Was it out of character?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Lyta_Underhill

Incidentally, Lalwendë, I used to find the book Aragorn almost intolerably pompous, but as I've read and re-read, he is slowly becoming one of my favorite characters as I come to understand the difficulties of his position and mandate.

That's one of the frequently expressed opinions on the 'Downs that I find fascinating, that Aragorn is pompous. I never found him to be so, but after hearing this opinion, I can see how some might find him to be pompous, especially when compared to characters such as Faramir. What I was thinking was that for some reason maybe the scriptwriting team (or even Viggo Mortensen) also found book Aragorn a little pompous and wanted to add some 'temper' to him.

In the books he is certainly the kind of character we would not see much of these days; the media constantly search for all the failings in our figureheads, and if we had an Aragorn today they would no doubt try to do the same to him. Perhaps they sought to 'humanise' him in some way? An interesting comparison can be seen in the way superheroes are portrayed in contemporary films. Spider-Man is filled with angst and doubt, and the X-Men each have difficult personal histories and character failings including anger and resentment. I'm not saying that book Aragorn is perfect, because even here he displays some failings, but he is not presented to us as someone with notable failings, such as the anger his character displays in the films.

I'm quite happy with both versions as they are used in different contexts, but I do have to say I much prefer book Aragorn. I find his character more subtly drawn, and I think I too am an idealist and like to think of him being somehow 'above' anger!