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Ten Thoughts on Game of Thrones, Season 4 Episode 8: The Mountain and the Viper

The Mountain and the Viper

A classic duel between good and evil!

The Mountain and the Viper

1) One of the classic scenes from the movie world comes from The Princess Bride, where Inigo Montoya finally gets his chance to fight Count Rugen. During the duel he continually shouts at the evil count, “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” In the end, Rugen is defeated, humiliated, and finally gets the death he deserved.

Such happy endings do not happen on Game of Thrones. In last night’s episode we see the trial by combat which pitted Oberyn Martell against Ser Gregor “The Mountain” Clegan, in order to determine the guilt or innocence of Tyrion Lannister. The fight is also for more stakes, as Oberyn wants revenge against The Mountain for having raped and killed his sister Elia. During the fight Oberyn continually tells Gregor “You raped my sister! You murdered her! You killed her children!”

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Oberyn is able to stay out of The Mountain’s reach, and delivers enough blows to bring the huge man down. However, he does not kill him, but again demands that he confess to his sister’s murder as well as implicate the man who ordered it (very likely to be Tywin Lannister). However, Oberyn gets caught monologuing and being too close to Gregor – The Mountain grabs, gets on top and literally squeezes his head until it pops. One of the more brutal deaths in Game of Thrones, which is saying a lot. A lot of viewers will be shocked that the hero could be killed in such a way, but the story that George R.R. Martin is telling us doesn’t have people win because they are good, but because they are the smartest and strongest.

2) The duel scene certainly lived up to its height – the setting, the action, even the bits of humour were all done perfectly. Check out this interview of Pedro Pascal and Hafthor Julius Bjornsson, who played Oberyn and The Mountain, where they talked about how the scene was shot.

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3) I’ll miss Pedro Pascal and the character he portrayed – although he was only around for part of one season, he was a very memorable character who I think got a lot of fans.

4) I’m not sure what to make of the scene between Tyrion and Jaime, where they talk about their cousin Orson. It was a fascinating conversation, perhaps leading to the point of how meaningless all this destruction really is, but I think it offers many insights into the character of Tyrion – how he is driven to be smarter and understand things, as well as his own sense of compassion (in the end he put that bug down).

5) We get to see another ending as well – at least for this season, as the storyline between Ramsay Snow Bolton and Theon ‘Reek’ Greyjoy seems to have finished for at least a little while. The capture of Moat Cailin by having Theon pretend to be Theon was an interesting story, and Ramsey gets rewarded by Roose Bolton by being named an official son. It seems now they might be absent for a few episodes, allowing other storylines to finish.

6) Across the narrow sea, events dating back to the first season catch up to Ser Jorah Mormont, when Daenerys learns he was originally a spy against her. Daenerys once again rashly orders punishment, sparring Jorah but exiling him as well. In the end, it will be a decision that costs Daenerys one of her key advisors. Her leadership is too much based on passion instead of the cold logic that is often necessary to rule.

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7) The emerging love story between Grey Worm and Missandei is not something I am particularly interested in.

8) Are we seeing Sansa 2.0? Her clever lies, intermingled with truth, get Littlefinger off the hook in the case of Lysa’s strange death. Then we see her in a new change of clothes, and I believe carrying a little dagger, as she prepares to accompany Robyn. I wonder if her agenda is to just take Petyr Baelish’s side, or does she want to take charge of her life?

9) The laugh Arya gave when she and The Hound learned that Lady Lysa was dead seemed a little forced to me, but you have to feel sorry for Sandor Clegane, who sees his final plan for earning some money get ruined.

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10) Judging by this trailer for next week’s episode, it looks as if we will see a major battle for Castle Black.

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