Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

A few quick reminders before we get into it:

• The opening theme song is a setting of the “All that is gold does not glitter” poem, hopefully with lots of low, loving, swooping shots over landscapes. Also, you bet your ass I spent however much was necessary of that Amazon-given $1 billion to hire Howard Shore to compose the whole soundtrack - and if I can't get him, Hanz Zimmer.
• Young Aragorn is SO hot. We WILL cast someone who could slam open the doors of Helm’s Deep and swagger in like sex on legs.
• I am definitely playing fast and loose with canon timeline and geopolitical events this season.

Very Quick Frame

• "What happens next?!" asks a young hobbit-lad.
• "Well," says Sam, and turns a page...

The Season Overall

• This season, Aragorn is like 40% protagonist and Arwen and Denethor are both 30%, and Dúnawen, Halbarad and Roddis are solidly secondary cast - but, to an extent, more notable than in s3-4, because we’re spending less time on Monster of the Week with all its minor 1- or 2-ep characters. Every or nearly every episode this season is going to be a little tied into an arcing plot, by key character beats if nothing else.
• Yes, we’ve completed the slow transition from pure MotW to nearly pure season-long plot. There’s still an element of new problem and/or location each week, but the driving issue all season is the increasingly unavoidable war with Umbar...paired with trouble in the north again, tearing Aragorn between the two.
  • There is one episode where Aragorn is back in the northern woods with Halbarad and Dúnawen and they save a random hamlet from trolls or something…but it’s not as simple as it used to be…but maybe it still feels more right than all the work Aragorn has been doing in the south…

Aragorn, Denethor and Varieties of Hope

• Until now I’ve mostly just described character arcs and plot points but now it’s time for MAJOR THEMES. As manifested by character foils.
  • [maniacal delighted laughter]
• So, ideally, this show is a 5-season contemplative essay on leadership…and Denethor is a good leader. He is a good Steward of Gondor. I WILL die on this hill. He is too proud to bow his head to any other and he looks first to Gondor’s advantage and only sometimes beyond that, but these are not terrible failings in the Steward of Gondor. By the time we meet him in LotR, he has led his country in an increasingly hopeless war for four decades, and they love or at least respect the hell out of him -
• No, actually, let’s talk about amdir vs estel.
• Both are forms of hope. Amdir, as defined in the Athrabeth Finrod a Andreth (courtesy of Tolkien Gateway) is “an expectation of good, which though uncertain has some foundation in what is known.” Denethor, I posit - I write in this show - has a good capacity for amdir. He believes in the strength of Gondor and its people. He is not pessimistic...but he is realistic. He cannot bring himself to believe in goodness beyond what there is at least a glimmer of evidence for. In LotR, Sauron overthrows his hope of victory by showing him the seemingly overwhelming forces set against him. 
• Estel is an unfortunately symptom of Tolkien’s Catholocism more synonymous with “faith” than “hope.” Finrod describes estel as, “not defeated by the ways of the world, for it does not come from experience, but from our nature and first being. If we are indeed the Eruchin, the Children of the One, then He will not suffer Himself to be deprived of His own, not by any Enemy, not even by ourselves.” Or, if we strip out some of the religiosity for network television and my own preference: estel is hope beyond reason or any real evidence, save perhaps gut instinct. Estel is sending 2 halflings alone to take the Ring to Mordor and hurl it into Mount Doom, and in the end using yourself as bait to give them more time. Estel is the belief that joy always lies on the far side of sorrow, no matter how long the journey through the dark.
• Aragorn, of course, is literally named Estel.
• And estel is the empirically correct choice in Middle Earth, because that’s how the world and story (same difference) is built. The characters do not and should not know that, but it is. We the audience know it, just as we know that the answer to the question “who should rule Gondor in the end, Denethor or Aragorn” is 100% “Aragorn.”
• But the characters don’t! And therein lies the conflict.
• (Ecthelion is still here, being the actual ruling Steward of Gondor. But Finduilas’s death and the loss of his friend Thengel, and the mounting stress of the rising power of Mordor and how it’s riling up all their southern and eastern neighbors, compounded with his genuine age…he is still mighty in heart and mind, but his time is passing and everyone knows it.)

