Ned Stark Vs. Sandor Clegane

Ned dies horribly, again. :'(

Sandor stomps

Ned, with relative ease.

Gregor Clegane > Sandor Clegane

Smiling Knight = Gregor Clegane

Arthur Dayne >>> Smiling Knight

Arthur Dayne >= Jaime Lannister

Jaime Lannister >= Ned Stark

@thc: No no no no. GRRM himself said that Ned is nothing more than above average as a swordsman while Jaime is legendary. Don't be fooled by that ridiculous fight on the tv show where Ned appeared to hold his own against Jaime, he would have been slaughtered if it were book versions. In the books they didn't want to kill Ned and just killed his men instead including Jory who was a fine warrior.

As for your comparisons, it's shown time and again that The Hound is superior to his brother with the sword.

Smiling Knight held his own against Arthur Freaking Dayne, he would murder stomp Gregor.

I agree with Dayne >> The Smiling Knight

Jaime isn't equal to Dayne, Barristan in his prime might be on Dayne's level if Daybe doesn't have Dawn but Jaime is a notch below these two. They are up in the top 4 all time with Daemon Blackfyre and Aemon the Dragonknight. Jaime is slightly below in a class with Cregan Stark.

Anyway, Hound beats Ned easily.

@cregan_stark: No, in fact it could be good duel and Ned has a chance.

TV versions - Ned.

Book - Gregor.

Ned Stark has Ice which is strong enough to behead a man with one stroke. He'd destroy the Hound no problem.

@asura7: Your avatar looks like Joffrey lol

Ned didn't have any time to wrack up feats before getting his head chopped off.

Hound for the win.

@cregan_stark: GRRM stated he loved the Jaime/Ned fight scene. Ned was no slouch, and was a hardened veteran with an otherworldly light greatsword.

Sandor is a longsword and shield kinda guy, and a fight with someone competent with a Greatsword should end up a fight of stamina... which is hard to call. Valyrian swords op.

@boringperson: I'm sorry but unless you are talking purely TV show and not books then you are wrong.

GRRM has explicitly stated that Ned is only an above average swordsman and an excellent commander. He also has stated that Sandor is one of the best Warriors in Westeros. This is also shown throughout the books.

Read so spake Martin.

Sandor wins easily unless this is show Ned. People are often fooled by the TV show version.

@penderor: Not unless you are talking about TV versions. If these are book versions then Ned dies horribly and quickly.

Once again, GRRM stated that Ned is not a great swordsman. He might be the best commander that we've seen but not a great swordsman.

i didnt read the books sadly, i want to but i got into GOT from the show so i dont want to spoil it. i know if i start reading the books i will binge, so im stuck with the tv versions where i say ned in a close match.

i seriously am still pissed to this day that ned and drogo died so early, my two favorite characters. nowadays i like arya, denarius and then snow.

Agreed. Unfortunately Ned was average soldier not bad about it but not special either, more like battle commander / strategist type.

But HBO showed him as equal to Jaime. If OP asking with tv show feats, then Ned has a chance otherwise Hound stomps.

And Dayne would slaughter Ned, Howland Reed saved him.

@cregan_stark: Valyrian greatsword beats longsword and shield.

The books are not comics, the knights are just warriors. Ned is an above average fighter as compared to other people who were trained to be warriors from childhood as he was. The skill differential is not particularly significant.

Ned loses stamina more slowly due to the lightness of his sword and is skilled enough to keep up with Sandor. Sandor is unable to utilize his greater strength and heavier armor because of the reach and sharpness of Ice.

The Hound's in book fight feats aren't good enough for me to think his "skill" is enough of a factor to matter here.

@boringperson: I don't think I've ever seen someone be more wrong in a single post. Ned had no fighting feats in the books.

Read the series and then come back.

@boringperson: Did you read the books ?

Oh you mean the one where Jaime was about to piss himself before the guard speared Ned?

Jaime is horribly over-rated.

@reyuna: we are referring to the books here, where that never happened

The Hound wins quite easily.

The Hound has some Kentucky fried wolf.

Ned doesn't stand a chance against the Hound. This isn't even a match.

Strike that.

Not sure why I said Gregor, lol.

The Hound

Ned gets butchered and pissed on.

This isn't as bad as people think it is. If Ned has his Ice, it very well can cut through Sandor's sword leaving him unarmed.

On top of the swords sharpness, Ice is highly durable and lighter than normal steel. The sharpness would make up for the lower momentum.

