#moongirlgodness

[aegonbeingfakeisracist]

what would you change in the dorne storyline? And why would it be to add more Dornish povs and more of the relationship between the characters? Hahahaha it's to little even the iron islands get more

So true.

I've said time and time again that Arianne is my favourite character and I utterly adore her chapters and think they were fantastically written and well constructed. That is absolutely true - everything in them makes it so clear where Arianne is coming from and why she makes the decisions she does. I can even defend the decision to dedicate so much of the time spent in Dorne to other characters' perspectives, because even that gives us interesting insight into Arianne: the man that met her as an adult sees her entirely differently from the man that has known her for her entire life. She presents herself completely differently. She's great with people. There's so much about her that she simply does not reveal. All that being said, something really lacking in the Dorne storyline is enough Arianne.

I think one thing that was really lacking in the Dorne storyline was sufficient emphasis on the efforts and machinations not on page. For example, think about how Arianne ended up in a position to launch her queenmaker plot. She learned Quentyn had left Dorne with papers sealed with the sun and spear of Dorne through her own information network. She learned about the Golden Company breaking its contract. She deduced those two things were connected. She developed such a good relationship with Myrcella that Myrcella trusted her without question. She seduced Arys Oakheart, seemingly before she knew for sure what she was going to do, just in case she needed him. She brought in a group of friends and decided it was best to keep limited numbers. She determined Hellholt was the place from which she ought to call her banners. She convinced Myrcella to lie to Balon Swann. Every one of these things occurred off page, but is an important part of Arianne's story, and they really do highlight how capable she is. A major part of Arianne's struggles are to do with the fact she has no choice but to be reactive. Getting more information on how she chooses to navigate the choices she has would be so good.

When thinking about how Quentyn had been seen in Planky Town, she mused about what "a clever man" (or herself, because she's the one speculating!) would have done in that position instead - gone to Oldtown where it would be likelier to fly under the radar, without anyone to recognize him and question why a prince and a lord's son were using false names and leaving Dorne. It would take longer, but it would be safer. This highlights how "impulsive" is not Arianne's natural instinct, just as much as the fact she did not rush to confront her father after first reading that letter. Arianne, at her core, is cautious. Arianne is Doran's daughter, through and through. Her impulsive actions come from the fact that she's usually not in a position where she gets to decide how to act purely of her own volition - if Quentyn is off hiring sellswords, she's got to do something fast. When she suspects that Haldon Halfmaester and Lysono Maar intend to put her on a ship to Storm's End regardless of her thoughts on the matter, she does not think it wise to test the theory. She is smarter than people think she is, regardless of if she is or is not good at cyvasse. Having her successes on page, rather than just off page, would emphasize that fact.

I don't believe that writing decisions should be made to spell things out for the audience. Of course not. Fandom not being able to understand that Arianne isn't the stupid and impulsive character it reads her as does not mean that the story should slow down to explain that. But still, Arianne is such a good character, I want to see more of her, and there are so many places where we could have had that.

Stylistically, I do get having the Dorne story ramp up only after Oberyn's arrival and death: out goes the old generation, make way for Princess Arianne. I even quite like it. Same as I like getting to see her from other characters' perspectives. But I don't like the fact Arianne doesn't show up until the fourth book, and then even after that, despite being the central figure of the Dornish storyline, gets a grand total of two chapters to herself. We're talking about the woman that's the niece of both Oberyn and Elia. The daughter of the man whose loss of his sister completely shook him to the core. The cousin of women undoubtedly old enough to remember Elia that are now grieving their father. The princess of a realm full of people old enough to remember the last war, who's notable for having friends from all walks of life. Dorne is a nation state, and through Arianne, we could learn a lot about how people in this nation state are reacting to things. I don't even necessarily need more perspectives from Dorne. But I would have loved to see Arianne conversing with all these other people and reflecting upon their different reactions to things.

[venusintheblindspots-blog]

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[martellspear]

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[aegonbeingfakeisracist]

hi!

Can you talk more about Arianne and Daemon ? Seriously they are my favorite couple I even have a headcanon that Arianne will be pregnant with Daemon I mean it's more a parallel with Asha's possible pregnancy (pairs between Martells and greyjoys) and Daemons are so fertile hahahaha (Daemon Targaryan Daemon Blackfire) even begin another family but Martin chose the same name and Daemon Sand's father has twins in addition to him...

Anyway I don't see any chance of marriage/ engagement or Arianne's love interest in Aegon it just won't be happening,I see them having a friendship relationship and a strengthening of the family bond , with Ari being a guide for his cousin ( so much potential). This is a bullshit she doesn't want to be queen but Dorne anda her father love. I just want Arianne to be able to be happy white someone who respects her and see her more than just a pretty body and face, and Daemon strikes me as perfect.

I really don't want Arianne to be pregnant because it seems to me like needless drama and just all around bad timing – she's serving as an envoy. There's a war going on. And I feel like her words to Elia kind of apply to her, as well – kiss all the boys you want when you're home in Dorne, but this is so not the time. Sure, she propositions Daemon, but she didn't actually sleep with him. Also, Arianne canonically uses moon tea for birth control. So I'm hopeful there will be no baby unless she lives to the end of the series.

