Oberyn Martell

Prince Oberyn Martell, also known as the Red Viper of Dorne, was a member of House Martell, the ruling family of Dorne, the younger brother of Doran Martell and the late Elia Martell, the father of eight bastard girls known as the Sand Snakes, and a member of the Small Council for Dorne to Tommen I. He was renowned for his skill with a staff, his spirit for vengeance, and fluid sexuality. 
==Biography==
===Background===
Prince Oberyn was the younger brother of Prince Doran Martell and Princess Elia Martell, and like most members of House Martell, he was styled "Prince" instead of "Lord." He was nicknamed "the Red Viper" for his knowledge of poisons and for his unusual, deadly style of combat. Oberyn was known for being an accomplished warrior, but he was just as infamous for his sexual appetite, which extends to both men and women; Tyrion Lannister tells Bronn that Oberyn is "famous for fucking half of Westeros." Oberyn's paramour was Ellaria Sand; she is his wife in all but name, and Doran once noted that Ellaria made Oberyn very happy. She was also the mother of four of Oberyn's infamous eight bastard daughters, all of whom he has acknowledged and given his love and care. He named the fifth one, Elia Sand, after his late sister.
When he was a teenager, Oberyn accompanied his sister Elia on a visit to Casterly Rock. While there, Oberyn and Elia were eager to see the "monster" that had just been born. Cersei finally showed them Tyrion, but the Martell siblings were disappointed to see that he was merely a baby, and somewhat disturbed by Cersei's already strong hatred of him.
Prince Oberyn trained at the Citadel in his youth, in order to become a maester. Although he ultimately grew bored and abandoned his studies, he managed to forge several links in a maester's chain, and became well versed in the use of poisons in the process. When he was sixteen, an older nobleman caught Oberyn in bed with his mistress and wife, and challenged Oberyn to a duel to first blood. Oberyn won the duel, and several days later the man died from festering wounds, likely because Oberyn had poisoned his blade. Oberyn also traveled to Essos in his youth. For a time, he served in the mercenary company known as the Second Sons. He once went to the city of Astapor and saw the Unsullied there, whom he later remarked were impressive on the battlefield, but less so in the bedroom. He lived in Essos for a total of five years. It is implied that Oberyn fought duels in the infamous fighting pits of Meereen, as he mentions to Tyrion that he learned some of his combat techniques "during his years in the fighting pits."
Despite his wayward ways and liberal attitude towards sexuality, Oberyn was very devoted to his family, telling his lover Ellaria that any other person would always have to wait behind her for his affection. He was very close with his sister, Elia, and took her death very hard. As a result, he had a strong and fierce hatred for House Lannister, especially towards Tywin Lannister, whom he believed ordered his sister's murder. He also developed a resentment toward his deceased brother-in-law Rhaegar Targaryen for (from Oberyn's perspective) being unfaithful to Elia and "stealing away another woman", which in turn led to a war that cost all of them their lives.
Despite their very different personalities, he was also close to his older brother, Doran.
===Game of Thrones: Season 4===
Tyrion Lannister meets the lords of Dorne outside King's Landing, only to find out that Oberyn will be representing House Martell at the king's wedding, and not his brother, the ruling Prince Doran. The Dornish lords tell Tyrion that Oberyn in fact arrived in the city before dawn. It doesn't take Tyrion long to realize that Oberyn is in one of Littlefinger's brothels. Oberyn assists his paramour Ellaria in choosing a whore for her own enjoyment before selecting Olyvar to satisfy himself.
Oberyn's fun is cut short when he hears Lannister men singing "The Rains of Castamere," which sends Oberyn into a quiet rage. Before one of them can draw his sword, Oberyn drives his dagger through the man's wrist, though he assures the man's compatriot that he can be saved, if his injury is treated immediately. Tyrion arrives, and interrupts the fight. Leaving the brothel, Tyrion asks Oberyn why he came to the capital. Oberyn, much to Tyrion's discomfort, relates the story of how Gregor Clegane, Tywin's bannerman, raped and murdered Elia Martell and slaughtered her children. He then warns Tyrion that the Lannisters aren't the only ones who pay their debts.
