One of the things that’s been true in both the books and the TV series is that Tyrion seems to have real contempt for the Hound. For example, when we first meet them Tyrion makes a point of saying “be a good dog and go remind him”, taunts him so badly at Joffrey’s name day that even Bronn is disturbed, and makes a point of waving the torch at him during the Battle of Black Water.
That always struck me as somewhat out of character.
Tyrion has made it clear to Bran and Jon Snow(all dwarves are bastards in the eyes of their father) that he “has a fondness for broken things” and it’s hard to see a person who’d more qualify as “a broken thing” than the Hound.
So, why do people think he seems to have such an especial contempt for the Hound so much so that it shocks his “good friend Bronn”?
First of all, the Hound isn’t especially sunny with Tyrion, either.
But mostly I get the feeling that Tyrion sees Joffrey and the Hound as MasterBlaster. Joffrey might be the one at the reins but their assholery is an attached package.
I think that’s an excellent observation and question.
Spitballing some theories here:
The Hound is Joffrey’s enforcer. That’s not exactly a position that’s going to endear him to Tyrion, or anyone for that matter.
It might be difficult for a dwarf to feel pity for the tallest man in the city. Tyrion’s a fellow full of empathy but he’s not a perfectly functioning empathy machine.
Perhaps it’s has something to do with the fact that The Hound doesn’t want to be a knight, and has contempt for knights. Virtually all noble boys in Westeros want to become knights and bring glory to their respective houses. We see Bran carrying around some bitterness that he won’t ever become a knight like he always wanted to. It wouldn’t surprise me if Tyrion had gone through a phase as a boy when he wanted to become a knight, until he finally admitted to himself that that was impossible. Even if Tyrion has mostly come to terms with this, it must rub him the wrong way that big burly Sandor Clegane outright rejects knighthood when it’s practically been handed to him.
The Hound is in many ways a complete opposite to Tyrion.
One uses his physical attributes to get by in life. The other uses his brain.
One has a close relationship with his older brother. The other one was tortured by him.
One is a big huge man and the other is … well … you know where this is going.
My point is that in many ways (possibly even every way), Tyrion sees himself as a polar opposite to The Hound and doesn’t like him. Probably because it was boys like The Hound who aways tormented Tyrion and made his life unpleasant. So, whenever Tyrion gets a chance to stick it to The Hound, he will do that and enjoy it.
It’s something I’d been thinking of since the first few episodes where there was the contrast between Tyrion’s talk with Jon Snow about how he should embrace straight on being “a bastard” and his gift for Bran and talking about how he had a fondness for broken things and then his taunting of the Hound in ways that seemed completely unnecessary and cruel.
Yes, as was noted the Hound isn’t exactly “sunny” when it comes to Tyrion, but as Bronn noted, Tyrion really seems to go out of his way to antagonize the Hound who in many ways seemed very much like someone he’d have felt a certain amount of sympathy and kinship for.
In addition to not being exactly nice to Tyrion, he’s also the brother of an absolute monster in a land where House affiliation is super important. He is probably at least somewhat attainted to Tyrion because of his genetics.
Also, if you were four feet tall and jeered at while trying to be taken seriously by the king and his court, bitchslapping a 7 foot tall goon is probably similar to taking out the toughest guy in prison.
Their relationship was mostly mutual insults. Both are judged by others and revel in their (false) image instead of constantly fighting perceptions.
Yeah totally. It’s too bad there isn’t another mentally deficient giant with a small person riding on their back in the story to be another MasterBlaster!
I think it’s this. There’s never a hint of the Hound’s “brokenness” displayed except when Arya is the only one to observe, and even then, it’s a long, slow process of unraveling. To Tyrion and the rest of the world, the Hound is nothing more than a brutish, unfeeling killing machine, with perhaps an odd fear of fire to provide some interest.
Touching on the Hounds contempt for knighthood… all of the enforcing he did for joffrey, he did without being honor bound by knighthood. I imagine that would grate on Tyrions hoof because why else are men made to do awful things? They take oaths which say they must obey the crown. The hound takes no such oath, though. Yet as if he had carries on the bidding of a cowardly little monster.
That Tyrion never saw the Hound’s softer moments? Well, bad luck. Thats why.
The Hound killed the butcher’s boy with no apparent remorse or guilt. I imagine that’s not the first time he’s killed a child (or other innocents), and since he’s served the Lannisters all his life, Tyrion is probably well aware of all the awful things he’s done.
The Hound is a great character to watch and read about, but he’s still a mostly amoral killer. Think of all the movies with a Mafia hitman who has moments in which he’s not such a bad guy – he still kills for money. The Hound is a lot like that.
Despite some redeeming qualities that he rarely displays and only with a very few selected people, the hound is (was?) a brutish and murderous thug. I’m not sure why it’s surprising that Tyrion (or anybody else for that matter) doesn’t like him.
Courage (except against fire), and an occasional (but significant) willingness to take risks to protect the innocent. Examples of the latter include rescuing Loras Tyrell when Gregor is about to kill him (season 1), rescuing Sansa from multiple armed rapists (season 2), taking on multiple armed Freys to protect Arya (season 3), following Arya into the tavern when he knows there are men inside who recognize him and will likely try to kill him (season 4), and, at the end, trying to protect Arya from who he perceives as a Lannister goon (Brienne). And at the end, it’s clear that he’s not going to get a decent ransom for her anywhere.
He also hurts several innocent people and he’s also holding Arya hostage. He protects her at least in part because he wants to ransom her to her aunt. The thing people like about the Hound is that he recognizes the cynical, violent world he lives in and doesn’t sugarcoat it. That includes his awareness of the hypocrisy and nonsense that passes for chivalry.
The Hound doesn’t have any friends - Sandor goes out of his way to insult and/or alienate everyone he deals with and in no way hides his disdain for politeness, or bothers to conceal even for one second that he’s a terrible prick. Sure, he’s got a reason for his horrible personality, but that doesn’t make anyone want to put up with it. It’s too bad he never had any scenes with Stannis Baratheon - they’ve got similar ideas on social graces.
My thoughts too UNTIL the last episode. Why not just leave her at the Aerie and tell her to fuck off? Instead I think we see a father/daughter relationship (GOT version without sex) developing between the two and he’s genuine in his caring about what happens to her once he’s dead.