Seems like she really doesn't want to ever show it though, and will always keep a "I hate you" attitude towards him, but you can tell in her eyes she cares about him and will always be grateful for him protecting her.
shareOf course she cares for him...but will probably never show it.
shareHe wasn't protecting Arya, he was protecting something he thought was going to make him rich!
I know people like to get all sentimental about those two, because they could be hilarious together, but in real life a person who'd been in her situation would hate him forever. And she'd take him out, when he was no longer of any use to the Stark cause.
You didn't watch it close enough, at the end of their journey when The Hound ran into Brienne he was clearly protecting Arya at that point and didn't see her as a piece of property to get something for himself. You could tell he genuinely cared for her. Just listen to his speech "She has no one else ya dumb bitch! her brother is dead! her mother is dead! shes got no one else to protect her" "And thats what you're doing protecting her?" "Yeah thats what i'm doing".
Also when Arya was playing the game of lies and truth with Jaken she was asked if she cared for The Hound and she said no and Jaken hit her claiming it was a lie.
"You could tell he genuinely cared for her."
Sentimental adult viewers who heard that speech would feel that Hound had a bit of caring for Arya, but a teenager who'd been held prisoner, slapped around, and constantly insulted for God knows how many weeks or months would not. A teenager would still feel that anyone who'd been slapping her around and insulting her for months was an asshole who deserved killing, even if she hadn't already seen him murder an innocent child.
He's still on her list.
The Hound toughend Arya up, she learnt from him, Arya even saved his life in that tavern when she could have easily let him die there. If not for The Hound who knows what would have happened to Arya, he may have looked like an asshole slapping her around a few times but he knows she had to be prepared for the world and learn to toughen up.
I also always think about that scene when The Hound's telling Arya that story from his childhood with his brother about playing with his toy and thats why his brother burnt the entire side of his face. I always felt after that is when Arya really started not hating him as much and kinda feeling bad for him.
If you think Arya is gonna kill The Hound you're wrong, The Hound is a beloved character of fans at this point and her killing him would make her hated and be a heinous act, The Hound's a good guy now.
I agree with most of what you say, but you could be off base with your final paragraph. Don't forget that this is the show that likes the pull the rug out from under the viewers. Anything can happen.
shareThe only time I recall him slapping her was after she tried to gut him with Needle. But at this point, I agree with you -- she will not kill him.
shareI won't suggest that you actually kidnap an upper-class girl, keep her prisoner, try to sell her, slap her around, and constantly insult her... and see how grateful she is for being toughened up and prepared for the harsh realities of the world. Because then I'd be charged as an accessory to your crimes.
Look, some people are making the mistake of thinking that because the audience likes and understands the Hound, Arya must as well. That isn't so, he mistreated her when she was a child or young teen, a time of life when people have very little capacity for understanding. Remember their parting, when he was begging her for the mercy of death and she smirked at him and left him to die a slow and lonely death in the wilderness? At that point, she really, REALLY hated him.
Maybe now that she's a young adult, more or less, she'll forgive him enough to let him fight for the Starks before she kills him. Or maybe now that she's no longer afraid of him she'll realize she kind of likes his no-bullshit ways, but it'll take a long time and a lot of heroic deeds before she changes her mind about killing him some day.
Actually what I did note in the Hound's treatment of Arya is that in spite of his notorious temperament, he never beat her. If he had I would agree that would be crossing the line.
But given how much backtalk and crap she was constantly giving him in this barbaric feudal society where corporal punishment of kids must have been the norm, I thought that was quite a herculean feat given his natural disposition that he hadn't smacked her even once.
He hit her and knocked her down at least once, on camera.
https://cdn.fansided.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/229/files/2014/05/GOT7-Arya-Stabs-the-Hound1.gif
Of course that wasn't what he'd consider a serious beating, as he didn't break any bones, but it's not like she grew up with the amount of corporal punishment usual for Westeros. Her parents were wise and kind, indulgent by the standards of Westeros.
Oh wow. I hadn't remembered that.
Mitigated a bit seeing as how she had just tried to kill him. I hope she can forgive him for that.
I think people who think of those two as road-trip buddies have forgotten that scene. She was trying to kill him for real, and he smacked the shit out of her. Pals they were not.
Maybe they can become buddies after they've fought side by side for the Stark cause, they are hilarious together.
I read the books immediately after season 1, and there it's a little more clear how the dynamic between them changes and how Arya forgets to put him in her list at the same time as she starts referring to him in her own head as Sandor Clegane instead of The Hound.
shareArya was a bit different in the books, several years younger and more malleable, always changing as her circumstances changed.
Little book-Arya would bond with an adult more easily than the stubborn teen Arya of the TV show.
she should like him, but that would actually make their storyline interesting. they're forcing her character to stay exactly the same and it's past lame
shareI think it was a tease..there will be other encounters that will finally show their mutual respect.
He really did help her more than hurt her. She knows that now..
And he knows she had to be tough to survive.
In the end, he will sacrifice himself to save her and she will try to stop him. Then we'll see her true feelings. She will be crying but it will send her into a killing rage. A fitting eulogy for her new father's death.
The unlikely relationship had its solidifying moment when the Hound told her how his became disfigured and she tenderly applied a poultice to his burn. Since then, they speak to each other with the same venom but there is obvious love. The Hound knows no other language.