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Which I ask, do you have to be a "successful" warrior to hold high political office?
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I don't know if it is that simple. If a leader has triumphed through combat, he is showing his people that he will not only put his life on the line for the good of the many, but that he will do it and live. That's a nice thing to look for in a leader.
BUT, here's what just came to me. Aragorn's leadership versus Denathor's. Although Denathor *could* fight, and no doubt kick some serious behind, he chose not to. As he put it:
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[Sauron] will not come save only to triumph over me when all is won. He uses others as his weapons. So do all great lords, if they are wise, Master Halfling. Or why should I sit here in my tower and think, and watch, and wait, spending even my sons?
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I won't dispute that Denathor was a good leader, but he's not particularly "the people's leader". He uses his people as weapons, without ever putting himself in the same amount of danger.
One of the Gondorians' first visions of Aragorn is like everyone else has said: He personally led his people to The Black Gate; straight to the doors of the enemy, with the thought (or at least appearance) that if everyone was going to die to save Gondor (yes, and the world), that it was his place to die with them, fighting to protect them.
Are a group of people more likely to follow a good leader (with proper claim) who is willing to let them die, or to follow a good leader (also with proper claim), who is more likely to go out and fight right next to them?
Fea