Melisandre's regicides - any Renly / Rattleshirt parallels? Or would it be Renly / Mance?

[Seams]

Are there any clues for us - foreshadowing? the secret of the Rhllor fire cult? - in the two "kings" killed by Melisandre?

She kills Renly with a shadow and "Mance" (Rattleshirt) with a cage and fire made from burning trees. (I know, I know, Jon Snow actually kills Rattleshirt by calling for archers to shoot him and put him out of his misery.) 

We know that GRRM likes to use parallel situations as a way of providing clues across character arcs. In a Rainbow Guard analysis a few months ago, I felt he was telling us that Melisandre is anti-rainbow and pro-shadow; her fire is usually used at night, when it can cast huge shadows. 

Are fire and shadow two sides of the same coin, so to speak? 

Are there parallels between the characters of Renly and Mance / Rattleshirt? When Renly dies, Catelyn observes the shadow cutting through his armor without difficulty. Rattleshirt is burned without his armor because Melisandre retains that to create the disguise for the real Mance, who was then presented as Rattleshirt. 

I'm also now wondering whether there are parallels between Garlan Tyrell and Mance. Ser Garlan wears Renly's green armor to pretend that Renly is leading troops into the Battle of the Blackwater. Mance wears Rattleshirt's armor and - what? Goes into some serious swordplay with Jon Snow? 

Of course, I am a fan of the Rattleshirt / Ned Stark comparison. The survival of Rattleshirt's bone armor and the disappearance of Ned Stark's bones is a separate parallel worth exploring, although I can't think of a link to Melisandre. 

[Rufus Snow]

9 hours ago, Seams said:

 

Are fire and shadow two sides of the same coin, so to speak? 

 

Definitely, at least as far as R'hllorists are concerned:

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A Clash of Kings - Prologue

The woman was the heart of it. Not the Lady Selyse, the other one. The red woman, the servants had named her, afraid to speak her name. "I will speak her name," Cressen told his stone hellhound. "Melisandre. Her." Melisandre of Asshai, sorceress, shadowbinder, and priestess to R'hllor, the Lord of Light, the Heart of Fire, the God of Flame and Shadow. Melisandre, whose madness must not be allowed to spread beyond Dragonstone.

<<snip>>

"He has an ally," Lady Selyse said. "R'hllor, the Lord of Light, the Heart of Fire, the God of Flame and Shadow."

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A Clash of Kings - Davos II

"Shadow?" Davos felt his flesh prickling. "A shadow is a thing of darkness."

"You are more ignorant than a child, ser knight. There are no shadows in the dark. Shadows are the servants of light, the children of fire. The brightest flame casts the darkest shadows."

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A Storm of Swords - Davos III

"No." Perhaps he should have lied, and told her what she wanted to hear, but Davos was too accustomed to speaking truth. "You are the mother of darkness. I saw that under Storm's End, when you gave birth before my eyes."

"Is the brave Ser Onions so frightened of a passing shadow? Take heart, then. Shadows only live when given birth by light, and the king's fires burn so low I dare not draw off any more to make another son. It might well kill him." Melisandre moved closer. "With another man, though . . . a man whose flames still burn hot and high . . . if you truly wish to serve your king's cause, come to my chamber one night. I could give you pleasure such as you have never known, and with your life-fire I could make . . ."

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A Feast for Crows - Brienne VIII

"You ride with the Dondarrion. The lightning lord."

"Lightning comes and goes and then is seen no more. So too with men. Lord Beric's fire has gone out of this world, I fear. A grimmer shadow leads us in his place."

 

I think that establishes a link, at least in the ideology of the Red Priests (and/or blood-mages...)

I also think the 'life-fire' reference could also be forging a link towards Tyrion:

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A Game of Thrones - Jon I

"Some woman, no doubt. Most of them are." He favored Jon with a rueful grin. "Remember this, boy. All dwarfs may be bastards, yet not all bastards need be dwarfs." And with that he turned and sauntered back into the feast, whistling a tune. When he opened the door, the light from within threw his shadow clear across the yard, and for just a moment Tyrion Lannister stood tall as a king.

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A Game of Thrones - Tyrion III

As Rykker filled it for him, Bowen Marsh said, "You have a great thirst for a small man."

"Oh, I think that Lord Tyrion is quite a large man," Maester Aemon said from the far end of the table. He spoke softly, yet the high officers of the Night's Watch all fell quiet, the better to hear what the ancient had to say. "I think he is a giant come among us, here at the end of the world."

 

So, yes, fire and shadow are inextricably linked, and I also suspect that shadows are used to indicate a distortion of scale, as with Tyrion above, but at 'Mance's' burning:

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A Dance with Dragons - Jon III

But most came on. Behind them was only cold and death. Ahead was hope. They came on, clutching their scraps of wood until the time came to feed them to the flames. R'hllor was a jealous deity, ever hungry. So the new god devoured the corpse of the old, and cast gigantic shadows of Stannis and Melisandre upon the Wall, black against the ruddy red reflections on the ice.

Then Jon himself:

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A Dance with Dragons - Jon VI

"I can show you." Melisandre draped one slender arm over Ghost, and the direwolf licked her face. "The Lord of Light in his wisdom made us male and female, two parts of a greater whole. In our joining there is power. Power to make life. Power to make light. Power to cast shadows."

"Shadows." The world seemed darker when he said it.

"Every man who walks the earth casts a shadow on the world. Some are thin and weak, others long and dark. You should look behind you, Lord Snow. The moon has kissed you and etched your shadow upon the ice twenty feet tall."

And Stannis' shadows are more regicidal than you may have noticed:

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A Storm of Swords - Davos V

"Your Grace," said Davos, "the cost . . ."

"I know the cost! Last night, gazing into that hearth, I saw things in the flames as well. I saw a king, a crown of fire on his brows, burning . . . burning, Davos. His own crown consumed his flesh and turned him into ash. Do you think I need Melisandre to tell me what that means? Or you?" The king moved, so his shadow fell upon King's Landing. "If Joffrey should die . . . what is the life of one bastard boy against a kingdom?"

Stannis' shadow falls on the map table, then Joff dies...

This is not the only time Stannis' puts shade on the table:

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A Clash of Kings - Prologue

"Your Grace," Stannis repeated bitterly. "You mock me with a king's style, yet what am I king of? Dragonstone and a few rocks in the narrow sea, there is my kingdom." He descended the steps of his chair to stand before the table, his shadow falling across the mouth of the Blackwater Rush and the painted forest where King's Landing now stood. There he stood, brooding over the realm he sought to claim, so near at hand and yet so far away. "Tonight I am to sup with my lords bannermen, such as they are. Celtigar, Velaryon, Bar Emmon, the whole paltry lot of them. A poor crop, if truth be told, but they are what my brothers have left me. That Lysene pirate Salladhor Saan will be there with the latest tally of what I owe him, and Morosh the Myrman will caution me with talk of tides and autumn gales, while Lord Sunglass mutters piously of the will of the Seven. Celtigar will want to know which storm lords are joining us. Velaryon will threaten to take his levies home unless we strike at once. What am I to tell them? What must I do now?"

So we have the Purple Wedding and the Battle of the Blackwater following on after these two instances of Stannis casting a shadow on the painted table. Can we say the word fore-SHADOWING here?