If you haven't seen the first episode of the new series of Game of Thrones yet, fuck off now.
I am not going to put up with anyone moaning about spoilers. We told you on the link and I'm telling you now, SPOILERS LIE AHEAD SO IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT, DO NOT READ ON.
I could not have been clearer. Now, onto what we need to speak about...
Advert
So the first episode of Game of Thrones season six, 'The Red Woman', was a little bit dull until right at the end when the Lady Melisandre, played by Carice Van Houten, decided to undress in full view.
Looking real sad about seeing Jon Snow's lifeless body, she first undoes her red dress and lets it fall to the floor before undoing the jeweled choker she wears around her neck.
Now, there was a lot of emphasis on her taking that off. Especially because when she took it off and looked in her mirror (which was fucking filthy by the way), she had morphed into a really really really old woman.
It was no longer Carice Van Houten and had become exactly what you'd expect a witch to look like - except naked and worse than you could imagine.
So what we saw was that the giant red choker is what made Lady Melisandre young and desirable to the extremely randy men that inhabit Westeros.
Advert
Now, from series 1-5, are we seriously to believe that Lady Melisandre had never taken that choker off and revealed her true form? Damn right we weren't, so thanks must go to Marcela Limon on Twitter who noticed this...
It's a continuity error. That is, if the producers and director meant the choker to be the catalyst between Carice Van Houten looking smoking and literally making me throw up in my mouth a little.
There are of course potential explanations. Take for example Reddit users PM-ME-YOUR-SUNSETS and grrlonfire who think they may know what's going on here...
Advert
PM-ME-YOUR-SUNSETS: Maybe it's not necessarily the necklace that keeps her in her beautiful form. To me it just seemed like Melisandre was just shedding away the layers of what she appears to be so that she could look at her true self. This could be something she can do on her own. A gift from the Lord of Light.
If she turned old every time someone tore off her necklace, I'd think she'd be more standoffish and cautious of anyone coming near her.
Grrionfire: Yeah, in that bathtub scene she talks about the smoke and mirrors she uses to make people believe in her. The only person looking at her in that scene was Selyse, a devout follower. So maybe she used some other trick... Or... Maybe Selyse could always see the red woman as she was. She never seemed concerned that this sexy lady was tempting her hubby all the time. Hmmmm.
However, if you take into account what director Jeremy Podeswa said to Entertainment Weekly about the Lady Melisandre, it might make you think twice as well...
Advert
He said: "The idea is there's an indefinite indeterminate quality that she could be ancient.
"We were limited by choosing to use a real person rather than a complete CG creation. Because what does a 400-year-old person look like? We don't know. So if you try to create that, then you're creating something that looks beyond our known reality.
"Here you feel like she's very old without putting a number on it."
So basically, there's witchcraft afoot. You'd hope so after she burned alive a little girl in the last series.
Advert
Until next week, folks.
Words by George Pavlou
Images via HBO
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Game of Thrones