Tumblr crosspost (12 March 2020)
Oct. 19th, 2021 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anghraineI reblogged this post I made in Nov 2013:
Little Estel growing up in a place where no one dies or ages or changes, ever, except him
Estel is Aragorn and it fills his heart with pride and then he falls madly in love with the most unattainable woman on the planet and it means his own grief or breaking up his family eternally
Young Aragorn returns to his people, who he doesn’t actually know, and has to become a Dúnadan of the North, the Dúnadan, when he’s only ever been a not-quite-Elf. His mother dies.
Aragorn wanders all over the globe. At one point he goes to Gondor, the country of which he has to gain kingship at some undetermined point in the future. The Steward’s heir is one year older than he is, looks as much like an ancient Númenórean as he does—looks like his brother, if he had one—and has ancient Númenórean powers to go with his height and face, just like Aragorn. Denethor hates him and Aragorn has to walk carefully around him. He leaves when Denethor’s son, Boromir, is three.
Boromir shows up out of nowhere while Frodo is recovering in Rivendell. Little Boromir is now forty, a massive and supremely skilled warrior. He’s instantly suspicious of Aragorn. But they forge a relationship of mutual respect and perhaps even friendship through their assorted tribulations, yay!
Boromir, who Aragorn remembers as a toddler, dies in his arms.
Fast-forward to the end of LOTR, Aragorn becomes king and marries Arwen and Éowyn fell in love with Faramir at some point and happily ever afters for everyone!
Except Frodo.
But he’d had time to get used to that and he has faith Frodo will be healed in Valinor and so on.
For some time his world is exactly as he wants it to be—
—and then people start to die.
There’s Imrahil.
And then Éowyn, Wraithslayer, Lady and unofficial marchwarden of Ithilien, wife of the Steward, and his dear friend Éomer begin to age in the way of other Men.
Éowyn dies. Éomer, white-haired but still hale, weeps as her body is entombed. Aragorn and Arwen are largely unchanged from what they were fifty years earlier. Faramir’s black hair is touched with grey, as Aragorn’s was at the same age. There is no Sauron-influenced palantír to age him before his time, and he is at once grief-stricken and not yet weary of life. His children and grandchildren, mostly black-haired, a few golden, his kindred, Aragorn and Arwen themselves, gather around to grieve with him and console him, but Aragorn sees Arwen and Lothíriel glancing at him with something like dread.
And in the next few years, Aragorn sees his loved ones dying all around him.
Éomer, Merry, Pippin.
One after another, Imrahil’s children: Elphir then Amrothos then Erchirion, and finally, Lothíriel.
Two of Éomer and Lothíriel’s children and one of Faramir and Éowyn’s.
Aragorn and Faramir are the last true Númenóreans left living. Aragorn fully expected the latter to surpass his ancestors and live some time beyond 150, but Faramir loses much of his joy in life after the (natural) death of his daughter and ages rapidly. He gives up his life at 120.
There are many others of the people called Dúnedain, and Aragorn knows his people will live beyond him for many generations to come. But with Faramir’s death, he knows that he is in some way the last of his kind.
I added: #yes i've been going through my old tags #and this one was like #hmm #yes i want to share this #no i don't hate aragorn it's just RELATIONSHIP: IT'S COMPLICATED.
Little Estel growing up in a place where no one dies or ages or changes, ever, except him
Estel is Aragorn and it fills his heart with pride and then he falls madly in love with the most unattainable woman on the planet and it means his own grief or breaking up his family eternally
Young Aragorn returns to his people, who he doesn’t actually know, and has to become a Dúnadan of the North, the Dúnadan, when he’s only ever been a not-quite-Elf. His mother dies.
Aragorn wanders all over the globe. At one point he goes to Gondor, the country of which he has to gain kingship at some undetermined point in the future. The Steward’s heir is one year older than he is, looks as much like an ancient Númenórean as he does—looks like his brother, if he had one—and has ancient Númenórean powers to go with his height and face, just like Aragorn. Denethor hates him and Aragorn has to walk carefully around him. He leaves when Denethor’s son, Boromir, is three.
Boromir shows up out of nowhere while Frodo is recovering in Rivendell. Little Boromir is now forty, a massive and supremely skilled warrior. He’s instantly suspicious of Aragorn. But they forge a relationship of mutual respect and perhaps even friendship through their assorted tribulations, yay!
Boromir, who Aragorn remembers as a toddler, dies in his arms.
Fast-forward to the end of LOTR, Aragorn becomes king and marries Arwen and Éowyn fell in love with Faramir at some point and happily ever afters for everyone!
Except Frodo.
But he’d had time to get used to that and he has faith Frodo will be healed in Valinor and so on.
For some time his world is exactly as he wants it to be—
—and then people start to die.
There’s Imrahil.
And then Éowyn, Wraithslayer, Lady and unofficial marchwarden of Ithilien, wife of the Steward, and his dear friend Éomer begin to age in the way of other Men.
Éowyn dies. Éomer, white-haired but still hale, weeps as her body is entombed. Aragorn and Arwen are largely unchanged from what they were fifty years earlier. Faramir’s black hair is touched with grey, as Aragorn’s was at the same age. There is no Sauron-influenced palantír to age him before his time, and he is at once grief-stricken and not yet weary of life. His children and grandchildren, mostly black-haired, a few golden, his kindred, Aragorn and Arwen themselves, gather around to grieve with him and console him, but Aragorn sees Arwen and Lothíriel glancing at him with something like dread.
And in the next few years, Aragorn sees his loved ones dying all around him.
Éomer, Merry, Pippin.
One after another, Imrahil’s children: Elphir then Amrothos then Erchirion, and finally, Lothíriel.
Two of Éomer and Lothíriel’s children and one of Faramir and Éowyn’s.
Aragorn and Faramir are the last true Númenóreans left living. Aragorn fully expected the latter to surpass his ancestors and live some time beyond 150, but Faramir loses much of his joy in life after the (natural) death of his daughter and ages rapidly. He gives up his life at 120.
There are many others of the people called Dúnedain, and Aragorn knows his people will live beyond him for many generations to come. But with Faramir’s death, he knows that he is in some way the last of his kind.
I added: #yes i've been going through my old tags #and this one was like #hmm #yes i want to share this #no i don't hate aragorn it's just RELATIONSHIP: IT'S COMPLICATED.