Best Father in Middle-earth

[Neferchoirwen]

how can you not love the Gaffer?

He grew on me, alright, especially in RotK. The way Sam kept quoting Gaffer shows how obedient he is, and therefore how obedience is so simple and yet undermined my most of us. Gaffer's the kind that shows love in a different way, but it's love nonetheless.

I'm not dissing Arathorn, I'm sure that, had he survived, he would've been a very good father

It's understood. But if I remember right, he thought of Aragorn's welfare to his death, though I don't remember whose idea it was to bring him to Rivendell in the first place. That started it all for Aragorn's well-being, I guess.