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| “ | We all must choose. Man or woman, young or old, lord or peasant, our choices are the same. We choose light or we choose darkness. We choose good or we choose evil. We choose the true god or the false. | „ |
| ~ Melisandre. |
| “ | The night is dark and full of terrors. | „ |
| ~ Melisandre citing her religion's catchphrase. |
| “ | These little wars are no more than a scuffle of children before what is to come. The one whose name may not be spoken is marshaling his power, Davos Seaworth, a power fell and evil and strong beyond measure. Soon comes the cold, and the night that never ends. Unless true men find the courage to fight it. Men whose hearts are fire. | „ |
| ~ Melisandre. |
Melisandre, also known as The Red Woman, is a major character in the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series and its television adaptation Game of Thrones.
She is a red priestess, devoted to the religion of R'hllor, the Lord of Light, and a shadowbinder, hailing from the city of Asshai, a dark esoteric city of the occult in Far East Essos. She serves as a close counselor and mistress to Stannis Baratheon during his campaign to take the Iron Throne, being a member of his court.
Several years prior the beginning of the main story, Melisandre came to Westeros and joined Stannis's household at Dragonstone due to her believing he is the savior Azor Ahai reborn, who according to her religion is destined to defeat the Great Other. While she cares deeply for the future of the entire world and genuinely dreads the arrival of a long winter and the prophetic arrival of "eternal darkness", she often resorts to highly morally dubious methods to achieve her goals.
She was portrayed by Carice van Houten.
Appearance[]
Biography[]
| “ | Lady Melisandre wore no crown, but every man there knew that she was Stannis Baratheon’s real queen, not the homely woman he had left to shiver at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. | „ |
| ~ Jon Snow's thoughts. |
Born as a girl named Melony, she was taken away from her mother as a child hundreds of years ago and sold to the Red Temple of R'hllor. She was later known as Melisandre of Asshai, a red priestess of R'hllor, the Lord of Light.
Melisandre's free status is still questionable; it is unclear if she is a slave of R'hllor, free, gone rogue, or escaped from Asshai.
The details of her early life are unknown. It's only said she now feels lonely, as she and Stannis had an intimate relationship, sharing the bed in Dragonstone, Storm's End, and later Castle Black.
It is only known that she came from Asshai, and years later she met the depressed Lady Selyse Florent, wife of Lord Stannis Baratheon. Melisandre left the shadowlands in Far East Essos in her search for the prophet called "Azor Ahai reborn." The flames showed her the man, until she found Dragonstone and started a friendly relationship with Selyse.
Later, Stannis left King's Landing and returned to Dragonstone. Not caring about religions, he simply ignored Melisandre until the War of the Five Kings, when Selyse advised him to talk with her after the stormlords had refused him for King Renly Baratheon.
Melisandre became the advisor to Stannis Baratheon. Melisandre is also a shadowbinder who will do whatever it takes to ensure Stannis wins the Iron Throne, even killing his younger brother. Her true purpose, however, is to find Azor Ahai and defeat the Great Other. She and Stannis use each other to fulfill their goals.
A Game of Thrones[]
At the crossroads inn, Tywin Lannister tells Tyrion Lannister of one of Varys's whispers: that on Dragonstone, Stannis Baratheon is bringing a shadowbinder from Asshai.
A Clash of Kings[]
Melisandre came to Dragonstone because she believed Stannis Baratheon was Azor Ahai reborn and destined to defeat the Great Other, the antithesis of her god. She turns Stannis' wife, Lady Selyse Florent, and several other members of Stannis' court from the Faith of the Seven to her red god. Fearing Melisandre's influence and her unnatural power, Stannis' maester, Cressen, tries to poison her and himself with the Strangler, the latter likely to avoid Stannis' retribution should he succeed in the former. Though she gives him a chance to abandon his scheme, he goes through with it, succeeding only in poisoning himself and still denying her god's powers as he dies choking. After witnessing her miraculous survival, Stannis is convinced by Melisandre to embrace her god and burn all the statues of the Seven on Dragonstone, although he remains a less committed follower than his wife and some others in his court. Melisandre proclaims Stannis Azor Ahai reborn and has him pull a burning sword from the idols, declaring it to be the legendary Lightbringer.
