‘Game of Thrones’ season 5, episode 9 debate: Can Stannis or Melisandre be redeemed?
It’s bizarre in a way how we as “Game of Thrones” fans do not always necessarily know what we want the show to deliver. For a prime example at this very moment, just take a look at what is going on with the characters of Stannis and Melisandre. Really ever since season 2, we have been hoping that there was somewhere interesting that this story was going to bring to the table. We’ve honestly wondered why Stannis didn’t just spawn more demon babies to run around and kill most of his primary rivals. Are there rules on that? (Warning: Spoilers ahead from Sunday night’s new episode.)
Anyhow, it’s fair to say that seeing the character allowing his own daughter Shireen to die by fire has to be the hardest moment to date for this storyline. Admittedly, we were more emotional watching this than even the Red Wedding. Maybe part of it is because Shireen has been shown to be nothing other than a kind, caring child who tried to teach Davos how to read. She was innocent; Robb Stark did not deserve his fate, but you can look back on some of the decisions that he made that led to that point.
Can Stannis and the Red Woman actually become redeemed now as characters? We see this event as the tipping point. What makes him so terrifying is that he clearly believes greatly in the religion that Melisandre has been pushing, and people who are so devout that they will kill for their god / gods (see the High Sparrow) are a very special, challenging sort of villain. They do not see themselves as committing some sort of wrong.
Davos to us is now the catalyst to this story. He has followed Stannis loyally to the ends of the earth and back, but killing Shireen may be a bridge too far for him. Then again, where is he going to go? It’s not as though House Bolton is a far better alternative, and joining the Night’s Watch doesn’t seem like a reasonable possibility. He may now be left with a choice of either accepting what Stannis did, or facing imprisonment / death.
Do you think that there is any hope for Stannis to be redeemed? Give us a vote now in the poll below, and head over here to get some other reaction when it comes to last night’s episode! Also, you can sign up here if you want to get some other TV updates on all we cover, courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: HBO.)
Ursula
June 8, 2015 @ 8:16 pm
What, if Shireen does not die and emerge from the pyre – as did Daeneyris? This episode – a king sacrifying his own daughter to a god(dess) by burning her for the purpose of good success in a war – is actually based upon a Greek myth, “Iphigenia”. She was King Agamemnon’s daughter, who was the principal warlord of the united Greek armies during the Trojan War. There are different stories about what happened to Iphigenia in the end, but in nearly all of them she gets saved by the gods for her innocence (e.g. by becoming a priestess of the goddess Artemis). Agememnon, on the other hand, faces a truly sinister fate: Upon his return home as a triumphant warlord after finally conquering Troy following a 10-year siege, he is murdered whilst taking a bath by his wife Klytaemnestra and the lover she’s taken during his absence. She obviously takes revenge for her daughter’s death by condemning him to an ‘unheroic’ end.
Personally, I would totally not be astonished if Shireen’s and Stannis’ destinies had some more parallels to Iphigenia’s and Agememnon’s stories – there just has to be a terrible end for Stannis and, certainly, the creepy Melisandre.