Skip to main content

Hey, Game of Thrones, WTF Is Up With Dorne?

If you watched this past Sunday’s season premiere of Game of Thrones, you were treated with a brief return to Dorne, that south-most region of Westeros where last season’s most boring storyline took place. And then, after seeing one of the show’s greatest deviations from the books, you started wondering what the hell is happening here.
Spoilers ahead…
On a surface level, Ellaria Sand and the daughters of the late Oberyn Martell assassinated Prince Doran, tired of waiting for him to get around to taking revenge on the Lannisters for the many, many Martells killed at their commands. It’s almost as if the Sand Snakes had watched season five themselves, and got bored waiting for something interesting to happen in Dorne. Certainly now that Doran is dead, things are about to move a lot faster.
But where, exactly, is this story moving faster towards? There’s no coup in George R.R. Martin’s books, and while the Sand Snakes are very much trying to pick a fight with King’s Landing, it seems extremely unlikely that this is how events will unfold in the book. How this new Dornish status quo affects the TV’s show’s endgame is anyone’s guess.
Actually, what is the new Dornish status quo? Doran is dead, but that does not mean Ellaria Sand is suddenly in control of Dorne. We don’t know exactly why Ellaria assassinated Doran—it could be because he was seemingly too weak to avenge his brother, but it also could be to get Doran out of her way so she can enact her real plan.
But what is her plan? Has Ellaria taken the throne of Dorne for herself? Does she have enough support from the people to do that? Heck, does she have anysupport from the people? Are they going to be outraged their beloved Prince Doran has been murdered, or will they praise her courage in the streets? Or will Ellaria put one of the Sand Snakes in charge, and then rule through her? Has Ellaria accounted for the fact that the Sand Snakes are all murderous nitwits?
And if she has taken power, what the hell is she going to do with it? Is she planning on leading the armies of Dorne to get payback on everyone who ever shook hands with a Lannister? Is Ellaria even savvy enough to join forces with any of the other Lannister-hating Houses of Westeros, like the Starks, the Tullys, the Tyrells—and maybe even a certain Khaleesi, if she ever manages to cross the Narrow Sea?
And if Ellaria has no intention (or possibility) of controlling Dorne’s forces, what the hell is she doing? Is she going to lead a secret strike team of Sand Snakes into King’s Landing to take out the last of the Lannister line? Because that seems like a pretty dumb idea, and one that actually didn’t require her murdering the Prince of Dorne to accomplish.
I know Dorne hasn’t been everyone’s—or anyone’s—favorite Game of Thronesstoryline, and I know many people feel like Doran’s murder makes season five’s Dornish vacation seem like an even bigger waste of time. But I like it. I like that Ellaria is about to get some major shit done, or try to get some major shit done. I like that she’s not going to wait around—and people better get out of her way or get a chest full of knife-blade.
And I like that I have no clue where the Dornish storyline is going. Is Ellaria’s brutal coup part of Game of Thrones’ endgame, the way that Dorne truly gets pulled into the final act? Will they be the ones to take out the King Tommen and the Lannisters once and for all, plunging Westeros into total chaos? Will they be accidentally helping to roll out the welcome mat for the White Walkers, or will they actually fight alongside the people of the other kingdoms to save all of the living? (Minus the Lannisters, of course.)
I don’t know the answers to any of these questions, but suddenly I’m very interested in finding out. Ellaria Sand may have completely screwed Dorne as a country, but she may have saved Dorne as a storyline.
Source: gizmodo.com
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

There’s a new heir to the Iron Throne, and nobody on ‘Game of Thrones’ noticed

Tommen has a new successor. Good luck getting anyone in King’s Landing to care, apparently. Caution! Spoilers immediately ahead for  Game of Thrones  Season 6, Episode 2, ‘Home.’ Go watch it, it’s a really good one.  The body count in Westeros is really starting to pile up — and the return of one resurrected Lord Commander  doesn’t begin to make a dent in the numbers. In Season 6’s first two episodes, three of the Seven Kingdoms’ most powerful leaders have been usurped and unceremoniously tossed on the scrap heap: Roose Bolton (along with his wife and hours-old heir), Balon Greyjoy (last of the participants in the War of the Five Kings and the last of the leeches burned in the fire by Melisandre) and Prince Doran Martell of Dorne (that guy in the bathrobe and wheelchair). But the most important death is the one that barely got any attention: the poisoning of Princess Myrcella Baratheon, sister to King Tommen and official heir to the Iron Throne. ...
1 comment
Read more

The Political Science of Game of Thrones

If there is one thing Machiavelli’s  The Prince  needed, it was more dragons. Alas, it would have been so easy! All he had to do was mention Saint George. Although the closest Machiavelli came to discussing these mythic beasts was a brief shout-out for Chiron the centaur , such omissions make HBO’s  Game of Thrones  and George R. R. Martin’s  A Song of Ice and Fire  all the more interesting in today’s classroom. After all, if Daenerys Targaryen were a Poli Sci major today, she’d have every reason to throw down her textbooks and demand: “Where are my dragons!” Where  are  her dragons? That’s a good question. I say they belong in her classes alongside Hannibal’s elephants. It may sound ridiculous to reference works of fantasy in order to better explain politics, but such a practice is as old as Plato’s dialogues on Atlantis. After all, what is a well-written fictional character other than a device for better understanding ourselves? One...
Post a Comment
Read more

Game of thrones season 7 episode 6 script : A Dragon dies... [ Contains Spoilers ]

Here's the script for episode 6: [ These are translations from FD(Freaky Doctor)'s videos on Youtube ] Content may or may not be 100% accurate, I’m just translating what Friki has posted. I know this episode has been translated already but given my fluency in Spanish and English I think I could add or improve on some things. I’ve translates things as Friki spoke, whether the scenes are in the correct order or not, I personally do not know. If I’ve made any mistakes please feel free to correct me. The second to last episode is also the second longest episode of this season, clocking in at 71 mins according to IMDB Frikidoctor tells what happens in the north first and then goes on to tell what happens in other parts of Westeros so if you see some time jumps during the north storyline there are scenes in between these I just don’t know which ones since he doesn’t mention it and I wanted to translate as he spoke but I find it better the way he did it, even though A LOT h...
Post a Comment
Read more