Fifty Game of Thrones characters, matched with their favorite movies

Doran Martell: Inglourious Basterds

Doran Martell is misunderstood. The Sand Snakes think him weak and slow, but in truth he is simply more patient about his revenge than they are. (I’m talking about Doran as he appears in George R.R. Martin A Song of Ice and Fire novels, by the way; on the show, Doran may indeed be that weak and slow.) Doran vividly remembers his sister’s rape and murder, but he chooses to plot and play the long game rather than react brashly, as the Dornish women did.

Because his story is about revenge, it would be easy to mistake his favorite movie for just any old revenge flick, something like The Count of Monte Cristo. However, Doran wouldn’t abide the kind of film where the protagonist learns that “revenge isn’t the best way.” No, he wants to see someone in his camp come out on top, as in the 2009 Quentin Tarantino war drama Inglourious Basterds.

While the film devotes a lot of time to a Nazi-bashing group of soldiers, its most moving story is about Shosanna, a Jewish girl whose family is massacred by SS soldiers. Shosanna spends her entire life readying herself for revenge. Unlike the stars of all those revenge movies that end up learning a valuable lesson about letting go of pain, Shosanna murders those who killed her family when the opportunity arises.

Being the educated lord he is, Doran would certainly have been exposed to Tarantino’s work. While the slick violence of Tarantino’s other projects may not always appeal to this Dornish prince, he’d privately revel in Shosanna’s story. Her fury would fuel his own burning fire.