His girls

Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon by hueco-mundo

Like literally his face when she’s clapping for Sandor

The original manuscript of the Red Wedding

The sentence that was cut reads, “The birds tore off her lips, the lips that Ned had kissed, and ripped the ears from her head that had heard him pledge his love.”

Game Of Thrones Joust by dashinvaine

I am rereading A Game of Thrones and I have noticed that Sandor and Sansa look quite a bit like Ned and Cat come to life again,the dark-haired grey-eyed grim-looking man,and the beautiful redhead. I noticed this when I read Cat’s chapter in AGOT. I noticed something else, when Cat went…

¿Pero no crees que se observan conexiones entre esos dos árboles y como los describen si piensas en los hombres los que parece que representan? Es que te aseguro que estoy totalmente convencida. Es cuestión de elección de palabras y de veras que está ahí la cosa. Yo no me esfuerzo por ver lo que no hay, no me ha pasado nunca hasta ahora y mira que ya he leído mucho ya en mi vida, que soy una devora-libros desde pequeña. 

Al releer se ven detalles que uno no ha visto antes. No puedo saber si Sandor sobrevivirá o si morirá después de tener algo con Sansa, es posible que su sangre riegue el suelo del norte literalmente, pero el centinela va por él, fíjate que se lo describe diciendo literalmente que lleva una armadura gris. Es una extraña elección de palabras para referirse a un árbol a no ser que sea un guiño hacia otra armadura gris. Nadie va de gris y verde más que Sandor. Nadie más. Luego es alto como una torre, igual que el árbol. Es una secuoya, pero en inglés se les llama sentinel trees y son los árboles más altos del bosque. Las secuoyas se caracterizan por se extremadamente altas. He sacado esto de la wikipedia:

Tengo una duda, leíste el capítulo en español? Como se llama en español a ese tipo de árbol. Yo he buscado y sale secuoya, con la traducción se puede perder la connotación del centiela, el que está en guardia permanentemente. 

Luego piensa en Ned y su cara larga y compungida, como la del weirwood. ¿De verdad no lo ves? El árbol es como él, se le está yendo la vida (lo anuncia la señal del lobo huargo muerto y se confirma cuando le ajustician), por eso la savia está seca en el árbol, y ¿por qué comparar las hojas de un árbol con manos manchadas de sangre sin razón aparente? Es, creo yo, una comparación deliberada. Ned tiene las manos manchadas de sangre porque ha ejecutado a un hombre,y a muchos otros supongo,él no paga a verdugos para que le hagan el trabajo sucio sino que ejecuta las sentencias personalmente.

Por supuesto, puedes verlo de otro modo, o pensar que es todo casualidad, pero no lo descartes totalmente, es muy probable que con estas señales George vaya indicando lo que luego va a pasar. :) Lo veremos, espero. Porque a este paso…

A ver, si me esfuerzo puedo ver lo que sea. Igual que te compro el paralelismo pelirroja / moreno de ojos grises con Ned y Cat vs Sansa y Sandor (por que es así y no es nada gratuito que Sandor, siendo de las Westerlands, tenga un físico más que norteño ejem ejem…), lo de equiparar Sandor al árbol centinela (que es como lo llaman en la traducción) lo veo más cogido por los pelos. Es decir, sí lo repienso 200 veces pues sí, vale, puede cuadrar, pero es que sinceramente, dudo mucho que GRRM haya creado los árboles centinela como una metáfora de Sandor Clegane. Esta claro que su escritura es muy compleja, con muchas capas, muchos vínculos y muchas imágenes que sólo salen tras varias relecturas, pero no TODO está vinculado y mucho menos todo está vinculado con Sansan. Podemos vincularlo nosotros si queréis, pero no creo que en ese caso lo haya hecho a propósito ni mucho menos. Por que, por mucho que nos guste Sandor y por mucho interés que le ha puesto el autor a su desarrollo, ni es un personaje principal ni es tan importante ni tan vital para el devenir la historia global. Es por eso que me niego a ver símbolos Sansan en cada esquina, por que no es así. No cada vez que hay algo rojo es porque es una metáfora de la maidenhood de Sansa, ni cada vez que sale una brizna de hierba verde es porque se refiere a Sandor. Ni cada vez que sale agua en algún sitio es un foreshadowing de las lágrimas de Sandor XD. Habrá veces que sí, que tenga que ver, pero muchas otras no. En ese caso del árbol el símbolo está porque lo habéis querido colocar porque encaja con la teoría de los colores, no porque sea así.

