Game of Thrones [2]

chris63 wrote:

Ringdrotten wrote:

"A mile, maybe, from Parth Galen in a little glade not far from the lake he found Boromir. He was sitting with his back to a great tree, as if he was resting. But Aragorn saw that he was pierced with many black-feathered arrows; his sword was still in his hand, but it was broken near the hilt; his horn cloven in two was at his side. Many Orcs lay slain, piled all about him and at his feet. 

Aragorn knelt beside him. Boromir opened his eyes and stroke to speak. At last slow words came. 'I tried to take the ring from Frodo,' he said. 'I am sorry. I have paid.' His glance strayed to his fallen enemies; twenty at least lay there. 'They have gone: the Halflings: the Orcs have taken them. I think they are not dead. Orcs bound them.' He paused and his eyes closed wearily. After a moment he spoke again. 

'Farewell, Aragorn! Go to Minas Tirith and save my people! I have failed.'

'No!' said Aragorn, taking his hand and kissing his brow. 'You have conquered. Few have gained such a victory. Be at peace! Minas Tirith shall not fall!'

Boromir smiled. 

'Which way did they go? Was Frodo there?' said Aragorn.

But Boromir did not speak again."

The Two Towers, "The Departure of Boromir"

"That was when she saw her father.
Lord Eddard stood on the High Septon's pulpit outside the doors of the sept, supported between two of the gold cloaks...he was thinner than Arya had ever seen him, his long face drawn with pain. He was not standing so much as being held up; the cast over his broken leg was grey and rotten."

"The man in the black-and-gold armor stepped up behind Father and prodded him sharply. You leave him alone! Arya wanted to shout, but she knew no one would listen. She chewed her lip."
Her father raised his voice and began again. 'I am Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Hand of the King,' he said more loudly, his voice carrying across the plaza, 'and I come before you to confess my treason in the sight of gods and men.'
'No,' Arya whimpered. Below her, the crowd began to scream and shout. Taunts and obscenities filled the air. Sansa had hidden her face in her hands."

"A stone came sailing out of the crowd. Arya cried out as she saw her father hit...Blood ran down his face from a deep gash across his forehead."

"A thousand voices were screaming."

"The crowd roared, and Arya felt the statue of Baelor rock as they surged against it."

"The old man shook her so hard her teeth rattled. 'Shut your mouth and close your eyes, boy.' Dimly, as if from far away, she heard a... a noise... a soft sighing sound, as if a million people had let out their breath at once."

Forest Shepherd wrote:

Boromir's death is intended to be more meaningful than Ned's death, I feel.
....
The most obvious difference to me is that Martin is writing with more modern stream-of-consciousness style. And it's obvious to the point of my not needing to say it that Boromir willingly sacrifices himself and performs an atonement in his eyes for his earlier weakness with Frodo. While Eddard intends to live and serve in the Night's Watch, only to be thrown under the wheels of Joffrey's shitty little brat-face-ness. So really the major difference is that Boromir's death has meaning, while it's hard to find much meaning in Ned's death apart from it being, perhaps, Cersei's secret wish-fulfillment that her son would do away with this man who has lost in the game of thrones. She had earlier said that "when you play the games of thrones, you live or you die".

chris63 wrote:

So what kind of character summary or back story did the writers of Game of Thrones give Dillane when they hired him to play Stannis?
“They didn’t. I had to fish around to get any sort of information and even then it was just ‘Oh he’s won a few battles’ and the rest of it I had to glean from the scripts. I had no idea at all, really, and that probably shows. If you look back on it, you probably see somebody standing there looking pretty bewildered, wondering what on earth is going on and where this is leading. You just have to trust that the fact that you’re in the dark is in some way playing out well.” —

Brisbane Times interview with Stephen Dillane

“Maybe if you spoke to Peter Dinklage [who plays the hero, Tyrion Lannister] you’d get a different story, but I’m sort of on the periphery of the whole thing, so I turn up, do a few days filming in Northern Ireland and go away again. It really is a functional existence, in a way, the Stannis plot for me.”