Myrcella Baratheon

Myrcella Baratheon is a princess of the royal house whose presence in Dorne carries both dynastic promise and political danger. Sent there as the betrothed of Prince Trystane Martell, she becomes Prince Doran Martell’s ward and the intended instrument of a plan to challenge her brother Tommen Baratheon. Her youth and trusting confusion stand in sharp contrast to the calculations imposed upon her, while the plot’s violent failure transforms her from a prospective queen into a visibly wounded survivor.

Identity and Life in Dorne

Myrcella lives at the Tower of the Sun under substantial protection. Two guarded doors control access to her chambers, with two battle-tested Lannister household guards stationed at each entrance. Her maids and Septa Eglantine attend her, while Prince Trystane is accompanied by his sworn shield, Ser Gascoyne of the Greenblood. The arrangement reflects both her rank and the danger surrounding a royal child in a contested land.

She has adapted readily to Dornish life. Myrcella has taken to Dornish food and especially enjoys dishes whose heat and pungency overwhelm Ser Arys Oakheart, her white knight. Her strongest documented pleasure, however, is Cyvasse, the game she learned in order to play with Trystane. The game has ten kinds of pieces, each with distinct powers, and its board changes according to the players’ arrangements. Trystane learned it quickly, and Myrcella has recently been winning more often than he has. Their difference in appearance—his olive skin and straight black hair against her pale skin and golden curls—makes them a visual pairing of dark and light, yet their shared game gives their betrothal an element of youthful companionship rather than merely political formality.

The Queenmaking Plot

Myrcella’s political importance derives from her claim as Tommen’s elder sister. Princess Arianne Martell and her allies seize upon that position in an attempt to crown Myrcella queen and provoke resistance against her brother. Myrcella is brought into the scheme without understanding its purpose. When she encounters Arianne and the conspirators, she clutches Ser Arys Oakheart and asks why they call her Grace, what place she is in, and who the assembled people are. Her questions expose the gap between the conspirators’ ceremonial language and the child’s actual knowledge.

The confusion deepens when Myrcella embraces Arianne and asks why they call her queen and whether something bad has happened to Tommen. She does not present herself as a claimant demanding power; she reacts as a frightened child trying to interpret adult behavior. Arianne attempts to reassure her by describing the conspirators as loyal friends, but that reassurance also shows how completely Myrcella is being managed by people who have assigned her a political role without securing her informed consent.

The Attack and Its Consequences

The queenmaking attempt collapses into violence when Darkstar attacks Myrcella during the escape. According to the account given afterward, her horse shies away from Ser Arys’s horse at the last instant, preventing the blow from taking the top of her skull. Even so, the slash opens her cheek down to the bone and cuts off her right ear. Maester Caleotte saves her life, but no poultice or potion can restore her face.

Myrcella’s survival therefore does not undo the plot’s consequences. The injury is permanent and publicly visible, making the failed coup physically inscribe itself upon the child it claimed to elevate. Prince Doran condemns Arianne for involving Darkstar and for dishonoring Dorne, emphasizing that Myrcella was his ward, betrothed to his own brother, and under his protection. The intended coronation would have risked Myrcella’s death; the failed attempt instead leaves her alive but mutilated.

Relationships and Narrative Significance

Ser Arys Oakheart functions as Myrcella’s principal protector and as the knight through whom the conspiracy reaches its disastrous climax. He leaves her playing Cyvasse with Trystane, uneasy despite the castle’s defenses, and tells himself that no one will trouble her and that they will soon depart safely. His protective responsibility becomes inseparable from the attack: all eyes are on the white knight during the assault, while Myrcella suffers the wound that the conspirators and her guardians fail to prevent.

Myrcella’s relationship with Trystane is presented through ordinary play and shared adaptation to Dorne. She learns Cyvasse to play with him, and he accepts her frequent victories without apparent resentment. That small domestic pattern gives emotional substance to a political betrothal and makes the later danger more severe: the children’s game exists beside adult schemes to turn their family connections into rebellion.

Myrcella also embodies the conflict between royal succession and personal vulnerability. Her title allows others to call her Grace and queen, but her own questions show that titles do not grant understanding or control. She is at once a dynastic possibility, a ward entrusted to Doran, a beloved child in Arianne’s eyes, and the unintended casualty of a conspiracy designed around her name. Her permanent facial injury exposes the cost of treating a person as a political symbol: the crown is never placed on her head, while the violence meant to secure it remains on her body.