[Book spoilers] Oberyn Martell

[Mr Fixit]

What angers me about Oberyn's death is not that he dies, or that it's by the hand of Gregor Clegane. What angers me is that he loses for extremely stupid reasons, taking his time and being arrogant.

Im gonna hate that episode.

I get the impression there'll be some changes in the duel with the Mountain. Pedro Pascal said as much in a recent interview, answering a question about the fight:

David and Dan, in their adaptation, still refuse to completely betray the books, but they keep surprises hidden.

[Salt 'n' Gravy]

His behavior at the council meeting was fun as well. Like a lot of people here I've loved the portrayal of the character thus far, and am both excited and saddened for the upcoming reaction from my Unsullied friends on episode 8.

Prepare for "And then I smashed her ******* head in. Like this." reaction videos to flood YouTube.

[OnlyOne]

I loved him in both book and show. I understand why some people prefer the book Oberyn, but I think it played well. I'm very interested to meet the Sand Snakes myself.

[OnlyOne]

Prepare for "And then I smashed her ******* head in. Like this." reaction videos to flood YouTube.

Personally I like an occasional You Tube vid:-)

Poor Oberyn.

[OnlyOne]

What angers me about Oberyn's death is not that he dies, or that it's by the hand of Gregor Clegane. What angers me is that he loses for extremely stupid reasons, taking his time and being arrogant.

Im gonna hate that episode.

When you fight a bigger opponent, you take your time wearing them down. That isn't stupid-that's fighting 101. Unfortunately he gets a little too close by the end. Prince Oberyn is arrogant and that only adds to his mystique. But yes, another loss on the show.

[Red Raven]

Wearing down Clegane is one thing, but once he's on his back you kill him immediately. You don't waste time asking questions or demanding answers. That's Evil Overlord Rule #16:

I will never utter the sentence "But before I kill you, there's just one thing I want to know."

[Deadwood]

Indeed. The 'stupid' aspect is that the Mountain was beaten...yet he still won thanks to Oberyn's insatiable thirst for vengeance.

[Brav]

They've done almost too well with their casting of Oberyn. I thought in the book he was interesting but he was fine just with a temporary spot in the story. On TV the actor really brings out charisma and he has the presence of a major regular character. You want him to stay because he's a great addition. It's a shame really they couldn't have somehow combined the roles of Doran/Oberyn - the way Bronn seems to be taking the part of Ser Ilyn - but like people have said, Doran has been mentioned.

[Raksha 2014]

Wearing down Clegane is one thing, but once he's on his back you kill him immediately. You don't waste time asking questions or demanding answers. That's Evil Overlord Rule #16:

But if the guy you're fighting raped and murdered your beloved sister and killed her children, and no one has taken responsibility for the atrocities for 16 years or whatever, then maybe you do ask questions and demand answers. Especially if you're Oberyn Martell, who is not known for his restraint. Great character, though...

[Deadwood]

Oberyn and Doran have to be separate. Ilyn is basically a walking sword, as is Bronn. But Doran is the mind, and Oberyn the movement. Doran is a contender for the most strategic thinker in Westeros. His plans are truly epic.

He is the 'long grass' from which the viper can strike.

[TommenFoolery]

I cant be the only one who feels a characters death needs to happen? If he somehow survived the battle I would feel cheated. It sucks but must be done.

It needs to happen. It will happen,

It would be way to big of a deviation from the books if he doesn't die. If he survived Tyrion would never end up in the black cells, because technically his champion would have won and he would have been innocent in the eyes of the gods.

[Raksha 2014]

Oberyn and Doran have to be separate. Ilyn is basically a walking sword, as is Bronn. But Doran is the mind, and Oberyn the movement. Doran is a contender for the most strategic thinker in Westeros. His plans are truly epic.

He is the 'long grass' from which the viper can strike.

Scenes that I would have loved to see in either the books or the TV show, or both: Tywin and Doran playing Cyvasse by mail.

Of course, it can be argued that they were playing a live version of Cyvasse, i.e. the Game of Thrones, or at least a stealth version.

[Deadwood]

Scenes that I would have loved to see in either the books or the TV show, or both: Tywin and Doran playing Cyvasse by mail.

