Episode 175: A STORM OF SWORDS, DAVOS III: "Shadow and Flame" SHOW NOTES! (Patreon)

Hello and welcome to the Not A Cast … podcast: the one true chapter-by-chapter podcast going through A Song of Ice and Fire one chapter a week. I’m one of your hosts Jeff better known as BryndenBFish.

And I’m your other host Emmett, better known as PoorQuentyn.

Welcome to the one hundred and seventy-fifth episode of the Not A Cast, titled: “Shadow and Flame: An Analysis of ASOS, Davos III,” in which Davos Seaworth finds himself in what you might call the white collar prison within the Westeros dungeon complex system.

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Question

Ser Tony B, a Sworn Sword patron has a theory about our end-of-episode discussion from ASOS, Davos II and question:

I wanted to contact you guys about a question that came up in a previous ASOS Davos episode (been meaning to do this since that episode came out). The question was: why did Melisandre want Davos to encounter Edric Storm in Aegon's garden when Davos returned to Dragonstone after the battle of the Blackwater? I think Axell of the hairy ears and nostrils said that Melisandre specifically wanted Davos to encounter Edric. I ALWAYS wondered about this, but on my last read-through I noticed something. Davos is sick when he returns to Dragonstone (having a bad cough and coughing stuff up). Shortly after this chapter, we hear that Edric is sick and being leeched. I think Melisandre wanted Davos to have contact with Edric so that Edric would catch the cold (or whatever sickness Davos had) so that Melisandre would have a legitimate reason to leech Edric to get his king's blood. That's just me though. What do you guys think about this?

So, thank you Tony for the comment and question. If you’d like to ask us questions we must answer here on the NotACast pod-cast, you are welcome to become a Sworn Sword or higher level patron where you can also get show notes, bonus episodes like our upcoming analysis of the 2003 Battlestar Galactica miniseries, merch, Q&A, access to the NotASlack and shout outs at the start and end of every episode!

I’m really excited to return to BSG with you, ser! You can find all of our patreon perks at patreon.com/NotACastASOIAF! But enough about patreon. When we last checked in with Davos Seaworth, he had tried to do some murder but ended up arrested for his attempt. Let’s find out what jail is like in this analysis of ASOS, Davos III!

Synopsis

The cell was warmer than any cell had a right to be. It was dark, yes. Flickering orange light fell through the ancient iron bars from the torch in the sconce on the wall outside, but the back half of the cell remained drenched in gloom. It was dank as well, as might be expected on an isle such as Dragonstone, where the sea was never far. And there were rats, as many as any dungeon could expect to have and a few more besides.

Davos opening up the chapter in a jail cell … I wonder if this will ever be repeated.

Davos won’t complain about the chill. Dragonstone had warm walls, the warmer the farther down they went. Maybe Dragonstone was built with the stones of hell like the old stories said.

Davos was sick when they brought him here. A bad case of the flu. He thought he was going to die, but he was wrong about that. Maester Pylos helped him, giving him broth and milk of the poppy. As he slept, he was leached or so he suspected given all the marks on his arms. And as Davos improved, his food became better, more filling. Stews with white fish, carrot and onions. And then one day, he realized that he was stronger than when Black Betha was destroyed on the Blackwater.

Davos has two gaolers. A broad squat dude who fed him porridge and a skinny guy who brought him dinner meals that included lamprey. Davos judges day and night by the food the gaolers bring. They didn’t speak to him though. So, he names them Porridge and Lamprey.

A man grows lonely in the dark, and hungers for the sound of a human voice. Davos would talk to the gaolers whenever they came to his cell, whether to bring him food or change his slops pail. He knew they would be deaf to pleas for freedom or mercy; instead he asked them questions, hoping perhaps one day one might answer. “What news of the war?” he asked, and “Is the king well?” He asked after his son Devan, and the Princess Shireen, and Salladhor Saan. “What is the weather like?” he asked, and “Have the autumn storms begun yet? Do ships still sail the narrow sea?”

But the men never answer -- though Porridge gives him a look while Davos thinks that Lamprey might not even know that Davos is alive. Lamprey looked at Davos like a job he needed to do. But Porridge was a human. Davos even thinks he’s feeding the rats.

They do not mean to let me die, he realized. They are keeping me alive, for some purpose of their own. He did not like to think what that might be. Lord Sunglass had been confined in the cells beneath Dragonstone for a time, as had Ser Hubard Rambton’s sons; all of them had ended on the pyre. I should have given myself to the sea, Davos thought as he sat staring at the torch beyond the bars. Or let the sail pass me by, to perish on my rock. I would sooner feed crabs than flames.

But then one night as Davos finishes dinner, he feels a weird warmth, and he sees that none other than Melisandre is present. She asks if he’s well and whether he lacks for anything. He’s doing better. As for what he lacks.

“My king. My son. I lack for them.” He pushed the bowl aside and stood. “Have you come to burn me?”

Her strange red eyes studied him through the bars. “This is a bad place, is it not? A dark place, and foul. The good sun does not shine here, nor the bright moon.” She lifted a hand toward the torch in the wall sconce. “This is all that stands between you and the darkness, Onion Knight. This little fire, this gift of R’hllor. Shall I put it out?”

“No.” He moved toward the bars. “Please.” He did not think he could bear that, to be left alone in utter blackness with no one but the rats for company.

Melisandre asks if Davos has come to love the fire. No, but Davos needs the torch. Right. Melisandre is like the torch. She’s an instrument of R’hllor. Her torch keep the darkness at bay. Does Davos believe in this? Fuck, no. Maybe he should have lied, but he was too honest. He knows that Melisandre is evil. She birthed a shadow under Storm’s End after all.

Melisandre makes fun of Davos for being frightened of a little shadow which seems like gaslighting if you ask me. Regardless, good news! Melisandre can’t make more shadows with Stannis as the process might kill him. But she might do it with another man, she would. She’d give Davos the best sex he’d ever known. They could make …

“… a horror.” Davos retreated from her. “I want no part of you, my lady. Or your god. May the Seven protect me.”

Melisandre says the Seven didn’t protect Guncer Sunglass when he got burned. Why does Davos even worship the Seven? Because he worshiped them all his life. Melisandre thinks this is a poor answer and suspects Davos is lying to himself about the Seven. She wants Davos to see something. What would Melisandre like Davos to see?

