Sandor Clegane - alive

[cybroleach]

Whoa. Even I know more about horses than that. If an animal 10 times your weight decides it won't obey you, there's precious little you can do about it. Especially when it's trained to bite, kick, rear and trample you.

You cleary as you say know nothing about horse. I myself am a professional horse trainer and have dealt with alot of unruely horses. This is a midevil setting so its not that rare that 3 or 4 of those brothers could be good horse people (hell it'd only take one good horseman and 2 guys following his instructions) and force him back to their island with little trouble.

[Mad Monkey]

You clearly don't know anything about horses. I myself am Poseidon, God of horses, and I have dealt with every horse in the history of their species, and I know for a fact that Stranger / Driftwood is an evil fucking horse.

[Rakka]

Looking at what Stranger did to people he felt threatening while in "cage", I find it highly unlikely he'd just have allowed anyone except Sandor take his reins. But of course you're an expert in "midevil" warhorses.

[Errant Bard]

Stranger / Driftwood is an evil fucking horse.

No, haven't you been listening? He is a Mid-evil fucking horse

[Restless]

Looking at what Stranger did to people he felt threatening while in "cage", I find it highly unlikely he'd just have allowed anyone except Sandor take his reins. But of course you're an expert in "midevil" warhorses.

So, please tell us how elder brother was able to magically cure Sandor, so he'll be able to lead his horse to the island?

That likely Sandor is alive I agree, but still he was very ill, best he could do was help with climbing on top of horse (maybe). Then?

Or elder brother stayed there for a week at least. By that time the horse would be either dead from stavation or, if released, gone for good.

[Rakka]

Sandor doesn't need to be "magically" cured, he just needs to be well enough to grab Stranger's reins and sit up in the saddle. It's damn more likely that even a damn wicked horse is going to let itself be lead if the rider's actually sitting up and not lying dead in the saddle*. It'd be quite silly to train a horse or use a horse that didn't allow anyone but one person to take it around. Even if you were an evil bastard you'd probably be fed up with the string of dead stableboys sooner or later, and having to groom the horse yourself all the time.

It's not that far-fetched that Elder Brother has more practice at curing infected wounds than Arya or Sandor. He can take his time. Horses are known to eat plants, so if you can just move its tether to a fresh place every so often it should do just fine. Not exactly thrive, but it'll live.

* And to address the earlier "Elder Brother grabbed Stranger, tossed a dead Sandor over his saddle and lead him off" theory, the Hound's grave is not at Quiet Isle since his helmet was picked up later by some thugs, and Quiet Isle is fairly safe from them. Why bother with two graves, one for the Hound and another for Sandor?

[MightilyOats]

Wasn't Elder Brother confirmed to be a miraculous healer?

Yeah...

[Spacelord]

The lame gravedigger is most likely Sandor, and imo his story arc is finished. Martin is no dummy, he knows that he has a TON of characters and can't keep them all throughout the whole story. He has to end some of them during the course of the series. Sandor being saved, turning over a new leaf and fading quietly away sounds like the perfect ending to his arc. Sorry guys but I think he's done. Martin will leave it ambiguous too, so in 20 years when the series is over we'll still be arguing about whether Sandor died on the Trident or was the gravedigger.

[Axon]

When the Others come, you might be glad to have a dog.

[Lannes]

When the Others come, you might be glad to have a dog.

:thumbsup: I don't think Sandor's part in the tale is quite over...

[The Sand Snake]

I dont know if his arc's over or not but I hope it isnt. There was no point IMO to make the Hound finally be seen as human to us, just to kill him off. I think he has a purpose further on in the story

[Alexia]

You clearly don't know anything about horses. I myself am Poseidon, God of horses, and I have dealt with every horse in the history of their species, and I know for a fact that Stranger / Driftwood is an evil fucking horse.

:lmao: :lmao:

Too bad Poseidon is god of the sea and of earthquakes...

[Kaitscralt]

I dont know if his arc's over or not but I hope it isnt. There was no point IMO to make the Hound finally be seen as human to us, just to kill him off. I think he has a purpose further on in the story

He does not need to be dead to be out of the story. He's alive.

Either way, I hope he comes back.

[Scion9]

A good end to Sandor would have been death. The gravedigger scene is probably meant as sly foreshadowing of his return.

As for miraculous healing; dragons are back. Who knows. We also have a reconstituted Faith Militant. Perhaps Sandor will pull a Lancel. If the Faith Militant is to play a role it will probably need more named, developed characters than Lancel.

[RWHamel]

:lmao: :lmao:

Too bad Poseidon is god of the sea and of earthquakes...

and Horses.

[Kaitscralt]

A good end to Sandor would have been death.

