One of the most beloved bonds on Game of Thrones was between Arya Stark and The Hound. But the pair were actually toxic for each other.
By now, its common knowledge that many fans were not satisfied with how many of the storylines of Game of Thrones ended. But while there were certainly more than a few disappointments, one relationship that seemed to conclude in a way fans enjoyed was between Arya and The Hound.
Certainly, this was one of the more unusual duos on the show, but it was always entertaining to see them together. Their relationship eventually formed into something very interesting, but despite what some fans think, it was never friendship. Here are some of the reasons why Arya and The Hound arent friends on Game of Thrones.
One of the cornerstones of the relationship between these two characters is attempted murder. While The Hound has at least had the decency not to outright try to kill Arya, she took several opportunities to either threaten to kill him or actually attempt it.
After The Hound kidnaps Arya, she contemplates stabbing him in his sleep which he, of course, anticipates. When he mocks her “water dancing” training, she responds by trying to stab him through his armor. She eventually stopped, but its hard for a relationship to recover from that.
The Hound and Aryas long journey together started after he kidnapped her from the Brotherhood Without Banners. Thats not a great way to start a friendship. These two were not on good terms to begin with, but the abduction certainly didnt help to smooth things over.
Their relationship always has that barrier because they wouldnt be sending anytime together if he wasnt forcing her to stay. Any admiration she eventually feels for him could be the result of Stockholm Syndrome rather than genuine feelings.
Some people found Aryas defeat of the Night King unlikely, yet she was clearly the most skilled assassin on the show. Her skills developed over time as she learned from many different teachers, including The Hound. However, its clear that he had one of the most negative influences on her.
Though Arya has always fought against injustice and been willing to take things into her own hands, The Hound guided her on a path of pure violence. His contempt for the world became her contempt for the world, turning her into a darker person.
Arya, and the audience, first come to understand The Hound as a ruthless man in the shows second episode. After Arya and Joffrey get into a fight, the Stark and Lannister houses are out looking for the children, including Aryas friend Mycah, the butchers boy.
Mycah was an innocent bystander in all of this, but The Hound, working under the Lannisters, rode the boy down and killed him. This cruel behavior earned The Hound a place on Aryas list, and is a horrible act that does not deserve to be forgiven.
After The Hound is left for dead, he is saved by a holy man and given a second chance. When we are reintroduced to The Hound, he seems to be on a path of redemption, though that does not last long. He might not be working for the Lannisters anymore, but he is still a man consumed with violence.
We the audience are supposed to think that The Hound is a changed man and is therefore worthy of friendship with Arya. But there is not enough change in him to justify it, so the friendship never quite feels like it is developed.
After all the times she tried to kill him, Arya finally gets the perfect chance following his brutal fight with Brienne. The Hound is left badly injured and unable to go on. Helpless, he asks Arya for a merciful death. Despite wanting to kill him previously, now that he is asking for it, she wont help him.
It had seemed at this point that the two were forming some sort of bond, but this moment really halts any progress their friendship had made. It is one of the cruelest things Arya has ever done and sets her on a darker path. She also doesnt ever show any remorse for it.
As their relationship develops, it becomes clear that The Hound, while acting as though he is using Arya as a bargaining chip, actually sees himself as her protector. That is a nice thought, but it loses some of its charm since this is not the first time hes treated a Stark girl like that.
While in Kings Landing, The Hound also takes it on himself to become a protector for Sansa Stark. Though he doesnt seem to prey on young girls that same way other characters in the show do, his protection of them seems to be more for himself than them.
There is another problem with The Hounds role as protector of Arya. While Sansa could certainly have used a friend in Kings Landing, Arya seems to be the character who requires the least protection in all of the show.
While she wasnt always a badass assassin, Arya has always been able to take care of herself. In fact, once The Hound is incapacitated, Arya chooses to go on her own, and she handles herself rather well. As it turns out, The Hound was a pretty unnecessary bodyguard.
There are many characters in Game of Thrones who are motivated by revenge, but perhaps no characters more so than Arya and The Hound. She creates a list of all the people who have wronged her and need to die, while he makes it his mission in life to kill his abusive brother, The Mountain.
If these two were true friends, they would help steer each other away from this unhealthy path. Instead, they seem to fuel each others revenge fantasies, and even travel to Kings Landing together to carry out their respective murders.
Many fans see The Hound as even more than a friend to Arya. Having put his life on the line several times for her and always looking out for her, some think he becomes something of a father figure to her.
If that is the case, it is another example of why their relationship isnt as healthy as people seem to think. Arya already has a father figure in Ned Stark. He did all the things The Hound did for Arya, but he also tried to send her down a better path. Though Ned is gone, she is better off remembering what he taught her rather than The Hounds lessons.
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The message Arya was trying to send is that the Hound doesnt deserve a clean, merciful death.
In my opinion, this action foreshadows Aryas future path in Braavos:
In Chapter 74 of A Storm of Swords Arya tells him
There may be more to it, but reasons she gives at the time are
I have only watched the show, but to me it is clear that she is conflicted in many ways about killing the hound at this point.
Firstly, she wants him to suffer, he killed the butchers boy as well as the farmer (who he nicked the silver coins from) and therefore she hates him. However, he has also been her protector to a degree and she likely knows that she owes him her life to some degree while at the same time being his captive. Lastly, I think she is still a young girl and while she has killed a few folks here and there, she has never killed someone who she has a relationship with.
In the end, I think she chose the easiest way out for herself, letting him die in the wilderness by lack of action on her behalf.
I agree it was clearly established that the Hound was part of Aryas list, which is why NOT killing him was the only way to convey with certainty that she had removed him from it. Whether she feels he doesnt deserve her mercy or whether she simply cant bring herself to kill someone to whom she has grown close is far less evident. I personally believe she posses the strength of character to deliver mercy, therefore I suspect that, while she has developed an affinity for the Hound, she still harbors resentment about his past cruelty and is unwilling to intervene.
