Despite dying a rather untimely death in one Game of Thrones' most memorable episodes, Oberyn Martell was a fan-favorite character for the full duration of his time on the series. The charismatic, skilled vengeance-seeker won over the hearts of viewers everywhere, and despite not having as furnished a backstory as, say, Jon Snow, Martell has many layers, leading to much discussion and dissertation within the GoT fan community of his character.
Suffice to say, he's pretty popular, and meme after meme has been created honoring - or, in some cases, lightheartedly poking fun at - him. In this article, we've found 10 of the best Oberyn Martell memes.
Disney's Game Of Thrones
We're going to see quite a few takes on the Oberyn vs. The Mountain match-up on this list, but an early favorite is this meme (created with art by Combo Studio), which recreates the TV-MA fight scene like something out of a Renaissance-era offering from the House of Mouse.
Gallows humor is one of the most common genres of memes, and it's especially efficient in making the viewer do a double-take; here, it works to perfection.
Fight Night
This poster for a Martell-Clegane matchup is not only impressive in design but unbelievably funny. There are too many inside jokes to count (almost everything is a callback or reference to established Game of Thrones lore, from the Lord Baelish, name-drop to the header's "Hand of the King" and "Faith of the Seven."
The little Yahoo! TV logo in the corner sells it; of course, a "Trial by Combat" of this magnitude would be broadcast or pay-per-view.
Fried
This image of chicken standing - in an apparently confrontational manner - in front of a fried chicken restaurant is pretty funny in and of itself, but the reference to Martell's famous speech regarding his sister's death makes it all the more so.
Replacing descriptions of Clegane's actions with chicken-restaurant buzzwords (marinated and scrambled) is a nice additional touch.
Excedrin Migraine
Excedrin is a very real brand of pain reliever, the kind of thing someone might genuinely think about using if they had a migraine similar to the one Martell describes here.
Of course, the double entendre here is that Martell, in promoting the product, is not actually describing a headache but rather the method of his own death at the hands of Gregor Clegane, AKA The Mountain - an undeniably dark but reasonably witty piece of humor.
I Will Avenge House Martell
This is just a straight-up Game of Thrones logic meme. Ellaria Sand, Oberyn's lover, is greatly grieved by his death. Accompanied by Oberyn's eight illegitimate daughters, known as the Sand Snakes, Ellaria swears to avenge House Martell.
Still, they end up killing many of House Martell's members - in a grisly bit of irony - after Oberyn's older brother Doran refuses to lead the Great House into a battle against House Lannister.
Poisoned Steel
This is an interesting easter egg transformed into a meme: in the season 4 episode "The Mountain and the Viper," Sandor Clegane tells Arya Stark that "Poison's a woman's weapon. Men kill with steel."
Martell himself has dismissed this notion multiple times - while mentoring the Sand Snakes, for instance - as poison is one of his primary weapons. Oddly enough, however, in that same episode, "The Mountain and the Viper," Martell uses a poisoned steel spear while fighting Gregor Clegane - which may or may not be a veiled reference to his bisexuality.
Prepare To Die
When you really think about it, there's a lot of things that tie the popular The Princess Bride character Inigo Montoya and Oberyn Martell together, besides surface-level similarities like their mustaches.
Most notably, they both seek vengeance for a family member's murder, they both challenge the nobleman responsible for the murder to a duel, and they both win - although, admittedly, in very different ways. Martell dies, and his revenge is thus posthumous, while Montoya survives, coming back from the brink of defeat to skillfully out-duel his lifelong nemesis, Count Rugen.
Come Bac
Like we've said, Oberyn has a huge fanbase. There are a lot of reasons people were saddened by his death in the series; perhaps the most prominent is that he's just an interesting character, a ruthless fighter and bisexual icon who fans would love to see a more established backstory for. "We miss him and we want him bac" just describes a majority of the fanbase's feelings towards the character.
Still, he accomplished what he set out to accomplish, so his departure for the show was not for nothing.
Today Is Not The Day I Die
Another bit of irony in Oberyn's history: he did, in fact, say, "Today is not the day I die" the day he died. He might be a stealthy, formidable fighter, but his prediction was less-than-well-timed.
This brings up a larger question related to Oberyn's death being caused by not killing the Mountain when he had the chance and instead trying to force a confession out of his towering foe, but that's a topic for another day.
Helmet
Oberyn Martell's actor, Pedro Pascal, also plays the titular character (also known as Din Djarin) on the Disney+ Star Wars series The Mandalorian. This is interesting for meme purposes because Oberyn refuses to wear a helmet in the Game of Thrones series, which eventually causes his death, but Djarin on the other hand, refuses to take his helmet off.
True, this is more because of Mandalorian policy than concern for his safety, but it's still an odd coincidence nonetheless.