“The way the world is made. The truth is all around you, plain to behold. The night is dark and full of terrors, the day bright and beautiful and full of hope. One is black, the other white. There is ice and there is fire. Hate and love. Bitter and sweet. Male and female. Pain and pleasure. Winter and summer. Evil and good.” She took a step toward him. “Death and life. Everywhere, opposites. Everywhere, the war.”

“The war?” asked Davos.

“The war,” she affirmed. “There are two, Onion Knight. Not seven, not one, not a hundred or a thousand. Two! Do you think I crossed half the world to put yet another vain king on yet another empty throne? The war has been waged since time began, and before it is done, all men must choose where they will stand. On one side is R’hllor, the Lord of Light, the Heart of Fire, the God of Flame and Shadow. Against him stands the Great Other whose name may not be spoken, the Lord of Darkness, the Soul of Ice, the God of Night and Terror. Ours is not a choice between Baratheon and Lannister, between Greyjoy and Stark. It is death we choose, or life. Darkness, or light.” She clasped the bars of his cell with her slender white hands. The great ruby at her throat seemed to pulse with its own radiance. “So tell me, Ser Davos Seaworth, and tell me truly — does your heart burn with the shining light of R’hllor? Or is it black and cold and full of worms?” She reached through the bars and laid three fingers upon his breast, as if to feel the truth of him through flesh and wool and leather.

“My heart,” Davos said slowly, “is full of doubts.”

I think this dialogue is superb; so, once again, it’s hard not to quote it in full. Melisandre says that Davos is honest at least. False servants of the Other hide black hearts in light. Oh, and BTW, why did Davos mean to kill Melisandre? Davos says show me yours, and I’ll show you mine. Who betrayed him? Salladhor Saan? No one betrayed Davos, according to Mel. She saw his purpose in her flames. How convenient that Melisandre saw that and not the inferno coming for them on the Blackwater.

Melisandre says that Davos wrongs her. Those weren’t her fires, but she would have definitely been able to turn the tide of the battle if she was there. But Stannis had all these unbelievers around him, and R’hllor punished Stannis for his sin, and now Stannis has learned his lesson.

Were my sons no more than a lesson for a king, then? Davos felt his mouth tighten.

“It is night in your Seven Kingdoms now,” the red woman went on, “but soon the sun will rise again. The war continues, Davos Seaworth, and some will soon learn that even an ember in the ashes can still ignite a great blaze. The old maester looked at Stannis and saw only a man. You see a king. You are both wrong. He is the Lord’s chosen, the warrior of fire. I have seen him leading the fight against the dark, I have seen it in the flames. The flames do not lie, else you would not be here. It is written in prophecy as well. When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone. The bleeding star has come and gone, and Dragonstone is the place of smoke and salt. Stannis Baratheon is Azor Ahai reborn!” Her red eyes blazed like twin fires, and seemed to stare deep into his soul. “You do not believe me. You doubt the truth of R’hllor even now… yet have served him all the same, and will serve him again. I shall leave you here to think on all that I have told you. And because R’hllor is the source of all good, I shall leave the torch as well.”

So, Melisandre bugs out and leaves the torch. Once her footsteps fade, all he can hear is the scrabbling of the rats. Davos considers the duality of what Melisandre was saying. He’s sure glad Salla didn’t betray him. But he doesn’t like the idea of serving R’hllor again. He looks up to the torch and tries to search the flames. But he sees nothing.

God-blind and tired, Davos curled up on the straw and gave himself to sleep.

God-blind is such a nifty turn of phrase; so, had to quote yet again.

Three days later, or rather three days and two nights later, Davos hears a voice of a man yelling that it was all madness. Davos sees that Ser Axell Florent and Porridge were dragging an older man to the cell. The man yells that he’s no traitor and asks for Selyse. He demands to see her. But no one cares.

Porridge asks if Axell wants the older man to be tossed into Davos’ cell. Davos considers rushing the guards, but he realizes he’d be killed. So, he stands aside as Axelle tells the gaoler to toss the traitor into the other traitor’s cell.

“I am no traitor!” screeched the prisoner as Porridge was unlocking the door. Though he was plainly dressed, in grey wool doublet and black breeches, his speech marked him as highborn. His birth will not serve him here, thought Davos.

The guards toss the man in as he goes big NO on being in here. He’s the King’s Hand! At that, Davos knows the man. He’s Lord Alester Florent. Alester asks who Davos is. He’s Davos. Ah, the bro who tried to murder Melisandre. Alester then apologizes for his appearance. He lost his money when the Lannisters overran his camp on the Blackwater. But he still has his cute armor and the rings on his fingers that Davos remembered seeing at the camp at Storm’s End.

Alester says that Davos probably lost stuff on the Blackwater too. Yeah, his ship, his men and four of his sons. Alester mutters a half-hearted piety about the Lord of Light protecting them, and Davos prays that the Father judges his sons justly and the Mother grant them mercy. Alester remarks that his son is safe back at Brightwater Keep, but he lost his nephew Imry on the Blackwater.

Davos remembers Imry as the moron commander. He asks if there were any survivors from Imry’s flagship Fury.

“The Fury burned and sank with all hands,” his lordship said. “Your son and my nephew were lost, with countless other good men. The war itself was lost that day, ser.”

This man is defeated. Davos remembered Melisandre’s talk of embers in the ashes igniting great blazes. Small wonder he ended here. “His Grace will never yield, my lord.”

“Folly, that’s folly.” Lord Alester sat on the floor again, as if the effort of standing for a moment had been too much for him. “Stannis Baratheon will never sit the Iron Throne. Is it treason to say the truth? A bitter truth, but no less true for that. His fleet is gone, save for the Lyseni, and Salladhor Saan will flee at the first sight of a Lannister sail. Most of the lords who supported Stannis have gone over to Joffrey or died…”

Davos wonders about the lords of the Narrow Sea. Are they gone? Most of them are dead, sworn to the Lannisters or just ten year old kids. They need to make a peace. How is peace treason?

Davos asks what Alester did, and the man reports that he was Hand of the King, and how can the Hand be a traitor. He was trying to save everyone’s life and their honor. He wrote a letter to Tywin with terms. Davos asks what the terms were. Before Alester answers, he remarks that it smells awful in here. Why is that? Because Davos shits into a pail. No privy in this here dungeon. And what were the terms again?

