Hey youtubers it’s Charlie and this week for my Game of Thrones video I wanted to talk
about the Sand Snakes. If you saw my video last week I explained how the show is changing
things but for this video I’m going to talk about all of them. They’re the 8 bastard
daughters of Oberyn Martell and various women. The show has 3 of them, but the show cuts
characters out all the time so no surprise there. When I get to the 5 that were cut out
I’ll also talk about why I think they chose not to use them and what it means for the
story in season 5 versus the books.
If you’re finding me for the first time I do game of thrones videos every week.I even
do a weekly book giveaway all you have to do to enter is be a subscriber and leave a
comment. I’ll explain more about that at the end of all this.
So if you’ve never heard of the Sand Snakes, they’re Oberyn’s daughters. Oldest to
youngest they are Obara, Nymeria, Tyene, Sarella, Elia, Obella, Dorea and Loreza. The youngest
four all belong to Ellaria. The woman you saw with Oberyn in season 4 played by Indira
Varma. There’s no promise we’ll meet all the mothers.
The show is only focusing on Obara, Nymeria and Tyene, the oldest ones. So because most
of you probably haven’t read the books I’m going to talk about all of them oldest to
youngest and I’ll just save spoilery stuff for the end and I’ll also talk about some
cool theories about Winds of Winter. George RR Martin explained at comic con that all
of the Sand Snakes have really big roles in that book.
First is Obara Sand, on the show she’s being played by Keisha Castle-Hughes. If you look
at the fan art version of her from the card game she looks very different. I know this
will bug some of the book readers but the show does this all the time. For instance
Yezzan in the book is supposed to look like jabba the hutt and on the show this is what
the actor playing him looks like.
Just another day in television. Keisha is a great actress that’s why they cast her.
I think she’ll do the same type of special fight training that they gave to Pedro Pascal.
There’s some cool video of him learning to use his weapon. Obara in the books always
reminded me of a colder version of Brienne. More militaristic and cunning.
Regardless of what the show does, in the books her mother was a whore from Oldtown. Her name
is never mentioned but when Obara was old enough Oberyn came to claim her. He threw
a spear down at her feet and asked Obara to choose between it and her mother. She chose
the spear. So that gives you an idea for what kind of a life she prefers. As an adult her
weapons of choice are the signature spear that you saw Oberyn use in his fight with
the Mountain, a whip and a round shield.
When we first meet her in book 4 she’s about 30 years old and is described as being big-boned.
Meaning she looks like Brienne, she’s a warrior. Which is why I was a little surprised
when they cast Keisha Castle-Hughes. But she probably just blew them away in the casting
session so I’m optimistic.
All of the Sand Snakes have varying degrees of tempers, some are a little wilder than
others. Obara lives a very martial life, so she respects the authority of her uncle Prince
Doran unlike her half sister Arianne.
I’ll wait till we get to spoilers to talk about what the show might be changing about
her.
Next is Nymeria. On the show she’s being played by Jessica Henwick. She’s about five
years younger than Obara and her mother was a highborn woman from Volantis. That’s one
of the Free cities in the eastern continent. It’s south of Braavos but still really far
away from slaver’s bay where Daenerys is on the show.
In the books she’s described much more like you’d expect a highborn person to be, very
pale skin, high cheekbones, very slender. Imagine a more willful future version of Sansa.
Which is kind of funny, because Sansa just dyed her hair black like Nymeria at the end
of season 4. Maybe she’ll take up poisons too?
To explain, Nymeria’s weapon of choice is the dagger, she carries several on her. Because
it’s HBO and Dan and Dave got pretty salacious with Oberyn’s Bi-Sexuality they’ll probably
show Nymeria as bi-sexual too. It’s implied that she’s a lesbian in feast for crows
but I don’t think she thinks of it in those terms as did Oberyn. I don’t think Oberyn
thought of himself as Bi-Sexual I think he just really liked having sex with anything
that caught his eye.
