Game Of Thrones Season 4: 10 Actors Who Knocked It Out The Park

2. Pedro Pascal €“ Oberyn Martell

With the Seven Kingdoms' internecine familial politics and histories already straining viewer comprehension, you would've thought introducing another warring faction would be as welcome as Mel Gibson in a synagogue. But while we all had plenty already on our plates, we were more than willing to make room for Pedro Pascal's Red Viper. Channelling Inigo Montoya for all he was worth and wearing the most pimpingly glorious dressing gown outside of Kanye West's bathroom, Pascal had us from the off. Whether he was humping anything, verbally smacking down everything or keeping us engrossed with his quest for vengeance, the sense of coiled menace Pascal imbued in the part meant he more than lived up to his character's 'Red Viper' moniker. And that's before you get down to his battle with The Mountain. There's a reason the end of that duel is doing the rounds as this season's YouTube reaction video fodder €“ we truly cared about the guy, so to see the insides of his head so graphically festoon the floor of King's Landing's arena was a gut-punch on-par with the Red Wedding or Ned Stark's beheading. But even before the grisly climax, Pascal had turned the performance up to eleven €“ cockily outclassing the man all the realms were afraid of before utterly losing his cool, you really bought into his dashing, dangerous rogue act. Then he was naught but paste, and you felt it all the more, knowing you'd lost an awesome character and an awesome performance. In the aftermath, we could all agree on something. That mild uproar felt when we heard the news of Pascal's casting €“ seems kind of silly now, doesn't it?