Artwork by Magali Villeneuve
For those unaware, GRRM recently released another The Winds of Winter (TWOW) sample chapter, this one being Arianne II. A while back, @theculturalvacuum and I organized and co-ran “Trial By Folly,” the Arianne Martell reread project on westeros.org. A character retrospective in “summary” of what was discovered can be found here (part 2 here), though perhaps the key to understanding our conclusions about her character can be found more so in this close analysis of the Arianne/Doran conversation at the end of A Feast for Crows (AFFC) and this analysis of the perfect parallel between daughter/father.
For a close analysis of Arianne’s first sample chapter, see Julia’s work here.
Normally when analyzing chapters, the two of us have taken to providing a chapter summary at the start. However, given its release a mere few days ago, I have to assume this is a chapter we have all recently read, and therefore I have no wish to be redundant. I suppose that if I had to briefly provide a synopsis, it would go something like this (TWOW spoilers below the cut):
Arianne’s travels continue, as she remains determined to make her father proud by representing Dorne in her quest to discover the truth of this boy-dragon, and what her kingdom’s actions should be heading forward as a result. She is forced to look after the rambunctious Elia Sand, a not-at-all-subtle representation of how she views her younger self, and also discusses her current situation with her sworn shield, Daemon Sand, in various stages of undress. Members of Griff’s crew inform Arianne that the Golden Company has taken Storm’s End, but she has to go there right now because there’s a host coming to meet them. Though it’s dangerous, Arianne is determined to set out herself because she is the heir to Dorne, and also because she’s pretty sure there’s not really a choice anyway, so why not play along?
The following is a joint analysis between myself and Julia where we attempt to look at this from a character standpoint.
Combating the “jolly lark”
Even though we’ve been shouting until we’ve turned blue in the face about how Arianne is Doran 2.0, down to long, drawn-out planning and reticence, the fandom at large still seems to view her as this sort of boisterous party girl. It’s understandable on first pass how her AFFC/ADWD arc could be read as “girl fucks up and learns to listen to daddy,” but that sort of falls apart with a minimal level of scrutiny.
And it especially falls apart in this sample chapter. Because seriously, if there’s one thing on display, it’s our girl’s constantly working mind, her strategic thinking, and her intuitive read on others. She’s authoritative when she needs to be (like in her hunt for Elia), and pretty much has an answer to everything tossed her way. We see, as we have in previous chapters, her willingness to think through all aspects of a situation, though still having the self-assurance to formulate her own decisive opinions on the matter, unlike say…lil’ bro.
She nodded. Mistwood was the seat of House Mertyns, whose arms showed a great horned owl, white on grey. If their banners were not flying, likely the talk was true, and the castle had fallen into the hands of Jon Connington and his sellswords. “We must take the risk,” she told her party. Her father’s caution had served Dorne well, she had come to accept that, but this was a time for her uncle’s boldness. “On to the castle.”
She’s…not wrong. Doran did very little beyond sitting on his hands this entire time, to the point where he wonders if his prudence is his shame or glory. Clearly dispatching the Snakes as he did signals that he’s ready to move Dorne forward to political aims he had desired for the past 17 years.
But perhaps more importantly than her own complicated views on Martells (much more on that later) is how this passage is also rather demonstrative of the fact that she requires very little assistance to make connections and understand the reality of a situation. As with here:
But on the fourth day, in an unguarded moment, Chain let slip a ” … once we have Storm’s End …
The princess let that aside go without comment, though it gave her considerable pause. Storm’s End. This griffin is a bold one, it would seem. Or else a fool. […] No siege tower was tall enough to reach Storm’s End battlements; neither mangonel nor trebuchet could hope to breech its massive walls. Does Connington think to mount a siege? She wondered. How many men can he have? Long before the castle fell, the Lannisters would dispatch an army to break any such siege. That way is hopeless too.
Frankly, her subsequent conversations with Daemon are more or less her befuddled ex acting as a sounding board while she allows her own mind to think through all implications of the unfolding situation.
