Episodes
Plan: EP.4 (☑) -> EP.5 (☐)-> EP.6 (☐)-> EP.1 (☐)-> EP.2 (☐)-> EP.3 (☐)-> EP.7 (☐)
这是英语课的 Presentation，每个人应该讲一次。我想弄一个系列。准备了几个剧本，但最后完成的只有一个。见 EP.4, Ned: Hornorable Man。
下面是我想介绍的几个角色。介绍文字来自 wikia。当然，你也可以直接跳到我 presentation 的讲稿：EP.4, Ned: Honorable Man。
Arya Stark
When her father is betrayed and executed by Joffrey, Arya flees the capital with the help of the Night’s Watch recruiter, Yoren, who gets her out of the city disguised as an orphan boy “Arry” and tries to take her to Winterfell. On the way, she compiles a list of people she intends to kill. However, she is taken prisoner by Ser Gregor Clegane’s men and taken to Harrenhal, where she briefly serves as cupbearer to an unsuspecting Tywin Lannister. After escaping, she begins making her way towards Riverrun and is captured by the Brotherhood Without Banners and subsequently by Sandor Clegane. They travel across Westeros as he unsuccessfully attempts to ransom her to various family members. In Clegane’s company, Arya becomes increasingly hardened and brutalized, and personally kills a number of men. After Clegane is gravely injured in a fight, she abandons him. Long presumed dead by many in Westeros and with nowhere else to turn, Arya is now in Braavos, training with the Faceless Men. However, as a consequence of violating the assassins’ code, Arya has been rendered blind by the guild as punishment.
Daenerys Targaryen 
She hatched three dragons by having her petrified dragon eggs placed on Drogo’s funeral pyre, before she walked into the flames to claim them. Her dragons are the first seen in the world for more than a century, earning her the sobriquet Mother of Dragons.
During her campaign in Slaver’s Bay, she is introduced as Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of Meereen, Queen of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons. She has proven herself as a leader and a conqueror through her swift and (for the most part) merciful conquests of the Free Slaveholding Cities of Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen.
Joffrey Baratheon 
King Joffrey Baratheon is a major character in the first, second, third, and fourth seasons. He is played by starring cast member Jack Gleeson and debuts in the series premiere. Though believed by most to be the eldest son of King Robert Baratheon with Queen Cersei Lannister, Joffrey is actually a bastard born from Cersei’s incestuous relationship with her twin brother, Ser Jaime Lannister of the Kingsguard. He is the older brother of Myrcella Baratheon and Tommen Baratheon, both of whom share the same parentage.
Eddard Stark 
Eddard Stark, popularly known as Ned, is a major character in the first season. He is played by starring cast member Sean Bean, and debuts in the series premiere. He will reappear in the sixth season, in a flashback, played by Sebastian Croft. Eddard is the head of House Stark, the Lord of Winterfell, Lord Paramount and Warden of the North, and Hand of the King to Robert I Baratheon. He is the older brother of Benjen Stark, father of Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon by his wife, Catelyn Tully, and to Jon Snow, his bastard son by an unknown mother. He is a dedicated husband and father, a loyal friend and an honorable lord.
Theon Greyjoy 
Theon Greyjoy is a major character in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth seasons. He is played by starring cast member Alfie Allen and debuts in the series premiere. Theon is the only living son and heir of Lord Balon Greyjoy of the Iron Islands, and younger brother of Yara Greyjoy.
Theon has his men seize the poorly defended Winterfell. He forces Bran Stark to yield to him by threatening his people. His men capture Ser Rodrik Cassel coming back from Torrhen’s Square, and Rodrik is openly defiant, calling Theon a traitor. Ser Rodrik regrets that he gave him weapon training and even spits in Theon’s face. Dagmer insists that Rodrik must be killed to maintain the respect of the men. Rodrik baits Theon into performing the execution himself. Theon botches the beheading, taking three swings and a kick to accomplish it.
Tyrion Lannister 
Tyrion Lannister is a major character in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth seasons. He is played by starring cast member Peter Dinklage and debuts in the series premiere. Tyrion Lannister is the youngest son of Lord Tywin Lannister and younger brother of Cersei and Jaime Lannister. A dwarf, he uses his wit and intellect to overcome the prejudice he faces.
