Something is Rotten in Dorne: ‘Faillaria’ and the ‘Sand Fakes’ 

“Oberyn wanted vengeance for Elia. Now the three of you want vengeance for him. I have four daughters, I remind you. Your sisters. My Elia is fourteen, almost a woman. Obella is twelve, on the brink of maidenhood. They worship you, as Dorea and Loreza worship them. If you should die, must El and Obella seek vengeance for you, then Dorea and Loree for them? Is that how it goes, round and round forever? I ask again, where does it end?” Ellaria Sand laid her hand on the Mountain’s head. “I saw your father die. Here is his killer. Can I take a skull to bed with me, to give me comfort in the night? Will it make me laugh, write me songs, care for me when I am old and sick?”

If you’re merely a show watcher, you may think there was a mistake in that excerpt. That can’t really be Ellaria Sand talking, right? Because in episode two of the fifth season of

, Ellaria bristles at Prince Doran Martell for sitting by after the Lannisters killed Oberyn Martell and calls for war and revenge. She wants to send Princess Myrcella back to Cersei, piece by piece. But Doran admonishes her, “We don’t mutilate little girls in Dorne.”

This statement echoes something Oberyn himself said. Not that Ellaria Sand in the show would care. She’s interested in vengeance, and the Sand Snakes, Oberyn’s daughters, are with her. She wants war.

And it is one of many reasons why the major alterations to Ellaria Sand’s character, and the characters of the Sand Snakes, Oberyn Martells bastard daughters, are not a slap in the face to the characters Martin created, but also simply make no sense on a story-telling or logical basis. The show has not only horribly watered down the characters, they’ve reduced them to nothing but easily-led morons whose plans don’t even work. Despite all the efforts to make them seem “dangerous” they really just come off as one-dimensional and utterly moronic.

The Ellaria Sand of the books wants an end to the violence and struggle. She argues passionately against the Sand Snakes when they call for war. And she certainly doesn’t want to hurt little girls. She has four daughters, four she really doesn’t want to see swept up into a horrible cycle of violence.

The kingdom of Dorne has a colorful and interesting cast of characters that works well with the unique culture of the country. There’s Prince Doran, the chair-bound, quiet, plotting patriarch who spends his time watching children play and plotting the long-term coup d’etat that will bring the Targaryens back to power. There’s Areoh Hotah, his obedient, observant, and devoted bodyguard. There’s sweet little Prince Trystane, youngest of his siblings who just wants to play games with his pretty new royal betrothed. Prince Quentyn, who journeys across the Narrow Sea under an alias to meet and marry Daenerys Targaryen as per his father’s wishes. There is the deadly and fascinating Prince Oberyn, who adored his sister Elia so much he died seeking justice for her. There’s the plotting, fascinating, powerful Princess Arianne, who unwittingly gets Myrcella maimed when she meant to see her crowned.

Then there is Ellaria Sand, who pleads for peace after seeing the love of her life brutally murdered. Everyone who knows her notes that she has a kind heart and a quiet strength. There are few in Dorne who do not have the highest respect for her, and that include the reigning prince, who has Ellaria by his side when Gregor Clegane’s head is presented to the court of Sunspear. At that council, Ellaria drinks to the health of King Tommen, First of His Name. At the end, Prince Doran tells her to go back to her girls, the four youngest Sand Snakes. She does. But not before loudly and bravely calling for peace, for an end to violence in a scene where everyone else is calling for blood and pain.

In the show, she bursts in on Doran at the Water Gardens, angrily crying for vengeance for everyone to hear. Because “bitches be crazy”, right?

Then there are the Sand Snakes, Oberyn Martell’s bastard daughters.

The promotional featurettes on the Sand Snakes that aired on HBO.com already raised a number of red flags. The actresses (Rosabell Laurenti Sellers, Jessica Henwick and Keisha Castle-Hughes) not only don’t resemble their book counterparts much, but they basically described their characters in terms of their weapons. Obara was “the spear”, Nym was “the whip” and Tyene was “the daggers”. Then they just start debating who is the best fighter rather than describing actual personality traits. Fun fact: for the purposes of this article, I had to keep checking which of these women was which, despite having watched the episodes and featurettes more than once.

The Sand Snakes in the books are not blunt instruments by any means. Tyene doesn’t even wield a regular weapon. The Sand Snakes, especially the three eldest which the show is supposed to be portraying, are defined by their distinct personalities.

In the books, one of the defining features of Oberyn’s daughters are how different they are from each other.  In particular, the characters of Obara, Nymeria, and Tyene Sand are described in minute detail, and given  distinct appearances and personalities.

The only show Sand Snake that seems to match her book counterpart even slightly is Obara, and that’s only on a superficial level. The superficial level of “having strong facial features” and being “buff, ethnic, wearing leather, and a fighter.”