“Stannis is too far away to be of help to him,” Arianne mused. “Capturing a few minor castles whilst their lords and garrisons are off at distant wars, that’s one thing, but if Lord Connington and his pet dragon can somehow take one of the great strongholds of the realm … “
“…the realm would have to take them seriously,” Ser Daemon finished. “And some of those who do not love the Lannisters might well come flocking to their banners.”
It’s basically like a conversation with herself, though definitely more on their specific dynamic later as well.
But really, we see her strategic and fast thinking most on display in her conversations with Lysono Maar and Haldon.
“…Yet the Golden Company has been defeated every time it has crossed into Westeros. They lost when Bittersteel commanded them, they failed the Blackfyre Pretenders, they faltered when Maelys the Monstrous led them.
That seemed to amuse him. “We are at least persistent, you must admit. And some of those defeats were near things.”
“Some were not. And those who die in near things are no less dead than those who die in routs. Prince Doran my father is a wise man, and fights only wars that he can win. If the tide of war turns against your dragon, the Golden Company will no doubt flee back across the narrow sea, as it has done before. As Lord Connington himself did, after Robert defeated him at the Battle of the Bells. Dorne has no such refuge. Why should we lend our swords and spears to your uncertain cause?”
“Prince Aegon is of your own blood, princess. Son of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and Elia of Dorne, your father’s sister.”
“Daenerys Targaryen is of our blood as well. Daughter of King Aerys, Rhaegar’s sister. And she has dragons, or so the tales would have us believe.” Fire and blood. “Where is she?”
“Half a world away on Slaver’s Bay,” said Lysono Maar. “As for these purported dragons, I have not seen them. In cyvasse, it is true, the dragon is mightier than the elephant. On the battlefield, give me elephants I can see and touch and send against my foes, not dragons made of words and wishes.”
The princess lapsed into a thoughtful silence. And that night she dispatched her fourth raven to her father.
This is a truncated part of her conversation with Maar, but one that demonstrates both her debating skills and contemplative nature.
Perhaps more so is her handling and read on Haldon:
“These rains have turned the roads to mud. The journey would take two days, perhaps three,” said Haldon Halfmaester. A ship will have the princess there in half a day or less. There is an army descending on Storm’s End from King’s Landing. You will want to be safe inside the walls before the battle.”
Will we? Wondered Arianne. “Battle? Or siege?” She did not intend to let herself be trapped inside Storm’s End.
“Battle,” Halden said firmly. “Prince Aegon means to smash his enemies in the field.”
Arianne exchanged a look with Daemon Sand. “Will you be so good as to show us to our rooms? I would like to refresh myself, and change into dry clothes.”
[…]
“And how many men have died in battles they believed that they could win?” Ser Daemon asked her. “Refuse them, princess. I mistrust these sellswords. Do not go to Storm’s End.”
What makes to believe they will allow me that choice? She had had the uneasy feeling that Haldon Halfmaester and Lysono Maar were going to put her on that ship come morning whether she willed it or no. Better not to test them.
We see her skepticism, and how she’s able to mask her true thoughts, as her father does. Then, for all she speaks of “time for my uncle’s boldness,” we see that she actually is being quite cautious where she can. Her “decision” in the end is as much pragmatics as it is her desire to learn the truth about “Aegon.” She doesn’t trust anyone in this situation, but understands the value of maintaining a certain image around them.
She is also not blind to the full implications of her choice:
Whereas if I am taken, the Iron Throne will take that for proof that Dorne conspired with these sellswords, and lent aid to their invasion.
It’s also important to note her read on others and how that informs her handling of them.
Chain himself had been born into the company, fathered on a camp follower by his sellsword father. Though he had been raised to speak the Common Tongue and think of himself as Westerosi, he had never set foot in any part of the Seven Kingdoms till now.
A sad tale, and a familiar one, Arianne thought. His life was all of a piece, a long list of places where he’d fought, foes he’d faced and slain, wounds he’d taken. The princess let him talk, from time to time prompting him with a laugh, a touch, or a question, pretending to be fascinated.
[…]
[Maar’s] eyes were a pale lilac, his hair a waterfall of white and gold. All the same, something about him made her skin crawl. […] The Lyseni was a very different sort of man than Chain. This one will let nothing slip, she realized, after a scant few hours in his company. Maar was glib enough, but he had perfected the art of talking a great deal whilst saying nothing.