Later, Oberyn attends Joffrey's wedding, where he meets Tywin Lannister and Cersei Lannister. When he introduces Ellaria to them, Tywin is tactfully polite but Cersei hypocritically mocks Ellaria's baseborn origins, instigating a debate over the cultural differences between the Dornish and the rest of Westeros - and prompting Oberyn to smugly remind Cersei that her daughter Myrcella is essentially a hostage of the Martells. Oberyn also gives Loras Tyrell a very flirtatious look, which leaves Loras blushing.
In the days following Joffrey's death, Oberyn and Ellaria visit the brothel again. Oberyn grows angry with Olyvar when the prostitute rejects Ellaria's advances (as he doesn't have the taste with women), but Ellaria calms him down. Oberyn then discusses his approach to sexuality (not restricting himself to intimacy with one gender and having as much sex as possible before old age) with Olyvar. The small orgy is broken up by the sudden arrival of Tywin.
 
After briefly discussing Oberyn's experience studying poisons at the Citadel, the Hand asks Oberyn to be the third judge at Tyrion's trial. Oberyn initially refuses, confirming that he blames Tywin for Elia's death (though he notes he is not foolish enough to take the consequences of killing Tywin to satisfy his vengeance). However, he reconsiders when Tywin offers Oberyn in particular and Dorne in general a seat on the Small Council.
Tywin explains that he wants to reunify the realms because House Greyjoy is in rebellion, Mance Rayder is marching towards the Wall with his wildling army, and Daenerys Targaryen has her eyes set on Westeros, and the last time dragons assaulted Westeros, only Dorne successfully resisted them. Oberyn is pleased that Tywin has, in a roundabout fashion, admitted that he needs Dorne. He is also placated by Tywin's promise to arrange for him to confront Gregor Clegane privately.
Following the coronation of Tommen Baratheon, Oberyn takes some time to write a bit of poetry in the gardens to his fifth daughter, Elia, named after his late sister. Cersei visits him and asks for a word. They discuss their children and Oberyn reveals he has eight daughters. Cersei asks after her daughter Myrcella, and Oberyn tells her that she is doing well and last he had seen her, she was playing with two of his daughters in the Water Gardens back in Dorne. Cersei asks Oberyn to deliver a gift to Myrcella, a ship, and then departs, leaving the prince trying to decide if he is to sympathize with a Lannister, though he promises to have it sent to Sunspear.
Oberyn later takes up his seat on the Small Council. In typical fashion, he complains loudly about the early meeting, pretends to be more concerned about the fancy title he will receive than matters of state, and refuses to rise when Lord Tywin enters the room. In spite of this, Tywin seems more interested in his opinion than that of Mace Tyrell, the new Master of Ships. Oberyn also warns the Small Council not to discount the danger that the Unsullied pose on the battlefield.
After the meeting, Oberyn approaches Varys in the Throne Room, with the Dornishman surprising him with his knowledge of Essos. Oberyn shares that he spent several years in Essos, and spots that Varys is originally from Lys, unsettling Varys who believes he has no noticeable accent. The men exchange uneasy banter, and Varys makes it clear that unlike Oberyn with his thirst for pleasures, his interest lies only with the Iron Throne.
Later on, Tyrion's trial begins. King Tommen recuses himself from the trial, appointing his grandfather Lord Tywin, along with Lord Mace and Prince Oberyn, as judges. Several witnesses are called for the prosecution, all of whom give testimony backing the accusations against Tyrion. Oberyn occasionally questions the witnesses, sometimes insightfully and sometimes (as with Shae) for his own amusement. Oberyn's face suggests interest when Tyrion demands trial by combat. Some days after his demands for a trial by combat, Oberyn visits Tyrion in the dungeons and relates the story of his disappointment in their first encounter. As children, Oberyn and Elia were told stories of the "Lannister Monster" and his extreme deformities.
