middle earth

LOTR tag-question meme

Seen and borrowed from Mary and the Words! As you can tell I’ve been on a Middle Earth/LOTR fandom kick recently SO…

(This will have a slight movie bent, sorry!)

Middle Earth:Hobbit or Lord of the Rings?

Oh, Lord of the Rings. When I first saw the first movie, it blew my young mind completely. Then I got ahold of the books and they blew my mind too. I didn’t read The Hobbit until later alas.

Fellowship: Favorite Hobbit movie

I’ve always been a little torn on the Hobbit movies because as much as I do like them, Martin Freeman as a person gets on my last nerve and they’re a wee bit overstuffed with completely unnecessary things. (cough love triangle cough) But if I had to pick a fave it would be The Battle of the Five Armies. Yeah, it’s a bit all-over-the-place but I can’t help but love its earnestness.

Ring: Favorite Lotr movie / book

Oh, Fellowship of the Ring, hands down. It was the thing that introduced me to the world of Middle Earth, after all. And as a movie it is just stunningly gorgeous.

Bilbo: Favorite character

Hmmm, TECHNICALLY it’s Boromir but I can see there’s a “favourite fellowship member” question further down so for this one I’m gonna say: Eowyn. My god I loved her so much when I was a kid. Now I’m an adult I can see she’s quite a complex and flawed character which makes her even better.

Dor Guldur: Least favorite character

I actually find it hard to pick a least favourite character because they all have their place in the story BUT… oh it’s totally Wormtongue. That slimy little asshole.

Gundabad: Favorite “evil” character

Oh Saruman, easily. He’s evil but he’s such a great character, y’know? A true magnificent bastard. Plus, a snappy dresser.

Also, he’s played by Christopher Lee. I miss Christopher Lee.

The Shire: Favorite place

Hobbiton! I dream of one day getting to go to the Hobbiton set in New Zealand. It’s green and full of nature, the houses are cosy, there are impressive firework displays every so often and lots of hobbits live there. (…in the movie/book, not in New Zealand.) It’s perfect.

Rivendell: Favorite species (hobbit, dwarves, elves..)

I love them all but I guess I should stand up for, ur, my own species and say men.

…and women.

Misty Mountains: Do you have a favorite quote from the movies/books?

Yes! And it’s this:

“The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them.”

Very timely, isn’t it. :(

Mirkwood: Would you rather be an elf, hobbit, mankind, dwarf, wizard?

Ah well, I think given the choice most people would be hobbits, wouldn’t they? I already have hair on my toes so I’m halfway there. (Gross, sorry.)

Gondolin: Favorite Durin’s son

I like all of the Incredibly Hot Dwarves. Ultimately, though, gotta be Thorin. Poor Thorin. (Also, man, did Richard Armitage put in one hell of a performance as him.)

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But, sad or merry, I must leave it now. Farewell.

Ah, that could be another contender for favourite quote actually.

The Nine: Favorite fellowship member

Near-empty religious studies classroom circa 2001:

Person #1: “Who’s hotter, Aragorn or Legolas?”

Person #2: “Boromir!”

Person #1: “Boromir’s an asshole!”

Me (internally): “What movie were you watching?!”

So, him.

(Stupid arrows!)

Sindarin: Favorite weapon

Legolas’s Bow of the Galadhrim. Look at it go!

Minas Tirith: Do you own any Lotr/Hobbit merchandise? 

YES! Except… I kinda lost a lot of it over the years. For example, I got an awesome Gollum figure back when I bought the Two Towers DVD Special Edition, and now I still have the box it came in but NO GOLLUM. Where is he?!

Gig-Galad: Would you have changed something from the movie? 

I would! There really ought to have been a more diverse cast, for one. (The Hobbit trilogy did at least attempt more racial diversity among the extras, but that was about it.) And take out the silly Kili-Tauriel-Legolas love triangle, I cannot name a single person I’ve ever met who liked it. Heck, even some of the people involved in it didn’t like it.

Minas Morgul: Gandalf or Saruman?

