Lord of the Rings

Aragorn was raised by Elrond so presumably he was tutored by him or a member of his household.

I thought the high school years thing was clearly a joke.

I listened to the audiobook of The Hobbit, the unabridged one, and now I've started listening to the unabridged Fellowship. I'm up to chapter two.

Never trust anyone who uses "degenerate" as an insult.

Aragorn's around 80 years old in The Lord of the Rings, so a series about pre-LOTR Aragorn has a lot of potential scope. I'm guessing they're going for The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen, mixed in with Aragorn's various adventures as a ranger, in the army of Gondor, etc.

I just hope they do a better job of characterizing Elrond than the movies did. He's a good person, he's not Thingol. His requirement that Aragorn must be king or Arnor and Gondor wasn't an Engagement Challenge so much as it was a way of saying "you can't neglect your duty; first we focus on saving the world, then you and Arwen can get married if you like".

Edited by Galadriel on Jul 13th 2018 at 10:11:15 AM

What I hope is to see a more book accurate Aragorn rather than the more generically dashing Aragorn of the films.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

I never found movie Aragorn dashing. That sounds more like movie Legolas.

Movie Aragorn's great for the same reason that Book Aragorn is great. They're both already wise people when the story starts.

They don't really need to waste time on him growing as a person and while that would suck if Aragorn was the main focus, he isn't.

I don't know how I would feel about seeing an unexperienced Aragorn but there's no other way to do it if he's the main focus.

"You can't change the world without getting your hands dirty."

Book Aragorn has a much more menacing and Troll streak in the books, partially because Peter Jackson has a shaky grasp on the terms "grim" and "scruffy" (in what word is Viggo Mortensen with a lazy five o'clock shadow "scruffy"?). Book Aragorn has the recurring "All that is gold does not glitter" phrase applied to him because he is legitimately a pretty grim and prickly person. He consistently terrifies the living shit out of everyone at the Prancing Pony because that's how he rolls, he often messes with people for his own amusement (Like when he trolls Beregond for like half a chapter) and can be rather egocentric about his role as a King.

The clearest example of how Aragorn is "cleaned up" for the movies might be his relationship with Boromir. In the books it's Aragorn who keeps incessantly needling about how Boromir is not the true King of Gondor, in the movies it's the other way around (which is part of the larger shift in Aragorn's personality by having him be reluctant to be King).

Aragorn also does have some Character Development to do but it's more subtle. It relates more to him actually settling in his role as King and learning to actually take charge. Fellowship and the early bits of The Two Towers have a whole subplot about how Aragorn has a problem with making decisions early on (Boromir ends up getting killed primarily because Aragorn takes so damn long to make a decision about which way to go after Gandalf dies).

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

Book Aragorn can also avoid being a troll when he knows it's not appropriate. For example, in his dealings with Eowyn.

Book Aragorn is confident in his abilities in a way the movie Aragorn isn't, because he has long ago accepted the path to becoming king. He is unsure about the path to take after Gandalf is gone because he knew that Gandalf had greater wisdom in issues regarding the Ring. He knew all along that his path would be towards Minas Tirath rather than Mordor, and when Gandalf falls he has to do a pretty quick re-assessment of what should be done because he didn't expect Gandalf to not be in charge of the whole Ring business, and Gandalf didn't tell him whatever plans he did have.

The thing is, in the movies up until he's actually crowned King, Aragorn does look scruffy. He's wearing ragged traveling clothes, his hair's stringy and greasy, his beard is poorly trimmed.

I agree. Movie Aragorn is legitimately scruffy; it's just that scruffiness suits Viggo Mortensen incredibly well.

If you think that's scruffy I'm imagining you wouldn't want to meet see me when I wake up in the morning.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."

His beard is exceptionally well trimmed. I live in the American Deep South. I have met the scruffiest of beards. Aragorn is by and far better groomed than most of these folks who have regular access to running water and electric razors.

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you

Well, depends what you count as "scruffy", I guess. If you search for scruffy beard on Google, you get a lot of results that look incredibly well trimmed and maintained for something called "scruffy".