Tres cuartos de lo mismo me pasa con lo de la savia del árbol del prólogo y la sangre de Sandor el día de la Blackwater Battle. Una cosa es que el gesto te recuerde al que veremos próximamente y otra muy diferente que esté puesto ex-profeso como metáfora, símbolo, whatever de la sangre de Clegane ese día. Yo puedo entender que una cosa recuerde a la otra, porque ya nos sabemos la historia, pero no que esté puesto a propósito y menos en la página 3 del primer libro de todos (no nos olvidemos que cuando Martin empezó a escribir empezó por Bran está iba a ser la historia de un niño llamado Bran, lo demás vino después, no la historia de SC)

No es que no quiera ver las cosas, es que algunas sí las veo y otras creo que se cojen con pinzas y se meten con calzador. Que bueno, para echar el rato hasta que saque Twow pues esta genial especular y desvariar, pero no creo que sean ciertas. Que por mucho que nos duela, ésta no es la historia de Sansa y Sandor exclusivamente, es de muchos otros personajes y tramas. Y es por eso por lo que me fascina tanto. Si todo Asoiaf girara en torno a ellos sería un libro más, entretenido, vale, pero ni la mitad de fascinante que me resulta la enormidad de personajes y subtramas que me encuentro cada vez que lo he leído ^^ 

(qué gusto escribir en castellano!)

¿¿¿¿¿Que es esta orgía de castellano y sin mí????? Para una vez que puedo escribir sin pegar patadas a la gramática inglesa. 

A ver: no creo ni mucho menos que todo sea SanSan. Los árboles son importantes porque están relacionados con el niño árbol Stark (Bran). Los árboles vigilan, por eso son centinelas. Por favor: que los árboles no os impidan ver el bosque jeje. 

También es importante el color. Eyesofmist antes era un tanto reacia a esa teoría, pero ahora creo que la ha abrazado bien fuerte.

Los colores son importantes porque expresan sensaciones, sentimientos y son en sí pistas que nos quiere transmitir el escritor. En otro libro no lo diría pero en este sí. 

Es importante el rojo y el blanco, el verde, el azul, y hasta el marrón (que describe a los campesinos, al pueblo llano, que cuando lo llevan algunos es para ocultarse y que los demás no les vean como lo que realmente son). Pero no sólo en relación a Sansa Stark o Sandor Clegane, sino en relación a todos los personajes. No lo veo tanto como centrados en un personaje, sino en todos. Una pista: GRRM quería que los ojos de Renly fueran verdes (pero claro no pudo hacerlo para no destrozar su fantástica teoría de los ojos azules y pelo negro de los Baratheon). El verde es un símbolo de cambio. 

A mí me encantan todas las teorías locas. Yo misma suelo tener varias. como una de ellas es que Bran no regresará a Winterfell nunca, sino Rickon (con su lobo negro y de ojos verdes). Algunas pueden dar en el clavo, otras no. Y esta del pelo de Cat y de Ned es por lo menos curiosa. 

Sobre SanSan: yo si creo que se encontrarán, pero no va a terminar bien. Podría porque una pareja al menos tiene que terminar bien, y al ritmo que va pocas le van a quedar. Aunque creo que todos los SanSan nos conformaríamos con un sólo breve encuentro y sobretodo: ¡con un beso! Pero de verdad, no uno imaginado. 