If you’re a torchwood fan, think of them like Captain Jack, anything that moves.
She’s a little more hot-headed than Obara and like a high born person, isn’t as inclined
to obey. On the show you can probably expect her reaction to Oberyn’s death to be the
craziest of all the Sand Snakes.
Again, there are some interesting things the show will probably do with her that I’ll
mention during the spoiler section.
moving on to Tyene. On the show she’s being played by Rosabell Laurenti Sellers. In the
books she reminds me a lot of Arya if the Starks hadn’t all been split up. Tyene is
the daughter of a Septa, it’s implied that she’s from Highgarden. We never find out
what her name is either but there are some theories I’ll explain in a sec.
It’s not stated specifically her mother is from Highgarden, but because in the books
it says Princess Arianne and a few of the Sand Snakes visited Tyene’s mother after
crossing the Mander, that’s the river that flows through the Reach where Highgarden is.
There was also an incident later when Tyene and Arianne plotted to marry Arianne to Willas
Tyrell, that’s Loras’ older brother. He’s the heir to Highgarden but he’s a cripple
with a bad leg.
It’s probably something the show isn’t going to deal with, mostly because it’s
an Arianne backstory thing. But Prince Doran, Arianne’s father Prince Doran who’s being
played by Alexander Siddig is also a cripple.
Tyene’s weapon of choice is poison. Oberyn is described as having a love of poison’s,
the show paid homage to it when that kid was coating his spear in poison before Tyrion’s
trial.
There’s a really cool theory about the true identity of Tyene’s mother. Septa Lemore
is the best theory I’ve seen and it would make Tyene the heir to the Eyrie. That’s
the place where Sansa and Littlefinger were. Robin Arryn is currently the heir even though
he might really be Littlefinger’s child.
Parentage and bloodlines in Game of Thrones is very complicated. Everyone is a complete
whore in the best possible way. There are countless people on the show that are closely
related to other big characters from other great houses without knowing it, just because
everyone’s parents were every bit the whores that Cersei, Jaime and all the younger people
are.
The reason Tyene might be an heir to the Eyrie is because instead of Septa Lemore it’s
possible that Tyene’s mother was one of the daughters of Alys Arryn and Elys Waynwood.
The show didn’t got into their characters, but Alys is the sister of Jon Arryn, father
of Robin Arryn, who we have met.
The Waynwoods had two daughters that became septas. One of those daughters was seduced
by a sellsword and had a child. This is all from Feast for Crows chapter 41 or Alayne
2 depending on which copy of the book you’re reading.
It’s possible that that sellsword was really Oberyn Martell. Tyene would have been born
around the time Ellia was betrothed to Rhaegar Targaryen, so it’s possible that to avoid
a scandal with Dorne and The Crown, the Waynwoods covered up the true identity of the sellsword
and said that the child died.
It’s not ironclad evidence or anything, but Tyene is one of 8 daughters and Alys Arryn,
her supposed grandmother was one of eight daughters.
It could just be a coincidence or George RR Martin could have intended for us to draw
that conclusion.
Also if you have read the books and you know who Harry Harding is, he’s a proven Arryn
and he and Tyene have the same signature dimples on their face
It’s not a theory that’s going to bear any fruit on the show. But it’s just a really
interesting subplot in the books. In real life history, things like this happened all
the time. People from noble families had bastards with other prominent families and they covered
it up to avoid scandal.
Here’s a crazy theory, what if Oberyn Martell was secretly whoring himself out all over
the world as part of some super long plot. Like he created heirs connected to specific
major powers in the east and the major houses in westeros. Usually alliances like that are
made with children.
I don’t think that’s what was really going on, I think he was just a man whore. But it’s
fun to think that he intentionally created a Dornish heir to the Eyrie.
Tyene is the last Sand Snake the show is doing, the younger five are all still minor characters
but they’re all very interesting.
Sarella is the next oldest, she’s the daughter of a Trader from the summer aisles. We don’t
hear her name, but we know the mother captains a ship called the Feathered Kiss. Remember,
that’s where Grey Worm is supposed to be from. So Sarella would have the same dark
skin as him.
