#dornish plot

"From the days of Aegon's Conquest.  He did not conquer here.  Elsewhere he burned his foes, him and his sisters, but here we melted away before them, leaving only stone and sand for them to burn.  And round and round the dragons went, snapping at their tails for want of any other food, till they were tied in knots."     

"Our forebears played their part in that," Lady Nymella said proudly.  "Bold deeds were done, and brave men died.  All of it was written down by the maesters who served us.  We have books, if my princess would like to know more."     

"Some other time, perhaps," said Arianne.

This is the one that I keep thinking about since reading Fire & Blood Vol. 1. Dorne resisted the Targaryen conquest, and they resisted very effectively, long after all the other kingdoms bent the knee. They kept their independence by refusing to fight on the Targaryens’ terms. 

This, here! This is why I’m so critical of the Martells’ plot to punish the Lannisters by empowering the Targaryens. It’s not that I think so little of the Martells. It’s because they could do so much better than this. Princess Meria would be disgusted if she saw what Doran and Oberyn have been doing since Robert’s Rebellion. This shit is not what “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” looks like. They’ve forgotten where they came from.

Anyway. The most revealing sign is later that evening:

Arianne played a game of cyvasse with Ser Daemon, and another one with Garibald Shells, and somehow managed to lose both.  Ser Garibald was kind enough to say that she played a gallant game, but Daemon mocked her.  "You have other pieces beside the dragon, princess.  Try moving them sometime." 

    "I like the dragon."  She wanted to slap the smile off his face.  Or kiss it off, perhaps.  The man was as smug as he was comely.  Of all the knights in Dorne, why did my father chose this one to be my shield?  He knows our history.  "It is just a game.  Tell me of Prince Viserys."     

"The Beggar King?"  Ser Daemon seemed surprised.     

"Everyone says that Prince Rhaegar was beautiful.  Was Viserys beautiful as well?"     

"I suppose.  He was Targaryen.  I never saw the man."     

The secret pact that Prince Doran had made all those years called for Arianne to be wed to Prince Viserys, not Quentyn to Daenerys.  It had all come undone on the Dothraki sea, when he was murdered.  Crowned with a pot of molten gold.  "He was killed by a Dothraki khal," said Arianne.  "The dragon queen's own husband."     

"So I've heard.  What of it?"         

"Just... why did Daenerys let it happen?  Viserys was her brother.  All that remained of her own blood."     

"The Dothraki are a savage folk.  Who can know why they kill?  Perhaps Viserys wiped his arse with the wrong hand."     

Perhaps, thought Arianne, or perhaps Daenerys realized that once her brother was crowned and wed to me, she would be doomed to spend the rest of her life sleeping in a tent and smelling like a horse.  "She is the Mad King's daughter," the princess said.  "How do we do know -- "     

"We cannot know," Ser Daemon said.  "We can only hope."

She’s literally losing the game because she’s over-invested in the dragon piece. Then it’s time to talk about Viserys. This is a problem the Martells have had for decades: they vastly overestimate their family’s importance to the Targaryens. Arianne figures Dany let her husband kill her brother because Dany was jealous of Arianne’s betrothal to Viserys. Never once does it cross her mind that Dany let her husband melt her brother’s brains because he was garbage. 

No, Dany was not jealous of any arrangement involving Arianne. Dany knew nothing about the arrangement because Viserys never mentioned it to her. 

Rhaegar deserted Elia and their children. Aerys used them as hostages rather than get them out of harm’s way. Viserys did not care about the offer to wed Arianne. The Targaryens will not go to bat for the Martells. The the last time the Targaryens cared for the Martells was when Doran and Oberyn’s mother was buddies with Princess Rhaella. The rest of the family don’t give a fuck. 

Arianne gets this much in one chapter: 1. The Targaryens bring death and destruction wherever they go. 2. The Martells do not need the Targaryens. 3. The Targaryens do not care about the Martells. 

Then in Arianne’s second chapter, Daemon Sand tells her straight out: don’t go any farther with these people.

“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.”

“Tyrell is not a man to fear. My uncle Oberyn– “

” –is dead, princess. And ten thousand men is equal to the whole strength of the Golden Company.”

“Lord Connington knows his own strength, surely. If he means to risk battle, he must believe that he can win it.”

“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.”