Arya and the Hound
A hallmark of great fictional characters and situations is that they aren’t just popular, but trigger conversation and analysis. Watching the last six episodes of “Game of Thrones” is great fun, and I knew it would start a billion water-cooler conversations. I pushed Tananarive to watch the previous seasons, so that we could enjoy the cultural event in real-time. I’m not totally engaged emotionally (the Unsullied saw to that. Not quite enough for me to root for the Night King, but close…) but I do enjoy the hell out of it on a wide enough variety of levels that I can’t wait to see what happens next.
One of my favorite moments from Sunday’s show was referenced by Wendi Dunlap, about an exchange between The Hound and Arya Stark.
Hound: You left me to die
Arya: I robbed you first.
This…for these two characters, was basically a big, warm hug. Do you get it? These two LOVE each other. The Hound is a ruined man, hideous on the outside, a man forced to child murder by the men and women he trusted with his honor, mutilated by his own brother.
But…he is also a man searching for meaning in life, something to believe in. And whether that was a spiritual community or finding meaning in rescuing a single child (yeah, he was gonna get paid. But there are countless ways for a murder machine to get paid in this world. “Getting paid” was, IMO, the rationalization that allowed him to Do The Right Thing).
And Arya? From the first moment we meet her, she’s been fascinated by killing. Arrows. Swords. Poison. Ninja skills. A girl was single minded about survival.
She has wandered far, and met all manner of human beings, seen all manner of hideous life ways and ugly secrets. And yet somehow managed to keep her soul. If we take this literally, she would come out the other side of this with a very different perspective on what it is to be human, and the price we pay in the world to walk with dignity.
How would she see the Hound? I’d say close to a father figure. He treated her strictly, but fairly, and she HAS to know the corruption violence wreaks on the soul. The paleness within her would harmonize with that within him.
And he would see her as the daughter he never had. A lethal little sprite who still has her heart, who has managed to survive in a savage world without being consumed by it. They SEE each other, and if both are standing at the end of it all, I’d be happy.
Actually, the ONLY person I’m going to be pissed about if I don’t get the pleasure of watching her die is Cersei. THAT venomous harpy seriously needs to be skinned and rolled in salt.
Or hey, if she ends up the Night Queen of the North, bringing an entirely new meaning to the term “frigid”…that would be fine with me.
Steve