Arianne Martell

Arianne Nymeros Martell is a fictional character in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of epic fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin.

As a result of her storyline in A Feast for Crows, which deals with Arianne's struggle to subvert the patriarchal system of Westeros, she has sometimes been described as a "feminist icon".

Arianne is dissatisfied with her father Doran Martell, believing him to be weak due to his inaction over the deaths of his sister Elia and brother Oberyn at the hands of House Lannister.

As Arianne confronts Doran after he foils her plans, her father reveals that he has been plotting revenge on Tywin Lannister for many years and was waiting for the perfect time to strike.

[10] Ariana Quiñónes, writing for Hypable in 2015, considered Arianne to in many ways be "the most modern point of view character" in the books due to her "up and down" arc in A Feast for Crows, wherein she makes mistakes but also learns from them.

The showrunners of Game of Thrones however felt that the series needed to stay focused on its already established cast in order to maintain the momentum of the storyline.

Even before the fifth season of Game of Thrones (wherein the Dornish plot takes place) the many storylines and characters were also difficult to balance from practical and financial standpoints.

[18] As an important character in the Dornish storyline, Arianne's omission from the television adaptation was met with disappointment[6][19] and some outrage[8][20][21] by readers of the book series and has been widely regarded as detrimental to the plot.

[20] Themes explored through Arianne in the books, such as female versus male inheritance rights, are on account her absence left largely unexplored in Game of Thrones.

[12] Some commenters argued that the omission of Arianne was sexist since it resulted in the omission of a complex female character and her female-driven agenda[21] and replaced a storyline centered on Arianne, and involving multiple women, with a storyline focused on a man, Jaime Lannister, wherein female characters such as Ellaria and the Sand Snakes only served to hinder his redemption and do more harm than good.