Potential Spoilers Below
I think the manner of
Melisandre’s death has already been foreshadowed within the books.
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| Melisandre |
“Melisandre. Davos
shivered. “The red woman did this to him,” he said. “She sent the fire to
consume us, to punish Stannis for setting her aside, to teach him that he could
not hope to win without her sorceries.”
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| Davos |
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| Stannis |
The Lyseni chose a plump olive from the bowl
between them. “You are not the first to be saying this, my friend. But if I am
you, I am not saying it so loudly. Dragonstone crawls with these queen’s men,
oh yes, and they have sharp ears and sharper knives.” He popped the olive into
his mouth.
“I have a knife myself. Captain Khorane made me a gift of it.” He pulled out the dirk and laid it on the table between them. “A knife to cut out Melisandre’s heart. If she has one.”
“I have a knife myself. Captain Khorane made me a gift of it.” He pulled out the dirk and laid it on the table between them. “A knife to cut out Melisandre’s heart. If she has one.”
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| Captain Khorane |
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| Salladhor Saan |
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| Maester Cressen |
Until my resolve weakens, you mean. Davos got to his feet. He did feel feverish and a little dizzy, but it did not matter. “You are a treacherous old rogue, Salladhor Saan, but a good friend all the same.”
The Lyseni stroked his pointed silver beard. “So with this great friend you will be staying, yes?”
“No, I will be going.” He coughed.”
The plan Davos made falls apart:
“Ser Axell was short and muscular, with a barrel chest, thick arms, bandy legs, and
hair growing from his ears. The queen’s uncle, he had served as castellan of
Dragonstone for a decade, and had always treated Davos courteously, knowing he
enjoyed the favor of Lord Stannis. But there was neither courtesy nor warmth in
his tone as he said, “Ser Davos, and undrowned. How can that be?”
“Onions float, ser. Have you come to take me to
the king?”
“I have come to take you to the dungeon.” Ser Axell waved his men forward. “Seize him, and take his dirk. He means to use it on our lady.”
Melisandre tells Davos who spilled the beans on his plan to kill her:
“Melisandre sighed. “Ahhhh, Davos. The good knight is honest to the last, even in his day of darkness. It is well you did not lie to me. I would have known. The Other’s servants oft hide black hearts in gaudy light, so R’hllor gives his priests the power to see through falsehoods.” She stepped lightly away from the cell. “Why did you mean to kill me?”
“I will tell you,” said Davos, “if you will tell me who betrayed me.” It could only have been Salladhor Saan, and yet even now he prayed it was not so.
The red woman laughed. “No one betrayed you, onion knight. I saw your purpose in my flames.”
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| Ser Axell |
“I have come to take you to the dungeon.” Ser Axell waved his men forward. “Seize him, and take his dirk. He means to use it on our lady.”
Melisandre tells Davos who spilled the beans on his plan to kill her:
“Melisandre sighed. “Ahhhh, Davos. The good knight is honest to the last, even in his day of darkness. It is well you did not lie to me. I would have known. The Other’s servants oft hide black hearts in gaudy light, so R’hllor gives his priests the power to see through falsehoods.” She stepped lightly away from the cell. “Why did you mean to kill me?”
“I will tell you,” said Davos, “if you will tell me who betrayed me.” It could only have been Salladhor Saan, and yet even now he prayed it was not so.
The red woman laughed. “No one betrayed you, onion knight. I saw your purpose in my flames.”
The flames. “If you can see the future in these flames, how is it that we burned upon the Blackwater? You gave my sons to the fire . . . my sons, my ship, my men, all burning . . .”
“Melisandre shook her head. “You wrong me, onion knight. Those were no fires of mine. Had I been with you, your battle would have had a different ending. But His Grace was surrounded by unbelievers, and his pride proved stronger than his faith. His punishment was grievous, but he has learned from his mistake.”
Were my sons no more than a lesson for a king, then? Davos felt his mouth tighten.
“It is night in your Seven Kingdoms now,” the red woman went on, “but soon the sun will rise again. The war continues, Davos Seaworth, and some will soon learn that even an ember in the ashes can still ignite a great blaze. The old maester looked at Stannis and saw only a man. You see a king. You are both wrong. He is the Lord’s chosen, the warrior of fire. I have seen him leading the fight against the dark, I have seen it in the flames. The flames do not lie, else you would not be here. It is written in prophecy as well. When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone. The bleeding star has come and gone, and Dragonstone is the place of smoke and salt. Stannis Baratheon is Azor Ahai reborn!” Her red eyes blazed like twin fires, and seemed to stare deep into his soul. “You do not believe me. You doubt the truth of R’hllor even now . . . yet have served him all the same, and will serve him again. I shall leave you here to think on all that I have told you. And because R’hllor is the source of all good, I shall leave the torch as well.”