Show!Obara is this oddly dispassionate creature who just up and murders a man who gave her and her sisters information after meditating. When she meets with Ellaria, she gives this long speech about how her father came to get her from her mother and offered her a spear. Then she uses the spear offered her to kill an informant and declare her war, despite having no battle plans or army or access to anything that might help her and her family achieve their goals. The only thing that get accomplished is they known Jaime Lannister is in Dorne to save Myrcella. Still no word on how they plan to capture Myrcella, hold her, or gain access to enough armed forces/power to declare war.

“Let me avenge my father. You have a host in the Prince’s Pass. Lord Yronwood has another in the Boneway. Grant me the one and Nym the other. Let her ride the kingsroad, whilst I turn the marcher lords out of their castles and hook round to march on Oldtown.”

Obara is an experienced and effective military commander.  Her plan, which does not involve hurting Myrcella, focuses on battle.

Nymeria and Tyene in the show has no resemblance to their book counterparts.  They are barely distinguishable from Obara.

Book!Nymeria, known as “Lady Nym” is known for her blades, elegant clothes, and poise..:

“She appeared suddenly upon a dune, mounted on a golden sand steed with a mane like fine white silk. Even ahorse, the Lady Nym looked graceful, dressed all in shimmering lilac robes and a great silk cape of cream and copper that lifted at every gust of wind, and made her look as if she might take flight. Nymeria Sand was five-and-twenty, and slender as a willow. Her straight black hair, worn in a long braid bound up with red-gold wire, made a widow’s peak above her dark eyes, just as her father’s had. With her high cheekbones, full lips, and milk-pale skin, she “had all the beauty that her elder sister lacked . . . but Obara’s mother had been an Oldtown whore, whilst Nym was born from the noblest blood of old Volantis. A dozen mounted spearmen tailed her, their round shields gleaming in the sun. They followed her down the dune.”

Her plan is not to declare war, merely to have her “Sweet Sister” Tyene brutally murder Tywin, Cersei, Jaime, Tommen with a horrible poison. Yeah, basically Nym thinks one sister can accomplish enough horrifying vengeance with two armies.

Nym’s “Sweet Sister” Tyene is described like this:

“She was sitting cross-legged on a pillow beneath the raised dais where the high seats stood, but she rose as they entered, dressed in a clinging gown of pale blue samite with sleeves of Myrish lace that made her look as innocent as the Maid herself. In one hand was a piece of embroidery she had been working on, in the other a pair of golden needles. Her hair was gold as well, and her eyes were deep blue pools . . . and yet somehow they reminded the captain of her father’s eyes, though Oberyn’s had been as black as night. All of Prince Oberyn’s daughters have his viper eyes, Hotah realized suddenly. The color does not matter.”

“Lady Tyene’s voice was gentle, and she looked as sweet as summer strawberries. Her mother had been a septa, and Tyene had an air of almost otherworldy innocence about her.”

Tyene from the books is  basically the grown-up version of every creepy little girl you’ve ever seen in a horror movie. She’s a poison-expert who sews constantly and likes to fake her innocence. Everyone, from Prince Doran to his badass bodyguard Areo Hotah, is terrified of her.

When Doran finds Tyene  waiting peacefully in his throne room, she offers a third plan:

“Obara cries to me for war. Nym will be content with murder. And you?”

“War,” said Tyene, “though not my sister’s war. Dornishmen fight best at home, so I say let us hone our spears and wait. When the Lannisters and the Tyrells come down on us, we shall bleed them in the passes and bury them beneath the blowing sands, as we have a hundred times before.”

“If they should come down on us.”

“Oh, but they must, or see the realm riven once more, as it was before we wed the dragons. Father told me so. He said we had the Imp to thank, for sending us Princess Myrcella. She is so pretty, don’t you think? I wish that I had curls like hers. She was made to be a queen, just like her mother.” Dimples bloomed in Tyene’s cheeks. “I would be honored to arrange the wedding, and to see to the making of the crowns as well. Trystane and Myrcella are so innocent, I thought perhaps white gold . . . with emeralds, to match Myrcella’s eyes. Oh, diamonds and pearls would serve as well, so long as the children are wed and crowned. Then we need only “hail Myrcella as the First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, and lawful heir to the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, and wait for the lions to come.”

While Obara’s plan is brunt and brutish, and Nym’s plot is simple and swift, Tyene’s idea is overtly political, overarching, and based on history. Basically, the Dornish resisted the control of the Iron Throne for centuries, even against the dragons, based on defensive warfare. Tyene wants to use that same tactic now.

