The House Martell sigil is a red sun pierced by
a golden spear on an orange field.
It dates back to the warrior-princess Nymeria,
who fled Essos and led the Rhoynish people
across the Narrow sea.
She landed in Dorne, where she married Mors
Martell, and together, Nymeria and Mors united
the warring petty Dornish houses under Martell
rule.
Nymeria’s red sun emblem joined with the
Martells’ yellow spear to signify the merging
of the two peoples.
And they called their capital Sunspear (which
boasts both the Spear Tower and Tower of the
Sun).
The Martells and the Dornish people are unlike
the rest of the Westerosi, which makes sense given
that they were the last to join the Seven
Kingdoms, and they entered it via marriage,
not defeat.
They reject many of the north’s values.
Unlike in King’s Landing they support the
heir who comes first in birth order regardless of gender.
Their leaders use the titles of Prince and
Princess, not King and Queen, adding to the
sense of equality in their society.
Dornish blood runs hot.
They openly accept promiscuity, instead of
denying and concealing lust as the rest of
Westeros does.
[Everyone has a preference.]
[And everyone is missing half the world’s
pleasure.]
And they see no stigma in being a bastard.
[I can’t say I’ve ever met a Sand before.]
[We are everywhere in Dorne.
I have ten thousand brothers and sisters.]
[Bastards are born of passion, aren’t they? We don’t despite them in Dorne.]
Though they occupy a peripheral storyline
in the show, in the books House Martell has
a rich history, complex plot, and well-developed
characters.
Showrunners DB Weiss and David Benioff have
said that, whereas other subplots on the show
were constructed years prior to filming, the
Dornish thread was developed only after season
4, as the creators were impressed with Indira
Varma’s performance as Ellaria Sand.
[Oberyn is dead and this Lannister girl skips about the Water Gardens eating our food, breathing our air.]
So this might explain why the Dorne plots
feel less polished and stray considerably
from the source material.
Still, while what we do see of Dorne in the
show points to the society’s complexities
and how fascinatingly different it is to other
parts of Westeros.
Overall, House Martell represents independence
and self-governance, strength in the feminine,
instinct, skillful violence, hot-blooded action
with abandon, all-consuming vengeance, short-sighted
hubris, lust and passion.
[I fight for Dorne.
Who do you fight for?]
The Martell motto, “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken,”
speaks of their history of independence and
fending off being conquered.
House Martell ruled Dorne for a thousand years
and never bent the knee, not even during Aegon
Targaryen’s conquest.
They only joined the Seven Kingdoms approximately
a century before the events we see in the
show.
Daeron Targaryen, Daeron the Good, married
the Dornish Prince’s sister; while the Dornish
Prince married Daeron’s sister, who incidentally
was named Daenerys.
Because the Martells voluntary joined with
the Throne, they were allowed to keep their
titles as “princes” and “princesses,”
rather than adopting the titles of lords and
ladies Paramount.
The Martells’ history of making alliances
through marriage goes back to Nymeria.
Forseeing that she would seize control of
Dorne, the Martells made her an ally through
marriage, thus cementing their place as future
rulers of a unified Dorne.
In turn, Nymeria’s Rhoynish culture is the
source of many of the values that live on
in Dorne -- their gender equality, their titles
of Prince and Princess, their tolerance of
homosexuality, and their belief in equal primogeniture.
The strong Nymeria was succeeded by her daughters,
not her sons.
[And weak men will never rule Dorne again.]
Fast-forward a thousand years and the influence
of women in Dornish culture is still key -- the
Sand Snakes are skilled and intelligent warriors,
though the show doesn’t always reflect this.
[You’re a greedy bitch, you know that?]
The beloved bastard daughters of Oberyn Martell
take their bastard nature with pride, using
the Dornish surname “Sand” and their father’s nickname,
“The Red Viper.”
[The Red Viper of Dorne — you don’t get
a name like that unless you’re deadly, right?]
The books feature eight Sand Snakes (four
or five mothered by Oberyn’s love Ellaria
Sand), but they’re condensed into three
in the show -- Nymeria, Obara and Tyene.
In the show we do see strong females dominating
Dorne, but in the book we get a picture of
true gender equality.
The head of House Martell, Doran, comes across
in the show as a feeble, incompetent leader
who fears the horrors of war.
[You must choose — Doran’s way and peace,
or my way and war.]
But in the books, Doran carefully plots the
Lannisters’ demise -- he wants to marry
off his eldest daughter Arianne (who’s not
seen in the show) to Viserys Targaryen and
restore the Targaryens to the Iron Throne.
