George R.R. Martin Would Approve: The Two-Word Line That Made Game of Thrones Legendary
Game of Thrones minted countless killer one-liners, but none hit harder than Sandor Clegane’s two-word takedown of a Lannister grunt. In Season 4’s Two Swords, as Arya Stark rides the Riverlands with the Hound, that savage retort ignites a blood-soaked showdown fans still can’t forget.
Game of Thrones is loaded with killer one-liners, but the one that still cracks like a whip for me is Sandor Clegane calmly threatening to murder a room over poultry. Yes, that scene.
The chicken scene that lives rent-free (Season 4, Episode 1)
Arya and The Hound roll into a Riverlands tavern in Two Swords. Arya clocks a familiar face: one of the Lannister goons who stole her sword. That would be Polliver. He spots The Hound and strolls over with that smug, traveling-bully energy, basically pitching Sandor on some casual looting as they head back to King’s Landing. He brags that they’re wearing the king’s colors, so they can do whatever they want. Sandor, who famously does not care, makes it very clear he is not there to kiss any royal ring.
What he does want: a chicken. Polliver tries to haggle. Sandor’s patience evaporates. He warns that if he has to hear one more word, he’ll eat every chicken in the place. Polliver pushes back with the classic tough-guy question about dying for a couple of birds. Sandor answers with the most efficient threat in the show:
"Someone is."
Then it’s chaos. Steel, blood, bodies on the floor. The brawl ends with Polliver and his men dead. Years later, fans still cite that exchange as peak Hound.
Sandor deserved a better end than he got
He’s one of the show’s most quietly compelling characters: a brutal survivor with a code he barely admits to having. His storyline ran on two tracks people loved to follow — his odd-couple journey with Arya, and his lifelong collision course with his brother, Gregor. The long-teased Cleganebowl finally happened, but the reaction was mixed. What did land for me: Sandor pulling Arya back from the edge, pushing her toward forgiveness and a future instead of the all-consuming revenge that wrecked him. That choice says more about who he became than any duel ever could.
In the books, he might not be done
On the page, Sandor’s fate is murkier. In A Storm of Swords, Arya leaves him in bad shape, and an Elder Brother later insists The Hound is dead and buried. Readers aren’t convinced. The long-running theory is that Sandor survived and is living quietly as a novice at the monastery on the Quiet Isle. If that’s true, George R.R. Martin still has cards to play in The Winds of Winter. Whether a book-version Cleganebowl ever happens is anyone’s guess, but Martin has talked about Sandor’s contempt for Gregor and the sham of his knighthood — the idea of Gregor as a true knight is, in Martin’s words, basically a joke. That thread feels far from tied off.
Quick facts
- Character: Sandor Clegane
- Also known as: The Hound
- Series: Game of Thrones
- First appearance: Season 1, Episode 1, "Winter Is Coming"
- Last appearance: Season 8, Episode 5, "The Bells"
- Where to watch: Game of Thrones is streaming on HBO Max
Is The Hound the most hardcore character in the show? If he isn’t, he’s at least the only guy who made two words about chickens feel like a death sentence.