The Importance of Being Denethor

[Tuor of Gondolin]

For now, a few brief comments:

1)One of PJ's failures with Denethor was not showing the complexity of Denethor,
arguably the deepest, and hence in a way the most interesting, in LOTR.
2)My impression of the appendix debate in Gondor about Arvedui's claim to the throne was that he won the debate, the council knew it, and so just didn't reply, and one could surmise considerable political pressure was put by the Steward on the Council to reject Arvedui.
3)Denethor actually did a quite competent job preparing Gondor's defenses as best he could (ignore another silly PJ line put in Gandalf's mouth: "And you've done nothing.").
4)Perhaps one of the most sympathetic aspects of Denethor is the way he seems
to have been fighting for his father's approval against that of Thorongil, it makes
even more understandable his lack of glee when he seems to have deduced the
return of this stranger.
5)While in LOTR JRRT presents a many-sided Denethor, and the above discarded
Faramir/Denethor exchange is an "eye-opener", casting Denethor in a much
more sympathetic light, this is in contrast with a surprisingly negative JRRT
observation about Denethor in 1956 (Letters #183 ):

Denethor was tainted with mere politics: hence his failure, and his mistrust of Faramir. It had become for him a prime motive to preserve the polity of Gondor, as it was, against another potentate, who had made himself stronger and was to be feared and opposed for that reason rather than because he was ruthless and wicked. Denethor despised lesser men, and one may be sure did not distinguish between orcs and the allies of Mordor. If he had survived as victor, even without use of the Ring, he would have taken a long stride towards becoming himself a tyrant, and the terms and treatment he accorded to the deluded peoples of east and south would have been cruel and vengeful. He had become a 'political' leader: sc. Gondor against the rest.