His lordship stared at the pail in horror. “That Lord Stannis give up his claim to the Iron Throne and retract all he said of Joffrey’s bastardy, on the condition that he be accepted back into the king’s peace and confirmed as Lord of Dragonstone and Storm’s End. I vowed to do the same, for the return of Brightwater Keep and all our lands. I thought… Lord Tywin would see the sense in my proposal. He still has the Starks to deal with, and the ironmen as well. I offered to seal the bargain by wedding Shireen to Joffrey’s brother Tommen.” He shook his head. “The terms… they are as good as we are ever like to get. Even you can see that, surely?”

“Yes,” said Davos, “even me.” Unless Stannis should father a son, such a marriage would mean that Dragonstone and Storm’s End would one day pass to Tommen, which would doubtless please Lord Tywin. Meanwhile, the Lannisters would have Shireen as hostage to make certain Stannis raised no new rebellions. “And what did His Grace say when you proposed these terms to him?”

“He is always with the red woman, and… he is not in his right mind, I fear. This talk of a stone dragon… madness, I tell you, sheer madness. Did we learn nothing from Aerion Brightfire, from the nine mages, from the alchemists? Did we learn nothing from Summerhall? No good has ever come from these dreams of dragons, I told Axell as much. My way was better. Surer. And Stannis gave me his seal, he gave me leave to rule. The Hand speaks with the king’s voice.”

No, Alester did not speak for Stannis in this. Stannis will not yield or go back on declaring Joffrey as a bastard born of incest. And how can Stannis marry Shireen since Tommen is a bastard born of incest? He’d rather that Shireen die than have that befall her.

Alester declares that Stannis has no choice.

“You are wrong, my lord. He can choose to die a king.”

“And us with him? Is that what you desire, Onion Knight?”

“No. But I am the king’s man, and I will make no peace without his leave.”

Lord Alester stared at him helplessly for a long moment, and then began to weep.

And that is the synopsis of ASOS, Davos III! These Davos chapters just keep getting better as we progress into ASOS! Amazing stuff all around. What did you think, ser!?

Depth

Like I’ve said before, Davos’ story in this book is a structurally perfect character arc. He started with nothing, reborn from the sea onto an empty rock; in his second chapter, he returned to Dragonstone, trying to remake himself as a vengeful warrior of god, and failed miserably. So now in his third chapter, he’s going through a crucible, forced to seriously consider what is real and what matters to him. He’s sorting through competing incentives and incomplete information, struggling to forge his own path through the drama unfolding around him. That drama is both spiritual and political, and this chapter splits neatly in two with one character representing each: Melisandre for the spiritual, Alester Florent for the political, each standing in for part of Davos, like both of these conversations are happening inside his head. It’s all conveyed with striking imagery and sharply written dialogue. This is pretty much a flawless chapter, and yet Davos chapters keep getting better from here! And so he remains the Objectively Best POV in ASOS.

Enough with the Jaime slander! I tease. Like I said, Davos just keeps picking up and getting better with each chapter until we hit some truly glorious, memorable, dynamic and excellent chapters here. You’re right that this is a crucible of a chapter. It’s a transition chapter, but it’s not simply perfunctory for Davos. George wants to introduce the conflict which will become the centerpiece of Davos’ story in ASOS: is he a loyal Stannerman or is he a good man? What are the limits of Davos’ loyalty? What are the limits of him being a good man? What will Davos do when these conflicting motivations conflict? The foundations of that conflict are here. As we’ll see in Davos IV, Davos will try to harmonize morality and loyalty, but the rest of his arc will see the two values diverge in the most dramatic of ways.