También me gusta que tu debatas y que des tu opinión porque así nos haces pensar más a todos, y aunque ahora alguien pueda parecer en una postura inamovible, esa persona seguirá pensando al igual que tú, y al cabo de un tiempo puede pasar que cualquiera de las dos se mueva a la postura contraria. 

Con lo que más me quedo de todo: que pensemos también bastante en las otras tramas, que hay muchas y muy curiosas y con mucho sobre lo que discutir porque ahí no estamos ni mucho menos de acuerdo. Y yo quiero eso: hablar de lo que piensa cada una pero de todos los personajes, hasta de Old Nan o de la Maegi.  

Cambio al inglés porque se me han fugado hoy cuatro seguidores. :(

In our reread I have commented things about many characters,not only about Sandor and Sansa,that’s why my posts were so long.

As for the trees, what I mean is that he one Will climbed represents Sandor and not another character, it isn’t any sentinel, I think, and I say I think because I may be wrong, this one is a hint towards Sandor in particular for the reasons I pointed out before. 

As for the colours, it is something I didn’t get at first, but of course you convinced me they were important because you explained what you saw to me and now I really think you are right. Martin pays  a lot of attention to colours and they must have a meaning. With other authors they could be used to describe things and nothing else but not with Martin, he attaches a meaning to colours we shouldn’t dismiss. 

And forgive me but I am going to spend more time thinking about the characters I find more interesting, that is unavoidable, with me and with most people, I guess.

As you point out, THIS sentinel in particular recalls Sandor, the rescue of Sansa during the bread riot, the cheek sticky with blood.  This one is ARMOURED with grey-green needles and is there just when Will needs it.  Later on, the Hound “dies” under a tree.  Martin goes into detail of how Sandor falls off his horse and crawls until he gets to the tree to prop himself up against the trunk.  Arya almost gives him the mercy with Needle.  There is a crow/s flitting about and following Arya and Sandor during his death scene.  Crows and trees and needles and sticky sap/blood.  Call me obsessed, but I see a link between the passages :).

There are other grey-green “sentinels” in the Stark’s lives.  Bran is red-haired and blue-eyed, just like Sansa.  He IS the weirwood, literally now, and who are his protectors?  The Reeds—who dress in grey-green, who have mossy green eyes.  Meera, with her laughter and her frog spear, is more of the sentinel literally, but Jojen also watches over Bran.  

Point being, the Starks and their friends/lovers can be compared symbolically to these trees.  I like the other characters, but Sansa is my favorite Stark, so connections to her are more interesting to me. 

To that yes: grey-green is not just Sandor can represent somebody that will look over one of the Starks. But I am not so sure if they are good or not to the children. Just as a reminder: Petyr Baelish has grey-green eyes. And it is also significant that when Will climbed down the tree he died.

Ok, now you’ve done it:  I have to show some degree of empathy for Petyr Baelish (shudder) ;).  Whether I like it or not, Petyr is a protective figure to a degree.  To a small degree.  As much as I want to believe that Petyr is just the evil villain, twirling his mustache or stroking his goatee with a smirk (ala the t.v. show), he does have more depth than that.

At times, only at times, I think Petyr does think of Sansa fondly, as the daughter he could have had with Cat.  I think Martin even confirms this in one of his interviews where he is discussing the characters.  Is Petyr an abusive, scheming, murdering, sexually abusive pimp?  Yes.  He’s also, sometimes, kind of okay.  Which is what makes him the worst of the worst.  Worse than Joffrey.  Sansa at least knew that Joffrey was all bad.  With Petyr, why is Sansa so conflicted?  Because she says herself it’s almost like he is two different men.  I don’t think that’s Sansa justifying, at least not entirely.  I think Petyr is shifty, literally, shifting between personas.  Which is the real one?  I think they are all aspects of him.  Why are his eyes grey-green and not just ‘green” or just “grey”?  I think it’s a feature that shows his dual nature.  The people who treated Sansa the worst have those emerald green eyes—the Lannisters.  Several people who have loved and protected Sansa have grey eyes—Ned, Sandor, and yes, even Arya (who DOES love Sansa).

