The Princess of Dorne: Why Theories Predicated On Arianne Wanting Queenship Above All Are BS
I'm not whacking anyone I'm just saying. Please return to the text.
"Our clothes make us different people. I would sooner be flesh and blood than silks and jewels, and youā¦you are not your white cloak, ser.ā
There is this attitude about Arianne in fandom that drives me nutso. It is the idea that she is somehow nothing but a vain party girl, and that her ultimate ending will be to die in a fiery doom with Aegon because she is a vapid, silly girl who will reach too far in her ambitions. I am here to tell you two things.
That is not at all how Arianne acts in canon. You are falling for the front she puts on and nothing more.
Arianne does not want to be Queen.
I started with the above quote to illustrate my ultimate point - Arianne is not nearly as vain as people make her out to be. Much like many women in this series - Cersei, Sansa, Margaery, and Daenerys - Arianne uses silks and jewels as weapons because that is the world she was born into. This does not make her sillier or more stupid than any of these women; in fact, she shows a remarkable amount of empathy even in her worst moments. She is intelligent, and driven, and yes ambitious but what is seen as a good thing in a white woman like Margaery is seen as a negative in a brown woman like Arianne. I think there's a misunderstanding of her desires, due to her interesting role as a pov that is also an heiress. Let's dig in.
āI will not say that you are wrong.ā His voice was hoarse.
āWill not? Cannot! Myrcella is more fit for rule ā¦ā
āA son comes before a daughter.ā
āWhy? What god has made it so? I am my fatherās heir. Should I give up my rights to my brothers?ā
This conversation between Arys Oakheart and Arianne in the shadow city is the first time Arianne lets us in on what she's thinking. If you notice - she is hyperfocused on the idea of being her father's heir and denied her right to inherit Sunspear and Dorne. And of course that's what she's focused on. Crowning Myrcella is merely a means to an end. What she wants is Sunspear, what she wants is to be Princess of Done - what she wants most of all is her father's respect. If she has an ally as Queen, and forces the realm to accept women in ruling positions, she secures her own role as a ruling princess of Dorne (or so she thinks).
"Would you let your daughter be despoiled of her rights and locked away in prison?"
I believe there's a misunderstanding of her motives because people ascribe to her what other ambitious women want, which is to be Queen. But Arianne is not like these other women. Arianne is supposed to inherit in her own right. Arianne has her own title that she's after, her own ancestral seat to rule from, and that is emotionally much more important to her than any marriage, than any other title. Tyrion doesn't dream of being Hand so much as he dreams of being his father's heir. Stannis' longing centers a lot more around what he feels is a denial of a relationship by Robert when Robert gives Storm's End, their father's seat, to Renly. And look to the other heiress in the series, Dany. Why does Dany want the Iron Throne? Because her father sat it. Because Rhaegar fought and died for it. It's not to say that she would say no to being Queen - it's just that it's not her goal, it's not her ambition, it's not what she's planning to do. The idea of Arianne as queen isn't even introduced to us until her last chapter - before that her focus is on Dorne.
āYou do not know my father. I have been disappointing him since I first arrived in this world without a cock. Half a dozen times he has tried to marry me to toothless greybeards, each more contemptible than the last. He never commanded me to wed them, I grant you, but the offers alone prove how little he regards me.ā
āEven so, you are his heir.ā
āAm I?ā
āHe left you to rule in Sunspear when he took himself off to his Water Gardens, did he not?ā
āTo rule? No. He left his cousin Ser Manfrey as castellan, old blind Ricasso as seneschal, his bailiffs to collect duties and taxes for his treasurer Alyse Ladybright to count, his shariffs to police the shadow city, his justiciars to sit in judgment, and Maester Myles to deal with any letters not requiring the princeās own attention. Above them all he placed the Red Viper. My charge was feasts and frolics, and the entertainment of distinguished guests. Oberyn would visit the Water Gardens twice a fortnight. Me, he summoned twice a year. I am not the heir my father wants, he has made that plain. Our laws constrain him, but he would sooner have my brother follow him, I know it.ā
Notice - her ire towards Quentyn and Doran is founded in the idea that they mean to set her aside. This isn't a theory she just came upon - she found a very suspicious letter that seemed to imply so-
When I went to blow it out, I found a letter lying incomplete beside it, a letter to my brother Quentyn, off at Yronwood. My father told Quentyn that he must do all that his maester and his master-at-arms required of him, because āone day you will sit where I sit and rule all Dorne, and a ruler must be strong of mind and body.āā A tear crept down Arianneās soft cheek. āMy fatherās words, written in his own hand. They burned themselves into my memory. I cried myself to sleep that night, and many nights thereafter.ā
Her anger at Quentyn is often used as a way to whack her. She's juvenile, she's silly, she's paranoid. But how do you say to a supposedly misogynistic father who is regularly attempting to marry you off to old men below your station that you believe he is trying to usurp you? How do you bring this up? I don't think she's wrong to come to this conclusion, nor do I think she's wrong to lash out at Doran over it. And what's more is that neither does Doran believe she is wrong to lash out at him. He apolgoizes to her.