• The cave cell
  • Davos’ story in ASOS is all about ambiguity. He’s being confronted with opposites coming together, everyone and everything showing two faces
  • That’s what makes it such a perfect arc for him in particular, because it prevents him from being a two-dimensional prop of pure justice
  • He has to navigate waters more stormy than literal seas; he has to recalibrate his own moral compass, rather than Stannis’
  • Stannis once again doesn’t even show up in this chapter! Think of that: Davos only existed at first as a camera on Stannis Baratheon, and now half his chapters go by in this book before we even see the king
  • That’s in part so George can build up the tension by hinting what Stannis is getting up to out of sight, as we see via Alester Florent in this chapter
  • But it’s also to give us more time in Davos’ thoughts on their own terms, and we need that, because his story in this book hinges on his choices
  • His choices are dramatically potent because of that ambiguity. This chapter opens with Davos enjoying the warmth…of his prison cell
  • Sure, it’s dark down here, with only a single feeble torch to hold back the night. It’s moist, too; the sea is close by, calling Davos back to it
  • But at least it’s not cold. Davos spends a lot of time in jail, as a politician as well as a smuggler; he gets imprisoned at Sisterton and again in White Harbor. He’s used to them, and this is one of the nicer ones
  • After all, this is where he got better. When the queen’s men first threw him into jail, Davos thought he would die down here in the dark
  • He was feverish and coughing after his ordeal on his rock; surely being imprisoned will make it worse! But Davos recovers, thanks to the kindly intervention of Maester Pylos: a king’s man who will later join his conspiracy. Like Salladhor, he wants only the best for Davos
  • The choice of Pylos as the caretaker for Davos is a good touch here, because of how he was contrasted to Maester Cressen from the ACOK Prologue.
  • Back then, Pylos was initially framed ambiguously to Creseen as both a nice dude but also his replacement.
  • By the end of the Prologue, Pylos was usurper, sitting in Cressen’s appointed place by the king’s side after letting Cressen sleep rather than join the dinner feast.
  • But here and for the rest of ASOS, Pylos is a good man, restoring Davos physically, caring for him medically and then aiding Davos in the Edric Storm mission.
  • George likes his reversals in reader expectations, showing us how the perspective of someone shifts depending upon the point of view.
  • Pylos can be both a good man and a usurper. It’s a small illustration of the greater whole of Davos’ arc in ASOS: things, people, ideas, values are not so polar, not so binary, not so Melisandre-like.
  • There is a wide, brackish middle where ice and fire mate, where Pylos and Davos can be a mix of good and bad.
  • The blisters fade, the coughing stops, Davos can eat solid food again, and suddenly he realizes that he’s as close to his old self as he’ll ever be
  • So even as his freedom has been curtailed, his circumstances have been improved, and he’s been forced off the dangerous and destructive path of thinking of himself as the Hand of God. In his efforts to defeat Melisandre, he was becoming her
  • As he thinks, he was wrong that he would die here...as he was wrong about so much else
  • Davos doesn't specify what he was wrong about. Serving Stannis so blindly? Putting his faith in the Mother? Trying to kill Melisandre instead of heeding Salla's advice?
  • Could be any or all of them! The point is that Davos has been set back on his heels, and has to reexamine; it's not so simple after all
  • His cell fits the motif of a cave, which resonates with reference points from Plato to Jesus
  • The cave is the meeting place of birth, death, and rebirth, as it was for Team Bran last week and will be for Jon and Ygritte next week. It's a womb but also a tunnel to the underworld
  • You can see both sides of the coin here. The cell is warm, wet, and dark, just like Davos is a fetus in the womb. As he thinks, though, the warmth comes from deep down inside Dragonstone, like the stones are from hell
  • There's your passage to the underworld, as well as a connection to the hellish red bricks of Astapor
  • So even while the warmth is comforting Davos, helping him heal, it's also reminding him that fire can kill. Why are they keeping him alive, he wonders? Is it just to burn him? If so, he’d have preferred to die on his rock
  • This duality is reflected by his jailors. Down here in the dark, with neither sun nor moon, they're his only way of keeping track of time
  • It's an ironic reversal of his time on the rock. There, he was exposed to nature, and starved of both food and human connection
  • Here, he's hidden from nature and is fed rather well for a prisoner, but he's still denied that humanity
  • Davos doesn't know his jailor's names, so he calls them Lamprey and Porridge after the food they bring him
  • Worth noting that Porridge is the one Davos likes, even though Lamprey is the one who brought him the rich foods
  • Porridge looks at Davos like a person, while Lamprey looks at him like an object; it's the same distinction Davos has made between the highborns who treat him with respect v. those who scorn him for his low birth
  • That recognition of humanity is what Davos cares about, not the wealth and power symbolized by the fancy dinner. It reminds me of how Davos threw up the equally rich food given to him by Salladhor's men
  • Lamprey even dresses in fancier clothes–but they’re torn and ill-fitting, as Stannis’ crown seems too big for his head in Davos’ next chapter
  • Going forward, Davos isn't interested in the power of being Hand of the King. He's interested in how that position allows him to help others, specifically Edric Storm. He looks at Edric as Porridge looks at him: like a person. Stannis and Melisandre look at Edric the way Lamprey looks at Davos: like an object
  • I love the detail that Davos hears Porridge whispering to the rats. The man is lonely, like Davos on his rock--or like Stannis and Melisandre all the time! All these people are lonely and in need of someone to talk to, even if it's only rats
  • Thankfully, Davos won't be lonely for long…
  • Warm company is always welcome down in the dungeons of Dragonstone, so to speak.
  • I think there’s a lot of pretending going on in this chapter. Everyone is pretending to be someone that they’re not.
  • Lamprey has his rich clothes on, playing at nobility, serving rich foods to Davos. Porridge pretends to be a father to the rats.
  • Meanwhile, Dragonstone itself pretends. The farther down they should have descended, the colder the stones should have been.
  • But the stones are warm. Dragonstone connected to hell to be poetic about it, Dragonstone, connected to lava being the more mundane reason why the stones are warm.
  • But I think there’s something more being communicated here.
  • I recall your point from AGOT, Catelyn II so well that the stones of Winterfell cry out that Jon is Targaryen and Stark.
  • Like you talked about so well, the hot springs of Winterfell flow through cold stones, symbolizing Jon’s hot Targaryen blood and genetics flowing through the cold, northern, Stark exterior.
  • Meanwhile, the hot water is a balm, it nourishes the castle, providing the greenhouse for when winter comes, keeping the residents warm and alive against the cold of a northern winter.
  • Dragonstone is different, giving off a different kind of heat. It’s not the nourishing heat of Winterfell. Davos wonders if the heat is from hell. I think lava, but tomato, tomahto.
  • What it feels like is that Dragonstone is a counterfeit Winterfell, a castle which has the same attributes of Winterfell, but the source of the warmth is hellish.
  • And if you hold to the theory that Jon Snow is Azor Ahai, Winterfell represents the true version of that figure.
  • Sitting atop the throne of Dragonstone is the counterfeit Azor Ahai: Stannis Baratheon.