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| Dragonstone |
So why
does Davos kill Melisandre?
From a TV
perspective it’s simple she killed Shireen by burning her alive. Davos is very fond of Shireen and treated her
like a daughter. I originally thought
that she would die by sacrificing herself to save Davos at the Wall when Ser Alliser was trying to get into the room where Jon Snow’s body was being held
but now I believe that Melisandre herself will fulfill all the parts of the
prophecy prior to Azor Ahai, who is Jon Snow IMO, pulling Lightbringer from the
fire. So if you have read this rationale
you can cut to the chase and skip to the section “How Davos kills her”:
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| Melisandre sacrificing Shireen |
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| The Wall |
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| Ser Alliser |
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| Jon Snow |
Maester Cressen’s description
of Melisandre:
“Maester,” said Lady
Melisandre, her deep voice flavored with the music of the Jade Sea. “You
ought take more care.” As ever, she wore red head to heel, a long loose gown of
flowing silk as bright as fire, with dagged sleeves and deep slashes in the
bodice that showed glimpses of a darker bloodred fabric beneath. Around her
throat was a red gold choker tighter than any maester’s chain, ornamented with
a single great ruby. Her hair was not the orange or strawberry color of common
red-haired men, but a deep burnished copper that shone in the light of the
torches. Even her eyes were red . . . but her skin was smooth and white,
unblemished, pale as cream. Slender she was,
graceful, taller than most knights, with full breasts and narrow waist and a
heart-shaped face. Men’s eyes that once found her did not quickly look away,
not even a maester’s eyes. Many
called her beautiful. She was not beautiful. She was red, and terrible, and
red.”
GRRM’s
description of Shiera Seastar:
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| Shiera Seastar |
I then searched all my
books but couldn’t find a description for Shiera Seastar. I then went to
the internet and I found a description that GRRM had given in an interview.
March 07, 2006
SHIERA SEASTAR
[Note: The following continues GRRM's series of descriptions of notable Targaryens (and Targaryen bastards) for Amoka.]
Lady Shiera was the natural daughter of King Aegon IV by the ninth and last of his mistresses, Lady Serenei of Lys, the last daughter of an ancient but impoverished line of Valyrian nobility. "Sweet Serenei," Aegon called her, but about his court she was considered cold and haughty, and some said that she was much older than the king, and preserved her beauty by the practice of dark arts. Considered by many the most lovely of Aegon's mistresses, Sweet Serenei died in childbed, bringing forth the last of the king's "Great Bastards," the daughter she named Shiera, Star of the Sea.
SHIERA SEASTAR
[Note: The following continues GRRM's series of descriptions of notable Targaryens (and Targaryen bastards) for Amoka.]
Lady Shiera was the natural daughter of King Aegon IV by the ninth and last of his mistresses, Lady Serenei of Lys, the last daughter of an ancient but impoverished line of Valyrian nobility. "Sweet Serenei," Aegon called her, but about his court she was considered cold and haughty, and some said that she was much older than the king, and preserved her beauty by the practice of dark arts. Considered by many the most lovely of Aegon's mistresses, Sweet Serenei died in childbed, bringing forth the last of the king's "Great Bastards," the daughter she named Shiera, Star of the Sea.
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| King Aegon IV |
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| Lady Serenei of Lys |
Shiera was born with
one dark blue eye and one bright green one, but the singers said that this flaw
only accentuated her loveliness. She was the
greatest beauty of her age, a slender and elegant woman, slim of waist and full
of breast. She had the silver-gold hair of the Targaryens,
thick and curling, and wore it very long. At some points in her life it fell
well below her waist, almost to the back of her knees. She had a heart-shaped face, full lips, and her mismatched
eyes were strangely large and full of mischief; her rivals said she used them to melt men's hearts. Even
at an early age, she was a great reader. She spoke a dozen tongues and
surrounded herself with ancient scrolls. Like her mother, she was reputed to
practice the dark arts. Though she never wed, she had many offers, and several
lovers through the years. Duels were fought over the right to sit beside her,
men killed themselves after falling from her favor, poets outdid each other
writing songs about her beauty. Her most ardent admirer was her half-brother, Bloodraven, who
proposed marriage to her half a hundred times. Shiera gave him her bed, but
never her hand. It amused her more to make him jealous.