In the books, all three of the eldest confront Doran Martell about vengeance for Oberyn, but they are not all asking for a uniform response. Each have very different ideas. Nym wants to have four of the Lannisters murdered for the lives of her father, her Aunt Elia, and Elia’s children. Obara wants to burn a city to the ground and actively engage in war. Tyene plots to declare Myrcella queen and make the Lannisters come to them, then destroy them.

As a result of them going to Doran and calling for war or murder, all three are promptly imprisoned in a tower by the prince in order to keep them from doing anything stupid.

Because he can. They’re the beloved daughters of his brother, but they are bastards.  As previous post in this series noted, in the absence of the character of Arianne, there is no female character with the political power to openly challenge Doran.  As dangerous as the Sand Snakes are in the books, they are not princes in their own right like Arianne Martell. They have no claim upon the forces and powers of Dorne. Doran Martell can have them locked in a tower with a word. He does exactly this.

The lack of real political power is also the case for  Ellaria Sand.  In the books she is  loved, respected, and trusted to give good council, and is respected. But she holds no political capital of her own. Which is why if she actually

were to give Doran a threatening speech about politically-disastrous, violent uprising, she’d promptly be imprisoned the way the Sand Snakes were in the books.

As dangerous as the Sand Snakes are in the books, they are not princes in their own right like Arianne Martell. They have no claim upon the forces and powers of Dorne. Doran Martell can have them locked in a tower with a word. He does exactly this.

Which is why the choice to delete Arianne, who was a trueborn Martell, heir to Dorne, and had legitimate power of her own, makes even less sense plot-wise. The Sand Snakes in the books do not take part in Arianne’s plot. Doran locks them up before they have a chance to make good on their threats. Which actually makes sense.

The fact that Doran in the show does NOT do this to Ellaria when she loudly announces her intention to commit murder and treason is utterly inexplicable, especially after she implicates the Sand Snakes by mentioning that they are “with her.”

Thus, pretty much everyone in Dorne looks insane and incompetent. Ellaria Sand is determinedly plotting a war that will undoubtedly bring her children to harm despite having no means or resources of her own to accomplish anything, and she announces her intentions to one of the many, many people who could easily stop her. Prince Doran, doesn’t take the announcement that his pseudo-sister-in-law and nieces intend to start a huge war as the HUGE red flag it is.

Instead he does nothing. The Sand Snakes are just violent puppets of their scheming mother figure. Unlike their book counterparts, they don’t process Oberyn’s death emotionally (in the books, Obara struggles not to cry), and they don’t even try to confer with their powerful uncle about what is to be done about their father’s death. Instead, they just bury valuable informants alive and wait for Ellaria to tell them what to do.

In the show, nothing in Dorne makes sense. How exactly could Ellaria and the Sand Snakes get access to Myrcella, or build an army to accomplish their goals? Why isn’t Doran stopping them when he heard that rant from Ellaria? Why would  women who loved Oberyn want to hurt an innocent child when Oberyn himself was so adamant about how “we don’t hurt little girls in Dorne”?

A lot of people might argue about the problems of confusing the audience by including so many characters. The problem is that these changes only make things more confusing and unbelievable.

Pairing Ellaria Sand with Arianne’s plotline is not only a betrayal of the character of Ellaria Sand herself, it simply makes no sense and provokes far more questions than it avoids. And the Sand Snakes? What does their inclusion clarify, exactly? They don’t appear to wield any power or influence beyond their weapons. Not only that, they’re so much alike that it’s hard to tell who is who.

The fact that the showrunners have decided to mash several distinct characters who are WOC carries with it a plethora of issues, especially when these changes don’t really serve any clear, effective purpose.

Instead of a headstrong princess who wants to take vengeance, secure her own power, and put a more qualified candidate on the Iron Throne, we have an irrational  former lover with no means of her own willing to endanger her own children on a sadistic fool’s errand.  It simply doesn’t work and makes everything more muddled. And when the only reason your plot can proceed is because the characters are completely stupid, it’s bad writing.

has reduced powerful, vivid characters and an interesting plot into a confusing, idiotic mess of senseless violence and bland characterization. It’s never made clear why any of us should care about these women who intend to hurt an innocent girl. Or how or why they’d succeed. They’re nothing but nonsensical antagonists for the Lannisters now. Their identities have been erased in favor of superficial whip-snapping and ethnic femme-fatale stereotypes. The Sand Snakes and Ellaria have been stripped down from interesting, unique characters to a frothing mad-dog collective that needs to be put down. It’s insulting, disturbing, and it doesn’t belong.

Wendy is a graduate student, freelance writer, and fangirl originally from the Washington D.C area. She loves talking social issues, A Song of Ice and Fire, comics, Nickelodeon’s Avatar, Girl Genius, Harry Potter, history, and various other geeky things. She also spends a little too much time writing erotic fanfiction.

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