The Captain and the King
The Captain And The King is a The Lord of the Rings Alternate Universe Fic by plasticChevy, based on the premise: What If Saruman thought Aragorn had the Ring? Rather than hobbits, he instructs his forces to capture Men, and as such, Boromir survives Amon Hen- but blinded and in enemy hands. He and a wounded Aragorn get put through hell together, first by the Uruks and then by Saruman, while Merry, Pippin, Legolas and Gimli track them across Rohan. And then we get the consequences of Boromir's survival...
Tropes used in The Captain and the King include:
- Awesome Moment of Crowning
- Bittersweet Ending: A lot of nastiness has been overcome, but Halbarad refuses to be redeemed, Merry must return to the Shire, and in the Distant Finale, though he had a long and good life, Boromir has died.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Apparently Saruman has an Agony Beam. And he's not afraid to use it.
- For Want of a Nail / In Spite of a Nail: As in any good Alternate History.
- Honor Before Reason: Boromir, are you sure it's a good idea to go off alone to try to save someone from himself who just admitted he wishes you were dead? It looks like Too Dumb to Live until it turns out he at least had the sense to do it while wearing armor.
- Ho Yay: The canon is rather notorious for its Ho Yay, so it's basically inevitable if you want to write Original Flavor. The Merry/Boromir is especially intense- Boromir sleeps better when Merry's around, and at one point Aragorn compares their relationship to his with Arwen, albeit purely in the context of being separated.
- Handicapped Badass: Boromir is a low-key example, in that his blinding has made him much less effective in a fight. But he was so Badass to begin with that he still very much qualifies.
- I Can Still Fight
- Green-Eyed Monster: Halbarad gets it bad.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Merry, to Boromir.
- Malicious Slander: There are some nasty rumors about Boromir going around.
- My Greatest Failure: Amon Hen, oh yes.
- Original Flavor
- The Promise: "There will be only one Steward in Gondor, so long as I am king." Even when that Steward dies. Also a case of If We Survive This.
- Ron the Death Eater: Not a gratuitous or mean-spirited version; Halbarad does what he does (from an out-of-story perspective, that is) because somebody in the heroes' camp needed to cause some trouble, and an OC would have had much less emotional impact.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Boromir shows some classic signs of PTSD after Orthanc, though of course no one in this universe would know that name for it.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Between Boromir and Faramir, and a major source of dramatic tension.
- The Stations of the Canon: A lot of things still have to happen, and won't be that much different, so they tend to be described in brief, and/or from another point of view, and/or to another character after the fact, so that their reaction is as much of the scene as the event itself.
- Tragic Villain: Halbarad, Elenard, and Hirluin.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Most of the anti-Boromir faction aren't even particularly extreme so much as people who honestly disagree with the protagonists' decision. Imrahil comes to the edge of the proverbial slippery slope but checks himself. Halbarad... not so much.