Why does Arianne want to marry Willas?

[Lady_Qohor]

I understand that Willas as heir to Highgarden is very rich and powerful, but surely that makes him very risky as well. As far as Arianne knows, he comes from a powerful, Dornish hating land and has been educated to believe that men are better at ruling than women and that all children should take their father's name.

The marriage of Willas and Arianne presents a very real existential risk to Dorne as it could produce a male Tyrell heir to Dorne who has no respect of Dornish law, customs or independence. Willas seems to be a nice guy, but lets face it, he may not going to be the only Tyrell around these kids. Arianne must be counting on the idea that she can raise their children to be more Martell rather than Tyrell, but this seems like a risky strategy as she has very little idea what kind of man Willas is and in any case of dispute Willas would have a lot more resources available to him.

There's a reason why Mary I's marriage to Phillip II of Spain was so unpopular and why Elizabeth I never married at all. If I were Arianne, I'd be looking for a Dornish lord or weak Reachman, whom I knew I could overpower if things went south.

Am I overthinking this? Do you think that Highgarden money and power worth the risk or not?

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

Maybe she just wanted to get out of Dorne at that point. Willas would still make a better choice that another senior citizen in her eyes.

[Universal Sword Donor]

48 minutes ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

Maybe she just wanted to get out of Dorne at that point. Willas would still make a better choice that another senior citizen in her eyes.

This. Her entire internal backstory is just to get herself out of Dorne because she thinks her dad hates her and wants Q to rule Dorne.

[Curled Finger]

Arianne needs to just go back to the tower and save all the eligible (and unavailable) bachelors of Westeros the bother of her attention.  Would that poor Doran had but a single competent person to put his trust in.  Poor guy.  

[James Arryn]

The biggest thing in his favour is that her father did not… or, because of their family history, ever would…suggest him. Teenage angst, forming our own identities initially through absolute negation of parental ideals, etc. Pretty standard stuff, imo. Most people, especially most younger people, do not make most of their life choices based on an objective analysis of the practical costs and benefits, but rather through a tangled web of motivations they often only dimly recognize themselves. IOW, she was rejecting Doran, not embracing Willas. 

[Corvo the Crow]

Because Willas tasted Red Viper's lance.

 

Quote

I sat beside the well and pretended that some robber knight had brought me here to have his way with me, she thought, a tall hard man with black eyes and a widow's peak. The memory made her uneasy. "I dreamed," she said, "and when the sun went down I sat cross-legged at my uncle's feet and begged him for a story."

 

[James Arryn]

14 minutes ago, Corvo the Crow said:

Because Willas tasted Red Viper's lance.

 

 

I’d forgotten that. Nice. Not sure it’s towards the front of her motivations with regards to Willas, though I could picture GRRM thinking of it as he wrote that too, just a nice/creepy facet I’d forgotten. I feel almost weird having never had any kind of Oedipal inklings.