Are We Ready For Peter Jackson's Aragorn?
© Michael Martinez
Can you imagine the dilemma Peter Jackson would have if Tolkien had not changed the Hobbit Ranger Trotter into the Dunadan Ranger Aragorn? Who would be the big love interest in the LOTR movies? Would we have to put up with Pearl Took following along behind the Fellowship, steadfastly watching over her beloved Ranger? Instead of Arwen: Warrior Princess jokes, the Internet would be filled with Pearl: Warrior Hobbitess laments.
Trotter's transformation into Aragorn gives the story of The Lord of the Rings a uniquely human perspective among a cast of strange and fantastic creatures. The Hobbits are human in many respects, but they are constantly stepping out of folklore and astounding people, and have to deal with prejudices they are unused to at home. Theoden didn't believe Merry would be very useful in the war against Sauron. Was he ever wrong!
It is through Aragorn's eyes that we often see just how desperate the plight of humanity really is. Unlike the Elves Men cannot sail over Sea to escape Sauron's reach. If they did try to sail to other lands Sauron would be able to follow them. When Elrond says, "And they who dwell beyond the Sea would not recieve [the Ring]: for good or ill it belongs to Middle-earth; it is for us who still dwell here to deal with it", he is referring to the Valar, who no longer dwell in the world of Men, but have been taken out of it by Iluvatar. Sauron doesn't threaten the peoples of just one continent, but of all the continents.
Unlike the Dwarves, Men were not made to withstand domination by greater wills. Why Iluvatar should make them so corruptible, or so suppressible, is a mystery. But perhaps that makes their heroic resistance against Morgoth and Sauron all the more satisfying. Dwarves cannot be turned into wraiths simply because they are made that. Men must make the right choices in order to avoid that fate.
The death of Boromir promises to be one of the most moving scenes in any of the movies. It's a very touching episode in the original book, and fans are right to hope, to demand that Peter preserve Aragorn's heartfelt compassion for Boromir. It is a scene where man reaches out to man with the love for humanity that is so seldom captured in anything but the greatest of heroic actions and sacrifices. Aragorn keeps the truth of Boromir's failure to himself, and lives with the burden of knowing that he could not have prevented that failure no matter what he might have done.
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