Stannis' brother Renly Baratheon has also made a claim for the Iron Throne and has a huge army on the march, so Stannis moves against their family's ancient seat at Storm's End. Drawing on the strength of Stannis, Melisandre conjures a shadow assassin, which she uses to murder Renly after he refuses to bend the knee to his older brother. Even after Renly's death, forces loyal to him continue to hold Storm's End in his name. After Ser Cortnay Penrose, who was left charge of the castle, refuses to yield, Melisandre has Davos Seaworth sail her under the stronghold. There she births another shadow assassin whom she releases to slay Penrose. Melisandre is then sent back to Dragonstone and is not present during the Battle of the Blackwater. This is done so no one could say Stannis won his throne via sorcery.
A Storm of Swords[]
After the failed attack on King's Landing, Stannis retreats to Dragonstone. It is there that Davos hatches a plan to kill Melisandre, believing her to be responsible for the defeat on the Blackwater. Melisandre claims to have learned of this plan through the flames, and Davos has been arrested.
She also pleads for Stannis to give her Edric Storm, the bastard son of Robert Baratheon, as there is power in a king's blood and he can be sacrificed to "wake the stone dragon." Stannis refuses; however, she is able to leech some of Edric's blood. Stannis casts the leeches into the flames while stating the names of the "three false kings:" Balon Greyjoy, Robb Stark, and Joffrey Baratheon. In time, each of the three perished. After Joffrey's death, Davos smuggles Edric off Dragonstone, fearing Stannis will burn them, though it is left unclear whether Stannis would.
Stannis next moves his forces to the Wall after hearing of their plight through a letter sent by the Night's Watch brought to his attention by Davos. Melisandre accompanies him and is a part of the battle that sees the wildling forces crushed and Mance Rayder captured. During the battle, Melisandre kills the eagle that was once Orell's with flames.
A Feast for Crows[]
Following the battle of the Blackwater, Melisandre urges Stannis to let her have Mance Rayder's son since she was unable to get Edric Storm, who had been smuggled away from Dragonstone by Davos, to keep him safe from Melisandre. Before she can get to Mance's son, however, Lord Commander Jon Snow secretly switches Mance's child with the son of Gilly, a wildling girl befriended by Samwell Tarly. Thus, the wilding prince is safely spirited to Oldtown and out of the reach of Melisandre.
A Dance with Dragons[]
Melisandre remains at the Wall when Stannis marches south to face the Boltons. Her powers are much stronger at the Wall. She constantly searches her fires for visions. When she looks into the flames, she sees a “wooden face, corpse white” with a thousand red eyes, accompanied by a boy with a wolf’s face. She assumes that they are servants of the Great Other. She asks to see Azor Ahai, hoping for Stannis, but sees only Jon Snow surrounded by skulls, his face changing between that of a man and that of a wolf. When she sees Jon, she also sees enemies surrounding him and warns him of daggers in the dark. She also tells him that she sees his sister, Arya Stark, as a girl in gray on a dying horse, fleeing from her marriage toward Castle Black. She continually tries to warn him of these visions, but he refuses to listen. The vision of the girl on the horse comes to pass, but the girl is Alys Karstark, not Arya.
When Mance Rayder is to be burned as a deserter, Melisandre places a glamor over him, making him appear as the wildling Rattleshirt. Rattleshirt, in turn, was glamorously made to look like Mance and killed in his place. Shortly after this, Stannis leaves the Wall, leaving Melisandre, Selyse, and Shireen behind. Some troops are left with them, mostly those unable to fight or craven. Melisandre asks for Stannis' squire, Devan Seaworth, Davos' fifth and oldest surviving son, to remain with her, as she doesn't want Davos to lose more sons.
