What's the best pain tolerance thing in LotR?
In general? Well Maedhros got tortured for decades on end and was still coherent + quickly recovered and went back to war but that's not relevant to non Elves.
Gollum was tortured by Sauron for years and managed to escape Mordor, albeit with ptsd from fire among other things.
Pippin's mental torture from Sauron is brief but is extreme enough that it does render him catatonic. He describes it as if he's falling apart.
- "It was cruel. It was like being stabbed with knives. I struggled. But he said: ‘‘Wait a moment! We shall meet again soon. Tell Saruman that this dainty is not for him. I will send for it at once. Do you understand? Say just that!’’ ‘Then he gloated over me. I felt I was falling to pieces. No, no! I can’t say any more. I don’t remember anything else.’"
Frodo suffers from the magical wound caused by a Morgul blade in his shoulders for 14 days and despite that, takes a stand against all 9 of the Nazgul and takes out his sword to challenge them and almost stabbed the Witch-King in the foot. Shame the Witch-King used a spell to stop him from being able to talk and broke his weapon.
- The wound being quite severe since it would not heal properly (even if it physically closed), flaring up whenever the Nazgul are near (even once Elrond heals it the phantom pain lasts until Frodo goes to Valinor) + Frodo was turning into a undead Wraith the entire time due to it.
- The wound was constantly getting more painful, though briefly improving when Glorfindel touches it.
- Frodo and Sam later do some pretty impressive endurance stuff, but that's also regarding the Ring and Aragorn can't really compete in that area.
Boromir gets shot by many arrows (unknown amount but more than the Movies. There were a hundred+ orcs and many of them kept shooting only at Boromir (who had no shield so must have been shot a lot). This is probably the main one to compare to as Boromir is pierced by a rain of arrows repeatedly and keeps fighting until he can't. Even then, he still tries to pluck them out to keep fighting and has enough energy left to speak a final conversation with Aragorn later.
- "But they had not gone far on the way back when they were attacked again, by a hundred Orcs at least, some of them very large, and they shot a rain of arrows: always at Boromir. Boromir had blown his great horn till the woods rang, and at first the Orcs had been dismayed and had drawn back; but when no answer but the echoes came, they had attacked more fiercely than ever. Pippin did not remember much more. His last memory was of Boromir leaning against a tree, plucking out an arrow; then darkness fell suddenly."
Some extra stuff:
- Denethor burns himself alive and only lets out one final scream... but the bugger was insane at this point.
- Theoden gets crushed by his horse and is dying, but doesn't show any sign of pain. Even has a final talk with Merry, albeit with great effort. But it isn't unheard of for people to feel no pain while dying from such wounds irl.
But facing Sauron in general is honestly just a very impressive willpower feat. Sauron and Morgoth have passive FM so severe that the fear quite literally either renders your soul powerless or even cause it to flee the body (even some of those who resist it faint)... however, this is not on profile yet so fie for shame. Yet that couples with the EM of Sauron and on profile he currently has the same EM that overrides a person's free will.
- "For it is recorded in the histories that Morgoth, and Sauron after him, would drive out the fëa by terror, and then feed the body and make it a beast. Or worse: he would daunt the fëa within the body and reduce it to impotence..."
- "So great was the horror of his approach that Huan leaped aside. Then Sauron sprang upon Lúthien; and she swooned before the menace of the fell spirit in his eyes and the foul vapour of his breath."
If anything having the willpower to endure a duel with Sauron overshadows most pain tolerance feats in the Legendarium.
Sort of is when he's feeling pressured at all(especially with Prior knowledge of Aragorn's experience)
Missed that part about knowing Aragorn's experiences. Hmm.
Well his go to move from the series was to first blitz and then try to electrocute. The radiation thing was explicitly used against someone he has personal issues with and that was second. Aragorn would also know what move Occam does first regardless.
I'm still leaning to a Aragorn win so my vote is there, but I will admit that is a good trump card. Sticking to a 7/10 personal rating. Maybe 6/10.