Later he sends another son Quentin (also not
seen in the show) to try to marry Daenerys
in Meereen.
In the books, Ellaria and the Sand Snakes
support Doran’s endeavors, rather than murdering
him and his heir Trystane for being weak,
ineffectual male leaders.
So arguably the book’s take is more interesting
for showing us not just a female-led
family similar to the Tyrells, but also what
it looks like for both men and women to be
strong together.
[It’s against my code to hurt a woman.]
[It’s amazing how many men we beat seem
to have this code.]
In the series’ histories & lore, Oberyn
says that their motto “unbowed, unbent and
unbroken” is “a promise to our enemies
and a challenge to our lovers.”
Their faithful bonds (and apparently their
sex drive) are never broken.
We see this unyielding will in both their
passionate loves and their insatiable quests
for vengeance.
But the inability to bend contributes to their
downfall.
Not long before the events of the show, the
“Mad King” married his heir Rhaegar Targaryen
to the Dornish Princess, Elia Martell -- snubbing
Cersei Lannister in the process.
While the pair have two children, we’ve
recently learned that Rhaegar’s marriage
to Elia was later annulled so that he could
secretly marry Lyanna Stark and father Jon
Snow, or Aegon Targaryen.
But during Robert’s Rebellion, Gregor Clegane
(known as the Mountain) raped Elia and killed
her and her children -- on Tywin Lannister’s
orders.
[They butchered those children, carved them
up and wrapped them in Lannister cloaks.]
Enduring hatred for the Lannisters after the
brutality of Elia’s death explains and drives
all of the Martells’ behavior that we see
in the show.
[The Lannisters aren’t the only ones who
pay their debts.]
To avenge Elia, her brother Oberyn volunteers
as Tyrion’s champion against the Mountain.
After he assumes too soon that he’s won
and dies, Ellaria carries on the quest for
revenge against the Lannisters, now for Oberyn’s
sake.
Doran tries to keep her in line, but Ellaria
kills Cersei’s beloved daughter Myrcella
with a poison kiss and, together with the
Sand Snakes, executes Doran and his son, Myrcella’s
betrothed.
This action renders House Martell legally
extinct, although Martell bloodline still
continues through the Sand Snakes, until they,
too, are wiped out by Euron Greyjoy and Cersei.
The story of the Martells shows the ruin that
comes of allowing hubris to cloud your judgment.
Oberyn dies because he’s arrogant in his
fight; Doran dies because he’s too confident
in his seat, forgiving Ellaria and the Sand
Snakes without punishing their rebellion;
and even Ellaria is short-sighted, unprepared
for the pain of suffering Cersei’s revenge,
even though she should have expected this
after her cruel murder of Cersei’s only
daughter.
[Myrcella was innocent.]
[She was a Lannister — there are no innocent
Lannisters.]
All three of the Sand Snakes on the show are
actually killed with their own weapons -- Nymeria
with her own whip, Obara with her spear, and
Tyene with poison like she uses to help Ellaria
kill Myrcella.
So the symbolism reinforces that the Dornish
provide the weapons for their own undoing.
The Martell red, gold and orange reflect the
hot, arid location of Dorne.
The red alludes to the Red Mountains, which
form the northwest border of Dorne, and the
orange field makes us think of the uninterrupted
sand of their deserts.
Red symbolizes the power and energy of Nymeria.
After crossing the Narrow Sea, Nymeria burned
her 10,000 ships so none of her people could
change their minds and go back.
And of course, the emotional red is the color
of blood, reflected in Oberyn’s quest for
avenging his sister’s murder.
Red reflects the passionate, lustful, hot-blooded
character of many Martells, and their culture
embraces these qualities.
“The Red Viper” Oberyn is famous for sleeping
around and rumored to have more bastards than
Robert Baratheon.
Orange is also tied to sexual potency, fitting
for the sexually open-minded Dornish.
The vitality of orange shows in the strong
spirit of the Sand Snakes.
In Alchemy, Gold is one of the seven planetary
metals, and it represents the Sun, linked
to intelligence.
While training to be a maester, Oberyn learned
how to create poisons, and he uses them in
battle so that’s where he gets the nickname
“The Red Viper.”
He later taught his daughter Tyene Sand how
to use poisons -- and she uses them in battle,
coating her daggers in them.
