‘Game of Thrones’ season 5, episode 7 reaction: Carice van Houten on Melisandre’s ‘suggestion’
What makes Melisandre such a terrifying villain in many ways on “Game of Thrones” is that she is not someone who sees herself as evil at all. She genuinely feels as though her actions are just and dictated by the Lord of Light, and she is merely following some of that doctrine. In a way, she is not too different from the High Sparrow in that religion serves as her governing body. The only difference is that she uses a very different meaning of “strip away” to get what she wants.
What she wanted on last night’s new episode of “Game of Thrones” was to figure out a way to turn the tide, and this in turn led to her making one of the most shocking declarations that we have seen from the character yet: In order to turn the tides of war, she wants Stannis Baratheon to make a sacrifice in the form of his daughter Shireen. This is a young woman he fought so hard to save already from greyscale, so the idea of him doing something like this is appalling.
Even Carice van Houten herself admits just as much when talking about the “suggestion” made by her character Sunday night, saying the following to TV Guide:
“It was quite tough when I read it. It was quite tough to play it. It was intense. She probably thinks it’s really not looking good for her to say this. She’s always had this as a backup plan, I think, in case everything would go wrong, and I think she feels like we’re really going in a really bad direction here. She only does this because it’s the only way.”
We certainly do not want to see Shireen depart the world of the show in the slightest, but we also have to admit at the moment to a certain degree of fear. We know what sort of world this is, and that terrible things can happen at every turn. You have to be prepared for that.
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