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| Bloodraven |
As to how to paint
her... she was fond of ivory and lace and cloth-of-silver (but not gold, which
she considered too vulgar). Her favorite piece of jewelry was a heavy silver
necklace of emeralds and star sapphires, alternating.
So was Shiera like her
mother and she also practiced the dark arts to preserve her beauty? The
heart-shaped face to me is the biggest clue that they could be the same women
though it isn’t concrete by any means. The part that puts you on the wrong
path is that it is thrown out there that Melisandre could have been a slave
named Melony who was sold to the Red Temple at an early age. Melisandre
has memories of the name Melony and “Lot Seven” indicating that she was sold on
the auction block. What if she herself
purchased the girl Melony and used her in a blood sacrifice and that is what
haunts her dreams and the reason that prays for a day when she will never have
to sleep again. She could be wearing contacts of sorts to hide
the true color of her eyes even when we see her true form.
“A face took shape
within the hearth. Stannis? she
thought, for just a moment … but no, these were not his features. A wooden
face, corpse white. Was this the enemy? A
thousand red eyes floated in the rising flames. He sees me.
Beside him, a boy with a wolf’s face threw back his head and howled.
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| The Three-eyed crow. Bloodraven aka the three-eyed crow was said to have had a thousand eyes and one. |
The red priestess
shuddered. Blood trickled down her thigh, black and smoking. The fire was
inside her, an agony, an ecstasy, filling her, searing her, transforming her.
Shimmers of heat traced patterns on her skin, insistent as a lover’s hand. Strange voices
called to her from days long past. “Melony,” she heard a woman cry. A man’s
voice called, “Lot Seven.” She was weeping, and her tears were flame. And still
she drank it in.”
“Dawn. Another day is
given us, R’hllor be
praised. The terrors of the night recede. Melisandre had spent the night in her
chair by the fire, as she often did. With Stannis gone, her bed saw little use.
She had no time for sleep, with the weight of the world upon her shoulders. And
she feared to dream. Sleep is a little death, dreams the whisperings of the
Other, who would drag us all into his eternal night. She would sooner sit
bathed in the ruddy glow of her red lord’s blessed flames, her cheeks flushed
by the wash of heat as if by a lover’s kisses. Some nights she drowsed, but
never for more than an hour. One day, Melisandre prayed, she would not sleep at all. One
day she would be free of dreams. Melony, she thought. Lot Seven.”
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| Dothraki |
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| The red comet as seen from the Red Waste, the North and from Dragonstone |
The Dothraki named the comet shierak
qiya, “the Bleeding Star.”
Notice that Shiera
Seastar’s first name with a “K” added to it is in the Dothraki word.
How Davos kills her:
I believe
that Melisandre and Shiera Seastar are one in the same. I believe that the battle at Winterfell will
have concluded and Jon Snow and crew are victorious. At this point Jon will go off on his own and
visit the crypts as in his unfinished dream.
The scene will then switch to a conversation between Davos and
Melisandre and the topic will be Shireen.
As they walk the grounds of Winterfell Melisandre will break down in
tears and recount the story to Ser Davos who will at the completion of the
story stab her through the heart with his knife as he once set out to do after
the Battle of the Blackwater.
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| Winterfell |
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| Battle of the Blackwater |
When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers,
Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of
stone.
Melisandre
is the “Red woman” and also Shiera the “Star of the
Sea” lies bleeding and dying which prophecy translates to “when the red star bleeds”. At this point in the
story the forces of darkness will be gathering for the “final battle” which in
hindsight will be when “darkness gathers”. The scene switches back to Jon Snow as he has
a waking dream similar to Bran seeking out past events with the three-eyed crow
and he is speaking with his mother Lyanna.
He learns the truth of who he is and it will be revealed that the sword
Dawn is not at Starfall as believed but in the crypts in Winterfell. Melisandre with tears in her
eyes smiles at Ser Davos despite the smoking wound produced by the knife would which account for “smoke” and “salt” because of her
tears. The scene switches back to Jon as
he unseals one of the crypts that I believe that it is filled chemicals that
will burst into flame when exposed to air.
A fire consumes the crypt as Jon reaches in and pulls the sword from the
flames. Azor Ahai will then officially
be reborn and later it will be revealed that dragon eggs were also entombed
which will hatch accounting for him “waking dragons out of stone.”
Melisandre will be at the point where she is getting her grove back but she simply won't see this coming.
My two cents take it
for what it is worth.
Comments encouraged. Love to hear the idea’s of
others. Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m
not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth. I simply
look at the information presented and go from there. If you can shine a
light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.