There’s a pretty strong theory that Sarella is masquerading as a character named Alleras
in Oldtown during Book 4. Mostly because Alleras is Sarella spelled backwards. But because
a lot of you probably haven’t read book 4 yet I won’t talk about her character too
much because Alleras crosses paths with people on the show.
The reason she’s probably not on the show is because her part is very minor and she
won’t be doing a lot until Winds of Winter. But because she gets tied up with people on
the show. They might cast her in season 6 or 7.
Next are the four daughters of Ellaria Sand, the woman we met on the show. Ellaria is a
bastard but she’s like Jon Snow, she’s the daughter of nobles. Her father is Lord
Harmen Uller. House Uller are bannermen of the Martells in Dorne. So she and her children
all descend from royalty, but they’re still named as bastards.
The reason the show probably isn’t doing them is because they also have very small
parts in book 4 and 5.
Elia is the oldest, she’s about 14 which makes her pretty close to Arya’s age. She
is supposed to have a big storyline with Arianne Martell in Winds of Winter.
Next is Obella, she’s about 12. Then There’s Dorea, she’s about 8 and Loreza is the youngest
Sand Snake. She’s about 7.
Interesting side note, in the books Lord Harmen Ellaria’s father traveled to King’s Landing
for Joffrey and Margeary’s wedding. But the show didn’t cast him, they cut him out.
But in the books he was there for the Purple Wedding.
Season 5 is mostly going to draw from Book 4 and book 5. Mostly book 4 though. The show
will probably change the Obara, Nymeria and Tyene to give them bigger parts than they
had in the books. If anything they’ll just take Arianne’s story and give it to them.
Here’s where I need to get into specifics, so careful for spoilers from book 4 in case
you haven’t read it. You can just skip forward in the video like 45 seconds. I’ll wait
just a sec...okay, here we go.
In the book Arianne wants to rally support for Mrycella to take the Iron Throne, of all
the characters directly involved in that plot only Mrycella, Hotah, Obara, Tyene, Nymeria
and Prince Doran have been cast.
Also, there was a casting sheet that leaked. It showed Jaime being in Dorne with Bronn.
Which is a vast departure from the books. Here’s what I think they’re doing.
They’ll still do the Myrcella plot but give her a more active role. They recast her part
and scheduling conflicts had nothing to do with it. It think they felt like Aimee Richardson,
the actress playing her in season 4 wasn’t right for the story they were giving Myrcella.
So they cast someone older. Nell Tiger Free is the new actress. They did the same thing
with Tommen, so this isn’t a new thing.
The big fight where the Darkstar comes for Myrcella will probably be a battle between
Jaime, Bronn and Obara. I don’t think they’ll chop off Myrcella’s ear. They didn’t chop
off Tyrion’s nose after Blackwater. But the big oh shit fight will still probably
happen. They’ll just subtract Arys Oakheart and the Darkstar and add in Jaime and Bronn.
This raises a lot of questions for Jaime’s whereabouts in book 4 because he goes somewhere
totally different in the books, but it makes sense that the show would narrow it’s focus
to Dorne.
I still think Nymeria and Tyene will head to King’s Landing by the end of the season
and we’ll see the crossover with the High Sparrow. Being played by Jonathan Pryce.
There was also reports of a huge scene with a shitload of extras being filmed at a big
bull ring in spain, complete with bulls. I’m going to save that for a future video, but
if you’ve read the books. You know what scene that is. So get excited.
My next game of thrones video will be about the Faceless Men. I know a lot of you have
been asking for it. Be sure to subscribe to get it. I’ll post it next sunday. I will
be doing a Q&A video for this, so I’ll post that next and then another Doctor Who video.
Right now click here to learn about some of the big season 5 changes the show is making
from the books and click here to learn all about the Golden Company.
Thanks for watching, see you guys tomorrow. High Fives!