GoT theory: Melisandre becomes Jon Snow

Everyone is expecting Melisandre to resurrect Jon Snow. If it happens, it’ll be anticlimactic; not GRRM’s style! Consider this: at the end of the Season 6 premiere, we finally see Melisandre as the old hag she truly is. Remember when she masked Mance Rayder as the Lord of Bones? She’s been doing that to herself the entire time. And now it’s time for a new face.

When she first encountered Jon’s body she did NOT make ANY attempt at resurrection — recall her conversation with Thoros of Myr when they discussed the (repeated) resurrections of Lord Beric Dondarrion. He made it quite clear that he prayed to the Lord of Light immediately after Lord Beric’s death. Recall also that she seemed unreasonably astonished at his resurrections… as though she herself was not familiar with the practice. If she were to attempt a resurrection, wouldn’t she hop to it?? Why take a leisurely bath and admire your gnarly wrinkles when you could be saving Azor Ahai?! Nope, she has another plan in mind, using a tool that she is more comfortable with: glamour.

So she will shed her red-headed hotness and adopt Jon’s body as her own. In the process, she’ll probably do some clever hocus-pocus involving fire and pretend to sacrifice herself in order to resurrect Jon Snow. Voila! Jon Snow is back, AND he’s a wizard.

If the writers are as sneaky as they seem, they’ll hide much of this from us until, say, the end of the season. For now they’ll simply show us Melisandre sacrificing herself and Jon Snow returning from the dead (as we knew he would). As the season progresses we’ll find out, probably through Bran’s time-travel adventures through the weirwood network, that R+L=J. And we’ll think “YES, Jon is going to ride a dragon!!”. But when he finally encounters a dragon it’ll be all “da fuq?” and roast him or whatever; only then will they reveal to us that it has been Melisandre the entire time.

Why?

Jon is a likely candidate for the Prince that was Promised. At the very least, he has the skills and influence necessary to effect major change. Many of us have pinned our hopes on him. To kill him off, bring him back to life, and then kill him off AGAIN would be *so* GRRM it hurts! “Fans, how dare you have hope?! HAVE I TAUGHT YOU NOTHING?!” Jon’s resurrection would simply be too hopeful, too welcome, to ever happen in this universe.