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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Marandahir" data-source="post: 7697479" data-attributes="member: 6803643">Aragorn struggles with these questions in the books, too. But Tolkien couldn't figure out how to reconcile the strong and wise leader he wanted to guide the Fellowship of the Ring and the Grey Company with the troubled ranger who wanted nothing of his royal heritage. Thus, he put most of those personal struggles into the appendices, where we can read them in "Of Aragorn and Arwen." As we see with Arwen's scenes in the movies, most are directly lifted from that appendix story. The movies (smartly, in my opinion) moved his struggles into the forefront of the story to successfully weave him as a compelling secondary protagonist rather than just the war leader who may be compelling in terms of physical struggles but lacked a compelling interior struggle in the context of the narrative. I should also say that, post Gandalf's fall in Moria until Gandalf's return in Fangorn Forest, Aragorn has a very compelling storyline in the books where he doesn't know what to do, because he always was relying on Gandalf's wisdom and guidance. The struggles he faces in leadership there really are a gem that Tolkien could have expanded into a wider character arc. This is one area where, I believe, the movies actually outdid the characterization of the books by seamlessly integrating the aspects of Aragorn's struggles into one cohesive narrative. Now don't get me wrong, the books are far and away better works than the movies. No question. There were a lot of missteps and problems and key missing elements. Whole messages from the book were lost in the translation. That's because the movies are the interpretation of one team of filmmakers. There will be more interpretations in the future. But I do believe that Tolkien has areas where he couldn't quite figure out what to do to make the stories as perfect as they could be. And a movie is a chance to offer potential fixes without staining the original published book.</blockquote>

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