My stance on various ASOIAF conspiracy theories, Part 3

Thursday is theory day now.  

This is the third article of the series. Since there are a lot of theories floating out there and I'm asked often enough what I think of them, I thought I write it down. You can then laugh about me when I am totally proven wrong by "The Winds of Winter" or something like that. Rules are as follows: you put a question about any theory or plot element (really, let's stress "theory" a bit for the sake of interesting questions) either in the comments of any theory post or by mail (stefan_sasse@gmx.de) and I will answer them in an upcoming post. And if you now ask "Stefan, isn't this a shameless rip-off of Sean T. Collin's "Ask me anything"?", I would tell you to shut up, because you are right. 

Prepare for part 3. Spoilers for "A Song of Ice and Fire", obviously. 


Is the Hound the silent, hooded brother on Quite Isle? 

When Brienne comes to the quiet isle, a very ill-mannered horse and a limping brother having conveniently taken a vow of silence are already there. The horse is clearly a war horse, and the new brother with the vow seems to be rather muscular, too. The Elder Brother just ominously hints at Sandor Clegane's death, telling Brienne "the Hound is dead" and avoiding further details. It is to be considered very likely that the Elder Brother could refer to "the Hound" as the former personality of Sandor Clegane, who seems to have taken vows for a life as a man of the gods, and a pacifist. This seems a bit far-fetched for the man we have come to know over the course of three books, but when Arya left him, he was feverish and dying from an infected wound to the leg. Being found by the Elder Brother to start a new life might be just the thing for him. Remember, Sandor wanted to start a new life anyway, and he badly needed some possibility to calm the fuck down. On the Quiet Isle, no one asks about his past since no one speaks, and he can just work and come to terms with himself and his past. So I bet that the limping brother is Sandor Clegane, hiding under his hood.

Is Gregor Clegane now Robert Strong? 

I think this one is more or less a given. After being wounded by Oberyn Martell in Tyrion's trial-by-combat, we are told that the poison the Red Viper used will kill Clegane slowly and painfully, and obviously, no one can help him. Qyburn asks Cersei if he may conduct experiments on him, and Cersei grants Gregor to him on the condition that she gets the head when he's finished. Judging from the Areo-Hotah-chapter in "A Dance with Dragons", some head was returned to Cersei and sent to Dorne. When Cersei is imprisoned, however, Qyburn tells her that he has a mighty and undefeatable warrior for her, a giant of a man. This is almost certainly the Mountain that Rides, somehow "saved" by Qyburns experiments. Given his backstory - being expelled from the Citadel for cutting people open to see what's inside - it's likely that Qyburn knows some dark magic comparable to what Mirri Maz Duur performs on Drogo to keep Gregor's corpse going. Ser Robert Strong, after all, appears only in complete plate and full helm. This theory has become widely accepted and is often dubbed "Un-Gregor" or "Zombie-Gregor".

Will both of them fight? 

Now, the most interesting question after Cersei deciding to use Un-Gregor in her trial against the Faith is whom the Faith will call his champion. Some have pointed out that if Sandor is the brother on the Quiet Isle, the Faith could use him against Gregor. This would be interesting from several perspectives. First, it would put Sandor back in action, who seems to have lost his bite in recent times and give him something useful to do with his sword for a change. Second, it would allow Sandor for his long desired goal of killing Gregor, finally giving him the pretext to do so. Third, it would fulfill the prophecy of Maggy the Frog that the volonqar would be Cersei's undoing. Now, Sandor, Gregor`s little brother, defeating his bigger brother and thereby condemning Cersei to death would certainly count as killing her. The problem is, as Sean T. Collins pointed out, that Sandor is short a leg. While being a big warrior himself, Sandor can't hope to match Gregor's freakish size, and with a stiff leg, there wouldn't be much room to maneuver for him. And parrying Gregor's blows is out of the question. So, if Sandor takes on this quest, he would have to make it a kamikaze mission, hurling himself into Gregor and killing him before dying himself. We know from Tyrion's trial that he would be considered the winner if he survived longer than his opponent, and if the Faith or Sandor suspected who Robert the Strong really is, it might suffice to get the helmet off his head in order to condemn Cersei. Having said all this, I still don't really believe that Sandor will get this chance and go down in a blaze of glory, especially since the trial-by-combat-routine starts to be getting a little old.