| Obara Sand | |
|---|---|
 Obara Sand by Eldritch-historian© | |
|
| |
| Allegiance | House Martell |
| Culture | Dornishmen |
| Born |
271 AC or 272 AC (age 28)[1] Oldtown[2] |
| Father | Oberyn Martell |
| Mother | Obara Sand's mother |
| Books |
|
| Played by | Keisha Castle-Hughes |
| TV series |
Game of Thrones: Season 5 | 6 | 7 |
Obara Sand is the bastard daughter of Oberyn Martell and a whore from Oldtown. She is the eldest of the infamous Sand Snakes.
In the television adaptation Game of Thrones, Obara is portrayed by Keisha Castle-Hughes.
Appearance and Character
[edit]Obara is a big-boned woman near to thirty, long-legged, with close-set eyes and with the same rat-brown hair of her mother[3] which she sometimes ties in a knot.[4] She strides quickly and angrily.[3][4] Obara has callused hands and can have a mannish look.[4]
A prickly, hot-tempered woman,[5] Obara is given to martial pursuits as she considers herself a warrior. She boasts she can conquer any horse or man.[3]
Obara wears a mottled sandsilk cloak of dun and gold over brown riding leathers and wields a spear, a whip, and a round shield of steel and copper.[3] Instead of a gown, Obara prefers men's breeches, a calf-length linen tunic, and a belt of copper suns.[4]
Obara is a confident rider who uses spurs, often to the point where the horse is bloody, and she always rides stallions.[3] Obara is also fond of wine.[5]
Princess Arianne Martell loves her bastard cousin,[5] which Obara reciprocates.[4] Tyene Sand keeps nothing from her half-siblings, Obara and Nymeria.[5]
History
[edit]Obara was born to a prostitute in Oldtown. When Prince Oberyn Martell came to claim the girl, her mother did not want to let her go and insisted that Obara's father was one of the other men she had been with. Oberyn tossed his spear at Obara's feet and slapped her mother in the face. He then told the girl to choose, pointing to the spear and her mother's tears. Obara chose the former, and her mother drank herself to death within a year.[3]
Obara spent part of her youth at the Water Gardens, but not as long a time as her kin.[3]
Recent Events
[edit]A Storm of Swords
[edit]Obara's father, Prince Oberyn Martell, arrives at King's Landing to serve on the small council in place of his brother Doran, Prince of Dorne. Tyrion Lannister thinks of Oberyn's daughters as the Red Viper approaches.[6]
Oberyn ends up being killed by Ser Gregor Clegane while fighting as Tyrion's champion in a trial by combat.[7]
A Feast for Crows
[edit]Obara comes to the Water Gardens, demanding vengeance for her slain father from her uncle, Prince Doran. She informs Areo Hotah that the people of Dorne are outraged at Oberyn's death. Obara wants to take command of Doran's host in the Prince's Pass, draw out the marcher lords, and sack Oldtown. She also wants to slay Gregor's liege, Lord Tywin Lannister. Doran says he will think about it. After Obara departs, Maester Caleotte warns Doran against allowing her to return to Sunspear and rile up smallfolk.[3]
After visits by two of Obara's half-sisters, Nymeria and Tyene Sand, Doran orders Areo to take all eight Sand Snakes into custody. Areo is to begin with the confinement of the more dangerous three elder sisters in the Spear Tower.[3] The younger girls, daughters of Ellaria Sand, are confined to the Water Gardens.[5]
Doran's daughter, Princess Arianne Martell, fails in an conspiracy to crown Princess Myrcella Baratheon.[8] Doran has Arianne imprisoned in the Spear Tower as well.[9]
A Dance with Dragons
[edit]
Doran has Obara, Nym, Tyene, and Arianne released from their cells in the Spear Tower.[4]
Obara is present at the feast when Ser Balon Swann presents the Mountain's skull to Doran. She places Gregor's skull on top of a marble column because Maester Caleotte cannot reach it.[4] When a toast is raised by Ricasso to King Tommen I Baratheon, Obara allows her wine cup to be filled before upending it onto the floor and leaving. Arianne eventually has the sullen woman return to the feast.[4]
Doran has Obara wheel him to his solar after the feast, but she does so too aggressively for his liking. She kisses a mocking kiss to the Mountain's skull in the privacy of Doran's chambers. Obara vouches for war against House Lannister when discussing Gregor's death, causing Ellaria Sand alarm. Doran has Obara, Nym, and Tyene swear their loyalty before telling them about Queen Regent Cersei Lannister's plan to have Prince Trystane Martell killed. Doran orders Obara to lead Balon to High Hermitage so he can hunt and kill Ser Gerold Dayne for his attack on Princess Myrcella.[4]
The Winds of Winter
[edit]
| Warning This information has thus far been released in a sample chapter for The Winds of Winter, and might therefore not be in finalized form. Keep in mind that the content as described below is still subject to change. |
Areo Hotah joins Obara during her journey.[10]
Quotes by Obara
[edit]
Doran: Obara, look at the children, if it please you.
Obara: It does not please me. I'd get more pleasure from driving my spear into Lord Tywin's belly. I'll make him sing 'The Rains of Castamere' as I pull his bowels out and look for gold.[3]— Doran Martell and Obara
The day my father came to claim me, my mother did not wish for me to go. 'She is a girl,' she said, 'and I do not think that she is yours. I had a thousand other men.' He tossed his spear at my feet and gave my mother the back of his hand across the face, so she began to weep. 'Girl or boy, we fight our battles,' he said, 'but the gods let us choose our weapons.' He pointed to the spear, then to my mother's tears, and I picked up the spear. 'I told you she was mine,' my father said, and took me. My mother drank herself to death within the year. They say that she was weeping as she died. Let me use the spear; I ask no more.[3]
— Obara to Doran Martell
— Obara to Doran Martell
Quotes about Obara
[edit]
Obara Sand always walked too fast. She is chasing after something she can never catch, the prince had told his daughter once, in the captain's hearing.[3]
— thoughts of Areo Hotah
Quick and strong as she was, the woman was no match for him, he knew ... but she did not, and he had no wish to see her blood upon the pale pink marble.[3]
— thoughts of Areo Hotah
Doran: Obara would have me go to war.
Nymeria: Yes, she wants to set the torch to Oldtown. She hates that city as much as our little sister loves it.[3]— Doran Martell and Nymeria Sand
Hotah studied each of them in turn. Obara, rusted nails and boiled leather, with her angry, close-set eyes and rat-brown hair. Nymeria, languid, elegant, olive-skinned, her long black braid bound up in red-gold wire. Tyene, blue-eyed and blond, a child-woman with her soft hands and little giggles.[4]
— thoughts of Areo Hotah
Family
[edit]
References
[edit]- ↑ See the Obara Sand calculation.
- ↑ George R. R. Martin's A World of Ice and Fire, Obara Sand.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 2, The Captain Of Guards.
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 38, The Watcher.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 40, Princess In The Tower.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 38, Tyrion V.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 70, Tyrion X.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 21, The Queenmaker.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 40, Tyrion IX.
- ↑ The Winds of Winter, Arianne I