The Dornish Presentation {Spoilers!}

[GoodGuyA]

Let us go by a few quick facts before we get into the real meat of the argument here.

• There are no Dornishmen or women, to our knowledge, being cast for Season 3.
  
• This has led to a likely indication that our Red Viper, Oberyn Martell, will not get him time to shine this season.
  
• As further implication, neither will Arianne or Quentyn show up (though it's far to early for either of them).
  
• Darkstar should be forgotten.
  

The Dornish are set to become a very large part of the story in future seasons (and books), though at the moment we've barely heard much about them. The rivalry between them and Highgarden is a key part to the tensions in King's Landing, but it seems they will be done without for the time being. However we will be introduced to them though, I'd like to talk about their role in later seasons. Most people accept, whether naively or not, that Oberyn will appear next season to serve his purpose in the plot, or that role will be filled by somebody else. Either way, we can't hold off the Dornish forever, and with them comes a flood of information and politics we must take in.

With Arianne and Quentyn we have to accept new main characters introduced late into the story, a reintroduction to old conflicts long forgotten, entirely new locations to explore, all leading up to a rather simple plot of pledging fealty to a competing conqueror. This becomes a problem for a multitude of reasons, the least of which being explaining all this. We had an introduction to a new culture, the Iron Islands, in Season 2 but the biggest difference between those situations and this one is that there is no fleshed out character that we know of to view through the eyes from. The only familiar character in this is Mrycella, who is far from developed, and a random Kingsguard whose sole purpose seems to be dying. For Quentyn, our only view is Arianne, and that in itself opens up a wide range of problems to take in.

So the dilemma D&D face is both in plot and in character. We know the Dornish will become important later on, but the majority of what happens in Dorne seems to stay in Dorne for a damn long time. The locations become single purpose, the plot becomes set-up, and the characters remain inactive until the next book. How do we amend these problems? I see it in two possible ways, given where the story seems to be headed, and both take great deviations from the book.

The first solution is a bit closer to the text in that we would spend time with Arianne arranging her plot, and then use the completion of her story for a framing device for Quentyn's. Basically, all the Arianne chapters serve as a reveal for Quentyn's part, as it did in the book. Whether this is something that happens simultaneously, one after the other, or even by a season split depends on how Season 4 is to be handled. If they are going to knock out Oberyn's part in the story very early, then Arianne could enter as a result and thus allow Quentyn time to "catch up" with Tyrion. This would still require the introduction of two new characters, but it can be done hot on the heels of something climactic which would provide reference for the political discontent. This doesn't exactly solve the budget problem, but it all depends on how they utilize that budget.

This other solution I have is the "One Dornish Per Season" rule. Let's face it, this political system is complex and may not get the time it deserves if we have to frame one story within another just for connection's sake. Many find the Dornish to be such a great mystery and that the chapters taking place there were disappointing. So let's play on the mystery factor. In Season 4 you have the provocative and somewhat hated Oberyn coming to the rescue of everyone's favorite character. In Season 5, there's the wandering prince who seeks a bride, dissuaded by his men and determined to make a name for himself before going out in a blaze (tehee) of glory. Then Season 6 where you have the sensual Dornish princess ready to renounce the former's sacrifice in the name of glory. Think I got the two switched? No sir. As much as I personally like Arianne's chapters in AFFC, she really does only serve the purpose of clarifying Quentyn's mission. She's an ineffectual character as a whole and really drives a wrench into the all ready truncated fourth book. Instead, this new introduction to her could serve a great amount of plot possibilities, as well as not being character overload. We would, at this point, be able to see the Dornish fealty from two different points of view, neither of them direct. The audience would continue to be caught up in the mystery while also not questioning their appearance.

Those are just my thoughts though. Feel free to share your own below on how to solve the Dornish problem. It is a problem, whether you acknowledge it or not, and I'm excited as always to see how D&D will make it service the story in their own version!