She eventually reveals Rattleshirt’s true identity to Jon Snow and sends him to Winterfell to rescue "Arya" (not knowing that it is actually Jeyne Poole) in an attempt to win his trust. She also predicts the deaths of three rangers on the Watch. When they are returned by the Weeper to the Wall as eyeless heads atop spears, as she predicted, Jon Snow begins to take her visions more seriously, but is still wary of her.
Melisandre then tells Lord Snow that the wildlings will next attack at Eastwatch, as she has seen in the flame towers by the sea engulfed in a black and bloody tide. She acknowledges, however, that the towers of her vision did not look like those at Eastwatch. When Snow plans to send men to Hardhome on a rescue mission, she urges him not to, claiming it is a lost cause and that she has seen that none of the ships he sent there will return.
Notable Victims[]
- Lord Renly Baratheon - Assisted with her King Stannis Baratheon through sorcery; throat deeply cut through his own plate armor in the novels; stabbed through the heart in the back in the TV series; both by a conjured shadow.
Books only:[]
- Ser Cortnay Penrose - Assisted with her King Stannis Baratheon through sorcery; thrown off Storm's End's battlements by a conjured shadow.
- Lord Guncer Sunglass and two sons of Ser Hubard Rambton - Set afire as blood offerings to R'hllor, on the order of Queen Selyse Florent, who sentenced them to die for treason.
- Lord Alester Florent - Set afire as a blood sacrifice to R'hllor on the order of King Stannis Baratheon, who sentenced him to die for treason.
- Orell - His "second" death as an eagle; bursted into flames from within the eagle's body due to a conjured spell of firemagic.
- Lord of Bones - Set afire as a blood offering to R'hllor, while being magically glamored as Mance Rayder, and while locked in a cage with a rope noose around his neck; done on the order of King Stannis Baratheon, who sentenced him to die for being a deserter of the Night's Watch; finished with an arrow in the chest, another in the gut, and another in the throat by Ulmer, Donnel Hill, Garth Greyfeather, and Bearded Ben on Lord Jon Snow's order, as mercy.
TV Series only:[]
- Lord Axell Florent - Ordered; set afire by Baratheon soldiers as a blood sacrifice to the Lord of Light, on the order of King Stannis Baratheon, who sentenced him to die for insubordination and apostasy.
- Mance Rayder - Set afire as a blood offering to the Lord of Light on King Stannis Baratheon's order, then finished with an arrow through his heart by Jon Snow as mercy.
- Princess Shireen Baratheon - Set afire as a blood sacrifice to the Lord of Light on King Stannis Baratheon’s order.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Melisandre (GOT).jpg (58 KB)")
Trivia[]
- Melisandre is not considered a villain by many fans. She is not considered a villain by the very creator of the series, George R. R. Martin, who has called her the most misunderstood character in the series.
- This is also the sole reason why Martin made Melisandre a POV character in A Dance with Dragons, as he was tired and annoyed with readers accusing Melisandre of manipulating Stannis and having a hidden evil agenda. Her thoughts in her POV confirmed that all of Melisandre's religious claims and promises to Stannis are her genuine beliefs.
- Melisandre is more villainous in the show, such as by mocking Davos over the death of his son Matthos. In the books, she expresses sympathy for the loss of his four sons (Dale, Allard, Matthos, and Maric) on the Blackwater Rush and even tries to prevent him from losing more sons, being impressed by his loyalty to Stannis.
- She is in fact the reason why Davos's son, the boy Devan Seaworth, remained with her at Castle Black instead of joining his king's march to the Northern Mountains and Deepwood Motte (and later to Winterfell). Although Devan resents this, as he keeps wishing to prove his valor and worth, he's not aware that Melisandre caused him to stay at the Wall and thinks he's suffering an untold punishment.
