LOTR condensed
If you spend too much time thinking about Tolkien’s rich tapestry of fantasy history, parts of it start to seem questionable. Take for instance the purportedly significant role played by Aragorn/Estil/Strider/Eaglestar/Elessar. He has just spent the last 100 yrs (starting at age 20) becoming the “hardiest man in the world.” He fights with Rohan & Gondor, he explores the south, he explores the edges of Mordor, and he fights dark foes all over the place, sometimes with his pal Gandalf (Gandalf by the way, is actually a sort of Balrog with an optimistic disposition). A century kicking orc ass prepares Strider for what?
His contribution in the battle of the ring is solely as a diversion. Nothing else. He reveals himself to Sauron, which freaks out the Dark Lord, who consequently doesn’t notice a little unfolding drama on Mount Doom. Having been such an effective diversion then qualifies Aragorn to marry the most eligible babe available out of 2 races, (somewhat creepily she’s actually his first cousin, 35 times removed). Returning to Minas Tirith, he successfully claims to be the heir to a line that split 3000 years earlier, with his branch having gone underground about 1000 years earlier. The Gondorians are geeked about this, but they have less ardor in Arnor where Aragorn grew up. Are you with me so far?
Granted, Aragorn’s century of adventuring was probably good background for kingship, giving him a good understanding of the geography and peoples of the combined realm. He probably learned some of the speech of Rohan and one or two southern languages, which is useful for a walk around kind of king. He was certainly fluent in Sindar, which was useful for the bedroom, and speaking to some elite snobs from Dol Amrath, but given the apparent return of all the Noldar to the west, you have to assume that Sindar and Quenya, which had already ossified 10,000 years or so earlier, lacked utility and relevancy, other than as a class marker for a small group of elitists who claim to trace their ancestry back to a self-destructive people who lived 3 and a half millenia earlier.
And speaking of the elves, its the highest and noblest branch of the bunch who cause the most harm. In the 1st age, their most skillful craftsman creates the jewels that are the root of all jealousy. When Morgoth steals the things, the elves attempt to regain them plunges Middle Earth into 10,000 years of warfare. In the 2nd age, Celebrimbor arrogantly forges 3 rings of power, not realising that he’d practically sold his soul to Sauron to do it, borrowing millenia worth of future prosperity which allows Galadriel to plant flowers for 4000 years.
It was the elves desire for mithril that lead Celebrimbor to camp out on the door step of Moria, encouraging the dwarrow to delve deeper and deeper into they discover doom, Durin’s bane. Saddled with the 7 rings of doom that the elves had encouraged them to forge, but no longer having any precious metal for them to operate against, the dwarfish race begins a long descent into obscurity. The pinnacle of dwarfen civilization would never have crashed if it hadn’t been for the influence of the Noldar. Meanwhile, other high elves had provided the Númenóreans all the seeds of their destruction. No wonder the humans and dwarves are a bit suspicious of their motives. Just what is so noble and special about them, other than a self-destructive tendency they share with their closest human cronies.
The power rings were sort of like abstract financial instruments. As long as you believed in them, you could leverage the heck out of a couple grams of mithril. Once the one ring melted down, though, the whole house of cards came tumbling down. Only the 3 elven rings were actually left, and at that point were nothing but attractive conversation pieces. End of 3rd age.
Aragorn unifies a ‘kingdom’ that had actually only been extent for a couple hundred centuries, with one rump having completely disappeared a millenia earlier (undoubtedly there are doctoral dissertations comparing this to Judah and Israel). You have to wonder just how prepared his family will be to hold the fragile thing together. “This is my mom, cousin Arwen. She’s 6000 years old.” Once Aragorn folds his hands, the nasty rumors about family sanity and pretension probably came out in the open. There were no more elves to help provide advice or two-edged technology, which was probably a good thing. There were no more wizards, which was also a good thing, because the odds were 4 to 1 that a wizard would be useless, if not corrupt. Perhaps 2 palantíri were left, but maybe some technologies are better left well alone. Its clear why nobody has ever tried to do a follow-on story.