And the WiCnet Award for Best Performance as a Warrior in Season 4 goes to…
…Pedro Pascal as Oberyn Martell! It feels a bit like Oberyn is walking away with many of this season’s WiCnet Awards, but there’s a reason for that. Pedro Pascal’s performance in the one short season he was in was so electrifying, so riveting that there were times when it was like he was sucking all the air out of the production whenever he exited the scene.
And, then, of course, he has That Fight Scene. When it comes to one on one combat, Game of Thrones has had its fair share, from Bronn championing Tyrion the first time, to Brienne vs the Hound at the end of episode 10. But we’ve never one where the focal point was so strong the entire episode was named for it. Never one that overshadowed the rest of the episode so completely.
From the moment Pascal’s Oberyn arrived in King’s Landing, it was clear he was a loose cannon. In the City where the Game of Thrones is played harder than anywhere else in the series, a wild card suddenly shuffling himself into the deck added a new element of danger in an already potent powder keg. Oberyn didn’t play his cards close to the chest either. He was in King’s Landing for revenge for his sister. How and when and where he’d take that revenge was the main question, and how badly would it ruin everyone else’s carefully laid plans.
The other thing about Oberyn is everyone recognized him as a powerful, if not exactly stable piece if they could harness him right. Tywin piled him with Small Council seats and High Judge placements. Cersei was more direct, hoping their shared “love of dead Lannisters” would bring Oberyn around to her view. (Perhaps it was proof of how shrewd the Tyrells are as players that they left Oberyn alone.) Tyrion never asked Oberyn to stand for him, never tried to use the man the way the rest of his family did. Perhaps that’s why Oberyn chose to stand as Tyrion’s champion? That scene in the jail cell would suggest it, but I think Oberyn was more single minded and driven by his need for revenge. Being given the chance to fight The Mountain in the public square was just too tempting.
Though the fight did not come in the traditional penultimate episode of the season, it’s pretty clear that the producers recognized this would be on par with Game of Thrones other water cooler moments. They recast the Mountain a third time, in order to have someone who could do that half of the fight justice. The rest they left up to handing Pascal a catchphrase and letting him go to work. “You raped her, you murdered her and you killed her children” might not be as poetic as “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.” But in Pascal’s performance it was just as memorable, and just as scarring to to watch as hubris over took him and pride went before a fall.
But the candle that burns fastest burns brightest. Oberyn’s warrior flame will cast a long shadow over the production to come.
Be sure to check out the Best Dramatic Moment poll tomorrow! Here are the results for this one:
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