Will the Crown go to war with Dorne next season?
It was another bleak moment among many on the Game of Thrones fifth season finale: following a reconciliation between Jaime and his daughter-niece Myrcella, the girl died in his arms, having been poisoned by the vengeful Ellaria Sand. A lot of people die on Game of Thrones, but the death of Myrcella hit curiously hard. Here was a girl who had never done anything to anger anyone, other than be born to very unpopular parents. Moreover, her death has potential to instigate a war between the Crown and Dorne, which was what Ellaria wanted in the first place.
A couple of the Game of Thrones producers, plus actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), recently sat down with Entertainment Weekly to field questions about the Dornish plot in Season 5, and where things may be heading in Season 6. To start, Coster-Waldau hoped that, whatever happens next year, people were affected by the brief moment of father-daughter bonding. “[Jaime’s] so moved by emotions he didn’t even know he had. And it’s such a brief, brief, brief moment.”
Elsewhere, at Making Game of Thrones, Coster-Waldau also admitted that, all things considered, Jaime’s plan to retrieve Myrcella wasn’t the best. He tied Jaime’s motivation for the trip back to the end of Season 4.
The fact that Tyrion killed Tywin was heartbreaking for Jaime. The Lannisters suddenly went from a position of strength to being extremely vulnerable. Jaime feels responsible, and so he’s taking responsibility for his life and who he is – including his daughter.
As always with Jaime, he’s acting on impulse…I’m sure his dad would have handled it in a different way. The plan was reckless and maybe naïve. The whole trip hasn’t panned out the way he hoped it would.
Beyond that, Coster-Waldau has no idea what’s going to happen in Season 6, although he speculates that telling Cersei about her daughter’s death will not, to put it lightly, be easy. Some fans have questioned whether Jaime will just turn the boat around, head back to Dorne, and demand vengeance from Doran. Things get tricky, however, when you factor in Trystane. If Jaime takes the kid back to King’s Landing, he could be used as a hostage, much in the same way Myrcella was used in Dorne. Let’s see the Sand Snakes try and make a daring daylight raid on the Red Keep with Frankengregor tromping around.
As to how Cersei will react, executive producer Dan Weiss had some specific ideas.
I don’t think Cersei is going to be particularly interested in whose fault it was that this happened to her daughter—it happened in Dorne. She might be in a more bellicose frame of mind than usual when she finds out.”
So that would tip the scales toward “war with Dorne,” then. Executive producer David Benioff also pointed out that Myrcella’s death will probably inflame Cersei’s ongoing hatred of Tyrion.
“In her mind, Myrcella was taken away from her by Tyrion; she still blames him for Joffrey’s death, and he is directly responsible for Myrcella going to Dorne. So in her worldview, both of her children’s deaths are to be laid at his doorstep. This is one more thing to motivate her homicidal hatred of him.”
Of course, all this may be moot, since Cersei’s power to do much of anything has been seriously called into question by recent events. Even assuming that her recent walk of shame didn’t break her spirit, it’s unlikely that Kevan and Pycelle are willing to cede control of the Small Council back to her after the mess she made of it last time. Plus, there’s the High Sparrow’s influence to worry about.
Because we’ve officially run out of source material, we book-readers have no more idea about what’s going to happen than any other fan. However, one other quote is worth bringing up. When Jessica Henwick (Nymeria Sand, aka the least memorable Sand Snake) gave an interview with Yahoo News ahead of the season finale, she mentioned that the finale would set “the rest of the show on a very certain path. It’s a big move in Game of Thrones, and the Sand Snakes are a part of it.”
She could just be speculating, but this sounds as though she knows Dorne is going to play a part next season. When taken together with the producers’ speculations about Cersei’s reactions, it could imply that we’re going to see war. Also worth noting is that the Martells fought on the side of the Targaryens during Robert’s Rebellion, and remain bitter about losing. If Doran Martell is forced to go to war around the time Daenerys finally gets herself to Westeros, the two could make natural allies.
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