  • And wouldn’t you know it, but Davos feels a queer flush come across him and a figure proclaiming the false messiah as the true one.
• Melisandre
  • As I’ve been saying, Davos’ story in this book is all about duality, and so the bulk of this chapter is built around two conversations, one with Melisandre and the other with Alester Florent, perfect opposites
  • They address the situation of Team Stannis from different angles, reaching different conclusions, but they both draw on where Davos stood in ACOK and propel his story forward in their own unique ways
  • First up is the red woman. Davos feels a “queer flush” come over him as she arrives–which sounds like sexual arousal, but also like the flu. That sets up Melisandre’s ambiguous role: attractive, but also a disease
  • As in ACOK, George brings some of his most vivid imagery to bear on Mel: her robes of “shimmering scarlet,” her red ruby and red eyes catching the light from the torch. She’s hypnotizing; she doesn’t seem quite real
  • Last time we saw her, that imagery reached its fever pitch: light blooming in the darkness under Storm’s End as she gave birth to a shadow
  • This is a similar situation: we’re underground, a little light holding the darkness back. And Melisandre talks as though nothing has happened in the interim–calmly, George writes, like they’re exchanging polite greetings
  • Stannis does the same thing in Davos’ next chapter: no acknowledgment of what’s happened since Storm’s End, jumping into the issues headfirst
  • Davos has lost patience with this pretense. So when Mel asks if he lacks anything, he’s straightforward about his goals and also hers:
    • “My king. My son. I lack for them … Have you come to burn me?”
  • But just like at Storm’s End, Melisandre engages him in philosophical debate, trying to explain her perspective by undercutting his
  • George has repeatedly stated that Melisandre is the most misunderstood character in ASOIAF.
  • I think Melisandre spends a lot of time engaging in discussion with Davos Seaworth specifically because she’s so misunderstood.
  • She’s actually, and this gets back to ACOK material we covered, but she’s a missionary trying to convert the unbelievers to her side.
  • As always with her, it comes back to fire, and how fire conceptually divides the world in two. Davos is in a dark place, she says. This torch is the only light he has. What if she were to take it away?
  • Davos can’t bear that. Total darkness would only increase his isolation; solitary confinement is torture enough without being denied the light
  • Melisandre believes this proves her point. He has come to love the fire, she says–and she is fire, according to her. She and her god are like a torch in the darkness, preventing mankind from being alone in barbarism
  • She talks to him respectfully, which is more than the Florents ever do, but she’s negotiating from a position of strength–she has power over him now
  • The threat of human sacrifice hangs heavy here. Davos does need the torch, but fire only helps him at a safe distance. If he were plunge into the fire like a moth, it wouldn’t save him–it would kill him
    • “Too much light can blind the eyes, and fire burns.”
  • Mel has taken a good thing too far; Davos always argues for balance, to avoid abusing any kind of power. He’s right to refuse Melisandre’s offer to make a shadowbaby with him. She’s right, though, that he has lost any secure philosophical foundation of his own
  • You don’t like my god? Fine. But what good are yours? Guncer Sunglass believed in the Seven as much as anyone did. It didn’t save him
  • What good are gods with no tangible power? As in ACOK, Davos has no real argument to make on behalf of the Faith; all he can say is that he followed these gods all his life. Mel is right that this isn’t an argument
  • Who are we, in the sweep of time? What do our lives mean? Melisandre, in her mind, is trying to bring meaning to a meaningless world, burn away the lies covering men’s eyes so they can behold the one true truth
  • This makes her categorically different from cruel opportunists like Axell Florent. But it also makes her more dangerous than them
  • Opportunists can be bought, or at least intimidated. True believers like Melisandre will do anything to bring their vision of a better world to pass
  • She respects Davos because he is honest. She’s used to liars and flatterers; she appreciates someone who will tell her what he really thinks, defy her to her face. Even though she puts so much work into intimidating others (“the trappings of power,” as she calls them), she ironically respects Davos because he is able to see through those trappings
  • So many of the people in Stannis’ camp fall into the category of the people who hide black hearts in light colors.
  • The Florents are the most prominent examples: opportunists who seized on R’hllor to gain favor in Stannis’ court.
  • Axell Florent is the malicious manifestation of this dynamic: violent and abusive, using R’hllor as a cudgel to cleave his way into higher and higher positions of authority.
  • Alester Florent, who we’ll meet in a few minutes, is the more benign version, the false believer who “converted” but quickly falls back into his Faith of the Seven ways.
  • Then there’s the Clayton Suggs of Stannis’ camp who Asha says loves the fires and not R’hllor.
  • Among these stand Davos. Davos is intriguing, because he doesn’t have the mature faith of your Catelyns. His growing up experience seems to be of the CEO (Christmas-Easter-Only) Faith of the Seven.
  • But he did have the profound experience hearing the Mother’s voice in Blackwater Bay.
  • But he failed in that mission, and the subtext reads that Davos feels as though he either failed the Mother or even that the Mother didn’t speak to him at all.
  • Davos speaks truth to kings–she found that out in ACOK. But he lies to himself. That’s what he’s struggling with in this book. I said King Stannis was my god, that it was all worth it in service to him. Is that still true?
  • That’s not what Melisandre is talking about, though. Her concerns are more metaphysical, and so she monologues about how the world is made
  • In her view, the entire universe is a war between opposites. There are not seven gods, there are two, one of ice and one of fire, and every element of existence breaks down into one of those categories
  • Life is a struggle between bitter and sweet, man and woman, light and dark. You pick one side, or you pick the other; she picked fire
  • Melisandre is the first character south of the Wall to address the threat of another Long Night. That’s a big deal!
  • From the very beginning of the story, George has contrasted the apocalyptic urgency of the Others’ return with how unprepared Westeros is to deal with it. Our dread keeps growing; they’re going to be blindsided
  • Now we finally see someone in a position of power talk about the growing darkness in the North. Finally, someone says that the Iron Throne doesn’t matter in the face of the end of the world. I do think this is meant to change our view of Mel–she’s not in this to make Stannis the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, she’s in this to prevent the extinction of our species
  • What could be more heroic than that? Here’s the problem: Melisandre’s binary worldview is absolute bullshit
  • Let’s go through her examples. “One is black, the other white.” Well, what about gray, the color of House Stark, which fuses black and white?
  • “There is ice and there is fire.” Well, what about Jon Snow, born of both ice and fire?
  • “Hate and love.” We just went over this last week–Meera Reed both hates and loves the mountains
  • “Pain and pleasure.” Melisandre herself disproves this one–when she gives birth to the shadow beneath Storm’s End, George describes her cry as one of both agony and ecstasy
  • “Winter and summer.” Interesting that you’re leaving out two seasons there, fall and spring, which act as go-betweens. Same thing with day v. night–what about twilight and the pre-dawn hours in between?
  • “Death and life.” All life feeds into death, and death feeds a fertile soil from which life grows. This isn’t a struggle of opposites, it’s an eternal cycle