Ygritte 
Ygritte is a major character in the third and fourth seasons, played by Rose Leslie. She initially appeared as a recurring character in the second season and debuted in “The Old Gods and the New.” Ygritte is a woman of the Free Folk who lives north of the Wall. She is part of Mance Rayder’s army and becomes the lover of Jon Snow.
EP.4 @
下面是我的 Presentation 讲稿。
这是讲稿，课上漏了一点，但基本一致。这是我之前的录音：http://www.ximalaya.com/39833779/album/3827746
Game of Thrones is an American tv series adapted from George Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. This tv show is so much a fantasy and so great that it attracted a big audience. I’ve watched 4 seasons of it, and really like it and willing to share some of my opinions on it. The focus today is Eddard Stark, popularly known as Ned, is a major character in the first season. But before that, I’ll introduce the backgrounds and settings of this story.
This is the world map for game of throne. As you can see, the world is separated to two parts by the narrow sea. The west is called Westeros, while the right part is called Essos. Westeros and essos are the known world, while the land beyond castle black, is unknown. Westeros is ruled by a single political entity known as the Seven Kingdoms. Ands here is the king’s landing, where the king lives. And in the north, Winterfell, is where Ned Stark is from. As for Essos, there lived some kind of horse people, I mean, the Dothraki. And Daenerys Targaryen gets her power there. The story of Ned mainly happended in Winterfell and King’s landing.
And these, are houses of Game of Throne. House Stark, Ned Stark. House Lannister, she is the Queen. And House Baratheon, the King. House Targaryen. You should know that the Mad King is a targaryen.
Now is time for Ned Stark. I’ll share three scenes from Season 1 about Ned Stark, and analyze the characteristics of Ned Stark, tell you guys why I like this character. And after that, I’ll compare him to three other characters to illustrate why he is destined to fail and die.
Scene one, in the frontier of Winterfell, close to Castle Black, the northest part of Westeros. Ned Stark sentenced the man to die. This man is a guardsman in the night’s watch and a deserter. His comrades were killed by white walkers (the walking dead). Ned did his duty and executed the man. I think Ned in his heart is a merciful man, but as the lord of Winterfell, law is law. He has no choice but to commit his duty. Furthermore, he asked his son (here, this boy) to watch the execution. He wants his son to be a calm and straight man as he is.
Scene two, it’s the small council of the king. And this time, they are arguing about how to deal with Daenerys Targaryen, who is pregnant now. And may cross the narrow sea, come back to claim her lands and power. Robert, the king, insists sending a man to assassinating the girl, but Ned Stark disagree. King Robert is kind of pissed off, saying towards the other four: you are my council, counsel! So the other four people start telling Ned why they should kill Daenerys at this time.
First is the Master of Whisperers, Varys, sometimes called “the Spider”, says the country must sometimes do vile, terrible, unfair, injustice things for the good of the realm.
Then Grand Maester Pycelle, the old man over there, says if she leads a Dothraki army coming for us, more people will die. For us, assassinating Daenerys is not just wiser, but also kinder. This can save more people from dying in the possible war in the future.
Lord Renly, Master of Laws, says “we should have them both killed years ago!”
Last, Master of Laws, Petyr Baelish, known as the little finger, thinks it’s not a big thing. Just get it over with and be done with it. Why not just kill this girl?
No matter how, Ned resuses take any part in. Finally, he quited his job as the Hand of the King, and went away.
He is an honorable man, too good for this kind of vile thing. His discipline makes him too straight to bend.
Scene three. In the dungeon. Ned is arrested for treason, which of course is a made-up sentence. He has a conversation with Varys, the Spider. Varys wants Ned to confess his treason and kneel to the Queen. Ned? No!
You want me to serve the woman who murdered my King, who butchered my men, who crippled my son?
And he will never proclaim Joffrey as the true heir. Here you can see the conficts. Ned is too straight as a man, who will not yield to anything. Varys is more flexible and claims to serve the realm.
Ned never take his life as some precious thing, and would not trade his honor for a few more years life. If you’ve seen some Spartacus-like films, you’ll understand what these warriors, fighters, Gladiators treasure is – glorious.
Then Ned continus,
You grew up with actors. You learned their craft and you learned it well.
But I grew up with soldiers, I learned how to die a long time ago.
And finally he died.
I really like this man and his personality. But in my opinion, his death is not glorious or honorable at all. He died in a tragedy, died a terrible way. I would compare this straight man to three other characters. First is Clyde Shelton from The Law Abiding Citizen, second is David Gale from The Life of David Gale, third is Javert from the famous Les Miserable. Like Ned, they are all straight and disciplined man. But they have different endings.