If she can be set aside so easily, then every woman in Dorne can be set aside just as easily. Arys notes she's trembling when she speaks to him- she really does believe her father means to set her aside, and that is a deep, personal, horrible betrayal. And all of this, all of this fear, is centered around Doran and Dorne and Sunspear. Like Tyrion, like Jon Snow, like Daenerys, like the Dance era Targaryens she mentions in Rhaenyra and Aegon II, she is interested in inheriting the seat of her Father because it represents acceptance by her Father, because it represents her Father's love.
"Anders Yronwood is Criston Cole reborn. He whispers in my brotherās ear that he should rule after my father, that it is not right for men to kneel to womenā¦that Arianne especially is unfit to rule, being the willful wanton that she is.ā
She wants Dorne. She wants her father's seat. She wants her father's love. She does not want that spiky chair, nor does she dream of being Queen. She doesn't even dream about being in King's Landing! Sure she tempts Arys with dreams about them being free to be together, but in her chapters, she's not dreaming about being with him, she is dreaming about her inheritance which is....Dorne. She's not subtle about it, she says it plainly!
Do you see the white one, Quentyn? That is Nymeria's star, burning bright, and that milky band behind her, those are ten thousand ships. She burned as bright as any man, and so shall I. You will not rob me of my birthright!
That, and my birthright. I want Sunspear, and my father's seat. I want Dorne.
And back to this idea that Arianne is silly and unserious - again, it's a defense. Just as her romantic notions to Arys are merely a front to convince him to do what she wants, Arianne speaks breezily but throughout her chapters is in fact very serious and anxious. She knows what she's doing is dangerous, and tries to keep everything on track. And while certainly her plan is foolhardy....is it any worse than Doran's plans to send Quentyn on a wild chase after Dany? It's not as if she isn't somewhat prepared - she has her own spies, loyal to her from the orphans of the Greenblood. Nor does she act particularly rashly when she knows she's beaten - it's Arys Oakheart who charges, over the objections of everyone there including Arianne. Again, I'm not saying its a good plan but I am saying it's not all that much worse than half the plots in this series, and she is not stupid or foolish when it comes to actually enacting it.
And she's compassionate. She is sweet to Myrcella from the jump, she calls Arys "my white knight" after he dies, she argues for her friends to be given leniancy. And, of course, again, she says-
Come morning all of this will vanish, the princess told herself, but when morning came, she was still in her cell, Ser Arys was still dead, and Myrcella . . . I never wanted that, never. I meant the girl no harm. All I wanted was for her to be a queen. If we had not been betrayed . . .
was for MYRCELLA to be Queen.
And how do her feelings change when her father finally lets her in on his plans?
Standing was an act of love. Standing was an act of faith.
He believes in me. I will not fail him.
My father fears the same. āIf not, thoughā¦ if this truly is Jon Connington, if the boy is Rhaegarās sonā¦ā
āAre you hoping that he is, or that heās not?ā
āIā¦ it would give great joy to my father if Eliaās son were still alive. He loved his sister well.ā
āIt was you I asked about, not your father.ā
So it was. āI was seven when Elia died. They say I held her daughter Rhaenys once, when I was too young to remember. Aegon will be a stranger to me, whether true or false.ā The princess paused. āWe looked for Rhaegarās sister, not his son.ā Her father had confided in Ser Daemon when he chose him as his daughterās shield; with him at least she could speak freely. āI would sooner it were Quentyn whoād returned.ā
āOr so you say,ā said Daemon Sand. āGood night, princess.ā He bowed to her, and left her standing there.