- She also tries to prevent Maester Cressen from proceeding with his attempt to poison her, seeing it as folly and knowing it would end with Cressen being executed for murder and treason. When Cressen ends up poisoning himself, she watches him with pity, as he didn't listen to her. In the show, she makes no effort to stop Cressen and appears indifferent to his death, with her feelings being unknown.
- Melisandre is afraid of dreams and sees them as evil and small temporary deaths of the night sent by the Great Other. It's implied she fears her own nightmares and past mysterious traumas.
- She nearly doesn't need to sleep and doesn't need to eat to survive. She sometimes does the latter only because she needs people around her seeing her doing regular human activities.
- In the sixth season of the TV series, she is revealed to be a very aged and ancient elderly woman who hid her true appearance via her enchanted necklace.
- This is a scene that has never been presented in the novels, where Melisandre is described as having an even younger appearance than 35-yeard-old Stannis, looking closer to her 20s. While it has already been heavily implied that Melisandre is really old and lived for a long time, it's unknown if she has a "real form" of an old woman, or if her youthful appearance is how she always looks without depending on her choker.
- An inconsistency in the TV series is that when Melisandre is shown taking a bath in Season 4's episode "Mockingbird," in which she doesn't have her necklace on at all.
- In the universe, it is possible that she can briefly take it off for certain periods of time (in "The Red Woman," she wanted to see her true form in the mirror), though out-of-universe, it's possible that getting the prop necklace wet might damage it. Also, Melisandre has been heavily using her magical powers of prophecy, trying to see the future through the flames, so her glamor might be under a heavier strain.
- In the show, Melisandre was, for a while, one of the targets on Arya Stark's list, but later she removed her name from the list. In the A Song of Ice and Fire series, Melisandre and Arya never met each other.
- Most of Melisandre's dialogues with Lord Beric Dondarrion in Season 3 were taken from conversations between Beric, the old witch called Ghost of High Heart, Thoros of Myr, and even Arya.
- In the novels, it is constantly implied that Stannis and Melisandre are in a relationship and regularly have sex. According to Melisandre and Ser Axell Florent, their relationship was strengthened after Stannis's defeat in the Battle of the Blackwater, although at the same time Stannis doesn't trust her powers as he did before.
- During the siege of Storm's End against Renly's garrison, the excuse of Stannis for sharing his tent with Melisandre was that she "helped him sleep," which led his men to already assume the truth.
- Melisandre outright confirms to Davos that the two shadow assassins she birthed to kill Renly and Cortnay Penrose were conceived through her sexual intercourses with Stannis. She even offered to make one more with Davos to kill another enemy of Stannis, only for Davos to turn the offer down in fear.
- At Dragonstone, Davos notices how physical Melisandre constantly is with Stannis, always with her hands on him, despite the fact that Stannis doesn't like being touched and is even uncomfortable with his wife touching him.
- After Stannis leaves her at the Wall, Melisandre thinks to herself that her bed has little use to her without Stannis sharing it, as she doesn't even need to sleep like regular humans to live, only sleeping on rare occasions and even then no more than 1 hour. Jon Snow and his fellow black brothers call Melisandre "Stannis's true queen". Jon was also informed that Melisandre and Stannis regularly have walks in the night, especially atop the Wall.
- Overall, nearly all the public sees Melisandre as Stannis's mistress and lover. Ramsay Bolton refers to Melisandre as Stannis's "red whore".
- Even in the TV series, where one of the dwarf mummers in Joffrey I's wedding feast is dressed as Stannis for his mock joust, with a big puppet meant to be Melisandre serving as Stannis's mount.
- In the novels, it is completely unknown how Selyse feels about the rumors regarding her husband and Melisandre, if she heard of them, or if she's aware of their relationship or has any suspicions. In the TV series, Stannis told her about it, although Selyse was fine with being cuckolded in the "Lord's will".
