Melisandre is hundreds of years old when she makes the ultimate sacrifice to the Lord of Light during the Long Night in the final season of Game of Thrones, which means that a much younger version of the character is around when House of the Dragon takes place. Now, fans are trying to decide whether they want the red priestess back, or if her return would just be a forced attempt at tying the new series to the original.
For reasons that remained mysterious to the very end, Melisandre played a key part in defeating Night King and his horde of White Walkers. Or so the show would have you believe, because between enflaming the Dothraki arakhs and giving Arya a little incentive to seek out the Night King, it seems to us that she didn’t do anything besides reading the wrong omens into peculiar circumstances and coming to still wronger conclusions.
While it would certainly be cool to see a familiar face among so many new introductions to the Westerosi ensemble, most fans fear that Melisandre’s return is just going to come off as fan service-y and unearned.
A small minority wouldn’t mind seeing the crimson-robed sorceress again, so long as it is in the capacity of a brief cameo.
House of the Dragon is already connecting itself to Game of Thrones by repeatedly bringing up the Long Night and the Targaryen prophecy, so we wouldn’t be surprised if the writers took that even further by showing the White Walkers themselves or their apparent nemesis, the Lord of Light.
Seeing as how the deity and his purposes remain a mystery, this also would be a great opportunity for George R.R. Martin to finally address lingering fan questions. But as one user astutely pointed out, we must ask ourselves if she would serve any purpose in the larger narrative.
Of course, the answer to that should be pretty obvious.