LOTR Rants | Mostly Aralas

aragorn is an alpha bro, actually (an analysis)

WELCOME BACK DID YALL MISS ME

YES ITS BEEN LIKE THREE MONTHS AND SO WHAT
YES THIS IS 7K WORDS AND SO WHAT

listen i was in a HUGE writing slump for all of july, i finally got out of it to work on original stuff and when i finished a good part of that i got to this!!! so im sorry for the wait, but here is the next part of my essay!! a controversial analysis of BOOK!aragorn <3 you don't need to agree with everything, but maybe it will open your eyes to some things <3

enjoy!! 🫶🏼🫶🏼

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A Controversial Analysis of Aragorn in the Works of J. R. R. Tolkien

It is true that a sizable amount of all general analysis of J. R. R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film and book trilogies focuses on the character of Aragorn, son of Arathorn. He is a strange phenomenon—Aragorn is not the main character, yet his appearance, character arc and backstory would make him perfect as one. He is also treated almost as a "second" main character in much promotional material for the trilogy's film adaptation. The Two Towers book is halved almost exactly into Aragorn and Frodo's storylines respectively, and at least for the first half, Aragorn is undeniably the main character of the book.

But then again... Is he?

Seeing as you are taking time out of your day to read this essay, I think I can safely say that you have seen your fair share of such analyses of Aragorn's character and his role in the story. You have probably heard people in those analyses say that Aragorn is "the perfect man", the "perfect example of masculinity", "the epitome of positive masculinity" and so on.

But then again... Is he?

No, I do agree with this to some extent. I think it is a well-founded and deserved interpretation of his character, and most probably the intended one. But have you ever stopped to consider the unintended interpretation, the hidden nuances, what lies beneath that guise of "perfect, non-toxic masculinity?"

No? Thank God, because I have eleven thousand words worth of notes for this essay.

...Indeed, perhaps we should begin with those notes, because they are quite... Expressive. I shall start by showing you an unedited bullet point of "bad traits" I once thought present in Aragorn—only please note that here we speak of book!Aragorn, not film!Aragorn:

"Narcissist, gaslighter, mansplainer, idealist, victimizes himself in situations where he's not even close to the victim, SOMEHOW manages to belittle every single woman he speaks to (almost none), hypocrite, holds unrealistic standards of "manhood" and what "a man should be" and shames anyone who doesn't meet them, GLARING main character complex, GLARING superiority and saint complex, most of all a SAVIOUR COMPLEX and the most holier than thou character I have ever read."

Now, while this is extremely worded, and perhaps I no longer agree with everything I wrote, there are some valid criticisms buried in all those capital GLARING's and COMPLEX's. Allow me to explain:

My favourite line of all time in the entirety of the Lord of the Rings trilogy of books is this line from Éowyn in the return of the King:

"All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honour, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more. But I am of the House of Eorl and not a serving-woman. I can ride and wield a blade, and I do not fear either pain or death."

Amazing line, I lie awake at night thinking about it—but the context, the scene in which it is said is a whole other conversation. See, that scene is the second of four in the entire trilogy in which Aragorn has a full conversation with a woman, and the third is a follow up to this one. The fourth is when he speaks with Ioreth, a healer of Gondor, and the first is when he spoke with Galadriel in Lórien, but that is a shorter conversation and I have nothing of import to say on it. There is also a moment near the end of Return of the King when he speaks briefly with Galadriel and then with Éowyn, but those are about two sentences long, so we also will not mention those. Instead, we will discuss Aragorn's conversations with Éowyn and Ioreth, starting with the one that birthed this beautiful quote.