Law Abiding Citizen tells a story of revenge. Two criminals broken into Clyde Shelton’s house, killed his daughter, raped his wife, in front of him. Because the lawyer made a deal with the criminals, the criminals did not receive the deserved punishments. So Clyde, used to be a law abiding citizen, decided to punish the two criminals in his own way. And beyond that, he wants to destroy the justice system. Finally he killed a series of people in the justice system and failed, and died. Comparing to Clyde Shelton, Ned Stark did not fight back. Or maybe it’s just he has no chance or possibility to do that.
The Life of David Gale. Gale is a professor and advocate to abanden the death penalty. But He and his coworkers can’t persuade the mayer. So he faked a murderer so he would mistakenly be sentenced to death. After his death, his coworkers revealed the story. In this way, he claimed his political appeal. Comparing to David Gale, Ned Stark is not smart enough to play this kind of trick to gather supports from other people.
(The dream cast in concert.)
Les Miserable, originally by Victor Hugo, is a famous musical. It has a character called Javert, who is a straight man too, when he realize that Jean Valjean is not real bad person. He was confused, struggling for a “WHY”. Finally, He jumped the river. Comparing the Jevart, Ned’s death is not noble, he was executed (decapitated) in public, for treason. What a hilarious and pathetic death.
But don’t get me wrong, I really like this character, like this straight man, like his discipline. I just feel bad when he did nothing when approaching death. No fight, no glory. And not honorable.
Notes
The Dothraki are a race of nomadic horse-mounted warriors in Essos, the continent to the east of Westeros across the Narrow Sea. They inhabit the vast central plains of Essos, known as the Dothraki sea. They are said to be born, fight, and die in the saddle.
Essos is an immense landmass located to the east of Westeros, extending into the far east of the known world. The Free Cities are located on its north-western shores, with the Dothraki sea located deep in the continental interior and the cities of Slaver’s Bay on the south coast. The continent extends far to the east, around the Jade Sea, to the distant and fabled lands of Asshai and the Shadow. Essos climate is temperate in the northern and western portions, and subtropical in the southern & eastern portions. Rainfall generally decreases as one moves eastward in Essos.
The extreme eastern end of the continent has not been fully mapped. Westeros’s landmass is much longer from north to south, extending from the deserts of Dorne to the polar regions north of the Wall, but east-to-west travel is much shorter. In contrast, the greater bulk of Essos runs along an east-west latitude, while its northern and southern extremes are a shorter distance. On the western shore of Essos, the furthest point north at Braavos is at the same latitude as the Vale of Arryn, and the furthest point south near Tyrosh is at the same latitude as Dorne, separated only by the island chain known as the Stepstones. Pentos, located roughly between these two extremes, is at the same latitude as King’s Landing.
Westeros is a continent located in the far west of the known world. It is separated from the continent of Essos by a strip of water known as the Narrow Sea. Most of the action in Game of Thrones takes place in Westeros.
Westeros is a continent located in the far west of the known world. It is separated from the continent of Essos by a strip of water known as the Narrow Sea. Most of the action in Game of Thrones takes place in Westeros.
Author of the series George R.R. Martin has stated that the continent of Westeros is roughly the same size as the real-life continent of South America.
Almost the entire continent, barring only the lands in the furthest north beyond the Wall, is ruled by a single political entity known as the Seven Kingdoms, which holds fealty to the King of the Andals and the First Men, who sits on the Iron Throne in the city of King’s Landing. The terms “Seven Kingdoms” and “Westeros” are normally used interchangeably.
People or things from Westeros are referred to as “Westerosi”.
You want me to serve the woman who murdered my King, who butchered my men, who crippled my son?
I want you to serve the realm! Tell the Queen you will confes your vile treason, tell your son to lay down his sword and proclaim Joffrey as the true heir.
You think my life is some precious thing to me? That I would trade my honor for a few more years of… of what?
You grew up with actors. You learned their craft and you learned it well.
But I grew up with soldiers, I learned how to die a long time ago.
Petyr Baelish, popularly called Littlefinger,
Varys, sometimes called the Spider
Pycelle is the King’s Grand Maester and a member of the small council, but also serves as a spy for Cersei Lannister.
refs and see also