What was The Hound’s beef with Bronn anyway?
Blood loss and/or concussion? Two common side effects of being smacked in the face with a longsword.
The Hound’s work is also his hobby: killing people. He picked a fight with Bronn because he’s tired of picking fights with people he can beat with no effort.
They were also all on the edge because of the upcoming battle. And while Bronn and his posse were relieving their tension with camaraderie and female companionship, the Hound was too antisocial and too full of self-loathing to be capable of any release other than booze and violence.
And it gave the later scene in the battle more meaning. The Hound was starting to break because of his fear of flames. He froze in battle, and had to be rescued by someone he loathes. Someone he perceives as weaker. Worse, Bronn knows that he froze up. That was the last straw for him.
Like I said, it was just a remote possibility I was raising. As I said previously, Bronn was being the alpha and center of attention, then Hound came in and probably found that to be an unacceptable challenge to his claim to being the baddest badass in all the land.
But still, I’m not so sure about your statement. The orders for the theoretical hit could have come with instructions to make it NOT look like a hit. Just like Mandon waited until he had an opportunity to make it look like Tyrion had fallen in battle, the Hound could have decided to wait for the same once he heard the warning bells ringing.
Hey, I just realized what Peter Dinklage’s reminds me of: The Cheetos Cheetah.
Peter Dinklage’s WHAT?!
I assume you mean his voice? 
Nope; Salic law doesn’t work that way. The heir of the throne has to be a blood relative of Robert. Unless Cersei has some distant Baratheon great uncle or something, she isn’t in line to inherit.
I think judging by his injury though, he’s safe for now at least. While I don’t put it past Martin to kill him, I do put it past the show’s writers to kill such a major (and popular) character in such a way. If they don’t get a dignified death they at least tend to get clear ones.
Gay and sterile aren’t quite the same thing, you know.
I don’t feel convinced she would do that, at least not at this point. Tyrion is her brother and I think she prefers to hurt him by proxy, not just because of the family thing but because it’s how she works and it’s only a victory for her as long as he knows it. The only reason to “strike first” in such a way is if she believes Tyrion is going to kill her himself, which he obviously would not do.
I find it more likely it was something to do with Joffrey, since he could be excused for feeling a little paranoid now that his uncle seems to hold the loyalty of the army. Or something else altogether (perhaps Tyrion is just in someone’s way).
I didn’t get the impression there was any loathing. I didn’t think the aggressive behaviour was personal, and perhaps was even something of a compliment (regarding Bronn as an at least somewhat worthy adversary). I also thought from the looks after Bronn saved him there was more respect between them rather than an “I was saved by that guy?!” kind of reaction from The Hound.
I still don’t like her. Maybe if she had have pushed Joffrey to his death when she had the chance. Although that vanguard line was nice. In fact there don’t seem to be a lot of female characters who aren’t stupid, evil or pathetic in some way.
I started watching from the first episode again, to better understand the characters. In episode 2 Cersei mentions her first son who looked like Robert, and that he died. Knowing what I know now I couldn’t help but think there was a chance she (or Jaime) killed him. However, I don’t see why she should care whether her son is by Robert or Jaime if the official story is always going to be that Robert is the father, and in fact having a son that looks like Robert would help cement his position as the heir and hence her power too.
If I may put on my Jr. Psychologist’s Hat for a moment, I’d like to speculate more about the Hound’s confrontation with Bronn.
First off, I agree with what others have said. It was a meeting of Alpha Males. They were edgy because they knew a major battle was approaching. All that is true.
But I think that in addition to all that the Hound was feeling sick and tired of his life. It took the sight of a man on fire to push him over the edge, but he was tiptoeing to the edge already. He’s been a killer, and nothing but a killer, for years. I’m not saying he wants to become a ballerina or something, just that he’s fed up with it all and wants something different.
As an analogy imagine a cubicle-drone in an office. After years of dedicated faxing and stapling and TPS reports, he suddenly starts snapping at coworkers.
“Hell, Carla, your father was an office drone. Your brothers are office drones. Some day, your sons will be office drones.”
and
“Dammit, Bob! We’re just office drones! You and I - we’re the same, don’t you get it? You’re the same as me (only with less seniority). This is all there is in life.”
It amounts to a mid-life crisis. He eventually even tells his “boss” to fuck off, then tries to run off with a girl half his age. The only thing missing is buying a ridiculously expensive horse.
His dinkle!
No, no. His silly accent.
Or hair plugs.
It’s pretty simple to me. She loves Jamie and is happy to bear and raise his children. She loathes Robert and is not willing to suffer being mother to his spawn.
Well that’s one possibility, but I didn’t get the impression she would kill one of her children no matter who the father was. She clearly loves her other children and I don’t think it’s purely because she likes Jaime better. In fact I didn’t get the impression she “loathes” Robert anyway. She doesn’t like the person he became but at one point wanted to be his queen, and not just for the power.
Of course I don’t feel entirely sure about this, that’s the problem. I can’t find an explanation that entirely adds up to me.
I’ve been watching this every week, sometimes multiple times if nothing else is on. Well today I’ve had the marathon on and re-watched the episode when Jon Snow first caught Ygritte (sp?). When he swung his sword down on the stone and she escaped, I had to pause the show … woah, I recognize that! How did I miss it the other times I’ve seen this episode? I was there last summer. At first I hadn’t recognized it because they were there in the winter and it’s almost completely covered in snow - there was virtually no snow when I was there in August. But cool, I’ve been beyond the wall 
Not just cool, I’d guess… downright cold!
No thread for the finale?
My bad, I thought I posted it. Then looked and it turned out I wrote the OP but then forgot to hit create thread.