Death scene: Melisandre

[Charlie Hustle]

How bout she served her purpose. She committed a lot of atrocities in her life to try to serve her purpose. A lot of mistakes were made, and a lot of innocent people were killed because of it. She is very human, and she regretted those mistakes. Following the wrong Lightbringer, killing for political purposes and so on. When she saw the true people to end the great war, and helped them, it was time for her to check out. She created too many enemies anyways.

[bloodsteel bitterraven]

The reason she had to die was because the writers are not brave enough to deal with the consequences of a morally grey (at best) character, a childkiller, being the one who saved the day.  Why do you think Davos was following her around like a creepy stalker?  If she's dead, we don't have to mention her ever again.

[btfu806]

It was a dumb scene. It would have been nice to have a bit of Mel backstory last episode, instead of her just randomly showing up from the direction where the white walkers were this episode.

But if last episodes she came back and made some comments about her whole life purpose is to kill the NK, or watch his death and she really has been alive for 100 years, since he has been around and tonight will be the night she hopes to defeat him and can finally rest.

But D&D didn't, and we got that awful scene. Just add it to the pile of stupid plot lines in the show.

[Forlong the Fat]

2 hours ago, 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. 

I would go a bit further—I doubt she could have resurrected him.  It’s never suggested that she can just raise anyone from the dead. R’hlor wouldn’t give her the power to save someone just because she wanted to.

And I think she died for a similar reason. She was able to sustain her life by a great deal to serve her purpose, but that being done she was no longer granted the power.

[Pacala]

the whole story is meaningless.

[btfu806]

1 minute ago, Forlong the Fat said:

I would go a bit further—I doubt she could have resurrected him.  It’s never suggested that she can just raise anyone from the dead. R’hlor wouldn’t give her the power to save someone just because she wanted to.

Why did the Lord of Light want Jon alive then? If the Lord of Light is around to defeat the Night King/the long night, Jon was pretty useless.

[Zumbs]

2 hours ago, Ser Uncle P said:

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...

Indeed. If you recall, Davos was right behind her with a wild look in his eyes. Was he ready to execute her, if she had not taken her life?

[Forlong the Fat]

Just now, btfu806 said:

Why did the Lord of Light want Jon alive then? If the Lord of Light is around to defeat the Night King/the long night, Jon was pretty useless.

I have a theory about that—Jon was a potential AA. The Night King seemed to recognize him as such, and he set a dragon to keep him from attacking. In fact, this may have made the Night King overconfident, as he knew Jon was either occupied or dead. This allowed Arya to attack more easily.

[Lord Varys]

1 minute ago, Forlong the Fat said:

I have a theory about that—Jon was a potential AA. The Night King seemed to recognize him as such, and he set a dragon to keep him from attacking. In fact, this may have made the Night King overconfident, as he knew Jon was either occupied or dead. This allowed Arya to attack more easily.

You can rationalize pretty much anything in that fashion.

[Forlong the Fat]

6 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

You can rationalize pretty much anything in that fashion.

It’s not rationalization to interpret what actually happened rather than saying anything I didn’t expect or immediately understand is shit.

To expand a bit, Melisandre, in books and show, saw Stannis and Jon at least as AA.  In the show she also saw something to that effect about Arya. Does that mean she’s wrong over and over again, or that all these people were potentially the killer of the Night King? Jon was absolutely trying to kill the Night King and he certainly had an apt tool to do so.  He was stopped by a dragon.

”Everything you did brought you here”-what’s the point of this? It seems to be suggesting a fixed fate. Everything fits together toward an unavoidable conclusion. If that’s true, nobody had a choice. Nobody did anything special. They were born AA or they weren’t. And similarly, if Bran or Melisandre or the Three Eyed Raven knew exactly what would happen, did anyone have any choice in making it happen? This is an issue in the mono myth itself—you are the special prince and will fulfill the prophecies simply because you are the special prince.

There can be no doubt that the prophecy of AA is a form of the mono myth. We got a result that deliberately subverts this, and I would argue, given Bran’s line and given Bran himself, and Melisandre, with abilities to see the future, deliberately did so in reference to the paradox of destiny, pre-vision, and heroism.

[Kajjo]

51 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

It was utterly meaningless.

Bad storytelling does not mean the issue itself is meaningless. 

It's not rare that some points are left to the imagination of the watcher. 

[Forlong the Fat]

To get back to the original question, I believe that Mel died because , having fulfilled her purpose, she would no longer be granted the power to sustain herself. 

[Bran the Shipper]

I didn't have any problem with Mel dying at the end, she had accomplished her goal and now welcomed the death that she had been avoiding.  Though now that I write that I realize, Mel would never accept Death.  She always fought tooth and nail for life so I don't see her wanting to die or even just accepting it.  

With that said, I wish that it had been from Melisandre's perspective not Davos'.  It would have been nice to send her off hearing her final thoughts about how she had helped bring the dawn.  That maybe in this way she is vindicated from the mistakes she had made.  Of course the audience and several characters might disagree.

[Kajjo]

1 minute ago, Bran the Shipper said:

I didn't have any problem with Mel dying at the end, she had accomplished her goal and now welcomed the death that she had been avoiding.

Yes, the same for me. 

Anyway, the suicide felt weird, but maybe it makes sense after all.

[CrypticWeirwood]

I’m not convinced that this was really “suicide” as that term is normally defined. Remember she lived through taking off her ruby life-preserving necklace in the old-woman reveal of some seasons ago. I suggest she knew she was about to die and simply walked away to do so.

[YouKnowNothingJonSnow]

I had no issue with Mel dying. Though I am not convinced it was a suicide.

I think it plausible that:

1) She was well past her expiration date and only the LoL was keeping her alive.

2) LoL was keeping her alive for a specific purpose. To help defeat the NK.

3) Once accomplished, she knew her time was up. Like Beric. She was going to die anyway.

This is just how she chose to meet her imminent death. Theon charged instead of running. Lyanna roared defiance & charged. Jorah did a nice Deoarture of Boromir with Dany.

Mel decided to be herself for one last brief moment and walk towards the dawn. Towards the the light. Towards her Lord. A damn near perfecting ending.

Cannot believe folks think Mel was evil at any point. What show have ya'll been watching? She was just a fanatic for a while. That is what changed.

 

[Hoo]

I get the feeling she was disenchanted with the Lord of Light thus deciding to end the journey.

[Kajjo]

1 minute ago, YouKnowNothingJonSnow said:

Towards the the light. Towards her Lord. A damn near perfecting ending.

That's a nice interpretation. I like it. Make sense now.

[The Chequered Raven]

1 hour ago, Lord Varys said:

It was utterly meaningless.

This!

Like the whole episode, in my opinion!
By far the worst one in the whole series...

[Red Dragon10]

14 minutes ago, CrypticWeirwood said:

I’m not convinced that this was really “suicide” as that term is normally defined. Remember she lived through taking off her ruby life-preserving necklace in the old-woman reveal of some seasons ago. I suggest she knew she was about to die and simply walked away to do so.

I also had this impression.  She didn't die when she took it off before.  I think that perhaps because her purpose was fulfilled, the LoL would not longer preserve her life.  Like you said, she knew that and chose to walk away and die alone.