I do think you're the first person I've heard with this opinion!

[Cold Pie]

Yes, we may. Think about it this way. in Westeros, what options does one really have for medical care? If you don't have access to a Maester, where do you go? The answer: to the Faith. He needed healing, they had the means to provide it. He might have even been content to just hang around there and make a quiet life for himself...

...then along comes Brienne. She's everything that a true knight ought to be, and the bag of proverbial chips. Deep down inside, he still yearns for that "true knight" gallantry. he fact that he's never met a knight that lived up to his ideal is what's made him so bitter towards them all. Then he meets Brienne. What's more is, she's looking for his little bird. The sister of the one that denied him the gift of mercy. We all know that he's got a hard-on for Sansa to begin with. I think that he might have seen following Brienne on her fool's errand as a mission worthy of living for. He'll get to be the true knight, he'll get to rescue the damsel in distress, he'll get to hear his little bird singing in coital bliss just for him, he may get a chance to fall in love with a Lady knight, and he'll get to show that little brat kid that he was deserving of better treatment than she gave him. Oh, and what's this? Brienne just happens to be (not only in peril, but also) in the same location as his missing headgear.

I think that if she lives to team up with the Hound, Brienne will get a little bit dirty, he'll get a lot clean, and they just might be able to make something really memorable somewhere in the middle.

I found this post a couple of pages back in this thread and I have to say that I find it quite plausible. I have a hard time believing that Brienne ran around for half a book without achieving anything at all. Sandor saving Brienne could be the solving of the cliffhanger.

Thoughts?

[Sting]

I don't know how plausible the story is, but personaly I would like for it to happen. I always half serious wanted for Sandor and Briene to have a warior bad ass motherfucker baby (boy or girl) :D.

[Alais]

This is my first post - be gentle ^_^

I just finished the first four books - first reading. I'm starting on a second reading before ADWD comes out.

Sandor has become my favorite person in the series; I'm intrigued by the gradual revelations about him, which completely changed my opinion of him throughout the first three books. I don't think GRRM would spend so much time developing a character, and Sandor is in my opinion one of the most multi dimensional characters in the series, just to kill him off at the end of the third book.

A few things occurred to me after reading this thread - some of these may have already been mentioned and I missed them.

On Sandor being recognized on the Quiet Isle - it's specifically stated that all of the novices wear scarves that, combined with their hoods, hide their faces. The dog is of course a clue, as Sandor once told Sansa that he liked dogs better than people. Why would there be so much emphasis on the gravedigger, when none of the other novices or brothers are mentioned except in passing, if the gravedigger were not important?

Most monasteries or convents require a fairly long novitiate, one or more years. I would assume this would be the same for the Faith in Westeros. A novice (again, assuming similarity to Catholic or Eastern Orthodox tradition) would not have taken permanent binding vows. The novitiate is designed for both the novice and the religious order to determine if the person really fits that life. So, if Sandor is a novice, while he would have agreed to the vow of silence and contemplation, he would not be bound permanently to the order.

No one but Sandor could ride Stranger - that would not be unusual for a well trained war horse, and it was mentioned earlier that the horse was difficult to handle. However, unless Sandor was constantly with him - the only person to ever saddle him, groom him, or lead him anywhere it's not unreasonable to assume that Stranger was trained to allow grooms or stable boys to lead him, and that the Elder Brother could lead the horse. It was also mentioned earlier that Arya spent her time in the village where she and Sandor stayed for a time grooming Stranger and Craven, so at least she could handle him on the ground.

The Elder Brother mentioned burying the Hound, but he did state that he piled stones over him to keep the carrion hunters away, so we can assume he didn't dig a very deep hole, if he dug one at all. He probably wasn't carrying a spade. Crazy theory of the day - Sandor wasn't actually dead, but could have been unconscious and appeared dead. Whoever (Rorge?) stole the helm came upon the cairn soon after the Elder Brother left and unearthed the body to make sure there wasn't anything else worth stealing. It might be possible that Sandor could still have been alive, still unconscious. The grave robbers threw the body into the river (for whatever reason), and Sandor washed up at the Quiet Isle, much like the Elder Brother did when he "died" at the battle of the Trident.

Totally nuts? Possibly. Hopefully we'll find out something in ADWD.

I've been enjoying lurking on these forums for a bit - glad I discovered them.

*edited twice for clarity*

[Elrick]

I've always had a real soft spot for Sandor and I can't quite figure out why. Maybe its cause I feel he's honorable and how behind the anger seems to lie a good person who cares. His brother scarred him permantly in a way that prevented him from caring about those around him. I hope that he's still alive because his character is so fascinating and deep but if not I wont be completely surprised.