[…]
The Lyseni laughed, but his lilac eyes stayed cold.
[…]
Chief amongst them was an older man with a lean, lined, clean-shaved face, who wore his long hair pulled back into a knot. This one is no fighter, Arianne sensed. The Lyseni confirmed her judgment when he introduced the man as Haldon Halfmaester.
If these thoughts are reminding anyone of Sansa, they should be. Intuition also features strongly in Arianne’s thought-process, and we see a bit of that “know what moves a man” in her handling of Chain. She reads others and adjusts her behavior accordingly. There are many who might find this shocking, giving Darkstar-gate, but to quote a previous post of Julia’s:
Clearly the author meant for us to consider [Darkstar] from Arianne’s perspective, in both a Doylist and Watsonian way. He’s obviously supposed to be one of her mistakes. But that mistake isn’t that she was “fooled by him”. Like, read “The Queenmaker” he gives her the heebie jeebies. The fact that she spend all of her subsequent chapters beating herself up for that is just so… Arianne.
But the mistake she made was that she thought she could control him, that this volatile chess piece that had its own mind and motive would just do as she said and no more, because she had Martell Faced him.
Sound familiar?
In general, her gut feeling on others has served her quite well, unless she’s desperate to convince herself otherwise. Her specific comment about Maar’s eyes remaining cold is nearly verbatim a reaction we’ve seen Sansa have with Petyr. This seems to be how Martin often depicts highly intuitive characters.
“You must be one of her daughters,” [Petyr] said to her. He had grey-green eyes that did not smile when his mouth did. “You have the Tully look.”
“I’m Sansa Stark,” she said, ill at ease
And yeah, we see her publicly manipulating her image, whether it’s a flirtatious touch for Chain, or talking about how she sucks at cyvasse to Maar (very evocative of Dany’s “I’m a little girl foolish in the ways of war”). Yet at the end of the day, we’re seeing her true nature when she keeps her own counsel, or when in her candid conversations with Daemon.
What a crazy party girl.
Continued Skepticism
As a brief note, related to her strategy, could she be more suspicious and not fully on-board with Aegon? I mean, she outright reiterates the ambiguity of his identity, but “the boy” seems almost secondary in focus. Her desire is speak to JonCon, as she tells Daemon. And she wants to know where the fuck Dany is, because that’s still Plan A. Doran wants to get dragons for Dorne; not elephants. We’re not want to speculate, but there need to be quite a few factors that change for Arianne in order for her to view Team Griff as a desirable course of action. And given that this was all contextualized by the sense of “I don’t really have a choice but to go,” the argument that she’s driven by any sort of ambition rather than say, duty to Doran, rather falls apart.
“I need to speak with Connington.” Arianne undid the interlocked sun and spear that clasped her cloak, and let the rain-soaked garment slip from her shoulders to puddle on the floor. “And I want to see this dragon prince of his. (emphasis mine)
Arianne knows what matters here. Aegon is secondary.
You know you’re a Martell when…
Relationship to her father
You’ve probably heard us refer to Dorne as a “family drama” before, and how it unfolds in an intimate exploration of the intersection of the personal and the political. To quote ourselves:
Dorne is Arianne’s story. We would say that the politics are secondary to the personal in this arc, but one of the points of it is the intersection of the personal and the political. Is it ever okay for a prince to go to war for personal reasons? When does “personal” become “political” anyway?
But, at its essence, the story is a family tragedy. It’s about two people who love each other, but misunderstand each other because of a character failing that they both share. The possible war with the Lannisters that looms over Dorne is not as important as the “war” in Arianne’s mind as she tries to secure not only her political birthright, but also her personal “birthright” to her father’s trust and love.
This theme continues to be in sharp focus in Arianne II.
We see Arianne writing letters to her father nonstop, as well as continually reflecting on his advice. Her final statement to Daemon is perhaps the most indicative of her unwavering commitment to him:
“But my father entrusted this task to me, not you. Come the morrow, I sail to beard the dragon in its den.”