Of course, it can be argued that they were playing a live version of Cyvasse, i.e. the Game of Thrones, or at least a stealth version.

Indeed. They were playing the decades long version. :D

[eliamo]

In the early episodes of the season, Show Oberyn was a character dialled up to 11. Pedro Pascal was impeccable, but the writing limited him to a cartoon character. However, the more recent episodes have given Pedro a lot more to work with. The conversation he had with Cersei in episode 5 was excellent, showing a quieter, more intelligent side to the character, and the scene between him and Varys effectively showed his joking nature in a way that felt natural and (unlike a few disappointing scenes of this season) not overt. Overall, I have mostly enjoyed Oberyn's time on the screen and am eagerly looking forward to his showdown with the Mountain! If it's anything like the book, it should be one of the best scenes of the series.

[L’Age d’or]

Tywin and Oberyn Martell were the two characters I really wanted them to get right and they did, I'm gonna be really sad when they get killed on the show but it needs to happen.

[TheCoffeeThatWasPromised]

A scenario:

Oberyn wins against the mountain. Jaime goes to Tyrion before leaving for the riverlands and tells him of Tysha. Tyrion still kills Tywin and escapes.

Meanwhile, Oberyn goes back to Dorne and then goes to Daenerys to get her help. No marriage contract though. But, Oberyn still dies while trying to get a dragon. So, now they can keep a fan-fav character for a longer time and kill a dull character with one stroke.

Could this happen??

[Elkendar]

If anything My biggest problem was early on in the season was where they were like Oberyn=Bisexual. I was worried they were just going to do what they did with others CoughRenlyCough and just end it with his sexuality. But with his scenes talking to Tyrion and Cersei Pedro has sold the audience on a very endearing and suave character.

This is one of the best character adaptations to the screen, IMHO.

[The Weirwoods Eyes]

I was so disappointed with the first 3 episodes of this season and Oberyn being one of the best book characters had had high hopes for the show version.

Sadly I felt they got it wrong with those brothel scenes, especially the dagger through hand incident. But Pascal really has taken the character and done great work with him. I loved the Cersei chat scene and last night with tyrion he was brilliant.

I think he has to die, the show will then retain its reputation for mercilessly killing off the players, especially when tywin comes right on the back of it.

As for Trystane, I'm so unsure as to how on earth they're going to manage to get the audience to understand who he is without resorting to the kind of awful writing we got at the beginning of this season (Oberyns introduction) which was basically "Now pay attention boys & girls while we explain in a loud slow voice who this guy is and what his point in the show is, we're sorry to have to do this but alas we wrote 3 seasons and neglected to include jack shit in terms of the pretty darn vital back story.So you now have to sit through these atrocious scenes whilst we spell it out."

So I think its quite likely that they'll either introduce him in Dorne next season to give the audience time to get to know him, which will screw with Arianne's story line and make her plot to crown Myrcella seem absurd, or they'll scrap him and have the dragons released by random former slave #4.

[Wolf Girl Arya]

As much as I've wished and hoped they'd deviate from the books on this, I think the chances that they'd have Oberyn survive are very, very minimal.

That being said, I'm not writing off the possibility. The story would still work-just have Tywin and/or Cersei toss Tyrion in the black cells for some other bs reason. Tywin would work quite well on that front, being so desperate to get Jaime to leave the Kingsguard. Essentially, "your little brother is going to rot in the black cells and there's nothing anyone can or will do to stop me. I'll let him out...you just have to resign from the Kingsguard." That spurs Jaime to free Tyrion, the truth comes out about Tysha and everything else plays out exactly the same.

The other (slim) hope I have is that given how amazing Pedro has been and how well received he's been, they'll just decide that Oberyn and Doran look VERY much alike. It can happen. Two of my uncles were six years apart in age but when they were older, people would downright not believe that they weren't twins. A little stage makeup and/or different hairstyle can go a long way, as well.

I know it's probably futile hope but, imo, one can't rightly say exactly what's going to happen/not happen until it's aired...unless they have an actual part in the show that is lol.

[Frey Pies]

I'll be really curious to see how much Pedro Pascal's value rises in the industry after this season. Nina Gold and D&D truly discovered a hidden gem, who should have gotten far more attention than he does. Inspired casting, and Nina, once again, struck gold!