During a childhood visit to Casterly Rock, Cersei showed Tyrion, with great ceremony, to Oberyn and Elia. Oberyn tells Tyrion that he saw no monster, just a baby. Cersei told Oberyn and his sister that Tyrion killed her mother, and then cruelly assaulted Tyrion until Jaime stopped her. Oberyn tells Tyrion that he seeks justice for the death of his sister, and Tyrion replies that he will find none in King's Landing. Oberyn counters that he is in the perfect place; all those he means to bring to justice for his sister's murder are close at hand. Intending to start his revenge with Gregor Clegane, Oberyn offers his service as Tyrion's champion in the coming trial by combat.
Oberyn enters the trial wearing simple light armor and wielding a light spear with a heavy blade. Upon seeing his opponent, Ellaria grows concerned for his chances at besting the mountainous beast, but Oberyn remains confident. Tyrion is additionally worried by Oberyn's lack of a helmet and his light armor, and witnessing Oberyn drinking before the match does nothing to assuage his fears, but Oberyn claims that he drinks before every battle and that armor hinders his preferred fighting style. Before he faces Clegane, he promises Ellaria that he will survive."
As the battle commences, the Red Viper manages to impress the crowd with a dazzling display of spear twirling before engaging Clegane, whom he taunts. Clegane ignores his words and launches a furious attack. Although the latter wears heavier armor and wields a massive broadsword, Oberyn is able to swiftly avoid his swings, poking at him with his spear, demanding him to admit to the rape and murder of Elia and her children, vengefully chanting in an ever-louder voice: "You raped her! You murdered her! You killed her children!." Clegane knocks Oberyn off his feet twice and manages to cut his spear in half, but fails to wound him. Oberyn simply evades his swings again and walks over to his squire, who tosses him a replacement spear.
Meanwhile, he wears Clegane down, knocking off his helmet and inflicting minor wounds through gaps in the huge knights' armor. Oberyn eventually stabs ​Clegane in the stomach and severs his hamstring. The knight falls to his knees, outmaneuvered by the Dornish prince's quick movement and skill with a spear. The Red Viper then lunges and stabs him through his breastplate, causing Clegane to cough blood and fall on his back. With Clegane incapacitated, Oberyn once again demands that he admit to Elia's death and reveal who orchestrated it, pointing accusingly at Tywin.
However, Oberyn--stalking aggressively around his unmoving opponent--is caught unexpectedly when Clegane trips him and pulls him to the ground, grasping him around the neck and slamming his fist squarely into his face, knocking most of his teeth out in the process. Clegane proceeds to gouge out Oberyn's eyeballs with his thumbs, and while Oberyn screams in agony, Clegane sadistically confesses to raping Elia, killing her children, and then killing Elia herself. He brutally crushes Oberyn's skull, killing him instantly, as Ellaria screams in horror. Thus, through the rules of trial by combat, the fate of Tyrion Lannister is sealed.
​While the Mountain is being treated for his injuries, Pycelle and Qyburn discover that before the duel Oberyn had his spearblade coated with Manticore venom, which has caused Clegane's already severe wounds to putrefy horribly, leaving him in a catatonic, decaying, and agonized state.
===Game of Thrones: Season 5===
Oberyn's body is returned to Dorne, where Doran intends to bury and mourn for him. Despite his grief and anger at losing another sibling (his last one in fact) at the hands of the Mountain, Doran recognizes that Oberyn died fighting voluntarily in a trial by combat, which by law is not considered murder. However, Oberyn's popularity among the people of Dorne led many to demand war against the Lannisters as retribution for his death. Most vocal in support of war are Oberyn's paramour Ellaria and his daughters, the Sand Snakes. However, Doran refuses to inflict war on his people, especially a war he doesn't believe Dorne can win.
===Game of Thrones: Season 6===
As a result of Doran's decisions, Ellaria and the Sand Snakes murder both Doran and his son and heir, Trystane, and seize power in Dorne, even though they were Oberyn's own brother and nephew, respectively.
===Game of Thrones: Season 7===
Ellaria notes that her greatest regret was that Oberyn died for Tyrion at his trial. Later, Tyene tells her sisters Obara and Nymeria that her mother Ellaria told her that Oberyn died because of his carelessness. They are then both killed soon after by Euron Greyjoy.
