Here's the thing. He's done some heroic things. He helped Sansa save Dontos. He rescued Sansa from the angry mob. He tried to help Sansa escape. He kept Arya alive.
But it's not enough. He's no hero. At least not yet.
Once upon a time there was an idealistic boy named Sandor Clegane who loved to listen to stories about knights and courtly love.
He dreamed of being a knight of the King's Guard some day
. He thought that was the grandest thing a man could be. Perhaps he'd fall in love with a beautiful lady and wear her favor in tourneys and protect her from harm. He spent his days practising at arms in his castle courtyard and dreaming aobut being the Greatest Knight that Ever Was.
Then one day, his older brother found him playing with his wooden knight. So he took him and shoved his face into a brazier full of burning charcoal.
Later that same brother would receive one of the highest honors possible, to be knighted by the Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen himself. And he would murder Sandor Clegane's sister, and his parents, his dogs and servants.
From that day on, Sandor changed. Gone were the ideals of his childhood. He no longer played with wooden knights. He didnt' like the ocmpany of people. He preferred hanging out with dogs. After awhile he became known as the Hound.
Sounds like the beginning of a supervillain's arc. And there is a bit of the supervillain about Sandor Clegane/The Hound. Snarling, dangerous, a loner, 6'7 inches of utter badass, with his own code of honor. He's a cowboy outlaw, a biker killer, a disfigured psychotic Brando.
He killed his first man when he was twelve..
But what's interesting about this supervillain is that he does have a small part of the idealistic boy he was. And it's not buried. It's not dead. It's just....twisted. Angered. He's still the same boy. But he has his own code of honor.
LOOK AT ME. LOOK AT ME.
What throws Sandor Clegane for a loop is Sansa.
She really really, really annnoys him. Enrages him. Won't look at him. He strikes fear in her. Afraid of the scars on his face. Afraid of his manner. Afraid of the real world.
But the key to life is accepting the real world. Because if you can't do that, you just end up burned.
He makes it a point to talk to her, to try to teach her the ways of the world. His message is harsh because the world is harsh.
Beauty is nothing more than a prize; and strength the means to gaining your desire. Strength devours beauty. You want to stay beautiful? Become a monster before your face gets shoved in the fire.
He is trying to save her but she is too stupid to get it. Or is she?
Still it's hardly heroic stuff.
And anyway, she doesn't buy it, not completely..
She's a scared little girl but she stands up to him. Tells him he's horrible. Refuses to fully buy into his cynical reality. Holds on to her ideals somewhere deep inside herself.
Of course he is horrible. He knows it. That's his whole damn point.
But hearing it sort of sets him wondering.
He threatenes her, intimidates her.
And there is something about her that...sooths him. Some dogs are meant to be pets. Some dogs are meant to hunt and rip and tear and kill. He is the latter. But she treats him like the former. She looks at him.
And when he sees them beating t her, a part of him sees himself in her. He disobeys his masters. Refuses to beat her. Ses the same ideal boy he'd been being beaten by his older, monstrous brother. But he watches her. She'll learn soon enough.
Nothing heroic about that.
If he'd been a hero he would have stopped it. He would have got her out of there.
Only she keeps it up. She managed to keep her ideals. And her defiance. Deep inside her.
And when she uses her grace and wiles to save the life of a drunken knight...he surprises himself. By playing along.
And he is moved. And angered. Didn't she see the danger she'd put herself in? Heroes are for kids.
Someone had to.
When Joffrey sets the Hound on the crowd and starts the riot, he doesn't know why. But he knows that he has to stay with her. That nobody else will. And so he stays in the howling throng and he rescues her from certain rape and probably death.
That was kind of...heroic. What is happening to him?
I should have f*cked her bloody.
Later, when his masters set the River on fire, and he watches as friend and foe alike die in the fires that his masters have made, he decides he's had enough. He leaves.
He steals up to the girl's room. What does he want? He tells himself he'll take her with him, take her away to safety? Or does he want to take her body? Teach her once and for all? Does he want to crush the last remaiing bit of idealism she has in a brutal act of agression?
But he goes there and....she surprises him. And he surprises himself. He demanded a song from her. And she sang the song of the Mother's Mercy to him. Mercy. Forgiveness. A hymn.
And somewhere in that hymn he finds the boy he was. And, while the fires cast shadows across the bed, he weeps. The girl touches his face. Her fears gone. He gives her his white cloak.
He leaves. Little knowing that she will wrap it around it and keep it stowed away in some secret compartment.
The Wolf B*tch
So when he meets her sister, who doesn't need any of his lessons he resolved that he would help her. He needs to...atone. He killed her friend. Michael, or whatever. And that really weighed on him.
And he didnt' manage to save her sister.
He needs to get rid of the horrid memories that he's racked up. And he needs money. With luck, her northern brother will hire him. Robb is a stinking northern sweaty but it's better than fighting for the Lannisters--who wouldn't have him now either.
And although she tries to kill him, tries to escape, hates him; he keeps her safe and alive. And he teaches her. How to kill a man. How to live in the wilderness. How to make fires and heal wounds.
He doesn't like her. She was too much like him. But he does it because she was also like both sides of him. And because he hasn't been able to save her sister.
And when she deserts him, he finds, where he least expects it, rest. He found the peace that he had been searching for ever since that day he'd had his face put to the fire.
He tried to become hero. I don't know if he succeeded. At least not to the only person that matters, which is to himself.
He's at rest now. But only temporarily. He's not finished.
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