If you’re getting strong Quentyn vibes from this…good. Let me remind you:
“I will not keep you here,” Quentyn told his friends. “My father laid this task on me, not you. Go home, if that is what you want. By whatever means you like. I am staying.
If Arianne’s story ends the same way, it’s going to be rather devastating, especially considering Doran’s point-of-view (he’d feel responsible for at least 3 family member deaths within a year), but the parallel is unmistakable in terms of Arianne and her brother’s guiding motivations.
Interestingly, Arianne, unlike her brother, does allow herself slightly negative thoughts about Doran. The one that will get a ton of focus is no doubt:
“Dead, but not forgotten,” said Arianne, who had spent half her life wishing Prince Oberyn had been her father.
Though in our minds, this one is more exemplary of Arianne’s lens. We know from her thoughts throughout aFfC that…no. She cared so much about Doran’s opinion of her, and it was clearly his love she was trying to earn. I wouldn’t put it past her to have had a passing thought about “if Oberyn were my dad, then my birthright would be secure” during the nine years of miscommunication, especially as she grew up seeing the freedom he allowed his own daughters. But Arianne has a bit of a blindness here. We learned in Arianne I (TWOW) that her father standing up to see her off made her cry. Like, come on, girl. You’re not fooling us.
However, we might sound very weird for saying this, but our biggest shock in this chapter came from this following thought on her part:
“If Daenerys Targaryen has dragons, they are half a world away, and of no use to Dorne. There is nothing for us at Storm’s End, princess. If Prince Doran meant to send you into the middle of a battle, he would have given you three hundred knights, not three.”
Do not be so certain of that, ser. He sent my brother off to Slaver’s Bay with five knights and a maester.
Arianne has a clear Doran-worship going, but she actually allowed herself to be critical of his plans! Contextualized in the broader picture, with her determination to live up to being a worthy heir, this doesn’t change much, but it does demonstrate that she is not quite as blindingly leal as lil’ bro, and also shows that she’s, by temperament, more of a leader than he ever was. So maybe that parallel doesn’t need to lead to the same destination. Please?
King Quentyn
This was its own subheading in Julia’s “Arianne I” analysis, and part of the reason for that is certainly the fandom’s inclination to place heavy emphasis on this, and make certain speculations. The primary assumption, from what we can tell, is that her uncharitable thoughts to lil’ bro are seeding her jealousy due to her own “queenly ambitions.” Then once news reaches her that Quent died, so marrying Dany is out of the question, she’ll instead elect to marry Aegon.
We’re always a bit confused by this, to be honest, but the fact is, people are taking the following passage as confirmation that this is still the plot-line being seeded:
That accounts for one brother, thought Arianne, but where is Quentyn, if not with the griffin? Had he wed his dragon queen? King Quentyn. It still sounded silly. This new Daenerys Targaryen was younger than Arianne by half a dozen years. What would a maid that age want with her dull, bookish brother? Young girls dreamed of dashing knights with wicked smiles, not solemn boys who always did their duty. She will want Dorne, though. If she hopes to sit the Iron Throne, she must have Sunspear. If Quentyn was the price for that, this dragon queen would pay it. What if she was at Griffin’s End with Connington, and all this about another Targaryen was just some sort of subtle ruse? Her brother could well be with her. King Quentyn. Will I need to kneel to him?
And like, yeah. She clearly has a discomfort with this idea. But to claim that it’s jealousy over the political position he might be in? That she’d rather play second-fiddle as Queen of Westeros rather than being the ruling Princess of Dorne, a position she fought her whole life to maintain? It’s dubious at best.
There’s a few things to unpack, but it’s first important to contextualize her relationship with Quentyn. To quote from Julia’s analysis:
We know from “The Queenmaker” that she she ascribes motives and characteristics to Quentyn that we, as readers of his arc in aDwD, know he does not possess. She actively, in a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy kind of way, is trying to correct the thoughts about Quentyn that she’s not proud of, but the kind of feelings that she had about Quentyn can’t be expected to disappear overnight, not even with liberal application of Martell Guilt.
