Dorne was Game of Thrones' weakest storyline, and within that came the show's worst fight scene, but there were production issues that caused it to be so bad. As Game of Thrones grew over the years, the scale of the show massively increased, and it became known for having epic battles and expertly choreographed fight sequences. Even aside from the sheer spectacle of the likes of "Blackwater" and "Hardhome", some of the show's most memorable moments were more grounded character fights, such as The Mountain vs. The Viper and the Hound vs. Brienne.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for what happened at Dorne. Season 5 marked the point when Game of Thrones started to go beyond the source material, and with that came several issues with regards to its storytelling - with Dorne suffering more than most. What was on the books a rich setting full of complex characters and intriguing schemes fell completely flat. That went for the Sand Snakes, Oberyn's children, who should be fierce, skilled fighters as well as interesting characters. In a change from the books, Game of Thrones decided to send Jaime Lannister and Bronn to Dorne, pitting them against the Sand Snakes.

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In theory, while diverging, this should at least have worked well in one regard: Bronn was among the best fighters on the show (and Jaime had been before losing his hand), so them fighting the Sand Snakes should've made for another superb action sequence. Unfortunately, the opposite happened. The way the fight in the Water Gardens plays out - with Jaime and Bronn infiltrating it in broad daylight, and the Sand Snakes attacking - doesn't make much narrative sense, but worse is that the scene is so badly choreographed and full of cuts, making it feel like it's from a different show given Game of Thrones' high standard. In Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon: Game of Thrones and the Official Untold Story of the Epic Series, by James Hibberd, the writer of the episode Bryan Cogman notes that he had planned it to happen at night, which would make far more sense to sneak into somewhere. However, things went awry, as Dave Hill (a writer and story editor on the show) notes:

"It was a perfect storm. We had this gorgeous location, the Alcázar palace, but we weren't allowed to shoot there at night. So we couldn't have a night infiltration, when you'd logically do it. But at least we could have a cool fight during the day, where you can see everything. Then we lost our stunt people a few days before, so we had to make do with what the actors had learned up until that point and cut around it. The Water Gardens fight was supposed to be much more elaborate. I remember Jeremy [Podeswa, the episode's director] at the time not being happy with it."

Game of Thrones Sand Snakes Jaime Fight

Although Podeswa himself states in the book that he doesn't fully remember that, he does admit that they "thought we were going to be using the doubles a lot more," but adds "the actresses were great." Jessica Henwick, who played Nymeria Sand, had a slightly different take, saying that it was always the case that the actresses would be doing most of the fight themselves. The exact truth presumably lies somewhere in the middle, but it does show in the finished product that the fight either wasn't properly choreographed or that the actors involved weren't completely trained for it. That's not to lay the blame solely at the door of the Sand Snakes, since Bronn and Jaime don't come out of it well either.

On the whole, the Water Gardens scene is reflective of everything that went wrong with Dorne, which is that the filmmakers tried to do a looser adaptation of it, made mistakes, and then ended up just cutting it short to save their losses. If done right, Dorne could have been a truly great addition to Game of Thrones, since it's a fascinating aspect of the books heading into The Winds of Winter's release. However, having botched the process of taking Dorne to the screen, which had problems beyond fight choreography and even the writing, and was more an issue with the entire approach to cutting so much of it down, it was probably for the best that it ended quickly. In the book, Hill said: "We thought it would be a fun adventure, but it fell prey to all the other storylines... We realized one storyline had to be cut down a bit."

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