- Melisandre and Stannis's plot with Robert I Baratheon's bastard in both the novel A Storm of Swords of A Song of Ice and Fire and Season 3 of Game of Thrones quite differs for the two versions:
- In Season 3 of the show, after finding the young lowborn man Gendry in the Riverlands and buying him from the Brotherhood Without Banners, Melisandre brings him to Stannis at Dragonstone. There, she undresses herself and seduces and deceives Gendry, who is a bastard son of King Robert I. After tempting Gendry with sex, she restrains him and puts 3 leeches on his body so Stannis can use them to curse his 3 rival kings with bloodmagic. Later, Stannis decides to let Melisandre kill Gendry for a blood sacrifice after only Robb Stark dies. Gendry is smuggled by Davos on a small boat, with Gendry rowing his way back to King's Landing on his own. Despite using the 3 leeches, Balon Greyjoy in the show stays alive for two more seasons, with the Ironborn storyline being nearly entirely omitted from the rest of the show and Balon dying in Season 6, after most of Melisandre's original plans fail.
- In the third novel A Storm of Swords, Gendry never goes to Dragonstone, never meets Melisandre (who always stays by Stannis's side at Dragonstone), and stays an outlaw of the Brotherhood in the Riverlands. It is the 13-year-old boy Edric Storm, highborn bastard son of King Robert I and Delena Florent, and ward of House Baratheon, who is brought to Dragonstone on a ship with Melisandre, and that takes place in the second novel after Stannis takes Storm's End from Renly's garrison.
- It is also not Melisandre who puts Edric on a bed and leeches him, but instead the youth Maester Pylos does it (without having any of Melisandre's sexual role with Gendry in the show). In the third novel, Pylos leeches Edric while the latter has a fever, then gives the three leeches to Melisandre so that Stannis can use them for the same bloodmagic curse as the show.
- Only after all 3 rival kings (first Balon IX Greyjoy, then Robb, and finally Joffrey) die, Stannis agrees to have his nephew Edric killed, while promising to have Melisandre tortured to death if the blood sacrifice won't give him any results. Unlike the show, where Davos is on his own in smuggling Gendry, Davos arranges with Salladhor Saan to have Edric smuggled aboard one of Saan's pirate ships, and Davos manages to sneak Edric out with the help of a group of trusted men, omitted from the show: Maester Pylos, Ser Andrew Estermont (Stannis and Edric's cousin), Ser Gerald Gower, Ser Triston of Tally Hill, Lewys the Fishwife, and Omer Blackberry. Aside for Davos and Pylos, the rest of the group go with Edric as his guards and protectors, with Andrew being named his guardian and surrogate parent. Edric is currently in Lys, in western Essos.
- It is also not Melisandre who puts Edric on a bed and leeches him, but instead the youth Maester Pylos does it (without having any of Melisandre's sexual role with Gendry in the show). In the third novel, Pylos leeches Edric while the latter has a fever, then gives the three leeches to Melisandre so that Stannis can use them for the same bloodmagic curse as the show.
- In addition, in the TV show, Stannis appears already willing to sacrifice Gendry without arguments, and Davos is the one who convinces Stannis to force Melisandre to give a demonstration of the alleged power of king's blood through the leeches. She even tells Gendry to blame Davos for the leeching.
- This is not the case in the novels, where Davos has no involvement with the idea of using leeches. It is Stannis himself who refuses to burn Edric and demands for proof of Melisandre's claims, and Maester Pylos already had to leech Edric regardless, as part of medical treatment, since the boy was sick (though according to Stannis it wasn't that serious, and leeching him was possibly an excuse to obtain his blood samples). By the time the clueless Davos is released from his prison cell, Stannis already arranged for Pylos to give 3 leeches to Melisandre.
- Also, unlike the show, where Gendry was thrown by Stannis in a dungeon cell, Edric was never a prisoner at Dragonstone, as he is Stannis's ward living freely in the castle with his cousin Shireen and with his own private chambers.