Questions of the Show and Season

• The question of the first 4 seasons, for audience and characters alike, was, “can Aragorn be King of Gondor?” Is he wise enough, is he charismatic enough, is he skilled at diplomacy and at war, does he know how to care and command without being overbearing, is he capable in a practical way at bureaucracy, tolerating fools and the hundred little tasks which a king must do daily…
• By the end of s4, we all know that the answer is YES. He still lacks experience, but he always will until he starts the job - Aragorn did some clever stately thing at the end of s4, and when Thengel fell he took able command of the battlefield before handing it gracefully to Theoden. If Ecthelion died tomorrow Aragorn could successfully take command of the Citadel and lead Gondor in the war they all know is coming…
• The question now is: Should Aragorn be King of Gondor? This is really multiple questions:
  • 1. Does Gondor need a central ruler at all? (What about democracy?)
  • 2. If so, does Gondor need a King (Aragorn), when they have a Steward (Denethor)?
  • 3. Does Gondor need a King right now? What about Arnor?
• The answers, which will be clear by the end of the season, are in order:
  • 1. Yes, Gondor needs a strong central, executive ruler; this isn’t even really a question the show poses. We are NOT dropping modern political theory into my medievalesque fantasy show, thank you very much. Though we will continue to explore the internal Gondorin politics set up in s4 - the Steward’s power isn’t absolute; there are fiefs to the south and there are always other lords, merchants, scholars, craftsmen, farmers and laborers with their own power… We're showing a realistically complex society and its governance.
  • 2. Gondor doesn’t necessarily need a "King", doesn't need that exact title and all its associations…but it does need Aragorn more than it needs Denethor, see: amdir vs. estel. It will especially need Aragorn more, Aragorn’s personal and political philosophy more, when at last the war is won and there is rebuilding to do for nor just Gondor but all Middle Earth…
  • 3. But the sort of unlikely alliances at which Aragorn excels - because unlike Denethor he considers the good of peoples beyond his own - will not save then now, or, will not save them when Sauron truly begins to attack, except with Rohan. This is known to the audience, and increasingly clear to the characters. Rhun might be convinced to neutrality, but there is too much bad blood with Harad, with Khand, with Umbar… Aragorn can be king of this realm, he should be king of this realm, but there is little he can do for it for now that Denethor cannot…
  • 4. And there is still trouble in Arnor, where there is no glory to be had for dealing it [see: aforementioned ‘back in the woods’ episode].
• S5 is still based out of Minas Tirith, but will definitely take place over a longer time period than the others to accomodate the need for travel time - because the designated “land of the season” is really the Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor as they will be in the Fourth Age. it opens with a 2-parter diplomatic mission to (Rhun?) to avert whatever war would otherwise have started from the attack on Rohan at the end of s4. Aragorn spends a lot of time in the southern fiefs (Lossarnach, Lebannin, Dol Amroth, etc), especially as the threat of the Corsairs of Umbar becomes paramount. And he returns to Arnor, as he has only a couple times since s1…

Arwen in the North (The Choice of Arwen)