  • “Evil and good.” Stannis himself is simultaneously evil and good, a hero and a villain sharing the same skin, and he’s not alone in that
  • “Male and female.” Plenty of real-world examples that demonstrate that this is not a rigid binary, but even within the story, George writes that dragons switch genders all the time, “changeable as flame.” How ironic, that the fluid nature of Melisandre’s beloved fire disproves her point!
  • Finally, “bitter and sweet.” I close with that one because George has said the ending to ASOIAF will be bittersweet. The structure of the story itself is designed as a counterargument against Melisandre’s simplistic worldview
  • So while Melisandre’s intentions are good, heroic even, the ideas behind those intentions are fatally flawed. I think Davos speaks for George here:
    • “My heart … is full of doubts.”
  • There can be no certainty in an ambiguous world that refuses to give up its mysteries, especially when we’re always locked into our own POV
  • Doubt is the human condition. We invest ourselves in external projections of self: shadows on walls that momentarily dispel the doubt
  • The path to wisdom is not in finding certainty, but accepting the permanent status of doubt as a foundation for your thoughts, words, and actions
  • So good. George wonderfully contrasted Melisandre’s perspective back in ACOK, Davos II with Davos declaring that he’s made of mixed parts good and bad.
  • And that’s the case for everyone in the real world and in this universe.
  • What Melisandre’s worldview demonstrates is the extremes of what George has termed “everyone thinks they’re the hero of their story.”
  • Melisandre proclaimed that she was good as Davos rowed her to Storm’s End in ACOK, but the reality is that she too is mixed good and bad.
  • As you said, she’s the first person south of the Wall to identify the apocalyptic force gathering strength north of the Wall.
  • And she’s worked to convince Stannis of this as will be demonstrated in our next Davos chapter.
  • But the bad part is that she views the world as polar opposites, not recognizing the vast gray middle.
  • Guncer Sunglass rejected Stannis after the Dragonstone Sept was sacked by the queen’s men.
  • Stannis viewed this as treason. Melisandre viewed this as worshiping false gods.
  • Guncer was burned all the same which is horrifying, but it doesn’t make Melisandre’s arguments wrong exactly.
  • I love that Davos doesn’t tear down Melisandre’s worldview in response; George trusts that his audience will be able to spot the flaws
  • Instead, Davos is acknowledging that he doesn’t know what the truth is. He’s not falling back on faith like Guncer Sunglass did. King Stannis is no longer Davos’ god. He is searching for a new moral compass
  • Melisandre’s respect for him proves his point. By her logic, Davos has chosen darkness by refusing to believe in the light. She should think of him as an enemy. But she doesn’t. So maybe things are more complicated
  • Just as Melisandre isn’t a devil, Davos is not an angel. As with Maester Cressen, Davos tried to kill her, not the other way around
  • So what about that? Why’d you do it, she asks? Davos gives the exact wrong answer: because you burned my sons on the Blackwater
  • There are so many better answers he could give! I tried to kill you because you burn people alive, because you helped kill Renly and Cortnay Penrose, because you’re leading my king down a dangerous path
  • But this is the answer meaningful to Davos, the one connected to the human heart in conflict with itself. Davos is wrong about what went down on the Blackwater; Melisandre is wrong in the conclusions she draws
  • She declares that Stannis was too proud to let her help him win the battle. But now he knows better; he’s an ember among the ashes, she says, and can still light a great blaze
  • He’s Azor Ahai reborn, the protagonist of reality itself! This was just part of his Hero’s Journey, a temporary obstacle. He needs setbacks like this to make him earn his position as God’s chosen one
  • It’s a way of weaving the defeat into the larger narrative she’s constructing. But Davos cuts right through it in his thoughts:
    • Were my sons no more than a lesson for a king, then?
  • This is George deconstructing the entire idea of the hero, the important figure around which everything revolves
  • Thinking that way, in terms of individual destinies that must be fulfilled, leads one to interpret everything that happens along the way as equally inevitable. Losses become collateral damage. They become lessons
  • But that means dehumanizing everyone who isn’t the hero. Suddenly, their entire lives are only important to the extent they play into the narrative
  • That’s a really dangerous way of looking at the world. It’s what leads Melisandre to the conclusion that burning Edric Storm is necessary
  • By this logic, no one really matters in themselves; it’s only to the extent that you serve the glory of god
  • Davos rejects that narrative, and I think we’re supposed to as well. Men’s lives have meaning, not their deaths; we are each of us important
  • As Davos tells Stannis: a bastard’s life is worth everything against a kingdom. I think he’s following up on this moment; he’s talking about his own sons as well as Edric, his surrogate son who replaces them
  • So when Melisandre monologues about how Stannis is the Son of Fire and the Warrior of Light who will rise again to save the day, I think we’re supposed to consider the cost. We can’t just assume that the desire to save the day is enough, because everyone wants to save the day
  • What is the cost? Whose story gets sacrificed in pursuit of the story that you’ve decided is the only important one?
  • Again, it’s not like Davos has easy answers to these questions. It’s that he’s honest about the fact that he has no easy answers
  • Melisandre leaves him the torch she threatened to take away. It demonstrates her good intentions–in the next chapter, Axell Florent will take the torch away, leaving his own brother alone in the dark
  • So as terrifying as she is, as wrong as she is about so much, neither Davos nor the reader is allowed to hate her from a comfortable position
  • Who won this debate? Both of them did, and Davos knows it, thinking to himself that he can’t deny the power of her god
  • He even stares into the fire himself, trying to see what she sees. All he sees is fire. He is left alone with his dread, his uncertainty, his doubts
  • At the end of his story in this book, he will declare not that he has resolved his doubts, but that he is determined to do the right thing in spite of them:
    • "There's much I don't understand … I have never pretended elsewise. I know the seas and rivers, the shapes of the coasts, where the rocks and shoals lie. I know hidden coves where a boat can land unseen. And I know that a king protects his people, or he is no king at all."
  • It’s a powerful arc, and you see again the majesty of George’s chapter orderings.
  • Bran, himself, is a reluctant hero, plunging forward Beyond the Wall into the great unknown.
  • Jon, our next POV, is in a place of ambiguity, metaphorically straddling the Wall and wrestling with his identity.
  • Davos III stands between these two POV chapters, and his heart is full of doubts, but that doesn’t make him less heroic that he doesn’t have a confident vision or ideology.
  • “Doing the right thing” seems a simplistic rendering of ideology, but it’s effective, and I’d argue that it’s much more complex than Melisandre’s ideology.
  • I think one of the angles that hits me about Melisandre at the end of this is similar to Davos: he’s seen the power of R’hllor through her prophetic foresight and birthing multiple shadow babies.
  • There’s a signs and wonders aspect of R’hllor which distinguishes it from the silence of the Seven -- save for Davos’ first ASOS chapter.
  • What gives Davos doubt about the R’hllor is how signs and wonders are used. They’re not being used for good, or they certainly don’t seem good.
