What would a meeting between Sandor and Brienne be like?

[A spoon of knife and fork]

No offence to Brienne fans, but it would be completely different to what happened in the show.

In the Books, one on one, the Hound has no equal. (Barristan in his prime & Jaime with two hands disqualified of course)

Yes, 9 times out of 10 (at least) in an equal fight in an arena the hound would beat Brienne.

But as GRRM has pointed out but fans seem to completely ignore, the decisive moments of a battle are rarely to do with the skills of the fighters involved, but rather factors that can't be predicted. What are the motives of the fighters? what's the terrain? Did it rain? Is it hot or cold? Does one of them step on a rock and fall? Even the best fighter cannot control all variables and can lose to an inferior opponent.

I think the show did a great job of showing how the terrain and random chance played a vital role in the outcome. Not to mention the hound was injured and had been walking whereas brienne was well, and had been riding.

[ChillyPolly]

There are also a number of parallels between them both physically and thematically:

Physically:

-both are ugly

-both are considered unnaturally tall

-Brienne gets her cheek ripped off which mimic's Sandor's facial injuries. It is important to note that Brienne has also come across the Hound's helm.

Thematically:

-both their stories revolve around the Stark girls.

-both their stories the concept of 'true knighthood'

-both their stories explore the Beauty and the Beast theme where they are pining over people who are physically more beautiful than they are

To which I would add:

Physically

- both are roughly the same height (give or take an inch or so).

- both appear to be about 29 years old (Brienne is 10 years younger, but looks to have aged 10 years when Jaime sees her)

- both have sustained sword cuts to the upper thigh

- both have sustained injuries to the forearm, requiring some kind of binding or casting

- blue eyes and grey eyes may appear identical depending on lighting or other circumstances.

Thematically

- both served in Kingsguards without actually being knights

I made my own list of paralels in this thread, mainly in item #12, which also discusses my own theory about the possible significance of all these parallels.

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/122171-sansa-her-quirky-perception-memory-the-new-hound/

[The Bastard of Walton]

Yes, 9 times out of 10 (at least) in an equal fight in an arena the hound would beat Brienne.

But as GRRM has pointed out but fans seem to completely ignore, the decisive moments of a battle are rarely to do with the skills of the fighters involved, but rather factors that can't be predicted. What are the motives of the fighters? what's the terrain? Did it rain? Is it hot or cold? Does one of them step on a rock and fall? Even the best fighter cannot control all variables and can lose to an inferior opponent.

I think the show did a great job of showing how the terrain and random chance played a vital role in the outcome. Not to mention the hound was injured and had been walking whereas brienne was well, and had been riding.

I agree that they do a good job in the show, as they haven't the time to show the character development that the books can show.

Timing, state of mind & location definitely play a part.

[OldGimletEye]

I might be a bit biased here, because I like both Brienne and Sandor, but I don't think they would necessarily end up in a fight. Yes, Sandor can be a complete asshole,often, but he rarely attacks people on his own volition. And Brienne isn't a hot head. Probably Sandor would just say a bunch of rude things until Brienne calmed him down.

[Harry the Hair]

I might be a bit biased here, because I like both Brienne and Sandor, but I don't think they would necessarily end up in a fight. Yes, Sandor can be a complete asshole,often, but he rarely attacks people of his own volition. And Brienne isn't a hot head. Probably, Sandor would just say a bunch of rude things until Brienne calmed him down.

He'd probably make one or two japes about Brienne the Beauty and her status as a knight and that would've been the end of it. The rest of the road trip to the Vale would've been spent in complete silence.

Although it's very possible that he would be suspicious of her given the Lannister sword she has and Pod. I think that part the show aced.

[Minuteman]

I think Sandor comes off the QI looking for "the Hound" who sacked Saltpans unaware that Brienne has already killed him. Sandor hated being judged based on his brothers reputation and would hate even more to be judged based on "the Hound" given that EB doubtless told him the same thing he told Brienne about "the Hound" being dead. If he comes looking for the impostor he would certainly find the BwB again which would bring him and Brienne into contact. In terms of if the two of them were to fight we can rely on Jaime's opinion as he is the only one who has seen both fight. Brienne was a much better fighter than Jaime had given her credit for but felt that if he wasn't already weakened from captivity he would have been able to beat her easily shackled or not. Jaime also thought about given the choice between fighting the Mountain or fighting the Hound he would have much preferred fighting the Mountain as he viewed the Hound as having almost the same monstrous strength while also being incredibly fast in movement. Also, Brienne won a tourney against about a third of the best knights in Westeros. No small accomplishment but Sandor won the Hands tourney against ALL of the best knights in Westeros (save Loras Tyrell who withdrew). So if a healthy Sandor were to fight a healthy Brienne I would think Sandor would win easily. Just my opinion.