Some reactions to SanSan
“The scene even provided justification by way of contrast for the show’s taciturn take on the Hound, who in the books is literally the angriest, most frightening man alive. Compared to his supposed betters’ shouting and flailing, his near-mute Terminator-style attack on Sansa Stark’s would-be rapists is all the more frightening. Sandor Clegane finds violence neither horrifying (like Theon) nor exhilarating (like Joffrey) – he tears men apart like he’d scrape horseshit off his boots.”
“At King’s Landing, we’re really seeing the results of this shitty Lannister rule. The best part of course being the epic rescue of Sansa (Sophie Turner) by Sandor “The Hound” Clegane (Rory McCann), a show of all-too rare heroics that had every “San/San” ‘shipper squealing and squirming in their Hello Kitty pajamas.”
“I was glad to see that Sansa didn’t relent, but fought back, despite being outnumbered and outmatched. The horror of the near-gang rape scene was keenly felt in her terror and distress and the savage and uncaring masks of her attackers, seeing her as something to be destroyed, to be bloodied and used, to be cast off like garbage. It’s the Hound, of course, who comes to her rescue, the “monster” who is far more civilized than his master—or anyone, really—would give him credit for. (In fact, it’s the fourth time the Hound has saved her: last season, he chided Joffrey when he made Sansa stare at Ned’s rotten head on a spike; he saved her from a beating when he told Joffrey that Sansa wasn’t just being superstitious when she made the comment about his name day; he gave her his cloak when Joffrey orders her stripped in the throne room.)
Upon seeing the frenzy of the crowd, the first thought that Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) has is of Sansa’s safety, but he’s thinking in far more pragmatic terms, seeing the Stark girl as a bargaining chip, a hostage, a pawn. It’s not the Hound’s perception. He sees Sansa as a “little bird” whom he saves from the hungers of the crowd, bringing her back to the keep so she can be returned to her “cage.” His sense of honor and morality is at odds with both his “freakish” appearance and his own use of brutality. Rather than just save Sansa, he disembowels one of her captors and slays them all gruesomely. He has the bottle to be just as brutal as anyone else, but he has a moral code that sets him apart from the wildness of those around him,”
“Joffrey, if he hasn’t demonstrated how much he hates Sansa by stripping and beating her before the court, only reinforces how little he values her continued well-being by telling his guards “Let them have her” after Sansa is chased off by men who mean to rape her. It’s the Hound, a man who insists he stands apart from chivalric tradition, who returns to save Joffrey’s ostensible lady, telling Tyrion when the Hand thanks him, “I didn’t do it for you.” There’s pleasure, it seems, in not reducing a woman to a womb, to a piece of dismembered meat as the rampaging crowd does to a septa in Joffrey’s entourage. And the fate the Hound saves her from is a shock to Sansa, even after everything that’s been done to her by the man who was once her ideal. “He hated me, the man who hit me,” Sansa tells Shae. “I saw it in his eyes. I never met him before, but he wanted to hurt me.” And it’s the former prostitute who’s left to explain to Sansa the intersection of seething class rage and misogyny. “You are everything he will never have,” Shae explains to Sansa. “Your horse eats better than his children.””
“Sansa is almost raped before being rescued by the Hound, who takes care of things in his usual brute force fashion. But his affection for Sansa is obvious (“I didn’t do it for you,” he tells Tyrion),”
“Just as it’s about to get really horrible, the Hound shows up, disembowels one, snaps another guy’s neck and kills the third one leaving the last guy cowering in the corner. He tosses Sansa over his shoulder and tells her, ‘You’re all right, Little Bird.” I think he likes Sansa. He brings her to the castle where Tyrion frets over her (because he’s ultimately a gentleman) and then thanks The Hound, who is all Honey Badger about it. “Don’t give a shit if you’re proud of me. Didn’t do it for you.””