@slimj87d: For Ned to manage to cut through Sandor's sword would mean that they exchange many blows (Arthur Dayne and the Smiling Knight) however we know that they aren't at all in the same league, Ned is an average fighter or slightly above while the Hound is one of the greatest fighter of Westeros, there is no match between the two.

I seriously don't get where people got "Ned is an average fighter." I feel like they read some random comment on the Internet and have repeated it ever since, thus the bandwagon was created for the sheep to carry like an echo. No, Ned is not an average fighter - he's highly above that. In the books, he keeps up with Arthur Dayne while the rest of his allies (who were at the very least "average" fighters) died extremely soon. In the show, he does this and he makes Jamie extremely angry and nervous because of the realization that Ned is a serious fighter and will not go down easily, as opposed to Ned's ally whom had been killed in an instant of fighting Jamie. Seriously, I don't know where you got that from, and it doesn't matter how much you repeat what you hear from others - it's never going to be true. The facts speak for themselves.

As such, Ned is going to keep up with Sandor and cut him a few times, but The Hound will ultimately prevail because he's a small tank. After a few trades, Ned will be too weak and is going to be killed.

Book versions, Sandor pwns

Show versions, Sandor wins, but it's a decent fight

@the_red_viper you'd like this one

@blackestnight93: Thanks for the tag.

Ned dies horribly regardless of book or show version.

1. We never get the specifics of the fight at the Tower of Joy. We only know that Ned only survived because Howland Reed saved his life, which is exactly want happened in the show.
2. In the show, Jaime was toying with Ned. Not much more than that. He would have killed him in less than 10 seconds if it was a serious fight. In the books too by the way.
3. GRRM said that Ned is competent. Not above that. Sandor on the other hand is one of the best in all of Westeros, good enough to give even people like Barristan and Dayne a good fight.

@thc: that's super dumb

Since when is Gregor > Sandor?

They only had one scuffle in which none came on top and it was stopped pre-climax.

And Smiling Knight > Gregor?

Why?

Absolute stomp in Sandor's favour.

Ned was said by GRRM to be simply average, his talent lying in commanding.

Sandor, meanwhile, is one of the very best in Westeros, besting Beric Dondarrion even though he was weakened by fire and imprisonment, and several times showed skill in fighting several opponents at once.

Ned's only feat is fighting Jaime's men, and his fighting style in the books was described as just waving his sword from side to side.

And the argument that Ice would somehow give Ned the edge is just stupid. Ned isn't very strong, not even being able to lift Robert's hammer, and he could barely swing Ice, let alone match Sandor's speed and ferocity with it.

The Hound

The Hound.

The Hound wins.

Why bump, the Hound wins.

Sandor stomps.

The amount of disrespect guys have here for Ned is astounding to me this man went against Jaime Lannister to a stalemate himself who will beat the hound for sure how do have the nerv to say sendor stomps is above I mean even Brian defeated him are you crazy??

Pretty sure Jamie wasn't taking Ned seriously in the slightest in that fight

@the_red_viper can elaborate

@blackestnight93: I'm starting to grow tired of elaborating on that actually.

@blackestnight93: what about 25 years of experience fighting the best of the best like the sword of the morning himself and more battles than I can count and don't say Jamie was holding back you can't prove it only guess and you are wrong that was a kill or be killed type of fight and it ended in a stalemate but I do believe Jamie would have won in the end I have him as the best sword fighter in the show at that time though over all I say his number 3

Honestly, watching young Ned's fight against Dayne, I wouldn't go hyping that feat so much. Ned was fodder compared to Dayne at the time. As I said, I'm very sure Jaime was toying with Ned in their fight, and even re-watching that fight, I don't see why this isn't the case

meh. I have you pegged as one of my go to guys for GOT/ASOIAF. ya got good judgement there

@blackestnight93: I agree with your view on this, it's just that this question has been brought up a lot lately and discussing it over and over again is kinda tiring lol. Thanks for the compliment though.

@the_red_viper: You earned the compliment mate

The Hound after a pretty good - but not great - fight.

Sandor.

@blackestnight93: I think it's the actor fault he was trash but the lord of the rings virsone is good he have raw power to handle himself against the hound and he is more skilled

You can't go blaming Sean Bean for how that fight went. That's just ridiculous. Boromir has nothing to do with this thread, so I don't see why you're bringing him up.