In the black cells of the Red Keep, Cersei enrages Ellaria by reminding her that Oberyn's carelessness caused his death, and that his killer, Ser Gregor, is stronger than ever. Even though the murder of Myrcella Baratheon by Ellaria was meant to avenge Oberyn, it only proved to be one of her worst decisions, as Tyene is poisoned by Cersei with the long farewell as Ellaria did to Myrcella. Ellaria is left to helplessly watch her daughter slowly die and eventually decompose before her eyes.
==Personality==
Oberyn Martell was a forceful, lusty man with a quick wit and barbed tongue. He was renowned for his duels, his temper, his keen intellect, and his carnality, all of which made him extremely popular in Dorne. 
Above all, Oberyn was a deeply passionate man, with a hot temper that often led him into duels and grudges; but in equal measure this also made him deeply loyal to those he cared about. Although he was a very serious man, he had a very laid-back, easygoing attitude, taking anything that came his way in his stride, but he wasn't incapable of being deadly serious when the situation insisted upon it.
Oberyn's overall attitude was that life is short, and one must enjoy all of life's pleasures while one can. He would rather live life on his own terms, openly challenging his enemies and risk destruction rather than live by someone else's rules. Rather ironically, it was Oberyn's zest for life, his temper, overconfidence, love for his sister, and hatred towards Gregor Clegane that led to his death.
==Quotes==
===Spoken by Oberyn===
===Spoken about Oberyn===
==Family==
==In the books==
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Prince Oberyn is the hot-headed younger brother of Prince Doran Martell. He has eight bastard daughters, called the Sand Snakes, the four youngest of them by his current paramour, Ellaria Sand. 
Oberyn has a lined face with thin eyebrows, black "viper" eyes and a sharp nose. His hair is lustrous and black with only a few silver streaks and recedes from his brow into a widow's peak. It is rumored that he has sexual relations with his squires when Ellaria is unavailable. It is not unusual for lords and ladies in Dorne to be openly bisexual, due to the relaxed attitude towards sexuality among the Dornish.
In a way he is the counterpart of Robert Baratheon. While he has also a veracious sexual appetite, he doesn't ignore the children that are born out of it and takes care of them, raises them at the court of Dorne.
Oberyn is called "the Red Viper" by friend and foe alike due to his penchant for coating his weapons in lethal poisons, so that even a glancing wound will prove fatal.
Oberyn was the youngest of the three Martell siblings: Elia was born nine years after Doran, and Oberyn one year after Elia.
During a tourney, Oberyn jousted against Willas Tyrell, eldest son of Mace Tyrell and heir to Highgarden. Oberyn knocked Willas from his horse, but Willas's foot got caught in the stirrup and the horse fell on him, crushing his leg and leaving him crippled. Though Willas does not personally bear any ill-will towards Oberyn for the incident and they continue a friendly correspondence, it becomes a new source of friction in the ancient feud between Dorne and the Reach.
Although Oberyn is known to have studied to become a maester in his youth - successfully forging several links of his chain - he is noted to have studied the poisoner's art while traveling the Free Cities, not at the Citadel, as the show specifies. When Oberyn visits Tyrion Lannister in his cell following Joffrey's murder, he jokes that he owes Cersei his gratitude for accusing her brother of the deed. Had she not, Oberyn himself may soon have come under suspicion, because "who knows more of poison than the Red Viper of Dorne, after all?." Oberyn's words imply that there have been two parallel, independent plots to murder Joffrey by poisoning. It is unknown how Oberyn sought to kill Joffrey (perhaps the scorpion-shaped brooch, which he gave Joffrey at the breakfast prior to the wedding, was coated with poison); whatever his plan was, the Tyrells have beaten him to it.
Before Oberyn travels to King's Landing, Doran gives him instructions: to take the measure of Joffrey and his council; to make note of their strengths and weaknesses; to find friends for Dorne, if there are any to be found; to learn what he can of Elia's end; but not to provoke Lord Tywin unduly. Oberyn laughs and says "When have I provoked any man unduly? You would do better to warn the Lannisters against provoking me." Eventually he goes beyond anything Doran asked him, refusing to wait any longer in seeking justice for Elia.
