scene, Arya calls Mel a witch and Mel turns around to face Arya. Upon meeting her eyes, Melisandre gets a look of shock and surprise and says to Arya, "I see a darkness in you, and in that darkness eyes stare back at me. Brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes. Eyes that you'll shut forever. We will meet again."
Later on, and in the books, Mel tells Jon of another vision she's had. That of his sister, sick and injured, riding a mare to the Wall. Jon dispatches riders to find her, but when they find the person Mel had described, we discover that it's not Arya. Another example of how Melisandre misinterprets her visions. Then there's the confrontation between her and Davos in Winterfell that leads to her banishment. So where does she go from here?
Well, we know she's traveling South and we also know that the Brotherhood Without Banners are heading North. Could they cross paths again? We know that R'hllor has influence over his priests and priestesses, and so therefore the possibility of Thoros and Melisandre being put back together are pretty good. But what does that mean? We're not entirely sure of what the Brotherhood's plans are. In the show, Beric Dondarion is still alive and leading them North, for what I assume is to assist the Northerners with the battle against the White Walkers. There is something missing here. In the books, Dondarrion is dead and the Brotherhood is following Lady Stoneheart. What is missing for me in the show, could be a part of what's happening in the books, but I don't think so. The books and the show are way too different at this point. So I think that the missing part of Mel's story is going to be Arya.
We don't know where Arya is headed yet. Last we saw her, she was checking off a few more names off of her kill list. But we don't know where she is heading either. Some think Arya is heading to King's Landing, and could be the reason for Cersei's death, which I am a strong believer in. (See the Valunqar Theory, valunqar is Old Valaryian for "little brother" and most think that means Cersei will be killed by Tyrion or Jamie, but we've also learned that Valaryian is a genderless language, so Valunqar could mean "little sister" and then BOOM! Cersei dies and there's Arya who everyone thought was dead, holding the bloody blade).
Of course, this is all speculation, and from a writer's standpoint, the events of next season will be really cool but also push these characters towards where they need to be for the final battle. Melisandre and Arya will meet again, but where that path leads still needs more clues to be revealed.
I really hope Winds of Winter is published and released soon. I'm starting to go through "new GoT books" withdrawal. For those interested in other stories from within the world of the Song of Ice and Fire, I recommend reading the Dunk and Egg stories (3 separate stories, or the entire collection can be found in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), Rogues (an anthology collection of short stories), Dangerous Women (another anthology, but this one has the Dance of Dragons short story), and Warriors (another anthology collection).
Thanks for reading. What do you think will happen to Melisandre next season? Will she meet Arya? Is Arya the Valunqar or will she go in a different direction with her list and find the Brotherhood without Banners? What do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment