theramblingfool

Oberyn vs The Mountain was the most intense chapter of fiction I think I have ever read. I remember my heart pounding through the scene, the tangible feeling of excitement as the guy I was backing went into full revenge mode. Every move he made was visceral, full of hate for the man that (raped and) killed his sister and her children. This was, quite frankly, ruined in the show. Don't get me wrong, the fight was exciting. The choreography was great. I know the unsullied were on the edge of their seats, so that's a point for D&D (fwiw). But the raw emotion that fueled Oberyn was COMPLETELY GONE. He was SMILING half of the time, twirling his spear and literally looking to the crowd for confirmation. I just can't help but feel like that scene lost a lot of its weight from replacing his anger (his primary motivation for the fight in the first place) with gleeful showmanship. To be fair, near the end of the fight, when Oberyn smelled the blood in the water, when he was closing in on the kill, his character showed this a lot more, but why didn't they just do it right from the start? The majority of what I'm reading is just praising the scene, but I can't understand it...