The Anarchist Aragorn Meta No One Asked For

Or, why “The Return of the King” could have been “The End of All Kings” *

1) So, Aragorn has got a right to the throne through blood, sure, but for most of his life there *isn’t* a throne - and there are lots of problems in Middle-earth, obviously, but the lack of a monarchy isn’t really what’s causing them, so what’s stopping him from just saying “hey I don’t think I actually need to be king.” Like, will it be useful? Is it the best way I can use my life or am I just falling into what’s expected of me based on my ancestry and raising? Is being king really what’s best for me or the people around me? Do they want a king? Did anyone ask?

2) Probably the biggest motivator of course is Elrond saying he can’t marry Arwen unless he’s king of both Gondor and Arnor (regardless of how Arnor doesn’t exist at the time and hasn’t for ages). But this is the same quibble I have with Beren and Thingol: when a king/powerful lord guy makes you an impossible bargain as the price for getting to marry his daughter, you aren’t *obligated* to accept. You and the daughter could just, I don’t know, decide to live your lives together regardless of the father’s unrealistic and possessive demands.**

3) Aragorn and the rangers already have a relatively non-hierarchical arrangement in which they’re not beholden to any government/state, they’re really only answerable to themselves, they work for the common good and protection of the north regions where there hasn’t been a centralized authority for longer than anyone can remember (except Elves). Anarchism in Middle-earth in many cases wouldn’t even have to dismantle a state - just refrain from creating one! But no, instead we get monarchy and empires. Which was absolutely not inevitable! And shouldn’t be taken as the natural and good end of all things!

4) Gondor is used to not having a king, and Denethor’s fall is the perfect opportunity to also ask the real questions about whether a steward who basically acts like a king is a good idea either. All these singular rulers really aren’t doing the best job - why not try something else? Do we really have to keep trying new flavors of the same failing authority structures?

5) Aragorn has a good sense of equality and justice, which I *hope* he would keep as king - but honestly, once he loses the proximity to regular people and understanding how their lives are because he’s one of them, I would worry that he’d fall prey to the standard corruption of power. He’s a good leader and a good friend and has a fair outlook on the world because he’s spent time living in it, traveling, not asking for power or credit, not using his own name, learning to love not the idea of power or a throne but the actual places and people of Middle-earth. He insists on fair treatment within the Fellowship (regarding the Dwarf/Elf conflicts in Gimli and Legolas’s early relationship, for instance), and he makes peace with Harad and the Easterlings after the downfall of Sauron. I don’t think he’s cut out to be king so much as he’s cut out to just be a good person - so let him be a good person without absolute power!

6) He doesn’t have an intrinsic desire for power or kingship - the movies hype this up a lot more and make him super angsty about the perils of repeating his ancestors’ flaws, the failing blood of Men, etc etc (I didn’t like that whole thing but that’s an aside), but still, I can’t help but think if you don’t want to be king, and you aren’t driven by arrogance and entitlement and whatnot... you could just... not be king. There doesn’t have to be a king. Mind-blowing.

7) Aragorn could have still used his status as Elendil & Isildur’s heir to their advantage in baiting Sauron into treating him as the major threat, he just didn’t have to actually become king afterwards. Imagine if he’d been like “psych! fooled you twice! first you fall for me being the real enemy you need to focus on, now joke’s on you I don’t even want to be king. no more kings.”

8) “Hands of a king are the hands of a healer” - I would argue that Ioreth got this backwards. The hands of a healer happen to be the hands of a king, in this case, but Aragorn was a healer first - he’s been using athelas the whole time, and wasn’t king yet officially when he healed Éowyn and Faramir and Merry. Being king is a political and social position! It’s not an essential characteristic! It’s not “in the blood” oh my god. He’s only a king when he’s crowned as one - sorry but you can’t sell me on this whole bioessentialist monarchy thing. Probably a whole other rant.

9) Since the story makes a point to emphasize that regarding “deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere” (Elrond), it would have been a nice trajectory if the small hands of the world ended up actually with greater power to determine their own lives. For all the hobbits are the unexpected heroes, most of the named characters are still important people with social status and political power - why not make that dynamic one of the things that draws to an end with the Third Age? Why not a Fourth Age that is the time of the ordinary person, not just the start of a new king’s reign? Obviously Aragorn and Éomer and the other good-guy kings aren’t Sauron by any means, but I think a fuller rejection of absolute power, no matter who it’s wielded by, would have been both interesting and relatively narratively cohesive.

* This isn’t actually me saying “I think this is exactly how the story should’ve gone, god damn you Tolkien for not writing it exactly like this” - this is a self-indulgent counterfactual for me to play with my ideas about power structures in Middle-earth and the possibilities if all the people striving to change the world had gone further in a more radical direction than they did in canon.

** And before you think I have no sympathy for Elrond - I do. The guy’s life is unimaginably tragic, and Arwen’s choice is salt in the wound of losing Elros to mortality, etc. - but Elrond. Listen. Thingol is not the ancestor you want to emulate. Setting ridiculous quests for your daughter’s mortal lover? does not end well, as a general rule. Honestly he’s lucky it didn’t go as badly as Thingol’s challenge for Beren did.