Petyr is a man who DID love.  I think it was twisted, idealized love.  I doubt he ever really knew how Cat thought or felt, but I think he did believe that Cat was his true love.  I think he was an idealistic boy (and still a nasty, sexually pushy boy, too, if Cat’s recollections of him sticking his tongue in her mouth AND Lysa’s mouth as they played at kissing means anything—I think it does), who tried to play the gallant knight and was nearly sliced in half for his troubles.  We don’t get that described very often, but like Sandor, like Tyrion, Petyr has a defining scar.  He was sliced from the the top of his chest to his belly by Brandon Stark.  He was almost cut in half. 

Unlike Sandor or Tyrion, who wear their scars on the outside, and therefore have no choice but to wrestle with their duality—The Hound/Sandor, Good Tyrion/Bad Tyrion—Petyr can hide his scars, and I think that makes him more dangerous. 

And regarding Will dying after climbing down the tree—well, if he’d STAYED in the tree, maybe he would have been okay?  It was when he left the protection of the sentinel that he was killed.

In fact, I thing we are dealing with different things, one of them is the man associated with a tree,and this has nothing to do with Petyr whatsoever. These are Ned, Bran, Bloodraven and Sandor. Nothing to do with Belish, Ned is like the weirwood, like the old North, he belongs to other time in his nobility and truthfulness. Ned is the real thing, genuine like no other. Sandor was wrong about Ned when he thought he was self-righteous and uptight. He was all wrong because Ned was a real good, honorble man, a man wiith principles, honest , protective, brave and faithful. But men like Ned probably belong in the past, in the age of heoroes he likes to tell his children about.

He is only thirty-five but he doesn’t belong in the world of petty power struggles, deceit and greed he had to live in. It was OK while he was in the North, in his world but he had no place in the south. Notice there aren’t weirwoods in the south. The south is no place for the likes of Ned. 

He is like the weirwood in his Godswood, a remnant of the age of heroes and the first men, of a time more noble but gone. He has a long face and he looks grim, severe , and the weriwood has a long face carved on its bark. The sap on its bark has dried.

 Why?

 It is the weriwood’s blood and its living sap (the tree’s blood)has dried, which is as bad as sign as the old direwolf they found in the forest. It’s a bad sign for Ned. The tree has leaves described as red, like bloodstained hands, perhaps the hands of all the Starks who were wardens of the North and executed the people they sentenced to die. Honourable poeple, perhaps (in thruth in Ned’s case)but with stained hands.

Petyr told Sansa much later to keep her hands clean, no matter what. Well, Ned doesn’t have clean hands but is honourable whereas Petyr isn’t. Perhaps Martin is implying the one who does the deed is not necessary the real culprit or the one to blame the most. Petyr’s hands are clean but he is despicable and has caused death and pain with his actions. Ned has killed people but he is a good man, here we have a contrast and real food for thought.

For me, Ned is nearly “the ideal man”. I said many times he was was my favourite character until he was killed, but I admit there may be no place for such men in the dirty world of Westeros, perhaps not even in our civilized world.

We tell our children not to lie, to be fair and honest, but the world they find is full of scum, deceit, corruption and as Sandor would say, shit. Ned teaches his children his values and keeps faithful to them all his life, cause he dies for them. He dies for compassion, because he felt compassion for a mother and her kids who would have probably been killed (I’m sure Cersei would have been killed and the children would have been condemned to a horrible fate even if they weren’t killed) when Robert got to know Jaime had fathered them all.

