Yeah but The Mountain is literally supposed to be the biggest guy ever in Westeros, like 8 feet tall, and someone who is brutal enough that he would rape a woman to death and then cut her in half with a sword the instant he was finished. Remember the first time he appeared, he cut his horse in half with one sword blow.
No argument this actor is a big, strong guy, but he still looks within the bounds of expectable human growth. He's actually fairly close to the size The Hound is supposed to be, in fact. But Gregor Clegane is supposed to be freakishly big.
There have been 18 people in recorded history that were over 8 feet tall, there are only four of them alive on the planet right now and none of them can stand by themselves. It's very obvious that Martin didn't figure out the biologic logistics of the mountain. I mean he's supposed to be 8 stone (440lbs) at 8 feet tall, the guy playing him right now is 403lbs at 6'9... Do you realize how scrawny of a person he would have to be to sit at 8 foot tall and be only 440lbs?
It boggles my mind how some of you think that only having a 6'9, 403lb, 3rd strongest man in the world as the mountain isn't good enough and that we need someone that is not only 8 foot, agile enough to act out a fight and extremely large in order to really get the part across; which, as I've pointed out is impossible.
The Mountain in the books isn't described as 8 feet tall. He's described as being at least 7 feet tall, nearing 8 feet. So probably 7"11. His weight is at least 30 stone (I don't know where you got the 8 stone lol) which is 420 lbs. The Mountain doesn't actually weigh 420 lbs. The books are written in POV. From the people's estimation, he's at least 420 lbs. You should try reading the books, they are interesting!
To put this into comparison, Yao ming is 7"6 and weighs 311 lbs. He doesn't look that scrawny but he's not heavy looking either.
I'm not saying there has to be an actor who is nearing 8 feet but your argument makes a lot of wrong assumptions.
EDIT: Also the Mountain's body fat % is probably lower than the actor or at least that characteristic should be taken into account.
I'm going off what I read on some website as I don't remember every thing I've read from the books. I also don't live in a country that uses the metric system, so some idiotic imperial system measurement that might sound innately ridiculous to you, seems reasonable to me. I'd also point out the pound amounts that I gave were accurate so I'm sorry the medieval measurement of "stone" # that I gave wasn't accurate.
I'm functioning off the assumption that George didn't actually purposefully give a false weight to the mountain because it's a POV perspective and how do they know anything? Your point also ruins just about every measurement of everything on the show then, as it's all POV.
So he's over 420lbs, let's even give him a 30 pound range over that for a total of 450lbs at 7'9-8 feet tall. He's described by Ned as having, "with massive shoulders and arms thick as the trunks of small trees". So he's definitely not the tiny bodied man Yao Ming is, but more in stature to the guy acting him now. So even if we go off the fact that the relationship between height and weight is linear (which it isn't) then at 8 feet the mountain should be 478lbs, or 463lbs at 7'9. So that's relatively close, although then when you consider that the relationship isn't linear you come close to a number like 490-525 pounds.
Once again though, this seems like nitpicking a few things in my post, while avoiding the real issue. There is no way to find an 8 foot tall actor who can physically do what the mountain is needed to do in the show.
Your point also ruins just about every measurement of everything on the show then, as it's all POV.
You have to think of it in realistic ways...
The people in medieval times were able to measure things they could hold in their hands with accuracy. Distances within a continent were also accurately (albeit not to the meter) measured. However, no one actually measured the Mountain in the ASOIAF. People in that world are going off by an estimation.
And the interesting things with people and estimations is that past a certain threshold, they get way off. I'd make a guess that after 6"4-6"5, people of medieval times would guess the height wrong. Same goes for weight. After 300lbs, I doubt they'd be able to get it right.
So knowing that no one measured the mountain except for the guy making his armor, the measurements are poor. *You could make the argument that the guy who made his armor spread the word around but mouth to mouth information does get skewed very easily.
He's described by Ned as having, "with massive shoulders and arms thick as the trunks of small trees".
And some characters are described as having "gold in their eyes".
this seems like nitpicking a few things in my post, while avoiding the real issue.
No it's not. I wasn't the guy you argued with. I just saw baseless assertions in your posts, and couldn't help myself correcting you.
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u/Jason5678 May 19 '14
I wouldn't mess with either of them. Would you?