- Quite aside from her errant interpretations of prophecies and predictions, and willingness to cling a little too tightly to a particular interpretation, I think Melisande’s biggest bit of idiocy comes theologically. She’s actually lost her faith or else gotten it confused with her belief in her sorcery. I say this because of her approach to sacrifice. The key to the idea of divine sacrifice is not fuel, it is self-deprivation, either to please the object of your worship or for self-improvement, whether by sloughing off distractions to concentrate on the important thing(s) or by self-discipline through abjuring that which you care for. Absolutely none of these ends is being met by the “sacrifices” over which Melisande presides. She is NOT offering sacrifices for her faith on behalf of her cause and king, she is instead performing rituals and enhancing her magic works. How is it a “sacrifice” to get rid of something or someone you don’t want? If Stannis had gone over to R’hollor, then his burning of the statues of the Seven is not a sacrifice, since they are no longer precious to him. He is not giving anything up when he burns Lord Alester or Rattleshirt/Mance, because they are not people he cherishes or prizes, but whom he wishes to be rid off. Executing a man condemned for his own actions is not an act of sacrifice. In Saan’s story, Azor Ahai’s sacrifice was not the spilling of a quantity of blood or the shedding of important or significant blood (i.e. king’s blood). The lion would have sufficed for that; rather it was the heart’s blood of the person most dear to him in the world that tempered his sword into the weapon he needed. The functioning of her spells strongly suggests to me that Melisande’s powers do not stem from any divine assistance, but rather the new-found efficacy of magic, that has given the Starks warg powers and companions, made Thoros the real thing, roused the Others and the dead, enhanced the efficacy of the pyromancers of Westeros and the warlocks of Qarth and allowed Daenerys’ dragon eggs to hatch. Contrary to the general assumptions of readers who took the pryromancer’s words at face value, the cause of magic being restored cannot be the dragons, since it was making a comeback well before they were hatched. Melisande’s error is that she cannot see what is really happening and makes the all-too-classic error of confusing human works and divine power. Though she is making that mistake in the opposite direction from what is typical.
Melisandre is becoming more and more dangerous because she is leading what I think to be a heretical sect of the red religion. Many of the R'hollor "gifts" seem to have the catch-22 of gross misuse/misinterpretation - and as the old saying goes, power tends to corrupt. Thoros can pretty much revive ANY dead body into a zombie-like state, those who gaze into the fires have little-to-no insight into what they see, leading to gross misinterpretations, and the aforementioned "sacrifices" that you explained above. Whatever is driving their power now does not seem to be consistent with the religion of Azor Ahai, but then again, every attempt to sacrifice (without true personal loss) has not done very much for R'hollor's followers:
- burning the cannibals during the snow storm didn't have much effect on the storm.
- burning Rattleshirt/Mance didn't do much for anyone either.
- the burning of the statutes of the Seven simply provided a glamored sword which doesn't seem to have much effect.
The only real bits of effective sorcery to come out the red religion are ones that do involve personal sacrifice - the shadow that killed Renly, for example, seemed to take a substantial bit out of Stannis. Melisandre's glamor of Mance came to her at a high cost - though we're never told what that is.
This leads me to believe that Melisandre knows she is walking a false path. She has touched the true nature of her religion's power in the past and knows that simply burning things you don't care for is no way to gain access to true power. So why the burning of the Seven? Why the farce about burning Rattleshirt? Is she working some other angle? There seems to be a clear conflict here but I can't, for the life of me, figure out what it is - unless she is just simply that sadistic and likes to burn people, which doesn't seem to fit with what else we know of her. She can be tough as nails when she needs to be, but we have never seen her take pleasure in the suffering of others.
In contrast to Melisandre, Morroq seems to actually be in tune with R'hollor and his principles. Morroq's visions are nearly 100% accurate, and his use of sorcery to heal Victarion's arm comes at a high cost to Victarion himself. The sacrifice of the young girls that Victarion sends out to sea is also a (grisly) example of truly giving up something of value to the flames, as opposed to some rebel leader who you were going to execute anyways or statutes. Morroq is also in pursuit of Dany, while Melisandre ignores her own fire-visions that indicate Stannis is not Azor Ahai reborn. I think he represents a faction of the red religion that is actually on the right path, as opposed to Melisandre's polluted offshoot.
I wonder if we'll see a reckoning between the two?
DWD Miscellaneous thoughts about Dunk & Egg tie-ins, the maesters' plots and Starks & the South
- 19/08/2011 11:57:52 AM
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Thoughts on Melisandre...
- 19/08/2011 03:42:45 PM
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My thoughts on why Mel likes to burn people (and a comment on human sacrifice)
- 21/08/2011 01:38:25 AM
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