Compassion was his crime and not idiocy. His second mistake was trusting the wong people (Littlefinger)and the last his honourability and loyalty, because he didn’t want to accept Renly’s offer as he thought Stannis was the rightful heir. So, Westeros is no place for good honourable men, just as it is no place for old weirwoods. Ned’s best qualities are the ones that cause his downfall.

In those first chapters Martin shows us Ned is going to die, because he knows winter is coming, and sooner for him;his death, the cold, the winter comes too soon for him. We also have the signs, the parent who dies but still cares for their children first (the direwolf), and the old weirwood whose sap is already dry although it has lived for hundreds of years. This is not the end only for Ned, it may be the end for the whole Stark line,though I hope not.

Then we have the sentinels and there are several in these first chapters but only one which is described in itself, in isolation, in stark profile. The tallest where it is, the one Will clings to for protection, the one full of life and dripping sap, sticky with sap (the life of the tree). The tree is huge and protective and chosen by Will when he tries to cling to his life and escape that death (the others) that is hovering in the wood. 

The tall sentinel, always watching as all sentinels would, is the tallest in the forest and is armoured in grey,as well as having grey-green leaves. I see this is Sandor’s image, the tallest “knight” apart form Gregor (the sentinel in the national park is not the tallest sequoia in America either), wearing a grey armour and chosen by Sansa as her champion ( I knew the Hound would win), and also by Arya, despite herself (you should have saved my mother).

Sandor is the father figure, taken for Arya's father and caring for her in his gruff crude way, but keeping her safe and fed, and taken for her father by Sansa when she backs into him at the sight of ser Illyn.

The tree leaves are the clothes for the tree, we say it is naked when it has no leaves, so the grey-green sentinel, the armoured tree, refers to someone wearing grey armour and a green cloak or surcoat. This can only be Sandor.

Not only because he is a man towering over the rest, but also because of his protective nature and because he protected Ned’s daughters after Stark was killed,as if taking over his protective role. Sansa literaly clings to Sandor’s torso when she is rescued and the guy is more often than not sticky with blood when he is around her.

Why would you describe how much sap a tree has if there wasn’t a reason? George is showing us the tree is full of life though sorrounded by death and cold. Then we have Sandor bleeding and taking so many wounds it seems too much. 

What for?

He is full of life, to the brim, bleeding around Sansa like the tall sentinel in the forest, which makes Will sticky with sap, I only hope Sansa doesn’t die now that Sandor is not with her to protect her,like Will died when he climbed down the tree. 

However there is someone who did die when Sandor left and thus stopped watching him, when he stopped being his sentinel, Joffrey was poisoned after he lost his sentinel/bodyguard.

To sum up, as I see it, Sandor will replace the father figure that was Ned, he already has to some extent for both Arya and Sansa. Not all father figures are supposed to be parents, a husband or lover can be very protective too. Sandor did try to be Sansa’s mentor, giving her advice, protecting her, calling her "child" all the time, until her obvious growth got in the way and he couldn’t avoid feeling attracted to her, no longer for her kindness and goodness alone, but also for her appeal as an attractive woman, despite how young she was.

Symbolically, he also won Sansa’s hand in front of her father and was given the prize as a winner in the Hand’s Tourney. Perhaps what he won was not just the gold ( which the BwB stole from him) but the young lady herself. That’s how I  see it, at least.

As for Bran and Bradraven they are connected to trees for obvious resons, but I’ll leave that until I reread their chapters. 

As for Littlefinger, I have many things to say about him, but I’ll leave that for another post as this is getting too long. What I do believe is that he has nothing to do with any trees and I don’t consider him as a protector but a kidnapper who has Sansa prisoner. I don’t think he loved Cat either. Don’t call it love when it means obsession. Love is entirely different from what he “felt” for Cat.