Oberyn is one of the three potential husbands that Tywin has in mind for Cersei, alongside Willas Tyrell and Balon Greyjoy (of those three, Oberyn is Tywin's last choice, since he does not wish to anger the Tyrells). Cersei is unimpressed, to say the least, of the idea to wed either the "old squid" or the "crippled dog boy", but she is more willing to wed Oberyn; she tells him that implicitly, asking in return that he convicts Tyrion. Ellaria is in favor of the match, too. Oberyn, however, has a very negative opinion about Cersei, and states he'd prefer that a hundred red scorpions would fall upon him than sleeping with the "golden-haired whore." Jaime strongly objects to the match, in view of Oberyn's negative reputation.
When Oberyn travels to King's Landing to take Dorne's seat on the Small Council, he meets Tyrion at the gates of the capital with the main Dornish party, not in a brothel as depicted in the TV series. It is at this point that he tells Tyrion about the first time they met, soon after Tyrion had been born, which the series held back until Oberyn visited Tyrion in his black cell, probably for dramatic effect. Similarly, Oberyn offered to be Tyrion's champion before Tyrion actually demanded a trial by combat, whereas in the series he dramatically volunteers to be his champion when Tyrion has lost all hope of finding anyone to fight for him, and is resigned to facing the Mountain himself.
Due to their shared hatred for House Lannister, Oberyn and Tyrion form a bond of sorts. Oberyn offers to take Tyrion to live in Sunspear with the Martells, should he defeat Gregor Clegane and gain Tyrion his freedom, in order to get him away from the vengeful Cersei, who may still attempt to have him killed. Oberyn loses the duel against Clegane, however, and is killed, though he manages to poison him with manticore venom in the process.
When treating Clegane, Qyburn theorizes that Oberyn had adulterated the manticore venom on his spear with sorcery; thickening it in order to slow its progress through the veins towards the heart, dragging out Gregor's agony.
==Gallery==
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Pedro-Pascal-as-Oberyn-Martell-Indira-Varma-as-Ellaria-Sand photo-Helen-Sloan HBO.jpg|Promotional image of Oberyn Martell and Ellaria Sand in Season 4.
Princeoberynbrothellook.png|Oberyn examines the prostitutes at a brothel owned by Petyr Baelish in "Two Swords". 
Oberyn-Martell.jpg|The Red Viper confronts two Lannister soldiers in "Two Swords".
Oberyntyrionspeakkingslanding.png|Oberyn and Tyrion take a walk outside the brothel in "Two Swords".
Oberyn-tirion.jpg|Oberyn talks with Tyrion about the murder of his sister and her children in "Two Swords".
OberynEllariaPW.jpg|Oberyn introduces Ellaria to Lord Tywin and Queen Cersei in "The Lion and the Rose".
Oberyn and Ellaria - Breaker of Chains.jpg|Oberyn and Ellaria at the brothel in "Breaker of Chains".
Season-4-Episode-5-First-of-His-Name-game-of-thrones-37009238-1920-1097 - Copy.jpg|Prince Oberyn in "First of His Name".
Cersei and Oberyn 2.PNG|Oberyn assures Cersei of her daughter's safety in "First of His Name".
Oberyn and Varys throne room.jpg|Oberyn with Varys in the Great Hall in "The Laws of Gods and Men."
game-of-thrones-laws-gods-men-trial.jpg|Oberyn as one of the three judges of Tyrion's trial in "The Laws of Gods and Men".
Ellaria oberyn 4.png|Oberyn and Ellaria kiss before the trial by combat in "The Mountain and the Viper"
The Viper vs the Mountain.jpg|Oberyn duels Ser Gregor Clegane in "The Mountain and the Viper".
The Viper vs the Mountain7.jpg|Oberyn brings Gregor to his knees in "The Mountain and the Viper".
The Viper vs the Mountain8.JPG|Oberyn gets his teeth knocked out by Ser Gregor after being caught off-guard.
==Appearances==
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==References==
===Notes===
==External links==
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