Sandor - Tumblr Posts
Sandor: I guess you could say that I'm a chicken magnet.
Arya: ... don't you mean a chick magnet-
[Sounds of distant clucking getting louder]
Sandor: we have to go NOW
These two 🥺💕
What did Sandor really win at the Hand's Tourney?
GRRM Martin likes to hide things from his readers but what is so fascinating is that he does so in plain sight. Everything was there for all too see from the beginning so we can hardly complain that he played tricks on us or that he didn’t give us enough clues about what is going on or what is going to happen in ASoIaF books.
We know that GRRM has a way with words and as I explained in a previous post he is a master in the use of foreshadowing and hidden meanings. The following sentences were taken from the chapter where Sansa arrives in her room and finds the Hound there waiting for her, but I think I have found yet another example where he plays with words and hides things in plain sight.
These are the words take from the BoBW scene:
“I’ll have that ……..
His ……….was out, poised at her ……”
“Her ……………… was dry and tight ………….
Please don’t …………. me, she wanted to scream ……………
She could feel him twisting the point, pushing it into her ……………”
“Some instinct made her lift her hand and cup his …………. with her fingers.……….. she could feel the stickiness of the …………, and a wetness that was not blood ………………. his …………raw and harsh as steel on stone. Then he rose from the bed. Sansa heard cloth ripping, followed by the softer sound of …………….. footsteps.”
When you read it like this it becomes clear why we have this impression that sex is in the air,because it is. That’s why I thought Sandor was coming back to bed with her while reading the scene for the first time. Martin plays with the reader in an amazing way.
This must be the sexiest scene in the books,and quite explicit in its hidden way, and everything is hidden in plain sight,like what happens in the Tourney of the Hand, in which Sandor beats all his opponents, saves ser Loras from ser Gregor and becomes the champion in Sansa’s father’s tournament. Both Sandor and Sansa are wearing green and we read about her being all moist-eyed and eager, assuring she knew he would win and gasping when she fears he might fall from his horse.
By the way, the name of the tourney Sandor won was the Tourney or the Hand and when a man asks his future father-in-law permission to marry his daughter he asks for her hand. Sandor won the tourney of the hand and I think he won Sansa’s hand, or just wait and see.
In the tourney of Harrenhall, where Ned was also present, the winner was Rhaegar Targaryen and he chose Lyanna Stark as his queen of love and beauty.Eventually Rhaegar and Lyanna got together and I think he didn’t kidnap her and rape her as Robert claimed, I think they loved each other.
“Rhaegar was champion of the joust, and in the end chose Lyanna Stark as queen of love and beauty, placing a crown of blue winter roses in her lap. This was scandalous in that, not only was Rhaegar already married to Elia of Dorne, who was present at the tourney, but Lyanna herself was betrothed to LordRobert Baratheon. Rhaegar’s indiscretion culminated in his abduction of Lyanna a year later, which touched off the War of the Usurper and brought an end to Targaryen rule.”
(Wiki of Ice and fire)
In another tourney at Lannisport we get to know that Jorah Mormont was the winner. And he won because he was so in love with a girl that he wanted to impress her. He was the champion and he won his lady’s hand. It seems that neither Jorah nor Rhaegar were specially keen on tournaments but the love of their ladies probably encouraged them and provided them with special motivation to fight with courage and beat the best knights of the realm. They even defeated some KG knights.
“The tourney at Lannisport was a tourney held outside of Lannisport to celebrate King Robert Baratheon’s victory over Greyjoy’s Rebellion in 289 AC. The victor of the joust was Lord Jorah Mormont, who was awarded the win after breaking nine lances against Ser Jaime Lannister. Jorah crowned Lynesse Hightower his queen of love and beauty, requesting and receiving her hand in marriage from her father, Lord Leyton Hightower, that night.”
(Wiki of Ice and fire)
If I’m not mistaken, Ned was present in the three tournaments. The last of them was given in his honour despite his own opinion against the high expenses and it is from Ned we get to know about Sandor’s past and how he had to leave his home when his father died and how horrible things were said to have happened at Clegane Keep. Ned is also the one who noticed how Sandor (he refers to him as Sandor,not the Hound) fought his brother to save ser Loras and did not aim at his brother’s unprotected head whereas Gregor tried to kill him. Sandor could have killed Gregor and get away with it or let him kill Loras knowing that the Tyrells would have asked for his head and Robert would have had to have him executed for murdering a highborn young man from such a powerful family. Sandor could have inherited Clagane keep but he acted like a true knight and a hero. What for? He despises pretenses and hates knights and everything related to them, he says he is only a butcher and happy to be that. Why did he do that? Perhaps to impress his lady, to be worthy of her? To win her hand?
Of course he never dreamt of that, she was so out of his reach, but this scene is like the one in her room, we have the apparent meaning and the hidden one, and I am sure GRRM did not bother to add all these parallels and clues for nothing. I think they are foreshadowing for what’s to come.
She could not say why she’d kept it.
— A Storm of Swords, Sansa I
Well, for me it's about the dynamic. Sansa at the start of the books is very different from Sansa from the spoiler chapters and i think Sandor is one of the main catalysts of that change.
Firstly, Sandor is the first person who didn't try to sugarcoat the world for her wile meaning no harm (well you know what i mean). It's because of him she starts to realize that beauty is not about the looks, and starts to see the world as it is instead of as it is in the songs.
Secondly, it fascinates me how Sandor sees himself in her. Before the Mountain broke him he was a lot like Sansa (at least it's implied), so the lack of sugarcoating stems from that. His crudeness is a way to protect her (from his point of view).
She also has an influence on him. The whole ark with Arya wouldn't happen otherwise.
For me the core of their relationship is the determination to make the other better in their own ways. In which they succeed!
Yes the age difference is questionable (to put it lightly) but Sandor is not in his thirties (he's about 26 which isn't better but still) and he is at heart that same knight from the songs — he just happens to be broken. But (for me at least) romance isn't always about sex. And true love is about making each other better. So i guess i ship them because i really want them to meet again. I feel like their journey together isn't finished.
Shipping them just because you want them to smash is creepy, but for me ASOIAF was never about sex or even violence. It about character study. GRRM the way i see it is interested in finding "the true Knight" And Sansa/Sandor dynamic is one way to find it.
I hope i managed to convey my thoughts correctly, eng in not my native language and it was really hard writing :_)
I'm genuinly curious why people ship sansan because sandor clegane is a man almost in his thirties and sansa is like 11 when they first meet....this is just creepy to ship