  • For instance, we don’t see Melisandre doing the Jesus route of giving sight to the blind, healing the sick, raising the dead.
  • Instead, it’s y’know murder and shit. Or okay, Frank. Killing people.
  • That’s what makes Davos so doubtful. The power that Melisandre has isn’t being used for good.
• Alester Florent
  • Next up is Alester Florent, the flipside of the coin. I feel like just listing all the ways these conversations are opposites, Melisandre-style
  • It’s about politics instead of magic. It explores differences in class instead of differences in faith. Melisandre put Davos in jail; Alester is his fellow prisoner. Melisandre was optimistic about the future, to a frightening extent; Alester is pessimistic, “defeated” as Davos thinks to himself
  • Even the tone is opposite. Davos’ conversation with Melisandre was very somber and serious; his conversation with Alester is dark comedy
  • Melisandre, as I was saying, does the wrong things for the right reasons. Alester has done the right thing, but for the wrong reasons
  • As Davos thinks, it’s a change in his unchanging world, a new perspective for him to absorb and then react against
  • The first word out of Alester’s mouth is “madness!” Even before we learn the specifics, that word is designed to put us in mind of the Mad King
  • So does the fiery heart sigil on his captors’ uniforms. If Stannis is Aerys, Melisandre is his Varys (we’ll get more into this in Davos IV), and so Alester Florent is his Qarlton Chelsted, the Hand who defied him
  • George emphasizes the parallel by not telling us who at first this new prisoner is: only that he’s highborn and can’t believe what’s happening to him. Like I said, there’s something funny about this, the contrast between how seriously he takes himself and how little anyone else cares
  • It’s only when he shrieks his title at his captors’ retreating backs, as if they don’t know that he’s Hand of the King, that Davos knows him
  • Alester doesn’t even notice Davos at first, despite Davos catching him when he’s thrown into the cell, preventing him from being injured
  • Davos saves him from a literal fall, but can’t save him from the metaphorical one he’s just experienced
  • Alester doesn’t recognize the name “Seaworth” at first, because it’s not an old family name like Florent. Davos invented it when Stannis knighted him
  • He knows Davos as “the onion knight,” a moniker which immediately summons the specter of class
  • Davos follows that thread when he recalls the last time he saw Alester; it was at Storm’s End, just like the last time he saw Melisandre
  • He saw Melisandre naked and birthing a horror; Alester was the opposite, dressed in fine fancy clothing, red-gold armor with inlaid flower designs
  • And now here he is, down in the dark with the onion knight; as Davos thinks, his birth will not serve him here, where they are to be reborn
  • Alester apologizes for his appearance, which is absurd, a social norm that doesn’t make sense in his new context. He’s in an underground dungeon!
  • Alester says his fancy clothes were lost in the battle. He has only the rings on his fingers–in contrast to Davos, who lacks even the fingers
  • Alester imagines that one of the dirty poors, born like Davos without a lordly name, is now wearing his nice clothes. The horrors of war!
  • It’s bitterly ironic, because Davos went through the actual horrors of war: the wildfire explosion that claimed his sons, his ship, and almost his life
  • Davos was genuinely loyal to Stannis before he came into his power, and lost everything for it. Alester jumped ship to Stannis only when it was convenient, lost only material possessions, and considers that horrible
  • Even when Alester tries to compete in the grief sweepstakes, he calls further attention to the class gap between them. Alester lost his nephew on the Blackwater, Ser Imry Florent…who, as Davos reminds us, was the asshole who led them right into Tyrion’s trap, ignoring Davos’ advice because it came from a “lowborn craven,” the onion knight
  • Yeah, there’s a real sense that Alester was well back behind the forward line of troops when the battle was going down.
  • As Khorane Sathmantes told Davos in his last chapter:
    • “We took off many who wore the fox-and-flowers, though many more were left ashore, with all manner of badges. Lord Florent is the King's Hand on Dragonstone now.”
  • As we know from the Battle of the Blackwater, Salladhor Saan’s Lyseni Fleet was positioned off in the bay itself.
  • So, the Florents that were picked up and rescued were well away from the main fighting, probably east of the kingsroad and in a spot where they could easily be rescued by the ships.
  • Give Imry this: at least he was in the thick of the fighting unlike his cowardly uncle who Roose Bolton’d himself and his men out of any real fighting.
  • In the face of Davos’ losses, Alester can only offer thoughts and prayers. Even those are insincere! He hesitates before saying “may the Lord of Light guide them.” On first read, I thought he was taken aback by what Davos has gone through. But Steven Attewell argued that Alester was about to say a prayer to the Seven, the gods he was raised with, only remembering at the last second that he prays to R’hllor now
  • He’s such a phony, in contrast to Melisandre, who is sincere–if anything, she’s way too sincere, and now the pendulum swings the other way. Davos prays to his gods, the Seven, but only in the privacy of his thoughts
  • Melisandre said that the war was only getting started; Alester says that the war is over, that Team Stannis lost any hope on the Blackwater
  • As with Melisandre, Alester has a legitimate point: the odds are now stacked against Stannis to a comical degree
  • The only thing preventing the Lannisters from finishing him off is Salladhor’s fleet; Alester is right that they will run rather than fight
  • That’s the naval situation. What about Stannis’ army? Just as bad if not worse. The lords of the narrow sea are dead or fled
  • All Stannis has is the strength of House Florent, and even Alester, the head of House Florent, isn’t going to pretend that this will be enough against the combined forces of the Lannisters and Tyrells
  • Alester wants to salvage what he can. How is that treason? So far, sounds reasonable…but Davos notices Alester isn’t saying what he actually did
  • And when asked, Alester keeps dodging the point. Regardless of what he did, it can’t be treason, because treason is what bad people do, and Alester isn’t a bad person. He’s the Hand of the King! How can he be a traitor? It’s classic Nixon logic: if the President did it, it can’t be illegal
  • I just want to also point out here that Alester’s crimes go beyond the treason he commits. He misrules the kingdom.
  • We later learned that Maester Pylos presented Maester Aemon’s letter to Lord Alester.
  • That letter was a warning from the Wall of Mance Rayder’s attack.
  • And Alester did nothing with the letter, not even bringing it up to Stannis or Melisandre.
  • So beyond the treason Alester did, he fails his king and the people of Westeros by discarding the most basic of duties of the realm: defending the people.
  • Right before Alester confesses, he stops to wonder why it smells like shit in here. Because there’s shit in here, of course: a chamber pot, no privy
  • Alester is horrified by this, George writes, just as he was horrified by the thought of some stableboy in King’s Landing wearing his nice clothes
  • Those are his priorities, and I think we’re meant to roll our eyes at him. This is what you care about after you’ve been arrested for treason by a bunch of pyromaniacs? The smell? Who gives a shit (so to speak)?
  • Davos doesn’t care about the smell; he’s experienced worse, he’s happy just to be alive, and his priorities, while not perfect, are more sensible
  • That’s George letting you know that Alester is not a reasonable man just trying to do the right thing; he’s a pompous ass driven by ego
  • What Alester did, he finally admits, was write a letter to Tywin offering surrender. Stannis would give up his claim to the throne, retract what he said about Joffrey being a bastard born of twincest, and marry Shireen to Tommen in order to seal the deal
