Anyone have Argis as their steward? I don't use followers and I essentially will have to pay 8k gold to buy him.. but he does read to be a pretty buff candidate to protect my home. Though I did read that he is a bit spastic on wiki and he'll aggro everything until all is dead (including Shadowmere)? Is that true and does it cause a problem as having him steward? Last thing I need is to come home and see them duking it out.

Also will stewards wear any armor you give them? I know that followers that aren't following will still equip upgraded weapons.

Otherwise who else is a melee fighter, preferably one that can't die. I would prefer a male candidate and Vilkas is taken up as my husband. I know that the Windhelm housecarl is male too, but that would mean me gaining the favor of Ulfric...

I off loaded Argis to the Blades when i moved the wife into my Markarth home

He seems more than chuffed with his new position and new armor

I haven't had Argis myself but think all followers have the same AI, can't imagine they would go through the trouble of giving Argis a different one, especially since he's just a standard housecarl. All followers will attack all hostiles until they're dead (and even through the kneeling stage). Don't know what happened with Shadowmere with that particular wiki contributor you mentioned, possibly a random friendly fire incident (it happens).

I think you can pretty much take any follower as steward, there are lists around you can look up too - you could even try Farkas, I'm sure Vilkas will be happy to have him around (although it's too bad you never see them interact in the game).

Here's one list: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1409356-unofficial-list-of-stewards/

Editing to add:

Don't know about essentials (I think Mjoll is reputed to be essential), but if your steward comes with a set of steel armor, it's pretty easy to upgrade their armor to something good, just make sure you give them something in their armor class with better base armor rating. I made Vilkas pretty much invincible by giving him legendary daedric armor and a superenchanted daedric greatsword.

Maybe the wiki is outdated or incorrect then. I've noticed that my dead thralls will kill all hostiles in the vicinity also and won't let up.

Well, went to try to buy the house in Markarth and guess what, my game is bugged. Screwed once again. Started the civil war quest line to FIX things that Beth should of already.

I currently use argis as a follower, I've never seen him go down, Ive watched him take out a dragon on his own aswell, I gave him ebony mail, ebony gauntlets, boots and helm. Daedric shield and sword.

He sounds like one tough nail but I think it was confirmed he wouldn't take the spot of stewart

I picked up Calder and he took the job. Have yet to test him and make sure he's a keeper, though I think he has the exact same stats as Argis.

I couldn't get him to be a steward.

I used to use Argis as my main follower for quite a long time whilst working through the main quest. I never really use followers but started taking him when I moved Aela into my Markarth home. I gave Argis a full set of Dragonplate and Deadric weapons and he was a rock. I've had him best part take out a dragon for me without a scratch. The only time I saw him go down on one knee was when we stormed the Forsworn camps located next to Skyhaven Temple. Thst was the most Forsworn I've seen in one place and were being hit from all sides by storm atronauts, archers, forsworn wizards throwing ice spells etc

i had Agris as followers at one time and can say he was the toughest and strongest followers i ever had i a game