But I think her relationship with Daemon is just so unique in terms of all the relationships we see in the series – they were children doing this entirely on their terms. They were the same age. They just liked each other, and so engaged in a relationship without fear over consequences.

I think in recent years, there's been a weird rise in people forgetting that tropes are tools and not fundamentally good or bad. One of the ways this manifests in particular is hating "childhood friends to lovers" or people winding up with their first love. I don't have hard stances on the kind of relationships in fiction I find interesting or boring. Mostly for me, it's contextual – what is compelling in ASOIAF to me is not the same as what's compelling in another work. And while I certainly agree that there are situations in which a childhood friends to lovers angle may be boring, I think in the ASOIAF context, Arianne and Daemon's childhood sweethearts angle is actually extremely compelling.

For a start, this isn't a people-staying-with-their-middle school-boyfriend-forever scenario. It's the fact Arianne and Daemon had a relationship, broke up, lived near a decade having separate lives with Arianne certainly having other relationships and Daemon probably also doing the same, and are potentially coming back together.

For another, I really, really like what Arianne/Daemon would mean for Arianne as a character. I've said before that she's my favourite ASOIAF character. But even outside of my own personal bias, think about the type of fics that get written about her. It's hard to identify this for certain, because AO3 tagging is just so messy, and navigating through Arianne's tag is a lost cause, but mostly, fic!Arianne is just three sliders of stupidity, horniness, and ambition. Which is just so, so not book Arianne, at all.

Arianne is unique amongst the most important female characters of ASOIAF. She's is not the heir presumptive, she's the heir apparent. Dorne will be hers. And she is a descendant of Nymeria, the most recent in a long line of rulers of Dorne. Her family is central to Dorne's cultural memory, as it was Nymeria and Mors that turned the collection of states into a unified nation. So unlike, say, the Tyrells or Freys, who determinedly pursue these grand matches in a way of compensating for their relatively recent history, Arianne...doesn't really need to do that? Like, she can just marry a bannerman and it would be totally fine.

Furthermore, Arianne clearly has more rights of refusal than most women, and she is not shy about using them - these are real rights she has. I can imagine her feeling more pressure to accept if offered a candidate that wasn't clearly a joke, but given the setting, this is true for everyone. The fact remains, Arianne has options, and since she's going to be a ruling princess, those options are broad.

But despite all of this, her marital prospects are a huge theme. Doran offers her elderly suitors. Daemon and Drey wanted to marry her. There was an entire marriage pact that no one bothered to tell her about. Arianne intends on bartering her own hand, and thinks about how whoever she weds would rule Dorne by her side.

How does all this connect to Daemon? Because he's a nobody. Okay, sure, that's a little extreme – he's a knight, the son of an important lord, and the former squire of a prince. But even though that is the case, he is still a bastard. His father has at least two legitimate children. This isn't a case like Ellaria, in which the set up makes it extremely reasonable to think that her father's land and title will one day fall to her and her daughters - Daemon will not inherit anything. Meaning if Arianne were to marry him, or even just obviously choose him as her partner without a marriage? It would be for her.

There might be some political benefits, given that Daemon is clearly on good terms with his father, but very indirectly, and not nearly to the extent that would be the case with other marital candidates. It cannot be considered anything resembling a political move. So Arianne choosing Daemon would be her taking control over her life, making the choices she wants, for her. It would be her choosing a Dornish spouse that has ties to her family beyond just her alone. It would be her in a position where she can safely choose to make her life with a person that she loves, that isn't the best political choice.

It would be her choosing someone that is deeply, fundamentally tied to Dorne - not just because he's Dornish, but because he is a bastard, because he was once a child in the Water Gardens, because he attended the feast for Balon Swann and did not drink upon the toast to Tommen. Arianne drank. Doran drank. But Daemon did not. Daemon is clearly still in love with Arianne. There is a reason their relationship was never the same after Doran rejected him for her. He loves her enough to serve as her sworn shield and beg her to allow him to go into a dangerous situation in her place. But he has his own mind, and his own beliefs, and his Dornish identity is a big part of that.

We've seen very little of Daemon. But from what we have, he sees Arianne in a way that few do. Doran didn't understand what was going on with her at all. Arys and Areo both clearly had images of her in their heads that didn't quite align with reality. But Daemon, despite their relationship having never recovered fully and despite Doran being so much like Arianne that one would really think he should understand her more than he does, gets her more than anyone else. He understands the strained relationship with Quentyn and that Arianne maybe isn't so desperate to have her little brother return. He sees bits of Arianne in Elia. He literally finishes some of her sentences.

Of all the people Arianne could ever engage in a relationship with, I think Daemon, more than any other character, represents her making her own choices and coming into her own as the ruling princess of Dorne.

[aegonbeingfakeisracist]

@severelyuniquebarbarian My parents are helping me a bit with the down payment, I do not make enough to do this on my own! 😂

@moongirlgodness Thank you, I appreciate that. ❤️