[…]
It would have been one thing, I think, if she had grown up expecting to be Queen, but she didn’t. She grew up expecting to be Princess of Dorne, she fought to be Princess of Dorne. Would she give that up? Maybe, if she thought it was her duty. But these feeling she has of jealousy towards her brother and sense of inadequacy when compared to him is balanced out by her awareness and guilt over the injustice of her thoughts towards him.
This is why, for all the difficulty she has in feeling affection for her brother at this point, I find it difficult to believe she would consciously place herself in opposition to him at this point.
So yes, we’re still seeing this difficulty continue here in Arianne II. She is literally considering the possibility of coming face-to-face with him in a matter of days, and the idea of bowing for him, especially given her painfully accurate read of his nature, has to feel quite alien. This is the guy she projected a ton of malice onto back when she assumed her birthright was endangered, because that’s how desperate her mind was to defend Doran. This is why she is vowing on Nymeria’s star to him.
We again see a focus on his physical appearance as well, but it’s all contextualized by her (accurate, albeit uncharitable) assumption of what might move Dany. It’s not intuition in this case (they haven’t met, so obviously), but likely projection. We know she’s very down on herself for her “weakness for pretty boys” (Arianne…we need to see some receipts here), and she also has a rather grim view on how she behaved when she was a teenager:
“And what did you do, princess?” asked Spotted Sylva.
I sat beside the well and pretended that some robber knight had brought me here to have his way with me, she thought, a tall hard man with black eyes and a widow’s peak. The memory made her uneasy.
There’s a reason we call her “Princess Projection.”
We don’t want to say it’s impossible that Arianne might view a marriage between herself and Aegon as the most politically profitable option, but given that their causes are already tied by blood (if she is somehow convinced, given how she fought her whole dang life to be able to say the words “I am the heir to Dorne” with conviction, and given that her feelings on Quentyn are complicated (and she seems to have an awareness of how petty they seem), to say that this is the likeliest outcome out of numerous other options seems…speculative. In our mind, circumstances would have to change.
Why would my father inflict her on me?
Daemon’s “vengeance” answer to that question about Elia Sand’s question is hilarious and adorable and gives further life to our headcanon of an awkward feast that took place nine years ago. But the Bastard of Godsgrace is completely right on a meta-textual level about Elia Sand’s role in this plot-line.
To be clear, no, Doran is not exacting vengeance on Arianne. But Elia is not subtly the embodiment of how our princess perceives her past, right down to her penchant for kissing boys below her station. Arianne’s handling of her cousin is certainly markedly different than Doran’s total hands-off approach, but Elia’s “foolhardy” nature is a criticism we’ve seen her apply to herself. Like, one chapter ago.
And for all the focus on Arianne+Aegon, are we the only ones who see Elia’s bag of raging hormones being a potential Chekhov’s gun here? Because seriously, if there’s one person who’s like to be overcome with tinglies for their 16-year-old vanilla wafer of a cousin, it’s not going to be Arianne “I like my boys dark and dangerous” Nymeros Martell. This isn’t even touching some of the (perhaps surface-level) R+L parallels with Elia and Aegon’s characters.
We should mention the word “died” echoing off the walls. There seems to be a sense of doom surrounding this quest, and specifically a sense of doom for Arianne and/or Elia. But we’ll let those more comfortable with speculation ponder its manifestation.
I’m just your problem
Now that we’ve touched on Arianne’s motivations, political sense, and family dynamics, we’re ready to part ways with reason and spend the rest of the time shouting about her relationship with Daemon.
WHAT THE HECK GEORGE? This chapter felt like he was trolling us worse than Elizabeth Ito and the Adventure Time showrunners with “Broke his Crown.” Daemon and Arianne could have been back together, and nothing would have changed. Their interest in each other is rather clear (she outright propositioned him in “Arianne I”), but like, this entire chapter involved scenes of them alone, at the end of each day, casually talking about the goings-on. While Arianne was casually taking off items of clothing.
“Your brother is not at Storm’s End, we know that now,” Ser Daemon said, as soon as they were behind closed doors. “If Daenerys Targaryen has dragons, they are half a world away, and of no use to Dorne. There is nothing for us at Storm’s End, princess. If Prince Doran meant to send you into the middle of a battle, he would have given you three hundred knights, not three.”
