A Conflict of Allies

     I have a friend who is finishing up the Lord of the Rings books (maybe I should have him collaborate on the blog?). Anyway, my email profile picture is Aragorn, and his was Legolas. Being the kind of person I am, this led to a debate. He said Legolas was better, and I had to defend my man.

    The conversation turned to who would win if they got into a fight. Of course, being on the same side that would never happen. And we couldn't really assume that one of them goes evil, for Legolas, being an Elf, was not tempted by the Ring, and Aragorn had his chance to take the Ring, and opted not to.

    But for the sake of argument, we'll say one of them falls under the influence of Sauron anyway. It doesn't matter who. Well, if Aragorn turned to the dark side then Gondor has no king and the Ring doesn't get destroyed, but.....that's a topic for another day.

    My friend has made the point that Legolas could just hit Aragorn with an arrow from far away. I hold that he would deflect it with his sword like he did to Lurtz's knife. And if he gets hit by an arrow, he could just heal himself like he did for Faramir and Eowyn, right?

    Well, unless it's a fatal wound..........

    Aragorn is a Ranger, and therefore a natural-born tracker. However, the Elf has such light footsteps that it would be difficult to track him until he's right on top of you. This helps Legolas too.

    If Strider makes it passed the long-range phase, they would engage in close-range combat, which Aragorn obviously gets the edge in. I don't think the marksmanship of Legolas would be effective against the skills of the King.

    Of course, Aragorn needs to make it to that second phase. And how should he do that? This one takes a little bit of thought. After all, Legolas is near impossible to track or predict, can hit you from long range, never misses, and can see for miles. 

    I would hold that Aragorn is smarter than the Elf, which is likely a controversial statement. He would need to accurately predict what Legolas would do, and then lead him into a trap. This would obviously be difficult, but if anybody could it, it's Aragorn.

    Assuming he makes it this far, the battle would rage, but I believe that Aragorn would end up smiting off Legolas's head. Remember, Elves can't die of natural causes, but as we see in the battle at Helm's Deep, they can get killed by weapons and the like.

    Once it comes down to it though, would one have the heart to kill the other? They were allies, friends. Could they do it? 

    I'm not sure that the in-depth analysis of strategy got me anywhere. I think I may need to leave this one for the imagination. However, considering the fact that Tolkien writes the book with Aragorn being the high point at the end, I think he'd give the battle to the King. What do you readers think? Who would win this one? 

    Maybe I will invite my friend to write for the blog, but once this post is a little while past. As for now, thank you for reading, and....

    Farewell, and may the blessing of Elves and Men and all Free Folk go with you. May the stars shine upon your faces!

Coming up next: Aragorn's Best Line: The Two Towers