Tossed into the mix of death and celebration that was Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones was the revelation that one of the Seven Kingdoms has a new ruler. No, we’re not talking about Gendry Baratheon taking over rulership of the Stormlands, but rather a new Prince of Dorne.
Whoever this guy is, Varys mentions that he’s come out in support of Dany. No name is given, because why make things easy on us, but have no fear: we’re here to speculate, hypothesize, and read the tea leaves as to the identity of this new player. And we while we might not know who the Prince is quite yet, we think we know who will play him. Read on!
Let’s start with the cold hard facts: back in October, we learned that actor Toby Osmond had been cast in a “great royal role” for the final season of Game of Thrones. The guy has posted pictures of himself hanging out with the Thrones cast members, so this is pretty much confirmed.
Without getting into all the spoiler-y details, our best intel has it that Osmond’s character will wear golden armor or a golden outfit. Osmond himself is of “Mediterranean” heritage. Putting all that together — the “royal” tidbit, the golden outfit, and the darker coloring — and it seems pretty clear Osmond will be playing the new Prince of Dorne.
But who exactly is the new Prince of Dorne? Let’s continue.
The most obvious answer would be Quentyn Martell, a son of Doran Martell from the Song of Ice and Fire novels who didn’t make it into the show. In George R.R. Martin’s books, Quentyn has a pretty large role. Doran sends him to Meereen so he can wed Daenerys Targaryen, but Quentyn arrives when Daenerys is away traveling the Dothraki Sea. Quentyn tries to tame and steal Dany’s dragons in her absence, but they kill him.
But that’s in the books. For all we know, Quentyn is alive in some form on the show, very much not burned to a crisp.
Likewise, in the novels, Doran’s son Trystane Martell is still alive, whereas he’s dead on TV. Maybe these characters can swap places. Maybe, on the show, Quentyn still made for Meereen, but arrived after Daenerys had left for good. Now he’s come back and has taken up the mantle of leadership in Dorne. Or maybe he’ll have been in Dorne the whole time, although it would be odd that on one ever mentioned him.
If the showrunners want to sidestep that problem, the Martells aren’t the only power in Dorne. In the books, the family’s greatest rival is probably House Yronwood. The Yronwoods ruled Dorne before Nymeria of the Rhoyne arrived and allied with the Martells. They’re barely mentioned on the show, although Oberyn Martell’s nickname, the Red Viper, comes from his poisoning of Lord Edgar Yronwood in a duel.
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With the Martells extinct on the show, we could see a Yronwood claim the title of Prince of Dorne thanks to the family’s previous royal heritage. Personally, I’d say that’s a less clunky option than explaining why we’ve never heard of Quentyn before, although the show hasn’t ever met a Dornish storyline it couldn’t turn clunky. Maybe we’ll even see Osmond’s character in action during the attack on King’s Landing.
Finally, we have to address Oberyn’s five remaining bastard daughters. Yes, there are five more Sand Snakes out there, all of them younger than the three we met. In Dorne, women can indeed inherit, so if one of them isn’t now ruling Dorne, that increases the likelihood that the new prince is indeed Quentyn, assuming they all haven’t been killed or otherwise convinced to give up their inheritance. We’ll find out more soon enough.
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