Do not be so certain of that, ser. He sent my brother off to Slaver’s Bay with five knights and a maester. “I need to speak with Connington.” Arianne undid the interlocked sun and spear that clasped her cloak, and let the rain-soaked garment slip from her shoulders to puddle on the floor. “And I want to see this dragon prince of his. If he is truly Elia’s son…”
“Whoever’s son he is, if Connington challenges Mace Tyrell in open battle he may soon be a captive, or a corpse.”
As we said earlier, he’s basically a sounding board for her own internal thoughts, but given how in “The Queenmaker” we see her literally retreat away from her friends to think for paragraphs at a time about her situation, this sticks out. They are clearly close, and she is clearly comfortable around him. And even given the pain their failed relationship caused both of them, they can’t seem to help but snap back into this dynamic of casual intimacy.
All of these conversations could have happened just before they’d jump into bed with one another, and frankly there’s little evidence that contradicts this was the case. Except the Doylist reason of “why would Martin not just write that then???”
We realize we’re quite incoherent when it comes to our “princess and a guy like me” shipping aesthetic, so here’s at least our attempts to draw out some kind of meaning.
There is a really lovely, and really subtle contrast to be made between Arianne’s interaction with Daemon and Arys. Well, they’re contrasted in multiple ways, really. Daemon has Dornish Patriarchy Brain, so while he has an instinct to protect, it’s not coupled with the same infantilization we see exhibited in Arys. However, the way Arianne responds to the respective men, and the way she empowers them is quite different.
“I will.” Ser Arys sank to one knee. “Myrcella is the elder, and better suited to the crown. Who will defend her rights if not her Kingsguard? My sword, my life, my honor, all belong to her…and to you, my heart’s delight. I swear, no man will steal your birthright whilst I still have the strength to lift a sword. I am yours. What would you have of me?”
“All.” She knelt to kiss his lips.
Note the way Arys drops to a knee and Arianne goes down to his level. Whereas with Daemon:
“And that is why you should not put yourself at risk.” Daemon Sand went to one knee. “Send me to Storm’s End in your stead. Then if the griffin’s plans should go awry and Mace Tyrell takes the castle back, I will be just another landless knight who swore his sword to this pretender in hopes of gain and glory.”
Whereas if I am taken, the Iron Throne will take that for proof that Dorne conspired with these sellswords, and lent aid to their invasion. “It is brave for you to seek to shield me, ser. I thank you for that.” She took his hands and drew him back to his feet. “But my father entrusted this task to me, not you. Come the morrow, I sail to beard the dragon in its den.”
She draws him back up and they end the chapter holding hands. Symbolically, she views him as her equal in a way she did not view Arys. And, while her relationship with Arys “brought her down,” that is, brought out the worst, lowest parts of her character, when she’s with Daemon she’s a better person.
So that means this is a romance, right? We’re not into that usually, but we’re emotionally destroyed here. The chapter ended with them holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes! We need…a minute.
Final, random observations
More on the “dead” echoes off the walls. “Arianne I” included explicit references of Doran begging her to stay safe, and this chapter ends with her going into a really dangerous situation that both she and Daemon don’t feel good about. This fact makes our tummies hurt, though we both admit that the two members of our OTP are not likely to survive this situation together.
Martell Spouse Snobbery™: There’s a reason we trademarked it. Let her kiss Feathers, ya jerk! Dorne is pretty darn classist, and even though we see Arianne being able to comfortably interact with the likes of Chain, we see her princessness rearing its head.
Arianne’s point about “was this what Viserys looked like, ewww” sounds incredibly vapid, but the dude was also making her skin crawl. And like…Doylism. This inclusion quite obviously puts to bed the idea that Arianne likes Targ features, specifically. She thought Darkstar was hawt because he was “dark and dangerous.” He also made her skin crawl. Hopefully our first section demonstrated that Arianne is far from being a superficial moron, even if she’ll chastise herself for it.
Doran and the maester ganging up on the septon made us lol. We’re pretty sure Julia’s head-canon about the role of the Faith in Dorne (and how she’s incorporated that into her fic) is fairly accurate.