melisandre’s first chapter in a dance with dragons is such a punch in the gut and not necessarily for the obvious reasons. like, yes, it’s a lot from a plot perspective and it feels heavy (tho not burdensome) on the reader. there’s foreshadowing in mel’s visions and cross-references to the dunk & egg novellas, not to mention mance rayder with a steel chair. but also the main feeling it evokes—which has been present throughout all jon povs in book 5—is this imminent sense of dread, that there’s not enough time, not enough food, not enough friends—and that something very bad is going to happen very soon. perhaps most important of all, tho, is how it absolutely changes the dynamic of the dragonstone trio, despite not a single one pf them appearing in it save melisandre herself.
stannis is not a likable guy. he’s stubborn, and righteous, and difficult. and, like all the five kings, doesn’t get a pov to make him easier to digest. what he does get is davos and maester cressen—people who know more than the reader and that see, somewhere beneath all that iron, a man worth the effort. stannis is not easy, yet we’re introduced to him by people who love him despite this, and that makes all the difference.
for all the grace davos affords stannis, however, melisandre gets very little of it. none, if i’m being honest. and it’s the first negative trait we see of davos outside of his own pov—that his possessiveness of stannis is what makes his relationship to melisandre all the more merciless. it’s interesting when you look back on the “a man is good or he is evil” scene from acok, because melisandre, who says there are no gray men, gives davos the benefit of the doubt time and time again, while davos, a self-proclaimed “gray man”, treats melisandre as if she was only dark, no light. and the reason for both stances is stannis. melisandre sees how much davos matters to her warrior and appreciates him for it. davos sees a relationship that is not exclusively professional, neither exclusively religious, and thinks melisandre a corrupting force).
but we don’t know this until it’s too late. all we get from melisandre from book 1 to book 4 is antagonistic and unflattering thanks to davos, a grieving man (arguably in love) that must put the blame somewhere, and it can’t all possibly fit in stannis—blame is not a thing for kings. so how cathartic it is to read “Lord Davos would not thank her for it, no more than the boy himself, but it seemed to her that Seaworth had suffered enough grief.” to know that this woman who has been called red and evil and red cares for the simple purpose of caring, even for those who have hurt her. what we see from melisandre (and melony’s) backstory is incredibly tragic, but i think the thing that hurts the most is revisiting all the scenes from books prior and realizing that, much like davos, you were so very wrong
