Does Mel still believe in Stannis?

[broken one]

I think she'll fluently change the object of adoration as if nothing happened (sorry, stan <perplexed laughter>).

and all that going to bed with stannis... in vain. gosh!

[Springwatch]

54 minutes ago, broken one said:

I think she'll fluently change the object of adoration as if nothing happened (sorry, stan <perplexed laughter>).

I agree - she'd drop him without a second thought. She follows whatever messages R'hllor sends her.

But - does R'hllor believe in Stannis, that's the question. Stannis is receiving authentic visions through the flames - the Fist, and the burning crown iirc. Got to mean something.

[broken one]

5 minutes ago, Springwatch said:

But - does R'hllor believe in Stannis, that's the question. Stannis is receiving authentic visions through the flames - the Fist, and the burning crown iirc. Got to mean something.

Stan is useful too, standing in the first rank to fight. BTW Rhaloo is biggest puzzle to me in the whole series, I have not got much idea what to think about this... demon.

[Prince of the North]

7 hours ago, Castellan said:

UGG I had not thought of that reason for burning. I do believe Shireen is doomed it seems so obvious once he possibility is there - her fiery dragon dreams, ashen face, and always accompanied by the cheery Patchface who appears to be like a dead thing himself, and Melisandre with itching fingers to find another person of royal blood to burn. Perhaps if it led to Jon's revival it might be by accident not intent - as Dany tried to revive Drogo and instead woke her eggs, maybe in reverse this time Melisandre will bring Jon to life while aiming at making Stannis fulfill his promise and become AA.

I had this exact same thought as I was posting.  I agree that it could be either on purpose to resurrect Jon or by accident if Mel sacrifices Shireen in an attempt to aid Stannis somehow.  But, either way, I still think that Jon is not gonna be happy if his resurrection is the result of the death of an innocent.  

3 hours ago, kissdbyfire said:

The more interesting question is, what will Mel do once she realises Azor Ahai is not a hero?  

Yep.  If this at all goes in this direction, we know people don't come back completely unchanged.  I mean, sure, Jon may be even more singularly dedicated to stopping the Others...but he may also be quite a bit further along the path to becoming that person armored in black wielding a flaming sword or whatever it was that he dreamed.  And I don't think he'll be Mel's buddy, in any case

[Mithras]

4 hours ago, kissdbyfire said:

The more interesting question is, what will Mel do once she realises Azor Ahai is not a hero?  

"Your grace, what big teeth you have got!"

"All the better to grind them, my dear."

[Alexis-something-Rose]

4 hours ago, kissdbyfire said:

The more interesting question is, what will Mel do once she realises Azor Ahai is not a hero?  

I think Azor Ahai is supposed to be a hero but it doesn't mean that the person who is considered Azor Ahai  reborn is. And this is where the perversion of prophecy comes into play, imo. For instance, Mel creates a whole ceremony around Stannis with the comet above, amidst salt and smoke, has him draw the so-called sword of heroes out of the Mother's breast in a very Nissa Nissaesque moment. But we know that this is all fake and designed to fit something that she has seen in her flames since she probably saw Stannis in the flames and did the wrong math. That's another reason she's desperate to wake dragons from stone. 

It's no different than her lying to Jon about the attack on Eastwatch when we know that the vision she had of the submerged towers is all the way at the other end of the map. Euron Greyjoy is going to be a straight up evil Azor Ahai figure (you can click the link about the birth of the dragons in my signature for more on that). 

More to the topic, Melisandre knows that Jon is important. Otherwise she wouldn't bother with him or try to gain his trust. She doesn't understand why he is important. And although I don't think she will abandon Stannis all that easily, I think the biggest drive behind her doing all she can to resurrect Jon in the aftermath of his stabbing will be connected directly to her thinking that Stannis is dead. 

I can very easily see her interpreting the vision she has where she is asking R'hllor to see AA, but all she sees is Snow, that Jon is R'hllor's new champion after she hears that Stannis is dead. When Jon tells her that Stannis might be dead, she is completely opposed to the idea and her answer is that Stannis is the Lord's champion, so he can't be dead. But now Stannis is allegedly dead and R'hllor is not only showing her Snow in the flames but saying his name as well. 

But when Stannis returns to the Wall, then R'hllor's champion is back. I think she will ignore what her instincts tell her and fall back behind Stannis.

[Springwatch]

We all know Jon is the special one, or maybe Dany's divine twin or something. Jon has great symbolism around him - wolf, bloodlines, prophecy etc.

But Stannis is a thing too, also with great symbols - an iron king for an iron throne. Compare with his brothers: Robert and Renly are both offering peaches - I don't like quoting grrm, but he has said that the peach represents the sweetness of life; therefore Robert and Renly are both peach kings, hedonists, kings of summer - and both of them could do without Stannis, who is like the winter between two summers.

This could explain Mel's and R'hllor's strange interest in Stannis (who couldn't be less firey). The knights of summer and their kings are just blown away like autumn leaves as soon as winter arrives. In winter, humanity's king could look like Stannis - more like a lump of coal than a bunch of flowers.

The fakery Mel surrounds him with doesn't matter. It's just typical of the religion in general: the flame visions are unreliable, and the priests are trained in the use of glamours and fireworks to deceive the worshippers.  I think R'hllor happens to like fake things, and he also likes Stannis.