Melisandre may already be dead: the fire wight theory and the Bloodraven problem (+ with english and german ... etc. subtitles)
I know this topic is not new and has been discussed many times, but I want to express my own perspective and point out the shortcomings of the Bloodraven theory.
I am not trying to say this is 100% confirmed, only that when you put her own ADWD chapter, the fire magic, Bloodraven parallels and the age problem together, Melisandre looks much less like a normal human being and much more like someone who may already have died once.
The most important starting point is her own POV in ADWD. Until that chapter we mostly see her from outside. Cressen fears her, Davos does not trust her, Jon sees her as dangerous but useful. But in her own chapter we get the small memory of āMelonyā and āLot Seven.ā A woman cries Melony, a man calls Lot Seven, and she is weeping. To me this is very clearly connected with being sold, numbered, maybe given to a temple or bought as a slave. The important thing is that she is not remembered as a person in that moment, but like property. Also the name Melony does not really sound Asshaiāi or eastern to me. It sounds more Westerosi, or at least closer to the western side of the world. This alone does not prove anything, but it opens the door.
Then comes the part that makes her really strange. Melisandre does not live like other people. In ADWD she sleeps very little, sometimes only for an hour, and she even thinks that one day she will not sleep at all. She also forgets to eat. She reminds herself, āFood. Yes, I should eat,ā but then the narration tells us that Rāhllor gives her body all the nourishment it needs, and this must be hidden from mortal men. This is not just a woman doing a long fast or being very disciplined. The text makes it sound like her body is already working under different rules.
That reminds me directly of Beric Dondarrion. After his resurrections, Beric says he does not sleep as he did before, and Arya notices that he barely eats. He can drink, but food and normal living are already fading from him. He is still walking and talking, but life is not exactly life anymore. Melisandre is not shown as decaying like Beric, of course. She is much stronger, more beautiful, and more controlled. But the reduced need for sleep and food is too close for me to ignore. It looks like the same category, only much more advanced and maybe much older.
There is also the blood detail. Melisandre's blood is described as black and smoking. The text does not say āred blood.ā It gives a very abnormal image(black, like other deads). This could be fire magic, or glamor, or something else, but when it is placed beside the sleeping and eating issue, it feels like the body is no longer fully ordinary. So the question is not only āis she old?ā but āwhat kind of body does she have now?ā
About age, the books do not give us an exact number. We only know she has practiced her art for years beyond count, and the show used the idea that she is very old. I do not want to base a book theory only on the show, but Dan said that in early talks George told them Melisandre was supposed to be several centuries old. Maybe the 400 years part was show invention, maybe not, but the general idea that she is much older than she looks seems very possible. In the books, her ruby and glamor magic also make it possible that what we see is not her real appearance.
But this creates a big problem with the Bloodraven/Shiera theory. At first, the parallel is tempting. Bloodraven is albino, white-skinned, white-haired, with one red eye. Melisandre has very pale skin, red eyes, strange red hair, and she is tall and magical. Red eyes in ASOIAF are not just a random beauty trait. They are connected to greenseer imagery, Bloodraven being the strongest example. Melisandre coming from Asshai but looking like she carries the same red-white magical language as Bloodraven is suspicious.
Shiera Seastar also makes the idea more attractive. She is beautiful, mysterious, connected with books, languages, old scrolls and rumors of dark arts. She had a relationship with Bloodraven. If Melisandre were their daughter, it would explain some things in a romantic and very Martin-like way: Bloodravenās red-white magic, Shieraās beauty and dark magical aura, and Melisandreās strange face and power. Chronologically, if Melisandre was born around the late 190s or early 200s AC, she could be around ninety or one hundred in the main series, which already fits better than a normal age. A child born in secret, maybe taken to Essos through Shieraās Lysene connections, then lost or sold as a slave, is not impossible.
But I think the theory weakens when the fire wight part is taken seriously. If Melisandre is several centuries old, Bloodraven cannot be her father. She would be older than him. If she is only around one hundred, then Bloodraven could be her father, but then the fire wight explanation becomes harder, because we need to ask when and how she was resurrected. Fire magic seems to become stronger again after the return of dragons.
Hallyne says in ACOK that the spells for wildfire are working better than before, and his old master believed magic began to leave the world when the last dragon died. Thoros also could not really do miracles before, then suddenly after the dragons return, he raises Beric. This is why I think true fire resurrection was not really available in the dragonless period, or at least not in the same way.
So if Melisandre became a fire wight, maybe she has to come from the age when dragons still existed, or from a time when fire magic was still strong enough. That pushes her age backward, maybe two hundred years or more, maybe even several centuries. And if that is true, Bloodraven and Shiera cannot be her parents. The resemblance may still mean something, but not direct father-daughter. Maybe Martin once thought about such a connection and later changed it.
There is another possibility too: Melisandre may not be a fire wight in the strict way. Maybe she is an extremely old sorceress using glamor, blood magic and fire magic to keep her appearance and body alive. We know she can use glamors because of Mance/Rattleshirt. The ruby, bones, hair and memory of a body can shape what other people see. So maybe her young beautiful form is not real, and the ruby is hiding age or damage. I accept this as possible. But for me it does not explain everything. A glamor can explain appearance, but it does not fully explain why she does not need food, why she barely sleeps, why her blood is black and smoking, and why her body seems nourished by Rāhllor.
This is why I return to the fire wight theory. Melisandre may have been Melony first, maybe a child from the western world, maybe albino or red-eyed, sold as Lot Seven. She ends up in Essos, possibly at the temple of Rāhllor or on a path that leads to Asshai. At some point she dies, or is transformed through fire magic, and returns not as a normal woman but as a person bound to a purpose. With Beric, the anchor is justice. With Lady Stoneheart, it becomes vengeance. What is left in Melisandre? I think purpose. Azor Ahai. The war against darkness. Bringing the dawn. Maybe that is why she cannot let go of prophecy. Maybe that is why even her old name is almost erased. Melony disappears, Melisandre remains.
This also changes how I see her morally. She burns people, uses shadows, manipulates Stannis, and probably will be involved in Shireenās burning. It is very easy to call her evil, and I understand that. But Martinās world usually does not work in such a simple way. He once said, when asked about characters like Mirri and Melisandre, that Mirri saw herself as a hero, and Melisandre probably feels the same. I think this is important. Melisandre may truly believe she is saving the world. The horror is that her faith, her visions and her sacrifices may be built on wrong readings.
TL: DR: So my final reading is this. Melisandre is almost certainly not a normal human being. Her past as Melony/Lot Seven points to slavery or temple ownership, and maybe to a lost identity. Her body does not behave like a living body should. Her need for food and sleep is much closer to Beric than to ordinary humans. Her black smoking blood, glamor magic and possible age all support that she has been changed by fire. The Bloodraven/Shiera idea is attractive because of the visual and magical parallels, but the age and fire wight issue make it unlikely as a literal parent theory. I think the stronger version is that Melisandre is a very old fire wight, maybe born during the age of dragons, probably taken from her original life as a child, bound to Rāhllor, and still walking because her mission has not ended.
I do not think this proves everything. There are holes, especially about exact age and where she was born. But to me the fire wight explanation ties together more details than the simple āshe is just an old sorceress with a rubyā idea.
