Episode: The Mountain And The Viper And another trial by combat. It has been more than a week since this scene aired, and fans across the internet are still recovering from it. Alex Graves returns to direct another seemingly Star Wars-inspired action scene featuring a Clegane, but this one has much higher stakes than the Sandor vs. Beric fight - after all, the fates of two of the series' best characters are in the balance. Playing out entirely without music, Graves never tips his hand once during this fight sequence to let the audience know what the outcome will be. The dialogue (lifted almost word-for-word from George R. R. Martin's A Storm of Swords) sounds like something out of a twisted version of A Princess Bride - Oberyn Martell is as desperate to get revenge as Inigo Montoya, but he lacks Inigo's luck. As with most of Game of Thrones' best fights, this one operates best through contrast. Oberyn is quick and agile, while the Mountain moves with as much agility as his namesake. Throughout the course of this fight, it seems as if the Red Viper is going to outclass his enormous opponent, but his refusal to confirm the kill until Clegane confesses sees him drop his guard for long enough to get pulled to the floor and have his head brutally stoved in. Whether the Mountain will also die is up in the air, but this is a fight that is sure to leave very messy collateral damage.
Self-evidently a man who writes for the Internet, Robert also writes films, plays, teleplays, and short stories when he's not working on a movie set somewhere. He lives somewhere behind the Hollywood sign.
