Except Aragorn was able to defeat all nine by himself at Weathertop, both in the book and movie. It was hard to reconcile that with the Nazgul that appeared at Minas Tirith.
At least in the movie, the Nazgul’s fell beasts did all the damage, not the Nazgul themselves. So I guess you could reconcile that.
If I remember it correctly, in the book Aragorn himself wasn’t quite sure why the Nazgul had left at first. When he saw they had wounded Frodo he saw they thought they had him and just had to wait one or two days more for the Ring and the shard of the dagger to do their dirty work. As creatures of fear and darkness, they would have preferred to bring Frodo under their command that way.
In the book the way they were involved in the siege of Minas Tirith was to instill fear from just out of reach of the arrows. They were more of a morale weapon than anything else. Of course, in the movie that would have been rather difficult to pull off and it would have made the movie even longer than it already was
And Aragorn shoots back with “well, you’re stuck now, beeyotch–no ship will bear you hence. So, suck on that!”
Whereby Arwen storms off and slams the door in the White City castle thingy.
Aragorn will win some battles with Arwen, but he’ll never win the war. Heh.
“on that”, or “on this”?
Well, I don’t believe Legolas, Gimli, Merry or Pippin were ever tempted. Nor Elrond.
Sam was only once, after they encountered the Shelob? Only mildly, though.
You nasty minded critter* you–on “that” (“that” being the fact that she cannot leave and won’t die for centuries yet, indeed, will die alone and no one will care…)
When was Gandalf tempted? AFAIK, the only thing that counts is that he didn’t dare even touch the ring because he knew he would be “far too suitable” a host for it. If anything Gandalf knew better than anyone just who would be the servant and who the master in that case.
No. Aragorn never faced all nine at Weathertop. Only five were there, and he admits that they withdrew mostly because they think that the wound given to Frodo will cause him to succumb.
And remember that the Nazgul before Minas Tirith are much closer to the seat of power for their Master. They also have been spreading fear from “afar” as it were (high above the city, out of sight, but not quite out of mind). With the sole exception of the attempt by the Witch-King to ride in through the broken gates of Minas Tirith, there is no direct confrontation at all between them and their enemies, until the defiance of Eowen, which, of course, the Witch-King is hardly counting upon, and which does him in.
Um, are we missing something here? Yes: necessarily, there is a lot of stuff that they left out of both the books and the movies. (We don’t get to see Goldberry at all, much less see her romping through the woods looking all natural and such. Sigh.)
Me, I suspect that Aragorn was tempted some, maybe a lot, but J.R.R. and PJ just never got around to exploring that part of it. Well, it was, after all, their story to respectively tell and show.
Figures I’d misremember that. :smack:
Couldn’t smash it; the One Ring would be impervious even to a Balrog’s mace. And if the Balrog ate the Ring, sooner or later it would, um, pass through the critter, and the Ring would resume finding its way back to Sauron. It might have to wait even longer than when Gollum had it under the mountain, though. Would you want to be the one to look through a giant steaming pile of Balrog dung?
Boy, I dunno. Now, Miranda Otto and the chance to be a viking horseman is an easy choice.
There are two possible answers. One is practical, from the standpoint of storytelling. If Aragorn is tempted by the Ring, he gets it in Bree and the book is rather short. The other is squishy, but lets the story continue. For whatever reason, he isn’t tempted. This is touched on not only at Bree but at the Council of Elrond. (Talking book here, don’t recall whether the movie included this.) Having chosen his path, Aragorn follows it to the end. Which, happily, is victorious. Stated a little differently, reason number one is the answer. The story won’t work if Aragorn is tempted. Ipso facto, he ain’t.
Maybe, but the Balrog didn’t really work for Sauron… it used to work for Sauron’s ex-boss, and was a maia of some sort (though lesser in power than Sauron). The Balrog getting the ring probably wouldn’t have been all that great for Sauron (imo).
The connection between elves and humans doesn’t get any stronger than in Aragorn, his artifacts, and symbols. The whole idea of Aragorn is that he’s worthy of inheriting the lands, responsibilities, and benefits of middle earth from the elves.
I think that the Ring of Barahir, being from the first age, would help it’s owner to be true and steadfast. After all, it’s older than the one ring, one of the oldest artifacts existant. Unlike the other rings in the book, the Rings of Power, the Ring of Barahir is completely untainted and unaffected by the power of the One Ring.
The Ring of Barahir would represent, and in Aragorns case prove, direct descendence from the most righteous, loyal, and worthy humans ever. I have no difficulty believing that this knowledge alone would help resist the temptation of the One Ring, and that subtle magic might also play a part.
Well, in the same sense that the one ring has no effect on Aragorn’s saddle, or on that rock over there. As far as I can tell, Aragorn’s ring is just a “thing”, not a Ring of Power. Or am missing a critical point here?
If you want to be king,
You can’t have a thing,
For the dangerous bling!
Burma-Shave!