• It's actually mostly Arwen who spends time in Arnor this season. Arwen’s questions are different than Aragorn’s. She’s been competent this whole time - she has studied wise, strong, gentle rule with some of the greatest stewards Elvenkind ever knew. She did have to figure out how to adjust to Men, to Gondor, but she’s made a good start on that, and moreover, she knows she wants to do that. She loves Aragorn, she loves Minas Tirith and Gondor, its hills and shores and people; she could make a life here, even if a short one, and something in her thrills at the mystery of what would come next…
• It also scares her. Death scares her and how much she wants it, death and life both as a Man - the ferocity with which she wants it scares her. And the cost is so high…
• For the first third of the season or so, Arwen is in the south with Aragorn. She joins the party to Rhûn and acts as an officially neutral party to help them make an accord. Perhaps they travel likewise to Harad and try to come to an accord with them...
• There is some sort of battle - fending off Corsair raiders? - in which they fight flawlessly back to back, fearlessly, both unafraid to die to save this coastal town and both so alive with the joy of living that they don't just kiss afterward (they have kissed before, idk when), they tumble into a bed together [note: for metaphysical reasons, elves don't spend much time semantically distinguishing 'sex' and 'marriage'], eager and rushing. Aragorn asks, "Are you sure?" and she says, "Yes"; he asks, "Will you stay with me?" and Arwen - 
  • Freezes. Gathers up her robes and runs, takes a horse and runs.
  • They got a message from the north a day ago asking if Aragorn could return because Dol Goldur still seems quiescent but something is rousing the Barrow-Downs... Aragorn was conflicted, with the Corsairs threatening the southern coast and Ecthelion's orders to guard it. Arwen will just go deal with that; this is reasonable and rational decision-making.
• There IS plot for Arwen to get involved with in the north, maybe including flashbacks to her own experience of the dissolution and then fall of the northern kingdoms? The danger is centered around the Barrows and other such old battle sites, rather than Dol Goldur itself, because that threatens the Shire, the ultimate Innocent Civilians(TM) of Middle Earth.
• Most of all, Arwen connecting with the northern Dúnedain, because she will be their queen, too. It's much easier than Gondor, for she has long been their cousin! But it's still a new thing.
• I think Halbarad follows her north. I've been neglecting him, and it'd be good to connect Aragorn's team with s1 with Arwen's in s5. All the Dúnedain are from "old" families, but Halbarad's is traditional even by those standards. His fathers and mothers have been riding beside the Chieftains and Kings of Arnor since the days of Isildur's sons. He, too, has connections to the to-him-ancient wars. 
• We ABSOLUTELY get 1 episode of pure Arwen, Elrohir and Elladan being a badass team. She also discusses her Choice with them, and goes home to Rivendell and discusses it with Elrond.
  • Elrond is terribly grieved to lose her, and that might give him an unjust temper for a moment. But most of all wants her to do whatever will make her happiest and most at peace with the world and her nature in it. He knows Celebrian would want that, too.
  • I forget what fic I read suggested that Arwen consciously makes the Choice not of Lúthien but of Elros, but it’s SUCH a good point/interpretation and it 100% comes up in some conversation. 
• Most importantly of all, and relatively early in this northern plotline/character arc: the show’s 100th episode would happen this season, episode 12, if we've been truly having 22 per season.
• I would beg, I would blow half my budget, I would ritually sacrifice an unpaid intern… I would hopefully have proven myself enough with s1-4 that I could convince the Tolkien estate to sell me the rights to the full Tale of Beren and Lúthien as told in the Silmarillion, or the Lay of Leithen or whatever complete form they’re willing to share, for just one episode...so the 100th episode would be an extended flashback/vision via the Mirror of Galadriel, depicting the complete tale of Beren and Lúthien with Aragorn cast as Beren and Arwen as Lúthien, and etc. characters in corresponding roles.
  • RIP to Elrond for being cast as Thingol
  • I'm so torn on whether Galadriel should be cast as Melian, or if it should be Celebrian (previously glimpsed in Arwen's memories?)
  • I’d do this episode with just what we have in LotR+Appendices, but I want the full rights so bad. For just 1 episode!
• Btw throughout this, Arwen and Aragorn are developing the long-range dream-sharing they sometimes do in the LotR movies. They haven’t done any of the traditional things elves do to bond telepathically (soul-binding sex and/or vows, cooperative meditation, etc), but they’ve grown close and the Great Song pulls them closer.

Aragorn in the South (Aragorn & Denethor: Round 2)

• Note: I don't know if each episode is showing events in the south and north or if they wholesale switch back and forth or what.
• There’s an episode, maybe just after Arwen leaves? in which Aragorn and Denethor both go back to Rohan for Theodwyn's wedding, and they both start to get competitive trying to help young King Theoden consolidate rule over his kingdom. Theoden ends up telling them both, “Full offense but I’m the King of Rohan actually, so thank you for your help and get the fuck out of my court.” Aragorn is duly chastised, and reminds himself to keep his pride in check. Denethor is chastised…for a while, and his pride will not forget this, we it has never forgotten any slight.
• S5 is kind of a tragedy, and the tragedy is that Aragorn and Denethor could achieve so much if only they could get along. Or rather, if only they didn’t naturally occupy the same ecological niche, that niche being ruler of Gondor.
  • Could Denethor ever serve Aragorn as Steward to King? No, because Denethor’s pride is too great - he will never bend the knee to one he considers unworthy, and he will never consider anyone worthy above himself.
  • Could Aragorn stay anonymously in Gondor forever, serve as Captain to Denethor’s Steward? (This what Ecthelion’s thinks will happen/is trying to engineer.) For Aragorn’s pride… Yes, Aragorn is capable of that with someone he deems greater than himself…but Denethor just does not qualify. Equal, perhaps, but not greater; and inevitably Aragorn would feel the need to step up and do what he thought right, and then there would be trouble…
  • Could they be true equal partners? No, because this, too, would try Denethor’s pride, and Aragorn’s more humble but also more righteous pride - and then Gondor would be lost, because if you took a poll in late s5 for who should succeed Ecthelion as Steward, Denethor or Thorongil… Denethor would win, but it’d be pretty close. Civil unrest–close.
    • IIt needs to be clear why Aragorn could walk into this city 50 years later with no warning and be hailed and accepted as king.)
    • (Denethor knows he has his father’s support. He also knows he doesn’t have all of his people’s. This stings bad.)
    • (Also, to be clear: Denethor and Aragorn are both 99% focussed on the growing problem of Mordor and its allies, and too wise to sabotage each other/themselves with petty rivalry…much.)
• Btw remember the Palantir? Season 5 sees Denethor start to use it secretly. One time he’s nearly found out; another time, he nearly tells someone…but he is not and does not. He promises himself he will only use it in diremost need, and he does hold to that promise (in these early years.)

