[ADWD Spoilers] Melony. Lot Seven.

[PestilencE]

These are recurring words that Melisandre hears while staring into the flames.

Possible meaning?

Perhaps "lot seven" pertains to a slave auction in which Melisandre was auctioned off as a child.

Maybe "Melony" was her name before she became a follower of R'hlorr?

[King_In_The_North]

Yes, this is likely.

[Steel_Wind]

That is certainly the way I took it, yes.

The one calling out her name is her Mother.

[reiver]

Sounds about right. The quote from the book is "Strange voices called to her from days long past". We know that servants of r'hllor are bought as slaves and "lot" is how slaves are described when Tyrion is auctioned. Melony is similar enough to Melisandre for it to have been her although it could also have been a sister and the woman's voice being hers but with the voice described as being a woman's and the period of time i'd guess that she would have been too young to be called a woman.

[Armand Gargalen]

I agree. I think that will be an useful clue to understand Mel´s motivations in the future

[cyvassechamp]

I agree. I think that will be an useful clue to understand Mel´s motivations in the future

Do you all think that while we started out feeling bad vibes about Mel, she may actually come around and be on the good side? I don't think R'holler seems a guy worth worshipping if he requires regular human sacrifice, but don't you get the sense that Mel is on the verge of figuring out she is wrong about Stannis? She may prove useful to the real AA (Jon?). Not sure. In general these red priests seem so shady, like you can't trust them as far as you can throw them.

[Spring Bass]

I wonder if Melisandre was sold and trained in Volantis before going to Asshai. Of course, the Volantenes tatoo their red priests, but we know that Melisandre can cast glamours to manipulate appearance. Considering how conveniently "fire-themed" her appearance is, I wouldn't be surprised if she was using her ruby to glamour herself all the time.

Danger to her own person was the first thing she had learned to see, back when she was still half a child, a slave girl bound for life to the great red temple.

There are obviously other R'hllor temples, but the Volantene one is specifically described as huge and prominent in ADWD.

She made it sound a simple thing, and easy. They need never know how difficult it had been, or how much it had cost her. That was a lesson Melisandre had learned long before Asshai;

I suppose she could have had an encounter with a sorcerer before being sold to the Red Faith, but she would have been a child. This sounds more like she was sold and trained elsewhere, then traveled to Asshai later on.

[Ser Frank Haven]

How long until she awakens the stone dragons?

[King_In_The_North]

How long until she awakens the stone dragons?

You don't want to wake the dragon, do you?

[Brienne the Beauty]

I wonder if all Red Priests are slaves. I wonder why this is. Is there something in their training that no free people would volunteer for?

[The Usurper's Dogs]

I wonder if all Red Priests are slaves. I wonder why this is. Is there something in their training that no free people would volunteer for?

Perhaps they look for slaves with a talent for magic, something that would be missed by nearly anyone else. Easy place to recruit the best? Also, there's a compelling story they can feed to any slave: the world made you a slave, but R'hllor set you free. Now you are his. or something

[inkasrain]

Was anyone else a little disappointed that Melisandre had such a sob-story for her background? I have no problem with pathos and a complicated history, but "tragically torn from her mother's arms and sold as a slave" just reads as trope-y to me, and seems like an easy shortcut to eliciting sympathy from the reader. I'm pretty sure Mel will be back as a POV in the future, so there's time for development, but I'd much rather be led to a slow realization of her motives as a desperate religious fanatic than be manipulated into feeling sorry for a character who has been unlikeable for a long time, just because she had a bad childhood.

[Elder Elemental Evil]

Weird, Melisandre never came across to me as unlikeable. Is that pretty much the consensus?

[Lord Godric]

Weird, Melisandre never came across to me as unlikeable. Is that pretty much the consensus?

Shadow babies. Fratricide. Killing children. Burning people at the stake. Religious zealot. Yeah, before ADwD I pretty much hated her.

[Auska]

Could be a sister, going to a different lot at the auction.

[TerraPrime]

Weird, Melisandre never came across to me as unlikeable. Is that pretty much the consensus?

Hmmm... convincing Stannis to commit fratricide using shadow magic, burning heretics alive in a fire, deceiving her liege lord, and trying to kill young children to gain magical power are all traits that endear characters to you?

[The Non-Human]

Weird, Melisandre never came across to me as unlikeable. Is that pretty much the consensus?

Nah, I never really disliked her either. She was no worse than many thers. And she is a nice subversion of the 'witch burnt at the stake.'

Also, why would her being sold as a slave elicit sympathy? She recalls it, but doesn't' seem very sob-y about it. She seems quite over it, in fact.

[The Floppy Fish]

I hated Melisandre as well. In the midst of all the ambition, backstabbing and one-upmanship Ser Courtney Penrose (Renly's castellan at Storm's End) was prepared to die in order to protect an innocent child from being burnt at the stake in the name of religious zealoutry. And what did Mel do? She murdered him.

[The King Who Knelt]

She came across as unlikeable initially, and that's just been something hard to shake for a lot of people, I think. The first time we see her is through a maester who decides his own life is worth killing her, and at that point in the series I was kind of conditioned to think all maesters (except pycelle) were all-wise, good-doing, and awesome. When his scheme fails I couldn't help but think "That witchy bitch!" and I think that impression was mostly reinforced up until recently.

[Windsor]

Why would you expect Melisandre's first pov to be dripping with thoughts of evil? How many people really see themselves as bad or evil? The book is full of every charcter saying 'words are wind', well so are the words that the mind tells iteslf.

Justifications for buring people alive? Means vs Ends.