Mel's shadow magic and MMD?

[Ajbc]

I'm on a reread of GoT and I just got to Dany waking up after the tent scene. Jorah says he saw MMD alone dancing with shadows, and MMD replies

"The grave casts long shadows, Iron Lord... Long and dark, and in the end no light can hold them back"

This seems to set up shadow magic as opposed to light, being something light can't possibly stop. This seems to completely contradict Mel's interpretation that the shadows are a creation and a tool of the light. Could Mel, knowingly or not, be using magic not from The Lord of light, but from the apparent enemy of her god? This line just really stuck out to me and Im a frequent lurker on the boards and never saw this discussed before

EDIT: You can find the quote on page 633 of the hardcover

[Lost Melnibonean]

MMD isn't a R'hllorist. So she probably doesn't know R'hllorist theology. R'hllor is the god of flame and shadow. R'hllorist seem pretty fanatical that their religion transcends all aspects of their world. So where the non-R'hllorist blood mage might see shadows brought forth from darkness as a fell power the R'hllorist shadowbinder apparently sees shadow babies as a creation of R'hllor.

[Jory Cassel]

I'm on a reread of GoT and I just got to Dany waking up after the tent scene. Jorah says he saw MMD alone dancing with shadows, and MMD replies

"The grave casts long shadows, Iron Lord... Long and dark, and in the end no light can hold them back"

This seems to set up shadow magic as opposed to light, being something light can't possibly stop. This seems to completely contradict Mel's interpretation that the shadows are a creation and a tool of the light. Could Mel, knowingly or not, be using magic not from The Lord of light, but from the apparent enemy of her god? This line just really stuck out to me and Im a frequent lurker on the boards and never saw this discussed before

EDIT: You can find the quote on page 633 of the hardcover

thing is, magic does not necessarily have to be connected to or given by a god, it can exist apart from any deities. It might be connected to a god (or not), but in ASoIaF it is far from given fact that gods exist and have actual power.

[The Weirwoods Eyes]

:agree:

It seems to me at least that Shadow binding is a magic learnt in Ashai not a magic gifted by R'hllor, both MMR and Mellisandre have trained in Ashai Mel chooses to believe this powerful magic is a tool for her to carry out the will of R'hllor MMD chooses to interpret things another way.

[Frozentree]

Agree with Jory Cassel and The Weirwood Eyes, but still they do contradict each other: it does not matter whether or not there is R'hllor, the there certainly is light and darkness (in literal sense at least) and each of them attributes shadows to different one of them. I think the Reeds have the right of it

“Up and down,” Meera would sigh sometimes as they walked, “then down and up. Then up and down again. I hate these stupid mountains of yours, Prince Bran.”

“Yesterday you said you loved them.”

“Oh, I do. My lord father told me about mountains, but I never saw one till now. I love them more than I can say.”

Bran made a face at her. “But you just said you hated them.”

“Why can’t it be both?” Meera reached up to pinch his nose.

“Because they’re different,” he insisted. “Like night and day, or ice and fire.”

“If ice can burn,” said Jojen in his solemn voice, “then love and hate can mate. Mountain or marsh, it makes no matter. The land is one.”

“One,” his sister agreed, “but over wrinkled.”

Shadows are creatures of darkness, but they can't exist without light. It's hard to say which of them is right.

[Katkara]

Maybe R'hllor and the Great Other are one and the same god, or it's like with the Seven or the Many-Faced God, that they are simply two aspects of the same being. Or, this is probably crackpot, maybe the red priests draw their magic from R'hllor, who in turn draws his from the Great Other, because R'hllor is only the god of Light and where there is light, there must also be shadows or something like that. :dunno:

"The grave casts long shadows, Iron Lord... Long and dark, and in the end no light can hold them back" probably means that the Great Other is stronger, and eventually will defeat R'hllor.