Matching 50 Game of Thrones characters with each of the 50 states

Texas: Oberyn Martell

Alright, this is the last of the Martells I’m going to pair with a Southwestern state. Texas, a state with a big personality, is too perfect a match for the iconic Oberyn Martell.

Also known as the Red Viper, Oberyn is famous for his many appetites. I’m not just talking food here; he lusts for violence and bloodshed, a good tête-à-tête, and passions of the flesh. He once remarked that while he “fights for Dorne,” when it comes to love, he “doesn’t choose sides.”

Like Oberyn, the Lone Star State has a reputation for grandiosity. “Everything’s bigger in Texas,” the saying goes. Something tells me that the Red Viper would appreciate a state that values massive outerwear (ten-gallon hats?) with an attitude to match.

When we first meet Oberyn, he’s in a brothel, holding court along with his paramour Ellaria Sand. Right away, you get a sense of his priorities. He wants to enjoy himself, and he wants the Lannisters to pay for the murder of his sister and her children. It is a cause that he is willing to die for, even if he doesn’t think it’ll come to that.

I think this aspect of his personality matches up with the sense of “Texas Justice.” This phrase is a slang term for capital punishment, and Oberyn would definitely be on board with that if it meant the Lannisters paid for what they did to his family.