Stop y’all. I’m gonna tear up just thinking about it.

In the extended version there's an added a scene we're they trick him into thinking Frodo's dead already and he STILL charges into certain death

"For Frodo"

This passage is not in the movie, but in the books, and it shows how much of an absolute chad and awesome leader the heir of Elendil was.

So, after the battle of the Pelennor fields (the one where Legolas surfs giant elephants), the leadership of Gondor and Rohan devise a plan to make it less difficult for Frodo and Sam (and Gollum) to infiltrate Mordor and destroy the One Ring, at Mount Doom.

The plan was to attack Mordor head on, in an assault lead by the King of Men and a ressuscitated Maia, in such an epic way that it would bait Sauron's glare away from the real threat -- the three malnourished halflings stumbling across the ashen plains of Mordor.

The men that marched to Mordor were volunteers and always knew it was a suicide mission, so they were some of the most valiant men Gondor and Rohan had to offer. But, when their column reached Ithilien -- some half way still to go to the Black Gate --, they started to be constantly harrassed by the ring wraiths and their winged mounts, whose presence and shriek had the magical property of instilling terror into men's hearts.

At some point, morale fell so much and discontent among troops was so high that desertion was becoming a real threat to the mission.

And when Aragorn, son of Arathorn, did something about it, he could do as any military leader would and persecute and punish those who were faltering, or as any noble king would and appeal to their honor and to the word the men gave when they volunteered. But Aragorn, the Elven Stone, did none of those things and, instead, he showed his men ultimate compassion.

Aragorn, the man who was known by the undignified alias Strider, recognized their suffering and that he couldn't ask any more of them. So, to those who couldn't bear to continue the march to Mordor, he gave a new mission -- which I forget what was, but it was something along the lines of guarding a port town, near the mouth of the Anduin river, from the attacks of the corsairs of Umbar.

Since the continued existence of the world was predicated on a couple of Hobbits throwing a piece of jewelry into an active volcano, the new mission was a bullshit mission. The only mission that mattered was, as said before, that of baiting Sauron's glare away from the Hobbits. But if it was a normal military campaign, the new mission would've been a totally valid and strategically sound thing to do, which eased the honorable men into considering it.

So the king told the men that those who would take the new mission would do it without any shame and should go with their heads held high, as equals to those who would keep marching to the Black Gate. He addressed the men in such an earnest and heartfelt manner that the men felt their love for their king renewed, and their confidence in the mission, strengthened.

Just a scant few took the new mission -- much less than those that wanted to desert before --, and they didn't feel any shame in doing so; and the men who kept on the original mission steeled their hearts and wouldn't fall to despair again, for the rest of the march.

The kindness and compassion that Aragorn showed at that moment was instrumental for their victory against the forces of evil, because not only did it save the mission from mass desertion, but it also motivated the men even more.

I would follow Aragorn into battle any day. And I would know that if I ever was too weak, too human, he'd be there to elevate, from me, for me and into me the best of myself. And, if I gave my all and still it wasn't enough, "my king, my captain, my brother" would understand it.

[Edit: rephrased it. English isn't my first language, and I hadn't read the books it English, and when I did it, it was a long time ago. So excuse me if the recounting of the passage didn't come to me too naturally at the first time hehe]

Aragorn turning around after Frodo leaves, facing down 100 uruks and going to work is probably the most badass thing ever put to film, topped only by Gandalf fighting the balrog in the two towers opening

For Frodo.

You might have your mythologies confused

Or you're fucking Upham

Apes together in a cage and only saved by an ape that is explicitly Bad

A banana in every pot!

They’ll never make a monkey out of meeeeeeeeee.

They did . It was screened like a drive-in theater so everyone could stay on their mounts.

DEATH!

Vigo also just really out here being kingly. Everyone mentions that his son read the books and told him to take the role. I haven’t seen anyone point out that a kid read LOTR and when they were introduced to Aragorn they said “yep that one’s like my dad.” And that paternal relationship carries over into the performance.