Well that was certainly unexpected! At the very end of the hour for the highly anticipated Game of Thrones Season 6 premiere, it was revealed that Melisandre is actually an old woman, who has been using a magical necklace to disguise her true appearance, which is much, much older than the beautiful red-haired woman we've come to know. So how old is Melisandre exactly? Right now, no exact age has been specified, but it wouldn't be all that surprising if she was a couple of hundred years old at least, which perhaps explains how she's become so well informed about magic and the Lord of Light. But it also raises so many questions about this character that we thought we knew so well. Because, as it turns out, we don't really know her at all.
Back in 2012, Carice van Houten (who plays the mysterious Red Woman) admitted to Access Hollywood that her character was a lot older than she seemed. “I don’t how old she is, but she’s way over 100 years," the actress had teased. "So she is a wiser spirit, in a way." Though I doubt even she realized just how true that statement would end up being.
But age is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to the questions that are now flying through our brains at rapid speed. Where is she from? Who are her parents? How did she come to possess such a powerful necklace? Is she perhaps the witch who told Cersei that terrible prophecy so many years ago? Much like Arya, we're all wandering along blindly for the time being, but rest assured that this Red Woman's journey just got a whole lot more interesting and proves just how powerful she really is. Perhaps even powerful enough to resurrect a certain Lord Commander hours and hours after his "death." Just saying!
Image: HBO