Everything Comes to a Head

• Then, late-season, Denethor finally figures out who Aragorn is. What Aragorn is. A comment let slip? A sketch of Isildur in the archives? A comment Finduilas made, before she died, about how Arwen plans to be a queen of somewhere someday soon? A vision in the Palantir, of past, present or future?
• Before he can digest it, however, Ecthelion his father visits one of the big southern coastal cities...and Corsairs attack, and the Steward is killed. 
• Gondor is now AT WAR with Umbar and probably Near Harad, maybe even Far Harad.
• Yet on the eve of a big fight - or a month or so before, because travel times - Halbarad rides back south with word that they really do need Aragorn in the north! (Some bloodline-centric ritual to lay the dead to rest for good?). Aragorn must choose!
• Aragorn chooses to ride north.
• Just before he goes, Denethor confronts him about this abandonment of his duties to Gondor - and about his heritage. It ends with Denethor spitting, “Come back for your crown or don’t come back at all!”
  • Denethor regrets his words as soon as Aragorn is out the door. What if he did come back for his crown? Would they tear Gondor apart between them? Denethor tells himself that for Gondor, if the people of Gondor choose Aragorn to rule them, he would hand over his scepter of office peacefully…but he knows in his heart that he wouldn’t. What right has Aragorn’s ancient blood to the country that Denethor’s family has served with blood and sweat all these generations!
  • …Anyway, he has more important things to worry about. The Corsairs besiege the coasts; the Haradrim advance from the south, the Rohirrim are no help with bandits on their borders..
  • (No orcs, note. Not yet. They all know it's coming one day, maybe soon - raiding parties from Mordor have grown more bold. But this is a war between Men, over grievances that have lingered since the Kinstrife of Gondor, since Númenoreans first settled these shores...albeit stirred up by the true Enemy.)
• Aragorn rides north as fast as he can, with Dúnawen and Halbarad. They meet up with Arwen and the Dúnadain to deal with the rising barrow-wrights. Aragorn briefly takes up Narsil again, and maybe the Witch-King himself is even there, in the ruins of Angmar...
  • Note: even broken, Narsil has talismanic power against the forces of darkness. I just don't think Aragorn would carry a completely useless broken sword in the darkening days right before the War of the Ring. In this show, he carried it throughout s1, then left it behind in Rivendell for secrecy's sake when he went south.
• Meanwhile in the south, Denethor and Roddis go to war! Tolkien very deliberately ain't about big epic climactic battle sequences, but I am a little, and the general audience of network television definitely is. So we shall indulge.
• Aragorn wraps up the fight in the north…for now. It’s obvious that this sort of thing, and orcs, wolves, spiders, etc will remain a problem…
• The no-longer-baby Ranger Trio borrow a ship from the Havens and race the wind back south. (Arwen stays in the north to help clean up. She tells Aragorn that he will know where to find her, when he returns.)
• Gondor has had victory in pitched battle on land, but the main problem is still the Corsairs. Was always the Corsairs, as Aragorn warned Ecthellon back in s4. Gondor has a navy, but not enough to win a pitched sea-battle, much less enough to guard their whole coastline.
• Aragorn reaches Umbar ahead of the bulk of the army (which Denethor still leads). He meets the vanguard, containing Roddis and probably some other skilled scouts from Ithilien.
  • Aragorn: [lying flat on a seaside bluff, overlooking the fleet of black-sailed ships already bombarding the coast of South Gondor] I have an idea.
  • Dúnawen: Is it another of your impossible plans based on ancient history?
  • Aragorn: Technically yes.
• With a dozen-odd ships as bait, half local fishing ships over-rigged with sails to look larger, they lure the bulk of the Corsair fleet into a vulnerable position… and then they burn the motherfucking pirates to the waterline.

