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Originally Posted by narfforc
I agree in principal with most of what you say Davem , however if Aragorn had declared himself to the people of Minas Tirith I doubt they would have rejected the Weilder of The Sword that was Broken, The Dead men of Dunharrow had no doubts, even Eomer can see the advantage of Anduril fighting alongside The Sons of Eorl. The people of Gondor were on their last legs, I think they needed HOPE.
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No - & in the end they didn't reject him, but that was for a couple of 'negative' reasons as well as the positive ones you mention. First, Denethor was dead, second, Faramir had accepted Aragorn's claim. If Denethor had lived, or Faramir had rejected Aragorn's claim there would have been a split Probably not 50-50 but large enough to cause problems of a serious kind. The kin-strife was still in the minds of the people. The worst outcome imaginable, aside from a victory by Sauron would have been a victory over Sauron followed by civil war. Certainly any claim by an earlier descendant of Isildur (or of Elendil if you want) would have been rejected. Arathorn could have claimed the Kingship but I can't see any notice being taken of him.
Denethor or his heirs (I include Imrahil as well) had to either be out of the picture or to accept Aragorn's claim
as well as Aragorn achieving victory in the spectacular way he did in order for him to attain the throne without splitting the realm & bringing more bloodshed.