The people of Dorne aren’t like the other
Westerosi in many ways, and fittingly the
Martells break the mold in not using an animal
or plants on their sigil like most of the
Great Houses -- instead they use the warrior’s
instrument, a spear, and the natural source
of light and heat on earth, the sun.
The combination represents a warrior’s will
and determination, mixed with blessings from
and respect for natural power and life.
The sun on the Martells’ sigil shows respect
for what is natural and given to us by the
universe.
The Dornish people understand their environment.
They resisted Aegon Targaryen’s conquest
through guerilla warfare, hiding in camouflage,
and using the hot and hostile environment
of the deserts to their advantage.
The Martells’ respect for the natural is
also reflected in their acceptance of all
kinds of sexuality 
and the priority they place on instinct.
As the center of our solar system, the sun
symbolizes the self.
And House Martell is all about independence
and self-rule.
Because the Martells view themselves as the
center of our universe, though, they also
exude self-importance and hubris.
[I don’t see many Dornish men in the capitol.]
[We don’t like the smell.]
The spear is a common weapon of choice for
members of House Martell -- both Oberyn and
Obara Sand use a spear.
Spears are symbolic of single-mindedness and
tunnel vision -- when using a spear, a soldier
must focus his attention on one target.
Likewise, Oberyn and the Sand Snakes focus on
avenging their fallen relatives, regardless
of the consequences.
The single-mindedness of Ellaria and the Sand
Snakes brought House Martell to extinction
on the show.
Of course, there are more Martells in the
books but it seems unlikely they’ll be introduced
on the show at this late hour.
Apart from the individual significance of
the sun or the spear, it’s hard not to notice
the relationship between the two objects -- the
spear is piercing the sun in what looks very
much like a phallic masculine symbol thrusting
into a symbol of the feminine.
(Like a sperm and an egg, perhaps?)
It fits the Martells to be so openly sexual
and frank about where life comes from, and
again it represents their strong union of
equal men and women.
House Tyrell also doesn’t feature an animal
on their sigil -- but a rose -- and both houses
are full of strong women.
Yet it’s notable that the two are opposite
in a crucial way.
House Tyrell is all about the long game, while
House Martell is motivated by small, satisfying
victories in the moment.
The death of both extremes in the show demonstrates
that in order to last in this game, one must
have a combination of short-term vitality
and long term strategy.
While it’s not on the sigil, unofficially
Oberyn and his bastards are associated with
a particular animal: snakes.
Though intimidating and deadly, snakes symbolize
fertility, cunning, awareness.
Just as the Martells have gender equality,
snakes also connect to both the masculine
and feminine according to different traditions.
The Cadeceus, a symbol of medicine, is a winged
staff with two winding snakes.
So snakes’ venom has the power to either
heal as well as poison, depending on usage.
While closely associated with wisdom, snakes
are also vengeful creatures.
They're  defensive and often give deadly
bites without warning if they feel threatened.
Snakes tend to be hated and feared.
In Westeros, like in our Western world, the
snake is used as shorthand to symbolize the
untrustworthy and treacherous.
[Are you men or snakes that you would threaten
a child?]
So it’s fitting that Oberyn’s family embraces
the snake, just as they embrace many aspects
of life and sexuality that others represses
and condemn.
Many audience members, too, are likely to
have an automatic dislike of snakes, so the Dornish
characters are most interesting when they’re
able to transcend our default readiness to
dislike these snakes.
Perhaps the most meaningful difference between
these characters in the book and in the show
is that -- while the series does allude to
the power of these women and their different
outlook -- it doesn’t have enough time in
Dorne to make us like, invest in and truly
care about the Sand Snakes.
[Do shut up dear.
Anything from you?
No?
Good.]
who have the chance to inspire deeper admiration
and fascination in Martin’s more extensive
Dorne plots.
So when Cersei gets her revenge on Ellaria
we’re kind of enjoying her satisfaction
-- which says something, given that Cersei
is one of the leading villains on the show.
[You chose to murder my daughter.
You must have felt powerful after you made
that choice.
Do you feel powerful now?]
Though many argue the show didn’t do justice
to this great House, within the series House
Martell leaves us with the takeaway that being
short-sighted does not pay off.
Playing their cards too early, believing themselves
to be on top, and not planning far enough
ahead brings down this great House of Dorne.
House Martell overall has been a wild card
in the game, introducing us to an alternative,
fiercely independent society which refuses
to play by any of the same rules.
[And did you?]
[Did I what?]
[Fuck him like it was his last night in this
world.]
