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The Hound May Be Way More Important In 'Game Of Thrones' Than We Think

Photo credit: HBO
Photo credit: HBO

From Esquire UK

This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones.

There are plenty of theories to consider while watching season seven of Game of Thrones, but after Sunday's premiere, one lesser known idea is getting a lot of traction: Sandor "The Hound" Clegane is the Prince That Was Promised.

This is thanks in large part to a scene in the new episode, 'Dragonstone', which featured the Hound hanging out with Beric Dondarrion and his band of fire worshippers. While posted up for the night in a cabin - the same cabin the Hound and Arya robbed back in season four - Thoros of Myr convinces the Hound to look into the flames and tell him what he sees. The Hound, having been burned by his brother as a child, doesn't even want to stand near the fire, but he eventually complies with Thoros's wishes. This is what he sees:

Ice, a wall of ice. The Wall. It's where the Wall meets the sea. There's a castle there. There's a mountain, looks like an arrowhead. The dead are marching past, thousands of them.

As fire visions go, this one sounds pretty plausible. In the same episode, Jon Snow sends Tormund Giantsbane to man the Night's Watch outpost at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, or as the Hound puts it, "where the Wall meets the sea." The dead are definitely marching too, as seen in the creepy scene immediately following the credits. If the Hound's vision is a lie, then it's an awfully strange coincidence that it tracks so closely with events the Hound can't possibly know about.

So what does this mean for the Azor Ahai/Prince That Was Promised business? To recap, Azor Ahai was a legendary hero who defeated the White Walkers using his flaming sword Lightbringer. According to a prophecy often repeated by followers of the Lord of Light, Azor Ahai will be reborn as the Prince That Was Promised and will again defend the world from an apocalyptic darkness. Melisandre originally believed Stannis was the Prince That Was Promised but has since decided that it's Jon Snow, since Stannis (1) sucked and (2) is dead.

The prophecy also states that the Prince will be reborn "amidst salt and smoke," which is vague enough to apply to a lot of people but specific enough that you can bend it to the Hound's past if you so choose. The "smoke" is the childhood fire that almost killed him, and the "salt" could be the Battle of Blackwater from season two (which also almost killed him). It makes sense too that the Prince would have an affinity for flame-reading, which the Hound clearly does. Maybe he's never done it before because he's been so afraid to get close to fire - or maybe seeing things in the flames is what really caused his fear of flames. See? You're kind of coming around to this, aren't you?

Other popular candidates for the Prince That Was Promised include Daenerys Targaryen (noting that the High Valyrian word for "prince" is gender-neutral) and Ser Davos Seaworth, but the former would be obvious and the latter would just be plain weird. So we're hoping it's the big fella with the best lines.

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