would you rather have boromir live or die

[The Lady of Ithilien]

It's interesting...I haven't found a character yet that JRRT created just to kill off.

That said, if Boromir had lived, then the whole story would have been different. I love it as it turned out, so think he should have died, but his living raises some interesting possibilities (and lets me fool around with the "list" command again ):

1. Aragorn would have known the Orcs had seized Merry and Pippin, not Frodo and Sam. Which set of hobbits would he have gone after? An impossible situation for someone who once told all four hobbits "I am Aragorn son of Arathorn; and if by life or death I can save you, I will."
   
2. Merry and Pippin would have still made it to Fangorn, roused the Ents (unintentionally), and watched Isengard's destruction, but Gandalf and the Three Hunters would not have met, nor would have Aragorn and Éomer (as I don't think Aragorn would have gone after Merry and Pippin, as much as he would have wanted to). So would there have been a battle of Helm's Deep and destruction of Saruman's army, or would Saruman still have had his army to come back and clear off the Ents?
   
3. Boromir would go back to Minas Tirith (though if he came in contact with any of the hobbits again, the issue of his confrontation with Frodo would have flared). I think Denethor would still have gone crazy, as that came from his intense struggles with Sauron in the Palantir. Perhaps his insanity would have set his sons at each other's throats, and led to a wider split in Gondor at the very hour of its greatest crisis. In any event, would Rohan have been able to come to its aid (assuming that Gandalf would have gone to Meduseld anyway and healed Théoden), if Saruman were still a player? And so Gondor may have fallen, or if it still stood, things likely wouldn't have developed to the point where the Army of the West could march north to the Black Gate, thus giving Frodo and Sam the chance to creep down to Mount Doom, and hence, the quest would have failed.