"Who is the most horrible to burn, stake or dragons?" Topic

WARNONG! Contains Game of Thrones SPOILERS!!!

Now that I have that out of the way…

Executions and murder seem to be most notorious in GoT when beheading is involved.
Some are horrifying, yet I can think of one that gave no end of satisfaction. I'm talking about YOU, Lord Slynt!

However, burnings are right up there. Again, some horrible, some oddly satisfying.

Let's see which are worst.

Female:

1) Young girl. Shireen Baratheon. Innocent, cute, betrayed by her father.

2) Mature to middle aged woman. Can't think of any, yet…

3) Old Lady. Mirri Maz Duur. William Faulkner would have had no problem with this one. "A Khalesi is worth any number of old ladies." Artistically Justified, but she did have a point. Her side simply lost.

Male:
4) Young boys. "Not Bran" and "Not Rickon". Innocent, young, and not even who they are supposed to be!

5) Mature men. Half of Stannis's fleet. Baldy the slave trader in…where was he?
Sons of the Harpy.
Oh wait… those are wildfire and dragons. Should they count?

6) Old men. Whatsisname Florent, Stannis' Brother by Law.
Rickard Stark. On a whim by the Mad King.
Mance Rayder, the King Beyond the Wall.

Interestingly, the only one to receive Mercy was Mance, from Jon. Think about this. Had he died in the flames, would the sacrifice of Shireen have been "necessary:?

So, who is the most horrifying? I would say the farm boys, even though and particularly because we do not see it.

Another question. Why are the Young given the benefit of the doubt? In GoT, they will all grow up to be miserable and cruel adults anyway!

BTW, I would be glad to see Melisandre immolated, so that would take care of @2.

Isn't the point that Shireen had King's blood, unlike Mance Rayder?

Can't comment since I don't watch GoT…

Melisandre should freeze to death north of the Wall.

Her fiery blood will keep her toasty, even in the frozen North.

John the OFM, in re kids turning bad, yeah, that's one of the reasons I gave up on GoT, everybody is rotten. Arya is turning into a stone cold killer, Joffrey (who let's face it, with those parents who could turn out well?) I'm sure that Sansa at some point will turn. You're either rotten or dead or at least waiting to die. Sometimes I think that we're all part of some sociological or psychological experiment being conducted by George RR Martin. Even Dany (and here remember please that I don't see the series so I'm basing this mainly on word of mouth and the books) has done rotten stuff and sometimes I wondered about Jon.

I can just imagine what "Sweet Robin" can do when he comes into power, after all he is so disappointed that Tyrion didn't "fly". I don't want to go further in case I put in spoilers for folks but it really seems if you're good your goose is cooked, whether by Mel or Drogon doesn't seem to matter all that much. Although I wonder, I always understood that many of those burnt at the stake died from asphyxiation/smoke inhalation before they were (in many cases) touched by the flames. Given that possibility, burn me at the stake rather than by Dragon fire. Either way I'm horrified by it all. While I understand the sometime military necessity of the flame thrower and napalm I have always been horrified by them as weapons.

I kind of thought the whole point of GoT was that it was not a conventional heroic tail. The good guys don't always win, people aren't always saved and bad things happen to good people. How many Kings in real history butchered every last member…kids included…of their competitions family (often their own blood relatives). GoT is akin to The Great Game in that you get their by hook are by crook and do whatever it takes and its not always pretty. Again, its the scorpion and the frog and no one ever promised it would be pretty…

Zoltar, the deal for me is that while I realize that the good guys don't always win in real life, in GoT it seems more like the good guys never win. To my mind that's as bad as the good guys always winning. Plus a lot of this seems to be Martin and the TV people saying that "we're going to create a nice sympathetic character, make you as a reader or viewer care about the, and then we're going to kill that person in some horrible way. I guess that Ned Stark, being beheaded is about the "cleanest" death we've seen of the type, the rest, well major characters are pretty safe in battle, they're going to die by some horrible poison or be burnt or something like that. It's akin to why I stopped watching "Criminal Minds", I liked the writing and the actors/acting but all those horrible deaths as entertainment just got to me.

Maybe it's because I've gotten older. Look I saw some things when I was younger that I just shrugged off that I wonder now if I could treat them so lightly.

We need to define "win."

I was going to say steak, it's incredibly expensive (for the good stuff) and you certainly don't want it to burn. Dragon meat on the other hand, is very very hard to overcook.

I'm still waiting for SG1 to show up and solve everything.

I'm still waiting for SG1 to show up and solve everything.

As long as O'Neill is leading it, that might, almost, make this show worth watching.

> We need to define "win."

Alive (with all the important body parts still attached) at the end of a book/season.

I'd bet on a Plague wiping them all from the face of the earth… ;-)

300 Quatloos on the newcomers!

I have a good feeling about this, I know it will turn okay. Right? Right?

Oh don't worry about Jorah and that grey scale. Those fire priestess can heal all sorts of things. That one Greyjoy on his way to see Dani, got healed of something far worse.

Was it Danny Kaye who when asked in some movie why he preferred to be burnt to being beheaded, said, " better a hot steak than a cold chop."?

We need to define "win."

Alive (with all the important body parts still attached) at the end of a book/season.

Yup that is it in a nutshell.

A couple of thoughts. First on topic, the books and tv show clearly revel in the real politik of how rulers get to be rulers. In other words there is no magic bloodline or anointment by higher powers. How can there be magic based on royal blood when blood becomes royal by the ruthlessness of its owner not his genetic makeup. Off topic. I thought Greyscale was incredibly contagious? Don't let them touch you…don't let them touch you. Mormont contracted and developed the disease in a matter of hours from very brief contact. Yet he leads Kahlesi from the gladiatorial viewing box by hand. I'm hoping for a shock greater than the red wedding for viewers next season.

jowady:

You should read the books before making such generalized statements about matter where your only evidence is hearsay.

Many events in the book directly refute your points.

As to Stannis and Shirren: possibly only included in the HBO fan fiction version for shock value. Rumors persist that Martin has something similar in up coming books. I suspect, if it even occurs, the context will be different.

As to Greyscale: probably just sloppy HBO editing. David Nutter is a very good director but I thought final scence a bit off (though still great to see Dany get airborne on Drogon and the additon of the Harpies (not included in book) help heighten threat.

TomT