A fair amount of it, because in many cases you can chart a line between original trilogy materials and the EU. The authors that have played in George's backyard, so to speak, are nearly always running on the same assumptions that everyone else had about the backstory. They've seen the same movies, read the same novelisations, and tracked down the same earlier drafts of the scripts.

Part of what made the PT a disappointing experience is that Lucas decided to chuck almost everything out, and in its place introduced story elements that weren't fully reasoned; it's why we have such a disjointed saga.

Wow, this is always amazing. Many congrats.

I'm not sure the Lord of Light is any more real than the Seven, isn't it just a darker, more powerful form of magic practiced by his followers vs one that is in transition to science? Certainly Oldtown seems to have been encouraging folks away from magic since the dragons died (with accusations that they were responsible for the death of dragons/magic in the first place). Doesn't Melisandre at one point worry about having enough of a special powder to keep up the woozoo? Which to me was a strong indication that her powers weren't so god-given.

As for Melisandre being evil, I'd say mostly, she's certainly not one of the 'good guys'. You can't go around murdering people in their sleep for any reason really, especially if that reason is 'because they're in my way'. I'm not a believer in the idea that the death of a few in place of many is justified either, since it presupposes the death of the many and absolves the party from seeking alternatives. And Melisandre is anything but compromising, which makes her particularly susceptible to the 'oh, I'll just kill him then' solution. I can't recall if that's her actual attitude towards taking all these lives, but if so, it puts her in the same camp as Tywin with his justification of the Red Wedding. After all, evil people rarely believe they're evil and think what they're doing/have done is right. It makes me wonder at what number of 'sacrificed for the greater good' Melisandre will stop at, because she doesn't seem to be slowing down. That one of the few turns out to be a child makes her cross the line even further. It's not really supported in the text, but I find her choice to be less about fulfilling a prophecy and more about testing/proving the mettle of her chosen saviour. You think she could be pushed to do something horrible? I'd say she's already done it, and with alarming frequency.

Ultimately though, I wonder what Melisandre's plan is here. To stop the ice creatures? She's arguably already got the voodoo, so what does she need to get this done, armed men? If so, then how many? I find it interesting that it's mostly Davos that makes Stannis go to the wall and start the ball really rolling. Would Melisandre have still been in the south waging war and facilitating the death of thousands up to this point had it not been for Davos' insistence? In short, I don't find that much consistency between her actions and her stated goals.

That's gutsy. I like gutsy, we don't get nearly enough of it in today's movies.