It’s been 4 days since the first episode of season 6 of Game Of Thrones has aired. So it’s safe to assume that all the hardcore GoT fans have probably watched it by now. But if you haven’t, then do not read further. Because what I’m about to tell you might reveal one of the most interesting spoilers from the first episode. And, who likes spoilers, anyway?
So here it goes:
She sees Jon Snow dead, and is overcome with grief. So she returns to her chambers, distraught and without hope, and starts undressing for bed.
Okay now this is all normal. Nothing we haven’t seen before, right? But then, she takes off her necklace.
Yup, that’s right. That’s our very own Red Woman. Not so fierce anymore, huh?
So many questions plague us. How old is she? What happened to her? Is the necklace the source of her power? But wait, that can’t be right.
Because in Season 4, Episode 7, while she’s taking a bath and talking to Selyse, she isn’t wearing her red necklace. *gasps*
Ah! Why you do this to us, GoT? With such a blasphemous mistake, Reddit is losing its mind. And theories are aplenty over a discontinuity.
This one by Gway22 is really interesting:
Selyse has this strange expression the entire time. Like she cannot look directly at Melisandre yet also cannot look away. At first you think it is that of a religious “uptight” person seeing a naked and very sexual woman. But if you rewatch the scene, and “pretend” to yourself that Selyse is seeing Melisandre as she actually appears, it actually fits better. WE still see the seductress, Selyse sees the hag. She is horrified yet fascinated and not at all shocked
Now I_Hate_Nerds on Reddit has another theory:
My in-universe explanation is that Selyse actually sees Mel as her ideal form (glamourized version) regardless of the ruby, since she is a true believer. In the episode they even have a conversation about how ‘lies can lead to the truth’, and she basically tells Selyse that she’s so devoted she doesn’t need to hide behind tricks, then shows her the visions in the flame (usually only accessible to true believers – Mel, Moqorro, etc). If Selyse can see the visions in the flame, I think it’s plausible she naturally sees Mel as her ideal form in the light on the lord, regardless of tricks/glamours.
But there are more, and I particularly like this one by BillOneyPaige:
She sprinkles something in her bathwater as well, which could be another item she uses. It’s said Sheira Seastar used to bath in virgins blood to maintain her youth, why not Mel.
Many other theories thrive. Some say that maybe she breathed her life into Jon Snow, or that seeing Stannis and Jon dead, she has lost her faith or that maybe, she’s Shiera or Shiera’s daughter.