Epilogues

• When the Gondorin army catches up, they are met by Roddis, Dúnawen, and whoever else walked away from that naval escapade…with a message from Aragorn.
  • • [this text is pure canon, except I added the last line!]
  • “To the Steward,” Dúnawen says, and bows to Denethor (though her voice is pitched to carry to all those watching). “Thorongil said only, 'Other tasks now call me, lord, and much time and many perils must pass, ere I come again to Gondor, if that be my fate. Until then and after, my friendship is yours.’”
  • Denethor internally: What the FUCK does that mean. Is he coming back or not? If he comes back after this dramatic victory, the people will surely support him…
  • But he says something gracious and grateful, and goes home to be Steward of Gondor (and, to a lesser extent, father to his sons); ever watchful and warlike toward Mordor and its allies servants. It is to Denethor's credit that Gondor is as strong as it is, at the start of Lord of the Rings.
• Dúnawen stays in Gondor and marries Roddis. A couple weeks later, she hikes up the mountains behind Minas Tirith where she spent much time in s3. There she meets Halbarad, who spent much time there with her, and who left with Aragorn after the battle in Umbar. They catch up a little, clarify that she’s staying, he’s going north, and,
  • Dúnawen: "You’ll visit, I hope?"
  • Halbarad, looking out over Minas Tirith and the lands stretching out from it: "No. The next time I lay eyes on these fields shall be the last."
    • (There is Prophecy in his words, a ring of the Great Music itself. But he comes south anyway, in the War of the Ring. Do you understand? He knows he’ll die there and he comes anyway, because there is Aragorn to aid and evil to fight.)
  • Dúnawen says, “Ah. Then Roddis and I shall have to visit you - and our crownless king, of course!”
  • Halbarad warns, “He meant his words, you know, and more. He will not return until the need is greatest and the time is right.”
  • Dúnawen says, “I know. Aragorn always means his words. I did say we would visit you.”
  • Halbarad laughs. “Indeed you did! Well, wait a few years - when we parted ways, he was paddling up toward Lothlórien, in expectation of meeting a lady there. Who knows how much time will pass in that enchanted wood, ere we see either of them again!”
    • He doesn't quite wink, but the wink is there. They're all grown up and serious now, they've seen war and worse, but these guys did probably all sleep together, and have snowball fights and etc. shenanigans, 4 seasons ago.)
• The camera lifts from them as the music swells - Gondor’s theme, Arnor’s theme, the theme of the King as the camera flies through the mountains of Gondor and up the Anduin. It passes a boat pulled over below the Falls of Rauros, passes the status of Anárion and Isildur by Amon Hen and Amon Lhaw, and catches up with a Man in a dark green cloak as he steps at last beneath the boughs of golden Lothlórien. He knows where to go, though they never discussed it, only shared a dream.
• The music changes to the theme of Aragorn and Arwen as he comes to where she waits on the white-flowered hill of Cerin Amroth. They take each other’s hands while looking deeply into each other’s eyes, pledge their troth, and embrace with a long kiss as the camera pulls out and twilight fades to dark…

Finis.

• ...And the dark turns to the flipping pages of a closing book, as the camera pulls out further to show once more a middle-aged Sam Gamgee, comfortably portly in his fireside armchair in Bag End, reading to half a dozen children, and maybe a couple grown hobbits.
  • “But aren’t they going to get married?” a young hobbit-lass asks.
  • “Not in this story,” says Sam.
  • Rosie comes in from where she was leaning contentedly on the doorway and says, “Not until after the king helps your Da and Mr. Frodo save the whole world. But – ”
    • Young hobbits clamor for that story! Nine-Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom! Samwise the Brave! I wanna hear about the spider!
  • “But,” Rose repeats more loudly and firmly, picking up 1-2 children at once, “that’s a story for another night. Right now it’s bedtime.”
  • “Listen to your mother!” Sam says. He puts the red-bound book on a side table and gets up to lift a slightly larger protesting child. “This Da is getting too old to be reading at all hours anyway!”
• They usher the children out, to bed. The camera lingers in the cheerful living room of Bag End, while sounds of bedtime processes fade in the other rooms. Sting is mounted on the wall above the fireplace, in a sheath finely embroidered with a roaring red dragon. On the adjacent wall hangs a small but expertly woven tapestry, with gems-encrusted threads which almost glow with their own light. It depicts a star breaking through dark clouds over a dark land to shine on two small figures, the wider of whom holds up an equally bright diamond glass [implication: personal gift from Arwen]. There is a mayoral sash draped haphazardly over the back of one sofa, and many toys and a few crumb-filled plates scattered about. The thick red book from which Sam was reading is left on the table beside the plush armchair, with the bookmark about 3/4 though.
• This is the peace all those wars and worse have won. And the tale is still not over!
• Fade to black for real this time, credits roll over a choral cover of the full poem:
  All that is gold does not glitter,
  Not all those who wander are lost;
  The old that is strong does not wither,
  Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
  From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
  A light from the shadows shall spring;
  Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
  The crownless again shall be king.