Strider the Ranger is back

[doug*platypus]

Pip probably felt like Strider wasn't acting like himself. He was acting more like a high, important, royal person instead of the Ranger that Pippin knew him as.

Between Bree and leaving Rivendell, we find out that "all that is gold does not glitter", that within the body of a grubby ranger can dwell a great king. The episode at Isengard shows us that the opposite is true as well: the most high and mighty nobleman even in an epic fantasy still has a kernel of basic human nature within him, and the desire to just sit back and smoke a pipe. Nice symmetry.

It also shows us the heartening thought that Strider has not completely disappeared, and that Aragorn will still retain some of his humble roots. As an aside, I always liked Gandalf the Grey slightly better than Gandalf the White, but he seems to have disappeared even more than Strider has by the end of the story.