Warning: Contains Spoilers
You should know the deal by now, there will be spoilers ahead. I’ll try and keep them to a minimum, but the headline of this article you’ve just clicked on is kind of a giveaway as to what we’ll be discussing here on in, but nonetheless – fair warning.
So, last night (or whenever you managed to squeeze it in) we finally saw, experienced, cowered, cried and cheered though the Battle of Winterfell during The Long Night.
Many people died, came alive again and died again, while others just died.
Many others survived though (hurrah!), and – as always – whoever is alive is alive for a reason: to fuel fan theories and make us hungry for things to play out exactly how we want them to. This is Game of Thrones though, and there’s still three (long) episodes to go, so it could go anywhere.
One person very much still alive is Sandor ‘The Hound’ Clegane. Admittedly, it was a bit touch and go for him during the battle, even seemingly giving up on himself while in the midst of it all, but he pulled through – for now.
We didn’t make a visit to King’s Landing – had a bit too much going on in the North for that. But what that means is Sandor’s big brother, Gregor ‘The Mountain’ Clegane, is also still alive (in his own way).
So, you guessed it, Cleganebowl is still on, baby!
What’s this Cleganebowl, I hear you say? Well, it’s the clash of these two brotherly man mountains, two of the meanest dudes in all of Westeros who are both really good at not dying.
Cleganebowl was dreamt up by hopeful GoT fans who want to see the two brothers pitted against one another. Both Cleganes have made it clear in the past they would happily kill the other, as they’re not exactly the best of bros.
As long as we’ve known Sandor ‘The Hound’, his face hasn’t exactly been the most chiselled visage. Also he’s notoriously afraid of fire. This is thanks to his brother Gregor who, when they were kids, grabbed his little bro and shoved his face into a fire after catching him playing with one of his toys. And I thought I overreacted when someone took my phone charger without asking…
Though the pair did have some interactions in season one, which could’ve ended differently had Robert Baratheon not stopped them, they didn’t see each other again until season seven.
In the meantime, Gregor’s reputation as one of the most evil people to walk in Westoros spread, thanks to his murdering of children, raping of women, possible killing his own father and sister, caving Oberyn’s skull in with his bare hands, and general pillaging of innumerable villages.
Somehow, both brothers are still alive, just. And while Gregor is pretty much the biggest zombie you’ve ever seen, Sandor is nowhere near forgiving him. And it would be a great redemption tale for The Hound.
Which means, naturally, they’re going to meet again in season eight, once and for all. Cleganebowl is so on.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.