Did Arianne Love Oakheart?

[TyrionsFlagon]

I often wonder if Arianne actually loved Ser Arys Oakheart or was completely using him. I'd like to think she actually had feelings for him and wasn't just selling herself in that way for that cause. Thoughts?

[cgrav]

1 hour ago, TyrionsFlagon said:

I often wonder if Arianne actually loved Ser Arys Oakheart or was completely using him. I'd like to think she actually had feelings for him and wasn't just selling herself in that way for that cause. Thoughts?

I think she was using him almost entirely. She thinks Darkstar is the handsomest man in Dorne, even thinking what their children might look like. 

[mankytoes]

I certainly don't think there is anything in the text to suggest she loved him. I would say she had some respect for him, which added to her guilt for using him. Also, I think he's described as fairly attractive, so she probably enjoyed shagging him, but definitely nothing like love.

[Dorian Martell's son]

2 hours ago, TyrionsFlagon said:

I often wonder if Arianne actually loved Ser Arys Oakheart or was completely using him. I'd like to think she actually had feelings for him and wasn't just selling herself in that way for that cause. Thoughts?

She loved him as much as an entitled princess with dreams of toppling the crown and overthrowing her father by forcing him into a war he is incapable of waging could love anybody 

 

[Universal Sword Donor]

On 9/11/2017 at 10:01 AM, TyrionsFlagon said:

I often wonder if Arianne actually loved Ser Arys Oakheart or was completely using him. I'd like to think she actually had feelings for him and wasn't just selling herself in that way for that cause. Thoughts?

I mean reading the queenmaker chapter, it would seem she did. It always read to me as she had genuine affection for him:

“We are taken, ser, Arianne might have called out. Your death will not free us. If you love your princess, yield. But when she tried to speak, the words caught in her throat."

“No,” some girl was shouting, some foolish little girl, “no, please, this was not supposed to happen.”

“Arianne raised a tear-streaked face. “How could he know?” she asked the captain. “I was so careful. How could he know?”

“Arys, she thought, my white knight. Tears filled her eyes, and suddenly she was weeping, her whole body wracked by sobs. She remembered how Hotah’s heavy axe had cleaved through his flesh and bone, the way his head had gone spinning through the air. Why did you do it? Why throw your life away? I never told you to, I never wanted that, I only wanted . . . I wanted . . . I wanted . . .”

“She dreamt of Arys Oakheart caressing her, smiling at her, telling her that he loved her . . . but all the while the quarrels were in him and his wounds were weeping, turning his whites to red. Part of her knew it was a nightmare, even as she dreamt it. 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”

Is she crying because her scheme failed? I could see how some things point that way, but the majority of what I read in that chapter is that she sees the loss of Arys as more than Myrcella's crowning failing. She definitely regrets the latter but it seemed more like it was a result of her being hurt, not failing to crown her.

[Adam Yozza]

I wouldn't say love and I don't think she really acknowledged it until after his death but she at least had some fond feelings for him.

[apovsic]

I opened this topic some time ago :link and it seems that most (although that is hard to said based on only around 10 answers) is that Arianne did have some affection to Aerys, but wasn't in love with him.