He just wanted a tropy, to get the hot girl from the highborn house where he was fostered but he didn’t belong to .The man is an arribist, so it makes sense for him to want everything the High Lords he envies have, including their daughters or wives. Cat was like a possesion for him, like gold or castles, he just wants to gather and be like the people he envies, thus taking revenge on them for making him feel an outsider, making him feel he is not good enough.

If he had felt love for Cat he would neverr have caused her so much grief. He stole everything from her when he betrayed Ned,and Cat herself in the process. Love is NOT about wanting, it is not about oneself but about your loved ones. 

If you love a person,you give up things you want for them, like Ned gave up his honor, what he valued most in life,for the Sake of his daughter, admitting treason falsely to save his daughter. That is a protector, a man who loves. Petyr Baelish knows nothing about love.

Sandor wanted Sansa and offered her all he had (his protection) during the notorious BoBW night but left when he thought she didn’t want him. For people like Petyr, it doesn’t matter if the object of his desire wants him back, he doesn’t even ask Catelyn is she wants him when he fights Brandon “for her”.

She didn’t want him, she wanted Brandon, so why didn’t he respect her choice? Because it meant nothing to him what she wanted. Men like him do not care what women want, they just want to get what they want, that is all.

Sorry, but I cannot sympathise with his predicaments ,not in the least, especially as regards love, a concept he obviously knows nothing about. As for love as an emotion or feeling, even less.

I’ll make a match with someone who is worthy of you, someone who is brave, gentle and strong. - Ned Stark

It’s really difficult to guess what his intentions were as we don’t access to his thoughts but I agree that he probably didn’t know himself what to do. He was traumatised, drunk, deranged and completely broken and went to look for her out of instinct. She was the only person in the world that mattered to him and wanted to see her at least one last time. I think that when he saw her he thought of taking her with him. He had tried to protect her when he could and now she would be on her own when he left. I’m sure leaving her for ever was hell for him cause his feelings were very strong, as we get to know later when he travels with Arya.

When he tried to approach her she closed her eyes and that felt like a blow to him. That made him lose it. I was extremely frightened when he became so threatening and violent, that’s what I felt while reading. I wasn’t sure he wasn’t going to hurt her and he was really frightening, so if the scene felt “romantic” at all it was in the scary gothic way as he appeared more monster than man then. Anyway, she understands him and forgives him, she even romantisizes what happened even though she remembers well that he threatened her. It really is a very ambuguous scene that can be interpreted in several different ways.

I saw season 1 of GOT before I read the books, and I started reading expecting there to be some kind of interaction with Sansa and The Hound.  Oh, I was not disappointed, and like amplifyme said, the Blackwater scene was definitely not my idea of romantic the first time I read it.  I was shocked.  It was scary, but upon reflection, and after reading SOS, I saw there was more to it…not unlike Sansa is doing in her recollections? 

I’m going to be boring in my interpretation though and say that I think Sandor knew exactly what he was doing there.  He was going to be the dashing savior!  Just like before with the bread riots, and wasn’t the Little Bird happy to see him then?  It would be just like a song!  He’s running on the adrenaline if finally telling everyone in King’s Landing where to go and he and the Little Bird would ride off to freedom and romance—maybe not that many details, but I suspect that was the gist.  Unfortunately, he was wounded, exhausted, she wasn’t in her room when he got there.  Maybe he didn’t know where the heck she was.  Who knows.  The battle and the terror and the wine gets the best of him and he passes out.  After that, after the perceived rejection, who knows where he was going at that point, but I truly believe his intentions were good when he first arrived at her chambers.

I also think he didn't go to her room with bad intentions, I'm not sure if he went there with the clear idea of taking her away from the city but at some point he had this intention, and that is what he offered her.

What is clear is that he didn't go there with the intention of raping her as some readers say, that would have been completely out of character for him. The scene is so confusing for the reader, it has so many layers that George even gave a sort of explanation in the show in the chapter that he wrote, which contains this scene,by the way. Sansa says  " You won't hurt me" and Sandor says that he won't, so this way the writer makes it clear that Clegane didn't go there to kill her or to rape her.

