johnnyyukon
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- Feb 12, 2014
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I think Arya not killing the Hound is also reflective of the lessons she learned from another kill they had along their journey. That of the old man that Arya and the Hound comes across, severely wounded by the raid, and dying, and the Hound does the merciful thing, giving him his last drop of water, and then killing him, ending his pain.
I think Arya, although she begrudgingly accepts the Hound as a person, and that he's not all bad, still is not completely convinced that he deserves mercy, a merciful death. Justice versus mercy. Imagining that they lie on the opposite ends of a continuum/spectrum.
Getting to know him along their journey, the clear lines between Justice versus Mercy, with regards to the Hound, blurs for her. So, she detaches herself, and leaves him to his own fate.
Justice, as she had initially promised to carry out, would be to kill him for killing the butcher's boy, on her terms, not his, when he's not wanting death, but she gives it to him, regardless, thereby delivering justice. Hence, why he made it to her (s)hit list. However, as time went out, I think she started to falter from that conviction of delivering Justice, with regards to the Hound.
However, she also saw examples of mercy, a merciful death, and, I don't think she was there yet, to jump from one end of the spectrum of Justice, all the way to the other end, towards believing that the Hound deserved a merciful death.
In Arya's eyes, he might no longer deserve the death she planned to carry out, in the name of Justice, but that doesn't mean he automatically makes it to the complete opposite end of the spectrum, towards yet deserving mercy. Morality, as GoT points out, is rarely black and white, and the journey from Justice to mercy is not one step over, but a process.
So she leaves the decision, the situation, where the colliding conclusion between justice and mercy, in that case, could have been one and the same. Hound's death. However, the delivery of it must be what defines justice from mercy. And, as this case wouldn't allow that distinction between delivery: would it be justice? would it mercy? She gave him neither.
Well, I haven't read the books, but maybe Arya was deciding whether or not she was going to kill him right there. Maybe she wanted to listen to him first. It's hard to say, I think that scene was one of the most ambivalent of the whole show to me. And I think perhaps on purpose.
So I try to stay away from book spoilers but I heard somewhere that maybe the hound does survive and that's why Arya let him live.
Again, that's why I hate the book spoilers cuz I want to analyze that scene just by itself, her leaving him for dead (at least that's my interpretation). And actually I do block out whatever the book says because many scenes in the show ARE totally
different.
LOL, that's Pod's secret with the ladies, is it?
100% Notice back at King's Landing all the furtive glances and girls whispering about Pod's big Rod. And this:
I totally forgot that -- yeah, he got a free night in the brothel in Season 3 (?), and apparently he was quite the memorable member according to the girls working that shift.
Yes, memorable "member" Jen. Clever girl