  • Oh, and Alester gets Brightwater Keep back. Remember how in the last Tyrion chapter, the Tyrells got the Florent castle?
  • That, right there, is Alester’s priority: not peace, but power. He claims they couldn’t ask for better terms, and he’s probably right about that, but these terms are much more favorable for Alester than they are for Stannis
  • Alester gets everything back like nothing ever happened–like he never declared first for Renly and then for Stannis, like he never switched gods like a man changing his boots, as Cortnay Penrose told him
  • But Stannis? Not only does he have to declare himself a lying usurper to the world, but he has to hand over his only child as a hostage
  • It’s even worse, as Davos thinks: unless Stannis fathers a son, this would mean that Dragonstone and Storm’s End go to Tommen
  • It would mean that the genuine Baratheon line gets absorbed into the Lannister twincest line that is only feigning Baratheon blood
  • Now, Alester could make the case to Stannis that this is better than fighting a losing battle, after which the terms would be much worse
  • But he didn’t bother to do that, as Davos realizes, asking the pointed question: what did Stannis make of these terms?
  • That’s Alester’s real mistake: subverting the chain of command and trying to surrender without the king’s consent
  • Exactly, and Alester’s protestation that he speaks with the king’s voice is incredibly feeble here, because he’s not.
  • There’s perhaps a sense that Alester judged Stannis to be similar to Robert in his carelessness about how the realm was to be ruled.
  • Robert was famously careless and didn’t get into the details of rule, he really didn’t rule if we’re being honest. Jon Arryn and then Ned Stark were the ones in charge of governance.
  • Now, Robert for his faults, probably would not have surrendered to the Lannisters in this situation. If there was one thing Robert did well, it was all that war-fightin’.
  • Still, Alester may have thought he had a similarly-minded Baratheon in Robert and could run the kingdom and issue out policy without much or any pushback from the king.
  • Stannis is different, a deliberate contrast to Robert in that he has a give a fuck meter.
  • Moreover, beyond simply the act itself - I’d argue it’s treason as Stannis will state in the next Davos chapter - it grated against the core of Stannis’ being.
  • The man believes he’s the king, and that wants do not enter into this determination. It’s simply law.
  • But as we talked about back in ACOK, his claim to the Iron Throne is much more personal for Stannis than what he states.
  • So, it’s much worse than a bit of a light treason. Alester Florent was taking up the position that Stannis should get what he deserves. He should be happy with Dragonstone and not Storm’s End.
  • He should be happy with getting out of this war with his life. He only has to surrender his claim, give up Shireen and tell everyone he’s a liar.
  • Stannis should be happy that he’s getting away with his life and castle. How horrifying for Stannis to have some shitlord Florent treat him the same way that Robert did.
  • Why did he do it this way? Once again, it’s ambiguous. On one hand, Alester says that it’s because of Melisandre
  • As Salladhor said, no one talks to Stannis but the red woman, and Alester gives us a hint what they’re talking about: “the stone dragon”
  • This is the first mention of the beast Melisandre intends to bring to life in order to secure Stannis’ power; we’ll talk more about it in later Davos chapters. Here, it’s being used to set up a parallel to the Targaryens
  • I already compared this scenario to the downward spiral of the Mad King, and now here we have Alester saying the king has lost his mind; he also references the alchemists that Aerys elevated
  • Then there are the mages that Aegon III brought over to pray over his eggs, and the disaster at Summerhall–also the first mention of that!
  • Again, we’ll talk more about Summerhall as we go. The point is George is conjuring up an entire history of fire and blood, and framing Stannis and Melisandre’s dark deeds as the latest incarnation of the pattern
  • Stannis himself lists several examples of dragon dreams going wrong…but he gets talked into sacrificing Edric anyway
  • The king is not mad, no more than Melisandre is cruel. In both cases, it’s something more relatable but also more dangerous. As Asha puts it:
    • “...an iron ferocity that told Asha this man would never, ever turn back from his course.”
  • I agree with Alester that no good will come from walking this path. But I also agree with Davos that Alester lacks the courage of his convictions
  • Alester claims that as the Hand, he speaks with the king’s voice; “not in this,” Davos says, the blunt words in contrast to Alester’s posturing BS
  • Sure, Ned spoke for Robert when Robert wasn’t there, and sure, he gave an order Robert wouldn’t have given. But it’s a big leap from that to surrendering your king’s crown for him and selling off his daughter to his enemies. Alester clearly wanted to arrange a fait accompli
  • He wants to have it both ways. He wants to surrender to the Lannisters without giving up his power. He stabbed Stannis in the back
  • The irony on reread is that Alester is confessing to the man who will replace him: Davos will be Stannis’ new Hand of the King, precisely because he says hard truths right to Stannis’ face as no one else will
  • And yet because this is a chapter all about ambiguity, George leaves Davos with a problem to solve. When Alester says that Stannis has no choice to surrender, Davos responds that Stannis can die a king
  • There’s something powerful about that–going down with the ship, so to speak. Sticking to your guns, refusing to lie, making them come kill you
  • But Alester is right that this means all of them dying with him, and Davos doesn’t want that either; he’s already lost too many to the fire
  • So as this chapter ends, Davos is in a quandary. How can Stannis keep his cause going in a way that doesn’t just amount to a suicide mission?
  • That is the needle he has to thread before his story in this book can end, and he begins that process in his next chapter, which is one of the best chapters in ASOS and probably my favorite Davos chapter of them all
  • A hell of a chapter, indeed!
  • It’s interesting that Alester tells Davos he speaks with the king’s voice, because Davos will use the same wording with Eddie Storm at the end of the book.
  • There, Davos will convince Eddie to take ship and use his authority as Hand of the King to convince the boy.
  • Davos uses his authority to undermine the King, to commit treason against his sovereign.
  • Isn’t that similar to what Lord Alester Florent did here as Hand of the King? He used his authority to betray his king.
  • That’s what some immoral will probably argue though. I’d say it’s sophistry.
  • Because Alester’s treason is couched in the context of maintaining his lands and honors — he’s doing this for himself.
  • Davos committed treason all to save Edric Storm’s life.
  • And he did it to save Stannis from setting his heart on fire.
  • But it’s only temporary. The iron ferocity that you referenced from Asha’s “The King’s Prize” chapter points towards the ultimate end for Stannis, for Shireen.
  • And Davos won’t always be there to save Stannis from the dark.
  • In a way, Davos is the torch in the dungeon of Stannis’ life, and soon the torch will be gone, and only darkness will remain.

Foreshadowing/Groundwork

While Stannis won’t burn Shireen to avoid her marrying Tommen, Davos mentioning that Stannis would sooner see her dead still foreshadows her eventual fate.

Melisandre will later regret not leaving Davos in the dark after he informs her (and Stannis) that Edric Storm is out of their reach.

Theory/Discussion

Is the Great Other (mentioned here for the one and only time in ASOIAF so far) really a thing?

Conclusion

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