When reading the scene it felt scary, but when it ended I had the feeling that there was something missing, something that wasn't told, that's why I read it several times and still I wasn't sure. It's as if there were several things going on at the same time and nothing was what it seemed. 

It felt as if there was something sexual going on but he never said anything of the sort, he didn't kiss her, grope her, or threaten her with anything remotely sexual, but the impression was there anyway, and I think it's because there is another scene happening in a sort of symbolic or subliminal level and the reader catches it or feels it somehow. 

This other message is there,because of the unneccesary dagger, (Come on,he's huge, he needs no dagger to threaten a slip of a girl), the body language, the kiss she thinks he desires, both of them lying on her bed, the "song" he wants to take from her, the bloody white cloth (his cloak), etc. 

It's so confusing because there is one scene before our eyes but we feel there's another one hidden behind it and it is every bit as important as the first. When Sansa thought later that she had kissed him (she kissing him, mind you) most of us went back to re-read it  because there had been no kiss, wondering if something else had happened, not only the kiss, and it did but in a symbolic way. There was a symbolic bedding there and she remembers it later in the Eyrie like an abandoned woman resenting her lover for going away "leaving her nothing but a bloody cloak." That's what she sounds like, like a woman pining for a lover who took too much from her and didn't come back.

Hell, they never were lovers, there was no kiss and no sex between them, not even words of love or promises, apart from that " I can keep you safe..". Now that I think about it, his was a promise and an offer beyond the apparent, he was offering himself to a woman for the first time in his life.

Everything went wrong because the timing was wrong, she was too young and too traumatised and he was a man in his prime with too many issues to solve,as traumatised as she was and with too much pain and anger to hold inside. Their story had to wait as it's meant for the future. That's why I think theirs is the romance in this series, because it started in the first book and slowly, very slowly it kept building up very subtly throughout all the books.

No good writer produces a great love interest for a main character in one of the last books of a series as if he was popping a rabbit out of a top hat, that would suck. By contrast, Sandor Clegane appeared with the Lannisters in the very first book and there must be a reason for that. He was given a lot of attention for a minor character, even getting mentioned in Ned's chapters. Why is Ned so interested in this guy, mentioning him several times when he is only a lackey? Because he is meant to become his daughter's man, in the future, but he will be. He is going to be Ned's replacement as the most important man in Sansa's life, that's why we see that Eddard dislikes him and thinks he is so dangerous. Of course he is dangerous, but surely there were many other Lannister men who could get N.Stark's attention, and Clegane is individualised, thus getting the reader's attention too, surely for a reason.

It's in the text, I think, all this. Several times I have thought Ned would have been most horrified if he had suspected that disgusting dude had an interest in his girl, everybody would if they were in his shoes. However, the same awful guy saves his two daughters several times whereas the pretty boy he arranged for Sansa to marry is a monster. Oh, the irony! Oh, and that horrible monster would die for his girl, and keeps thinking of her until what he thinks is his "last" breath and beyond. He's far from the ideal suitor but he is the one that will love her and probably the one that she wants.

#NEDFACE

For some reason, I never noticed Ned during the Hand’s Tourney until now… His faces are EVERYTHING!!!

First, when he realizes Arya is playing hookey…

Then when Loras gives Sansa da wed wose…

"Laaame."

Then when Littlefinger puts his dirty mitts on his daughter…

"I will fuck you up, Littleprick…"

Then when everyone’s cheering for the Hound…

Oh Ned, how I miss you and your crabby mug. *sigh*

I love how Ned’s facial expression went from “Hm. That’s fascinating, Petyr, do continue” to “Get your hand off my daughter before I strangle you again.” in about 0.5 seconds. 

tv meme; [1/5] otps

The young(er) Eddard Stark

Game of Thrones: Eddard Stark by ~grantgoboom