War is about to return to the Seven Kingdoms—not that it ever really left. Game of Thrones season 6 is only two episodes in, but when it comes to the Lannisters, the season has a pretty clear theme so far. It’s about their loss of control. And the recent winnowing in Dorne means that the Lannisters will soon have outright war on their hands, on top of their very serious conflict with the Faith.
Game Of Thrones Season 6: The Dorne Coup Means Imminent War
This is the season of winnowing. Extraneous parts of Game of Thrones are being cut out or kept offscreen. More focus is returning to the main characters. That’s clearly a part of why the Dorne storyline ended the way it did with the deaths of Prince Doran and Trystane Martell, an event which almost certainly won’t happen in the books. There is no longer any conflict in the Dorne storyline: Ellaria and the Sand Snakes rule unopposed. We don’t have to check in on Dorne anymore.
Although the Dorne storyline never really worked, the way it ended will still have consequences. Nonsensical though it was, the Sand Snakes assassinated the Martells so that they could get revenge for Oberyn Martell more quickly. Doran was moving too slowly (see? It makes no sense. They killed Oberyn’s own family!). Well, now the Sand Snakes are in charge. And based on the brashness with which they executed their coup, they’re going to act fast.
The Sand Snakes have taken extraordinary, exceptional actions to secure a mere chance to get revenge for Oberyn. They seized Dorne for that chance. And there’s only one reason to do that: Outright war. With Dorne under their control, the Sand Snakes can mobilize the region for war against the Iron Throne. And Dorne has always been close to war, especially since Oberyn died. It won’t be a hard sell. In the books, war was in Doran’s plans all along—but he was biding his time until the return of the Targaryens. The Sand Snakes are more impetuous. That’s why they led the coup.
The only reasonable next action for them to take is to declare war on the Lannisters. They aren’t going to wait until Daenerys shows up, or until another region rises in rebellion. But those events may not be far off either. The War of the Five Kings is over, but it was clearly just a prelude to another war. Dorne is strong and the Lannisters are now weak and getting weaker. It’s the perfect time to strike.
