For a while, it wasn’t looking good for anyone during Game of Thrones’ latest episode, The Long Night. That it was; a long battle that looked like we would have to come to terms that most of our favorites would not be making it out alive. We lost Theon, Jorah, Lady Mormunt, Beric, Edd, and Melisandre, but many of the big name characters were left alive and we know that that is because another battle has to be won after dealing against the Wights. For one particular character, dying at Winterfell would only mean fans wouldn’t get something that they have been waiting a long time for – Cleganebowl.
During the Battle of Winterfell, Sandor Clegane aka the Hound fell victim to a common fear of his – fire. Due to the event, he went through as a child, where his brother Gregor aka the Mountain pushed his face into hot fire for playing with his toys – the Hound almost becomes immobilized around a flame. When dealing with the Wights, though; fire is essential and we see the abundance of fire taking a toll on him, which causes this fierce warrior to hide at some point. It’s only when the Hound sees that Arya is in trouble that he pushes his trepidations aside so he can help the girl who he had grown close to throughout the series. It could have been easy for the writers to give the Hound a heroic death during this event, have Sandor killed while rescuing Arya, but the Hound has bigger fish to fry than even the undead.
Now that the Hound has survived this battle, we can almost be sure that Cleganebowl is going to happen. What is Cleganebowl? Essentially, a rematch between brothers. We saw the Hound and the Mountain briefly go at it in season one, when the Hound was preventing the Mountain from killing Sir Loras. And in season seven’s finale, Sandor confronted a now [almost] zombie-like version of his brother, to let him know what was coming.
There are three episodes left to the season and in the promo for next week, we see Daenerys celebrating the victory over the Wights and proclaiming that Cersei will be next. With this war already on its way, we’re closer to the idea that Sandor and Gregor could finally battle against each other. Sandor’s deeply rooted hatred for his older brother fuels his desires to exact revenge and the fact that the Mountain has become an even more horrifying killing machine throughout the years completely justifies Sandor’s path.
The only question is, what will be the outcome? As a fan of the Hound, of course, I would like to see Sandor finally able to exact revenge. He is a powerful fighter and we have seen that there are very few who can go toe to toe with him and live to tell about it. On the other hand, the Mountain is brutal and ruthless, not to mention is essentially a zombie at this point. Does this mean the Hound will lose? Or if he does manage to defeat his brother, will he die in the process? We’ll have to find out, but I’m crossing my fingers that my favorite character in the series, hopefully; makes it out alive.
Check out Geek Vibes Nation’s recap of The Long Night here.
A girl with too many fandoms to count.
