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Death scene: Melisandre


Kajjo

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Let us focus on discussing the important death scenes in separate threads to honor our lost characters and talk about how liked the scene, its circumstances, prior foreshadowing and possible consequences. One list thread for our each of our beloved characters.

This one is about Melisandre and all her scenes in E3.

FORSHADOWING: Melisandre fulfilled her own prophecy from S7 and repeated it in the first minutes to Davos: She will die before the Night ends. And the does. Her arc closes as expected and this is fine with me. Her prophecy about Vary dying, too, is still open to be fulfilled later. 

CIRCUMSTANCES: Melisandre drops her magical necklace, the burning stone stops glowing, she transforms step by step into an older self, crumbling away. She commits suicide, probably knowing she fulfilled her destiny. Whatever it was, maybe "protecting the living" or "pushing Arya to do her deed". A little bit unclear, how Melisandre knew all this and what her history was.

RECEPTION: I didn't like to suicide o much, but the scene itself was well done, emotional, a clear end. But just committing suicide? Why? She could have gone on. There is some explanation missing here, I feel. It makes no sense just to die after surviving such a battle. And she is so cool about it.

What do you think?

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i didn't really get it either. it's been beaten over our heads both in the show and the books that she is inherently evil. i get the need to add complexity to a character, but her sudden change of conscience was just too drastic. plus if she's suddenly a "good" person, what was to stop her from bringing beric dondarrion back to life? i don't buy the idea that his purpose in the story arc is complete. there is plenty more he could have done in the future timeline in the upcoming war with cersei.

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Just now, the red god said:

plus if she's suddenly a "good" person

I believe she is the same person as always. She didn't change. The scene does not want to convey any change. 

Melisandre always had the goal of saving mankind from the Others. She can do a lot of powerful magic like giving birth to a shadow, like resurrecting Jon, setting ablaze the arakhs and trench. Even the horrible burning of Shireen bought mankind some more months before Winter came.  Melisandre is ruthlessly following her destiny, being tough to others as well as herself.

3 minutes ago, the red god said:

what was to stop her from bringing beric dondarrion back to life

She said so: He fulfilled his destiny. He saved Arya in a most crucial moment. And Arya is the one to defeat the Nightking. What could be more important? Beric has simply done his job.

 

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I suppose Berric and Mel are less interested in the political aspect, but rather serving the Lord of Light. 

From that religions point of view, the Great Other/Night King is dead so they have served their purpose. 

Serves no purpose if they fight against Cersei. 

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Just now, Ser Uncle P said:

I suppose Berric and Mel are less interested in the political aspect, but rather serving the Lord of Light. 

From that religions point of view, the Great Other/Night King is dead so they have served their purpose. 

Serves no purpose if they fight against Cersei. 

that makes sense.

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2 minutes ago, Ser Uncle P said:

From that religions point of view, the Great Other/Night King is dead so they have served their purpose. 

 

Agreed. This is how it is supposed to be understood in the show. 

They serve the Lord of Light and have both fulfilled their destiny.

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Also Mel knew that she was under a "suspended death sentence" for murdering Shireen. But would D&D let Jon carry it out??

It would have been divisive to have Jon hang or behead her after she returned to make a contribution. But worse if he didn't.  So her voluntary exit was probably the best ending for her arc...

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I wouldn't expect any other explanation of the "why" of her death. It is kind of inferred that she is feeling too old for this crap anymore and only hung around this long to tidy up some of the mess she made. Now that she is in credit with humanity and the Lord of Light she's cashing in her chips.

She was never really an "evil" character, just wrong. Made some really really really bad mistakes though and probably felt she needed to make amends but ultimately accepted that she had done things that couldn't be undone and had to face the consequences. 

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1 minute ago, King of the Couch said:

fulfill HIS destiny, to save Aryas life in the hallway.

Exactly, this is how I understood it as well.

5 minutes ago, Ser Uncle P said:

So her voluntary exit was probably the best ending for her arc...

Yes, she knew she had made a horrible mistake by burning Shireen and mistaking Stannis as Prince that was Promised. On the other, Melisandre must have known that Shireen's death bought mankind some months before winter came.

Maybe she is so old and has seen so many things and just had to fulfill her destiny in this way. 

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I thought it was understood (particularly given what we've seen the last few seasons) that her entire purpose, her reason for going on for hundreds of years as she did, was to help see the fall of the NK through to conclusion. Once that happened, there was no further reason for her to go on. She had fulfilled the mission given her by the LoL and thus was finally able to let herself die.

I know this much - I'm going to pay a lot more attention to her dialogue throughout the series on my next re-watch. 

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2 minutes ago, Kaguya said:

I thought she was going to die with Varys? How did that change?

No, no, she just said that both will die in Westeros. Not together. 

"Neither of us is common folk anymore. [...] Because of terrible mistakes I made. [...] I have to die in this strange country. Just as you." <S7E3>

That's all.

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3 minutes ago, Kaguya said:

I thought she was going to die with Varys? How did that change?

She only said she was going to die in this strange land just like he would. I think its kind of obvious. Varys has no plan to return to Essos, so no matter what his dead is, its going to be in Westeros

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Stop trying to find an explanation for this. The show should have explained it. They didn't. Hence, there isn't an explanation. Character motivation is something a writer/storyteller has to give you, it is not for the audience to figure out what was meant. Even in poetry one has a right to assume the writer had some meaning he wanted to express with his words.

Melisandre is an utterly incoherent mess in the show. We never understood what she was about. They never even explained why she was this old woman. I mean, what was the point of establishing this if they never actually explained it. She could have just as well been a baby disguising herself as a grown-up, a man disguising himself as a woman, or a monster/animal disguising herself as a human.

It was utterly meaningless.

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