Just saw this on Quora and it shows GRRM great use of subtlety
this scene
the break down (of course this is based more on the book because the scene above cuts a lot of useful dialog out)
What did Gerold Hightower mean by "The Kingsguard does not flee"?
I'm just going to summarize the entire conversation, it's easier that way.
First off: Ned is not asking any of this out of genuine curiosity. He knows already why the men are there and he wants them to 'fess up and confirm what he believes he already knows. But they don't take the bait.
Ned: "I looked for you on the Trident."
Gerold: "We were not there."
Oswell: "Woe to the usurper if we had been."
Translation:
They had other business keeping them from being at the Trident, and they still do not view Robert as the legitimate king.
Ned: "When King's Landing fell, Ser Jaime slew your king with a golden sword, and I wondered where you were."
Gerold: "Far away, or Aerys would yet sit the Iron Throne, and our false brother would burn in seven hells."
Translation:
Again, they had other Kingsguard business away from the capital. They would have stopped Jaime from killing Aerys, and if they had, Aerys would still be king. This shoots down the idea that the Kingsguard at the ToJ were renegades or only acting on Rhaegar's behalf. They are here as Kingsguard.
Ned: "I came down on Storm's End to lift the siege, and the Lords Tyrell and Redwyne dipped their banners, and all their knights bent the knee to pledge us fealty. I was certain you would be among them."
Arthur: "Our knees do not bend easily."
Translation:
Ned is telling them that their cause is lost and they should have surrendered and should surrender now. Arthur is saying, no, they're not surrendering.
Ned: "Ser Willem Darry is fled to Dragonstone with your queen and Prince Viserys. I thought you might have sailed with him."
Oswell: "Ser Willem is a good man and true."
Gerold: "But not of the Kingsguard.
The Kingsguard does not flee."
Arthur: "Then or now."
Gerold: "We swore a vow."
Translation:
This is the kicker. Notice that Ned calls Viserys prince. With Aegon, Aerys and Rhaegar dead, Viserys should now be the king. But they don't correct Ned on this, which you think they would, if only to emphasize further that they don't follow Robert. Furthermore, they emphasize that Willem Darry is a good guy, but not a Kingsguard.
Suggesting that going to Viserys now is not what the Kingsguard should be doing. Going to Dragonstone at this point ("now") is "fleeing," from their perspective (notice how, unlike in the other exchanges, all three men speak now). Why would going to Viserys constitute "fleeing," if Viserys should now be the Targaryen king?
It's "fleeing" because Viserys isn't actually the Targaryen king, and the Targaryen king is there at the Tower of Joy now. They were not at the Trident or the Sack or Storm's End because they had up to this point been invested in a very important Kingsguard duty: protecting the pregnant Lyanna and, after the Trident and the Sack, the newborn Jon.
This exchange also shoots to hell the silly idea that the Kingsguard are at the Tower of Joy only because they bought into Rhaegar's prophecy stuff. No, they're there, and they emphasize that they're there, in the capacity of being Kingsguard.