Targaryens in Norvos or Tyrosh

[Angel Eyes]

So in this article about Doran Martell's plans and his failure to follow through, why couldn't he have the Targaryens fostered in Tyrosh or Norvos? Consider these:

• Doran had already fostered the daughter of the Archon of Tyrosh
• Oberyn is already known for his adventuressness; he could pick up the Targaryens on one of his "adventures" and escort them to Tyrosh
• Viserys and Arianne could have had a correspondence between Tyrosh and Dorne
• Even if Mellario had moved back to Norvos, her relatives could likely be persuaded to open a modest dwelling for the Targaryens
• Doran's excuse that Mellario wouldn't allow her daughter to be on the other side of the Narrow Sea is bullshit. Why not have Arianne fostered in Norvos with her mother, Viserys and Arianne could have a correspondence if he doesn't go to Norvos, and perhaps Doran could mold Viserys into a man that would be a suitable and not abusive husband for his daughter. But by the time of the books, Viserys had become the sort of man no loving father would want as a son-in-law, partially because Doran was unwilling to help him.

[Barbrey Dustin]

Ser Willem was their guardian.  He was comfortable in Braavos.  

[Angel Eyes]

Just now, Barbrey Dustin said:

Ser Willem was their guardian.  He was comfortable in Braavos.  

By the point I’m describing, Ser Willem is already dead. 

[Jay21]

Thanks for linking that essay.  Good read.

I can't make any sense of Doran or his plots. Maybe Tyrosh and Norvos were approached and refused Viserys? Maybe he's lying to Arriene... The Mellario stuff seems weak. She wouldn't have another child taken from her so she abandoned the child anyway... Who knows with this guy?

 I assume there's another shoe to drop, but right now he looks like the single most overrated person in the story - overrated mind anyway. And what the hell's with the gout anyway? I can't help but suspect that's a bit of a tell - though recent wisdom suggests that gout isn't as self inflicted as thought in the past.

I wonder if Tywin also saw Doran as a dithering dingbat but propped him up when he spoke of him for some personal reason. He was speaking to Tyrion at the time, maybe he saw some reason to mislead him?

[Lord Varys]

I don't think much of this stuff intersects - we have no clue when Mellario decided to return to Norvos. It was after Arianne wasn't sent to Tyrosh, of course, but we don't know exactly when.

What we do know, though, is that it basically marked the end of the marriage of Doran and Mellario ... and it is also clear that Doran never had the intention to send his wife to Norvos while their marriage was still (sort of) working. He had no intention to separate from her.

It is also noteworthy that Viserys III never actually visited Norvos during his exile, indicating that the nobles there didn't care about him much or at all. Whether Doran had any standing with his wife's family is also a pretty big question - theirs was a marriage of love, meaning Mellario's father and brother(s) might not approve her marrying some foreign prince from a distant barbaric country.

And chances are not that bad that Doran did some things for the Targaryens in exile. Viserys III was a moron and still have a child when Darry died. Somebody must have paid other folks to keep an eye on him, to protect him, to guide him, etc. This guy wouldn't have survived on his own.

And, of course, it isn't bullshit that Mellario wouldn't allow Arianne to be send to Tyrosh - that's what happened, it is in the text. Mellario was already heartbroken by the fact that she was separated from Quentyn, so she didn't suffer being separated from her daughter.

What's kind of odd is the fact that Mellario left Sunspear despite the fact that Trystane was still a boy. That should be addressed at some point. I guess, perhaps she doesn't care about him as much as for Arianne or Quentyn but it is still weird that a woman who wanted her children close would abandon them completely.

But then - George basically as Larra Rogare do the same thing to Viserys II and her children, so I guess he thinks some women do this kind of thing.

[Loose Bolt]

13 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

What's kind of odd is the fact that Mellario left Sunspear despite the fact that Trystane was still a boy. That should be addressed at some point. I guess, perhaps she doesn't care about him as much as for Arianne or Quentyn but it is still weird that a woman who wanted her children close would abandon them completely.

I suspect that Mellario was exiled from Dorne by Doran. Or returning to Norvos was not her own idea. After all she could have became potential risk for his plans if she would have started to intervene those just to keep her children safe. 

[Lord Varys]

1 hour ago, Loose Bolt said:

I suspect that Mellario was exiled from Dorne by Doran. Or returning to Norvos was not her own idea. After all she could have became potential risk for his plans if she would have started to intervene those just to keep her children safe. 

What little George revealed about this marriage in interviews and talks implies that it was a love match that eventually grew sour because the two spouses and their respective cultures were too different.

I'd imagine that, if we George ever bothered to explore more about Mellario, it will turn out that she never liked Dorne, never felt at home at Sunspear or the Water Gardens, and eventually, as her love for Doran died, she grew so homesick that returning to Norvos was more important to her than to be with her children.

It seems that Larra Rogare will go down exactly this route - she never learned the Common Tongue, she never liked Westeros (and was loathed by the Kingslanders for being a foreigner sticking to foreign gods, etc.), and subsequently she returned to Lys despite the fact that her children - especially her daughter Naerys - were still very young.

[Alexis-something-Rose]

Mellario is definitely an odd bird, but one interesting thing that shows that she might still be in contact with Doran is the fact that he exiled Drey to Norvos to serve her.

So I think that there is more going on here than meets the eye.

I can understand why Doran wouldn't want to send Arianne to Norvos with her. Norvos is far away from Dorne and Westeros. He had plans to marry Arianne to Viserys. So the future king and queen of Westeros having spent years over in Essos might not still well with the Westerosi nobility.