Ellaria Sand

Ellaria Sand is a fictional character in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of high fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin and its television adaptation Game of Thrones, where she is portrayed by Indira Varma.

Ellaria first appears in the third novel A Storm of Swords (2000). She is only mentioned in A Feast for Crows (2005), but returns in A Dance with Dragons (2011). She is the paramour to Oberyn Martell and mother to several of his bastard daughters, the Sand Snakes. After the death of her lover in a duel at the hands of Ser Gregor Clegane, she is sent into deep mourning, though she pushes for Oberyn's brother Doran Martell to sue for peace, seeking an end to the cycle of revenge.

In the television adaptation, Ellaria becomes a composite character of her book counterpart and Oberyn's niece, Arianne Martell as she is seeking for Dorne to go to war against the Lannisters for their crimes against House Martell. However, in stark contrast to Arianne, Ellaria is portrayed as a ruthless and vengeful killer who seeks to murder the innocent Myrcella Baratheon, instead of crowning her to oppose Cersei and Tommen, and then slays Oberyn's remaining family so that she can seize power in Dorne, which ultimately leads to her own death and the deaths of the oldest three Sand Snakes at the hands of Cersei and Euron Greyjoy.

Though Varma's performance was praised, Ellaria's story arc as well as the overall Dorne story in the series was met with an overwhelmingly negative critical reception, with both fans and critics panning the omission of fan-favorite Arianne Martell and the killing off of Doran Martell, with speculation that such decisions were made in response to the MeToo movement.