okay guys who wants me to drag George R.R. Martin
alright so
a big thing in GRRM’s works is the idea that being a good person does not equal being a good leader. the good man is not necessarily a wise king, or a competent king, and it’s boring (to him, anyway) to say simply “he ruled well and justly” and leave it at that. because ruling realistically involves compromise, and learning to balance lots of different agendas, and working with people who don’t like you, and trying to figure out how to do the right thing (if that’s what you want to do) in between dealing with… well, basically everything else that could possibly go wrong, you know?
this comes up in interviews with him talking about Tolkien, and it usually focuses on Aragorn (I’m reminded of the infamous “Aragorn’s Tax Policy” quote, which is as bad as it seems even in its proper context) and it’s exacerbated by the Peter Jackson films, which erase most of the politicking that happens behind the scenes in LotR for the sake of making the story accessible and allowing emotional appeals to take precedence. which. okay, good, this makes watching that trilogy of films an intensely personal and emotional process, I’m here for that.
but.
Aragorn isn’t some random idiot who rolled up to the gates of Minas Tirith with a sword and a dream and went “oh yeah I’m related to this guy thousands of years dead, make me king now”. He’s also not just a good king because he’s good at making emotionally arresting speeches, or because he’s a friendly guy who people like, or because he intuitively Knows how to be a leader or whatever.
Aragorn takes the throne after eight decades of training for Kingship.
He spent his childhood in Rivendell, raised by one of the most brilliant minds in Middle-Earth, someone who served Gil-galad in court and who’s shepherded countless generations of Dúnedain and probably provided aid and counsel to Arnor when it still existed. He learned from Elrond and Gilraen how to be a good leader even outside of any formal education, but he also received a formal education. And in his adulthood? He went out to see how the different realms of Men worked! He traveled to Rohan and fought in their wars under Thengel, he went to Harad and Umbar and learned their ways and saw how their people lived, he lived in Gondor and familiarized himself with Gondor’s politics and political system and which families were powerful and how the steward ran Minas Tirith. Aragorn’s entire life is a practice run for Being King. He was literally raised to Be King. He has learned from the best and from the brightest of all stripes, from rich and poor, from elf and man alike, and he spent longer in the realms he meant to rule or interact with than in Rivendell. He’s already lead his people as Chieftain of the Dúnedain and he’s ready to gear up to do it again.
He’s not an incompetent ruler, or ill-equipped for the job, or merely a good man who governs well due to his good heart. to say so both does a disservice to JRRT’s worldbuilding and dismisses all the textual evidence to the contrary.
I’m always down for dragging GRR Martin.