- Unlike the show, in which the purpose of Gendry's sacrifice was never given and was kept vague, in the novels it was outright stated that Melisandre wanted to burn Edric alive in order to awake the stone gargoyle dragons that make the entire castle of Dragonstone, possibly even awakening the other monster statues and actual gargoyle statues of the castle.
- According to Salladhor Saan, if Melisandre's ritual successfully took place, it would've ended up with the whole castle collapsing and getting destroyed, as all of Dragonstone castle is made of giant statues as buildings. Melisandre's plan was also public knowledge at Dragonstone long before Edric's leeching, since Davos and Alester Florent were locked in a cell together, with Alester openly opposing Melisandre's plan.
- Whether sacrificing Edric for a bloodmagic rite would've achieved providing Stannis with one ore more dragons of black stone remains a mystery. In A Clash of Kings, while in the House of the Undying, Daenerys Targaryen has a vision of "a great stone beast starting to fly from a smoking tower, breathing shadows," suggesting the possibility of the existence of sorcery being capable of bringing statues made of black stone into life.
- This vision, along all others within the House, as explained by Pyat Pree, can be "sights and sounds of days gone by and days to come and days that never were." This implies a possibility that Daenerys's vision could've been a then-future in which Stannis and Melisandre successfully sacrificed Edric and the ritual succeeded. In that case, Davos would be the one who averted that future and denied Stannis possession of a "shadow" dragon. However, the vision could entirely be something else, like another possible and avoidable future or a past.
- Despite never meeting Melisandre and never going to Dragonstone, Gendry still met his uncle Stannis once in King's Landing, when Stannis and Jon Arryn personally visited him at the shop of the Qohorik blacksmith and armorer Tobho Mott, to investigate the real parentage of Cersei's children. While Jon asked Gendry various questions, Stannis never spoke a word to him and only glared at him.
- As mentioned above, Melisandre's true elderly form appearing in the Season 6 premiere of Game of Thrones, has never been shown in the novels. Whether this will be part of the upcoming novels or not remains unknown so far.
- As screenwriter David Benioff points out in the "Inside the Episode" featurette, the novels already gave some hints that Melisandre is actually far older than she seems and the possibility that is using a magical "glamor" to project an outward image of youth. It was already a major theory circulating among book readers for some time, given Melisandre's thought to herself that she has been practicing her magical arts "for years beyond count" and Davos' description that her appearance is so perfect as to seem unnatural and artificial: her proportions a little too perfect, her skin so flawless that it has no blemishes whatsoever, and her hair so red it is the color of red copper (not a natural human red hair color).
- In the fifth novel, Melisandre reveals that she outright has the power to project glamors on other people when she projects the image that the Lord of Bones is actually Mance Rayder and has him burned at the stake in his place (though the showrunners have stated Mance simply dies in the TV version). Melisandre directly explains to Jon that her glamors only affect mental appearances and perceptions in other people's minds; she doesn't actually "shape-shift" the way that the Faceless Men do. Moreover, a point is made that Melisandre never takes her elaborate necklace off in the novels, which contains a red jewel that glows when she uses her powers.
- The scene revealing Melisandre's old form has disturbed many audiences, and it is considered to be one of the most infamous scenes in the series.
- In the novels, Melisandre is terrified of Stannis's jester and Shireen's companion Patchface, whose presence and constant singing about the deep of the ocean make her uneasy. It's implied that Melisandre and red priests in general fear the ocean and its deep, dark and cold bottom, that lack all of the aspects of their Lord of Light.
- In addition, Melisandre warned Jon Snow that she saw a vision of Patchface being surrounded by a thousand skulls. Whatever this means remains unknown for now.
- While she is still alive in the books, in the show, she willfully accepted her own death after the Battle of Winterfell. With the Night King destroyed, Melisandre's mission in the world was accomplished, so she removed her magic necklace and died of old age.
External Links[]
- Melisandre on the A Wiki of Ice and Fire.
- Melisandre on the Game of Thrones Wiki.