What did he mean by that? Arianne watched him walk away. What sort of sister would I be, if I did not want my brother back? It was true, she had resented Quentyn for all those years that she had thought their father meant to name him as his heir in place of her, but that had turned out to be just a misunderstanding. She was the heir to Dorne, she had her fatherās word on that. Quentyn would have his dragon queen, Daenerys.
Oh look!!!! Her thoughts are still preoccupied with DORNE and HER FATHER.
Oftentimes, her resentment of Quentyn is used against her, to show she's still silly, to show she's going to do something risky and elope with Aegon VI. And while yes, she is very preoccupied with Quentyn, the entire two chapters are about her wanting to love Quentyn again. Not for his sake, but for her father's. She's spent years believing they are going to usurp her; now she has to reckon with the fat that she was wrong, and she still barely knows who Quentyn is, truly. She is constantly reflecting on him, on her relationship with him, on who he might be. Yes, it is a bit foreboding but I don't believe it's a sure thing that she feels weird about Quentyn because she wants to one up him - she's spent her whole life thinking he would one up her and now she's reeling.
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 Griffinās 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?
No good would come of wondering about it. Quentyn would be king or he would not. I pray Daenerys treats him him more gently than she did her own brother.
And even through all this turmoil, another point in ARianne's favor is, once again, she is not silly or frivilous. It's a shield! Another thing used against her is her taste in men but never, not once is Arianne played by a pretty face. She does not trust Darkstar, she enlists his help because of his abilities in a fight, but she knows he is angry and violent! She isn't played by him, she is actively attempting to use him!! Just because she acknowledges he is handsome, doesn't mean she's fooled!
Arianne watched him warily. He is highborn enough to make a worthy consort, she thought. Father would question my good sense, but our children would be as beautiful as dragonlords. If there was a handsomer man in Dorne, she did not know him. Ser Gerold Dayne had an aquiline nose, high cheekbones, a strong jaw. He kept his face clean-shaven, but his thick hair fell to his collar like a silver glacier, divided by a streak of midnight black. He has a cruel mouth, though, and a crueler tongue. His eyes seemed black as he sat outlined against the dying sun, sharpening his steel, but she had looked at them from a closer vantage and she knew that they were purple. Dark purple. Dark and angry.
And on that point, she doesn't trust Lysono either!
Lysono Maar spoke the Common Tongue very well. āI have the honor to be the eyes and ears of the Golden Company, princess.ā
āYou lookā¦ā She hesitated.
āā¦like a woman?ā He laughed. āThat I am not.ā
āā¦like a Targaryen,ā Arianne insisted. His eyes were a pale lilac, his hair a waterfall of white and gold. All the same, something about him made her skin crawl. Was this what Viserys looked like? she found herself wondering. If so perhaps it is a good thing he is dead.
Lysono Maar spoke the Common Tongue very well. āI have the honor to be the eyes and ears of the Golden Company, princess.ā
āYou lookā¦ā She hesitated.
āā¦like a woman?ā He laughed. āThat I am not.ā
āā¦like a Targaryen,ā Arianne insisted. His eyes were a pale lilac, his hair a waterfall of white and gold. All the same, something about him made her skin crawl. Was this what Viserys looked like? she found herself wondering. If so perhaps it is a good thing he is dead.
In fact, Arianne is uncomfortably with her youthful infatuations with bad boys-
"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.
She seduces Arys with the express purpose of using him - she thinks as much in her fight with Doran, when she mentions it took her six months to seduce Arys. She gets playful with Daemon, but a) it does not make her stupid to simply desire to have sex with someone, and we know she uses birth control and b) when he rejects her, she cuts the shit and remains on track.
All of this to say - Arianne thinks through her plots, even if she is not the best at them. Her resentment of Quentyn and her father are not just very well founded in a very rational sort of paranoia, but her own father directly absolves her of any blame because it wasn't Arianne that was in the wrong. She stays on track, she isn't silly, and most of all, she does not want to be Queen. She wants to be Princess of Dorne. She wants to be her father's heir, and she wants Doran to believe her a worthy heir. This is why I believe in the idea that Aegon will elope with Elia and not Arianne - Arianne wants to be a Queenmaker not Queen herself. She will be met with an opportunity to have a queenmaking plot that is a little more put together and that will be her moral test - not whether she will choose to be queen herself.
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