#mod zae

[roach-dnd-official]

[roach-dnd-official]

Sneeve.

[san-x-san]

I've been thinking about Sandor's characterization in season 4 of GOT and in particular the scene with the farmer. It's inconsistent, not only to the books, but to his episode to episode behavior. katemarzullo brought up some excellent points in these rants, I'm very much inclined to believe some of his disgusting behavior at the farmer's house was an act to keep Arya's story consistent. 

Fae and I have noticed during our many rewatches, it's only during s4 that he behaves like this. The rest of the time he's pretty collected and decently mannered. What happened?

For starters, the Red Wedding happened

Sandor left after the BotB, and was captured by the Brotherhood while hungover, after winning his freedom he captures Arya and intends to take her to her family for her ransom. Or so he says. It's also speculated and very well backed up that he also did it as a way of making up for his failure to save Sansa. Except that Arya's as much of a brat as he is so they're constantly butting heads with each other, and at times it seems like they're deliberately trying piss the other off.

However, when they make it to the Twins and discover what happened, Sandor cares enough about Arya to go after her when she takes off and drag her out of there before she's killed too. 

He failed again.

In the following season, Sandor's behavior strikes me as symptomatic of a man coping with depression. The fight at the inn doesn't need to be explained, he's clearly looking out for Arya's self destructive behavior but not paying much mind to his own, and so the rest of his actions seem to be in a state of flux.  He's very moody, going from a very tender moment when it's just him, Arya and his horse, to rude and obnoxious the second a stranger is among them.

Given that Sandor lived in King's Landing with Cersei, Varys, and Littlefinger constantly going on about how they have spies everywhere I have no doub that it might have crossed his mind that the farmer worked for one of them so his first reaction is a defensive one, and Arya has to cover for him and like I said earlier, I'm willing to believe he decided to play dumb for the rest of their stay.

However, the stunt he pulls robbing the farmer isn't him playing dumb, this is Sandor acting in a self destructive manner, contradicting what he said is his code and brushing off his change in attitude as a survival tactic. It's reckless and could end up putting them in danger if he keeps it up if people think he's a mindless criminal.

That said, I also think he did it on purpose to make Arya angry with him.

They're growing to like and trust each other. He already suggested that he doesn't really have plan for after he takes her to her aunt, claiming that he might become a sell sword outside of Westeros. Only one thing is clear from the conversation: he does not intend to stay with Arya. But since they're starting to like each other, he has to get her to be angry with him again to making parting ways easier for both of them.

As they continue to make their way to the Vale, they start becoming closer again. He teaches her about mercy and compliments her as 'learning' when Arya kills Rorge. Sandor also opens up to Arya about his past, this is a sign of recovery, and they even seem to enjoy picking on each other and talking smack about people they hate. His behavior is starting to return to normal. 

Who knows what would have happened if Lysa had still been alive, perhaps he would have still gone off to the Free Cities, or maybe he would have decided to stay (and I bet he would have definitely stayed if he knew Sansa was there). But they're told Lysa is dead and he's back where he started, still failed to get Arya, whom he has grown very fond of, to family. His dumbstruck silence comes off as a kind of now what? response.

He could easily slip back into the depressed state I theorize he was in, only this time he has no where he can 'dump' Arya and continue his emotional breakdown without risking endangering her. Whatever he was thinking, it's now clear that he did intend to stay with Arya after they reached the Vale. 

As he tells Brienne during their encounter with her, there was no safety for Arya anymore, not on Westeros at least. I wonder, maybe, if he was starting to think that they should both go to the Free Cities, Arya could go see Braavos like she said wanted and he could become a sellsword.

However, he fails once more. Sandor does make a point of complimenting Arya "You're a real killer, with your water dancing and your Needle." so there's no doubt that he genuinely care about her, you know, just in case nothing else he's said up until this point wasn't clear enough.

He then suggests to Arya that she should leave him and join Brienne because he does seem to believe that Brienne is capable of taking care of her. Arya doesn't, she'd rather stay with him or strike out on her own, since Sandor isn't going to be around much longer he asks her to kill him.

Once again Arya refuses, in the books she claims that he doesn't the gift of mercy, but never says anything in the show. Sandor's response to remind her that he killed Mycah and making a claim that he should have forced himself on Sansa, echos how he robbed the farmer: it's to try to make her angry so their separation (not just his death) is less painful.

[san-x-san]

Her -Lang leav (x)

[san-x-san]

Tyrion knows she's a Lannister prisoner, and when they marry, tries to make her cage as comfortable as possible

Petyr promises Sansa freedom, but only moves her to a different, more isolated cage and makes her depended on his care.

Sandor was the only one who truly wanted her to be free, but he had to break his own chain too.

[san-x-san]

"I never thought that the time and the distance between us made you so much colder, I'll carry the world on my shoulders ..." (x)

[san-x-san]

Mostly uploading this for my own reference so I have a place to find it again if I accidentally delete it or whatever.

Been really meaning to draw some SanSan fanart but kinda hated everything I drew any time I got close to finishing it and I've decided that I didn't like any of it because I wasn't satisfied with how I was drawing them and so here we have two head shots quickly/lazily colored, of me experimenting with how I'm gonna draw Sandor and Sansa. Forgive the nakedness, but clothes are gonna change so I just wanted to focus on faces and hair.

[san-x-san]

Rejected texts from my next text post meme. The two that ARE SanSan didn't fit well with the others

Bonuses: Sandor + Arya and Sandor + Bronn

I'll upload the final second text post meme when I get it finished, but I'm going to be pretty busy today so that might not happen until tomorrow.