Arya developed a conflicted relationship with Sandor. He taught her how to survive on her own. He gave her the common sense and necessary evils she needed to stay alive but she still had a heart. As did the Hound. I think she left him, took his silver, etc to make a point.
When they left the farmer, they were arguing… the Hound was convinced that he would die.
By leaving him, she KNEW he wouldnt die. But by taking his silver, she sent a poignant message.
That just because he is gravely wounded and “weak”… he wont necessarily die. Which is why the Hound broke his own “code” and took the farmers silver. Arya knows that Sandor has good in him. And thats the reason he “will never be a real killer”.
When his silver was about to be taken by Arya, he tried to take it back. He had said in a previous episode that “dead men dont need silver”. When Arya saw this, she knew that the Hound still has hope that he will still live. She decided to just leave him there without taking away that hope.
This is just what I think. Ive only seen the TV show and I dont think TV show Arya can resist caring for the Hound even just for a little bit.
I think its both. On the surface (and what she shows to him in her behavior and words), Arya is leaving The Hound to suffer and bleed prefusely, and die on her terms – devoid of mercy, similiar to how he treated his victims. A part of her despises him, his previous malicious actions and what he stands for. He killed her friend, served the Lannisters, failed to save Catelyn and Robb at the Red Wedding, he had her captive and up for sale – and he is an early name on her “To Kill List”.
On the other hand, deep inside she has developed feelings of friendship and gratitude towards him as well, knowing he saved Sansa from rape, he despises Joffrey and the Lannisters, he basically saved her from her mother and brothers fate at the Red Wedding, he was her companion and some kind of a guide to her (teaching her mostly violence, naturally for Game of Thrones), and in a way she now owes him a debt which is problematic because hes on her list.
In my opinion, its not that she couldnt do it morally… Its that she didnt want to. And she was convinced he was dying in agonizing pain anyway. Watch Season 6 knowing all this…
I definitely feel like she didnt kill him because they grew close. Hes one of the first people to be on her list, and she has plenty of opportunities to kill him. Everyone else she comes across who happens to be on her list meets their demise. But she wont kill The Hound because hes not on her list anymore. Although, she doesnt feel like she needs to help him either.
By not killing him Arya is conveying that she has forgiven him for his past crimes. Killing him would have crossed him off her list and thus the forgiveness would have been hard to show. Yes she could have said it with words but that would have been weak and the Hound would have felt shame by doing it.
In the TV show, she takes his silver. I think this parallels what the Hound did with the farmer, the Hound said “Dead men dont need silver”. Someone mentioned above the farmer was still alive. I dont remember that, but it would make sense if these scenes were meant to be related.
Not true. Don’t tell lies. Why even make that up. She left I’m coz she felt a sense of duty as he had looked after her all that time. Even tho he’s on her list she relished he wasn’t so bad. So instead of killing him she left him also didn’t help and left it up to gods to decide. He was the only person that looked after her in years. To be fair he was a dad to her. Yes m watching for 3rd the and see diff things. Pure love hound now lol
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Arya may have defeated the Night King, but the leader of the dead definitely wasnt the only person to ever fall victim to her wrath. Ever since Ned Stark lost his head, Aryas made it her mission to exact vengeance on those who have wronger her family. So when the opportunity came for her to remove one more target from her list, youd think she wouldve jumped on it, but she didnt. So why didnt Arya kill Cersei on Game of Thrones? The youngest Stark sister faced an important crossroads in her storyline and her decision shows a side of her we havent seen in quite a long time.
During the Battle of Winterfell, the Red Woman reminded Arya of what shed told her many years ago — that she would shut many eyes forever, including brown eyes, blue eyes, and green eyes. The blue eyes were definitely meant to symbolize her takedown of the Night King; however, many fans thought that the “green eyes” remark meant that shed finally be able to check Cersei off of her list as well. Yet thats not how this all ended up playing out. Sure, Arya probably couldve tracked Cersei down if shed really wanted to — she was right there, after all, already inside of the Red Keep. And yet she opted to turn around and head in the opposite direction. But why?
Dany also had an option. She didnt need to kill all those innocent lives and become Queen of the Ashes. But she also didnt have the strength to stop herself. Arya has lost many people that she loves and has killed more enemies than she can count. Yet when given the chance to choose life over death, she took it. For the first time in a long time, she opted to run away from killing instead of running toward it.
For the last several years, Arya has let killing and revenge be her main source of motivation. In fact, sometimes fans have undoubtedly worried that her darker impulses and thirst for vengeance would make her go too far — a trait that she has in common with Daenerys. But it was in this moment, when she let the Hound convince her not to go after Cersei, that we saw her humanity return in full force. Unlike Dany, who opted to ultimately give into those dark urges, Arya realized that life was about more than killing and she choose to try and help others escape the carnage of Kings Landing rather than carry out her own personal agenda.
“Its a small scene, but its also for us one of the most important scenes in the whole episode because its the culmination of their story together,” showrunner David Benioff explained during the shows weekly “Inside the Episode” discussion, regarding that final scene between the Hound and Arya inside the Red Keep. “The road to vengeance always ends in one place, which is what the Hound is saying to her here. Ive made my choice a long time ago and this could only end in one possible way for me, but for you, you have so many other options.”
Why did Arya laugh when Lysa died?
When she thinks she is finally going to stay someplace safe, with her aunt, she and the Hound hear that Aunt Lysa is dead. The sense of irony and fatality overwhelm her. She laughs with bitterness and with the growing sense of conviction that Death ALWAYS wins and that nothing is ever going to turn out right for her.
FAQ
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