WiCnet Awards: And the Best Action Sequence winner is…

The winner of the WiCnet award for Best Action Sequence in Season 4 is…The Mountain That Rides against The Red Viper!

This fight between Oberyn Martell and Ser Gregor Clegane served as the climax of Season 4’s story in King’s Landing, bringing two of the most charismatic characters in the Seven Kingdoms, Oberyn Martell and Tyrion Lannister, together with their fates decided by the same fight. Between that and the gruesome twist ending, the fight would have been memorable enough. But there more to a great television scene than simply the facts of its plot; the craft of the trial by combat scene is what set it apart from the other contenders.

What made “The Mountain And The Viper” work so well?

The twist ending of the fight is that Oberyn Martell gets too near to Clegane. He steps an inch too close to the dying Mountain, and the entire duel gets flipped. Oberyn fatally misjudges the amount of space available to him. That element of space is present throughout the entire fight, and that’s what makes it special. At every point in the fight, viewers can see and know where each fighter is, both in relation to one another and to the edge of the arena.

This spatial awareness isn’t just useful to viewers (especially if you, like me, are tired of action films where the action is utterly incoherent), but it also frames the story. Oberyn Martell’s actions, tactics, and strategy all rely on space. At the narrowest level, he knows he’ll lose a contest of strength to The Mountain, plus his long-range spear is useless up close. Tactically, he, like Bronn in “The Golden Crown”, knows that his speed and movement can exhaust the man in heavier armor. He attacks just enough to keep Clegane on his toes, but spends the bulk of the fight dancing away from his opponent.

Oberyn’s overall strategy is what makes it especially interesting. The Red Viper isn’t merely in this fight to win, he’s in it to gain information, and he’ll gain information if he manages to win the fight as well as winning the battle for morale. He does this by trying to get the people on his side, while keeping Clegane and the Lannisters emotionally off-balance. He’s trying to win the crowd in addition to the fight.

That strategy makes Oberyn’s movements, use of space, and dialogue work entirely in harmony with what we, as the audience, might want out of a duel. Take his first action in the fight: he grabs his spear and twirls into the arena, immediately getting the crowd at least partially onto his side. He also ends up facing The Mountain directly down the middle of the arena. Take a look.

Oberyn frames himself right in the middle of the action, with the Lannisters behind him, while the director and fight choreographer are happy to put him there as well. He’s fighting the duel at the symbolic level, and we’re watching at that level as well. (Note that this is also the angle that Oberyn is at when he’s at the high point during the duel, his jump attack impaling Clegane.)

The Red Viper isn’t the only participant in the duel, though. The Mountain has absolutely no need to try to win the battle at a moral level, nor does he need any tactics other than “get in close.” While Oberyn may be looking for symbolism and symmetry, The Mountain has brutality and asymmetry. This occurs at both the verbal level—Oberyn asks “Do you know who I am?” attempting to set the scene up as the story of a fight between two equals. Clegane, instead of engaging, says “Some dead man!” while lumbering forward in an awkward attack.

As you can see here, when Ser Gregor has the upper hand in the fight, it becomes broken, asymmetrical, and desperate. When Oberyn is winning, it’s elegant and righteous, matching our desire to see Tyrion freed and Tywin humbled.

Of course, that doesn’t happen. And it’s fitting in a sense that Oberyn Martell, having won the duel physically and tactically, loses because his strategy of embarrassing Tywin causes him to drop his guard…and step into the wrong space. “The Mountain And The Viper” is a marvelous piece of action cinematoraphy, and well worthy of joining the duel between Beric and The Hound and The Battle Of Blackwater as WiCnet Award winners for Best Action Sequence.

As I said in our Small Council discussion, this may have been the very best season for action in Game Of Thrones whole run. Oberyn and Ser Gregor may have won handily, but that’s more due to its greatness than any weakness in the other scenes. The runner-up was the duel between Brienne and The Hound, while the courtyard sequence from “The Watchers On The Wall” took the bronze medal.

Here are the full results, and stay tuned tomorrow when we vote on Best Performance As A Youth in Season 4!

• Published on 10/02/2014 at 12:00 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 12:40 PM CDT