As George R. R. Martin fans look ahead to House of the Dragon Season 3, the downtime presents the perfect opportunity to revisit the best and most brutal duel in Game of Thrones. While there is no shortage of worthy candidates, Pedro Pascal‘s unforgettable seaside showdown as Oberyn Martell (The Viper) with Gregor Clegane (The Mountain) crushes the competition. Literally.
Billed as a “trial by combat,” the scintillating square-off between Oberyn and Gregor occurs in Season 4, Episode 8, “The Mountain and the Viper.” The episode remains among the highest-rated in Game of Thrones history (9.7 IMDb), with the deadly duel often hailed as the most breathtaking sequence. Let’s examine why.
The Viper and Mountain’s Trial by Combat in ‘Game of Thrones’
In Red Keep at King’s Landing, Prince Oberyn Martell (The Red Viper of Dorne) volunteers to be Tyrion Lannister’s champion by entering a duel with Gregor Clegane (The Mountain). In addition to proving himself to Lannister through the trial by combat, Oberyn intends to kill Gregor for raping and murdering his sister, Elia Martell, and killing her offspring.
Presented like a gladiatorial spectacle ripped from the Roman Colosseum, the ferocious fight unfolds before an ornate seaside castle, with hundreds of rabid onlookers cheering each side. Cinematic as TV show squabbles get, the Viper makes a grand acrobatic entrance into the fighting arena, dazzling spectators with his adroit spear-handling.
Oberyn explains who he is and tells Gregor he plans to kill him for murdering his sister and nephew, stating that he will force a confession out of him before he dies. Despite being oversized and having less armor, Oberyn is so confident and cocksure, grandstanding and playing to the crowd with theatrics, that viewers assume he will easily defeat Gregor. Oberyn lands the first major blow, striking Gregor in the chest with his poisonous spear.
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“You raped her. You murdered her,” barks Oberyn as he advances toward the hulking challenger. Oberyn slashes Gregor’s leg, which audibly snaps and drops him to the ground. “You killed her children!” screams Oberyn as he sprints forward and forcefully impales Gregor’s chest with the spear. Blood spurts from Gregor’s gurgling mouth as he lies dying. At this point, the clash seems like an uneven, one-sided affair with very little competition.
Why the Duel Crushes the ‘Game of Thrones’ Competition
Alas, Oberyn’s greed and ambition get the best of him after he stabs Gregor in the chest. Rather than let the brute bleed out, Oberyn insists Gregor say Elia’s name and confess his sins before he dies. Suddenly, Gregor swipes Oberyn’s leg with his hand and trips him. He grabs Oberyn by the throat, knocks out several teeth with one punch, making the crowd audibly gasp as blood splatters the parapet.
Gregor rolls over on top of Oberyn. As requested, Gregor utters the name Elia Martell as he crushes Oberyn’s eyeballs with his thumbs until they pop out of the socket. A fountain of gore erupts as the crowd screams in horrific pandemonium.
The crowd of onlookers reacts similarly to the viewers at home: with mortified shock and awe. The wildly unpredictable turn of events shocks witnesses to the core, with the searing intensity and unflinching graphic violence sending shivers down their spines. The unforgettably barbarous twist ending not only defies expectations of the fight itself and leaves viewers in a state of disarray, but it delivers all the visceral jolts and dramatic storytelling standards that the hit fantasy series set from the beginning.
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Furthermore, the fatal twist of events gives Oberyn the just desserts he’s been asking for all along. His cavalier dismissal of Gregor in an attempt to serve payback for his sister backfired, proving his overambitious nature fatal. It’s a character flaw more than a physical deficiency that undoes Oberyn’s quest to defeat Gregor and become Tyrion’s champion, giving the duel a thematic heft that adds to the brute physicality.
Between the epic arena, the dramatic twists and turns, and the grueling medieval barbarity that one expects from Game of Thrones, the clash between The Viper and The Mountain is hard to beat. It’s such an iconic duel that it’s hard not to wonder if it inspired Ridley Scott to cast Pedro Pascal 10 years later as Acacius in Gladiator II, who also suffers nearly as grisly a fate inside a gladiatorial arena. Game of Thrones is available to stream on Max.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