Optimism is a duty.

I keep reading that Tolkien wrote the Shire as some idealistic location compared to the rest of the world, but to me the place just seems boring, and filled with the most narrowed-minded, judgmental, gossipy jerks around. Except for the protagonists, who are the outcasts.

Never trust anyone who uses "degenerate" as an insult.

I think the Shire being an idyllic English Arcadia, and it being insular and narrow minded are not mutually exclusive. After all, LEAVING the Shire is arguably the best thing that has happened to those four Hobbits, and they become more than any stay-at-home Hobbit could ever hope for. It is no coincidence that the Hobbit's legends revolve around those who dared to venture outside the Shire, and outside conventionality.

Optimism is a duty.

Tolkien was quite aware that the Shire was not perfect. He has his hobbit characters say things like "an invasion of dragons would do them good" and this:

The Scouring of the Shire is present, in part, to show that the Shire needed to become more aware of the outside world and the troubles of other lands, and in the end it seems to have done them good.

Also, Tolkien makes it very clear that the Shire is only allowed to live in peace thanks to the Rangers, and thanks to being so backwards that no one important pays them much heed.

Optimism is a duty.

Yeah, just look at the Bywater circumstances. Hobbits so bound by rules and not making a fuss that they don't bother to fight back even in the face of a ton of injustice.

And the hobbits want so much to live undisturbed in the shire, that after Aragorn is crowned King Elessar, he issues a royal decree that no man is allowed to set foot in the shire. Clearly illustrated when he visits the remaining hobbits that were part of the Fellowship (Samwise and family), years after the events of Lord of the Rings he and his retinue set up camp outside the Shire.

Edited by Aaymeirah on Jul 23rd 2018 at 2:47:03 AM

If you have to cross thin ice, might as well do it in a dance.

It was 18 years after the destruction of the Ring, and Aragorn's court set up on the far side of the Brandywine Bridge, and would come no closer to the Shire.

Boromir is such a whiny little shit it's no surprise he screws over the team later.

Never trust anyone who uses "degenerate" as an insult.

Honestly, in the book, I had a hard time keeping Boromir and Aragorn apart, and then suddenly Boromir dies, and I'm like, who is this again? That's what you get with having so many characters and so much plot.

Optimism is a duty.

Boromir is the one who complains about every action everyone else takes the moment he shows up. "I don't want to destroy the Ring!" I don't want to climb the mountain!" "I don't want to go into the mines!"

Never trust anyone who uses "degenerate" as an insult.

Is this a subtle jab from Tolkien about kids who always whine on vacation? They won't behave in the car, they don't want to do anything, really they just want to go home so they can be bored and hyperactive there.

Optimism is a duty.

If I believed Tolkien had ever taken his kids on a family vacation in a car somewhere I might think it, but Tolkien wan't really that kind of guy.

Boromir isn't a complainer. He is basically a prince who isn't used to being a follower instead of the leader, and he's very understandably a skeptic about all this elvish mumbo-jumbo.

Sure, they say the Ring can't be used without turning its bearer to evil, but how do they know that? Did they test it at all? They say anyone who uses it will be overcome, but what do these elves and wizards of the far west really know of the men of Gondor and their strengths - men Boromir has been training to lead his whole life and who live constantly in the shadow of Mordor, resisting all the way?

What kind of insanity is it to send a bumbling halfling thousands of miles on foot to Sauron's very doorstep just hoping that Sauron will somehow miss him? And even if he succeeded at destroying the Ring, what good will it do? Boromir has seen the armies of orcs and men that Sauron has in his service, men with longstanding grudges against Gondor that have brought them to this war, and destroying some trinket won't just make them all go home, will it?

Simply put, Boromir is a rationalist among a bunch of crazy idealists, and its perfectly understandable that he might object to some of their craziest ideas. He is helping because he hopes he can eventually convince everyone to give up this fool's quest and bring the Ring to Gondor, where it will be as safe as it can and the grown-ups can go back to trying to win their war without the threat of the Ring falling into Sauron's hands. Perhaps he can make them see reason in time.