Gandalf. Sure he’s an old grouch but isn’t that what really makes a wizard? He’s wonderfully snarky at times too:

“I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colours!”

I looked then and saw that his robes, which had seemed white, were not so, but were woven of all colours, and if he moved they shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was bewildered.

“I liked white better,” I said.

#GANDALF OUT

And there ya go!

Things I noticed when screencapping Fellowship of the Ring

Recently I screencapped the whole dang (three-hour!) movie from a Blu-ray version of the film and while sorting the screencaps I noticed some delightful little details. To wit:

When Isildur takes the Ring, for one brief second there’s this shot of his reflection looking back at him from it. It’s kinda weird and unsettling, which is obviously very appropriate.

You can get a glimpse of Arwen’s stunt double during the river scene.

Boromir is a total manspreader.

Everyone’s nails in this film are so fantastically dirty and gross (especially yours, Frodo.)

Legolas having to physically hold some other Elves back from… beating up the Dwarves? during the Council of Elrond is sort of funny to me, but also a great character detail.

I frickin love the Argonath scene (I used to have this poster on my wall) and I especially love that there are birds nesting in one of their eyes.

At a couple of points during the Amon Hen battle scene you can very clearly see Merry and Pippin’s smaller stunt doubles.

Aragorn taking Boromir’s vambraces at the end is very touching when you spot it, but it amuses me that the film just breezes past him actually taking them off the body and what exact explanation he gave, beyond possibly “I wanna keep this dead guy’s stuff. As a tribute to him, obviously.”

MAN I love this movie.

Tolkien and writing

This is really, really good writing advice.

khorazir 

incomingalbatross

One of the things that’s really struck me while rereading the Lord of the Rings–knowing much more about Tolkien than I did the last time I read it–is how individual a story it is.

We tend to think of it as a genre story now, I think–because it’s so good, and so unprecedented, that Tolkien accidentally inspired a whole new fantasy culture, which is kind of hilarious. Wanting to “write like Tolkien,” I think, is generally seen as “writing an Epic Fantasy Universe with invented races and geography and history and languages, world-saving quests and dragons and kings.” But… But…

Here’s the thing. I don’t think those elements are at all what make The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings so good. Because I’m realizing, as I did not realize when I was a kid, that Tolkien didn’t use those elements because they’re somehow inherently better than other things. He…

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catchaspark:

timefortigers:

papinianista:

According to Know Your Meme, on August 18th, 2005, Erwin Beekveld brought forth this work into the world. HAPPY TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY, THEY’RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD.

sheds a single tear

every august 18th my notifications break and i go, fuck, tumblr has failed me once again, but it hasn’t. it hasn’t failed me. it’s just the taking the hobbits to isengard-iversary. happy 12 years

galpalkirk:

lesbianwaves:

i love how much everyone cries in lotr like aragorn just had his boromir weep and we cut to frodo and he’s sobbing under the weight of his now entirely solitary task like yeah as an audience i need that cathartic placeholder!! well done i’m empathizing and processing my pain!! with big blockbusters today most of the time i come out of the cinema constipated and wondering if the men in them are even supposed to have human feelings 

they better fucking weep tho that shit is canonical! you can’t read a page of lotr without a man crying! i was reading rotk a month ago and pointing out this exact thing, just look at all these men with actual emotions!

Éomer, to an army of crying men: Do not cry! We have work to do!

Also Éomer: cries as he says this

poondragoon:

estel-of-the-eyrie:

penny-anna:

tehri:

penny-anna:

tehri:

penny-anna:

tehri:

penny-anna:

ok so, for people who have seen the LOTR films but not read the book I’d like to share some things that are 100% canon:

– Sam Gamgee uses the word ‘boner’. In a song. Several times.

– he also writes a poem that contains the phrase ‘golden showers’. (this is actually in the extended cut but they changed it to ‘silver showers’)

– at one point after he’s defeated Saruman steals Merry’s weed & runs away

– Denethor has actual mindreading powers

– so does Faramir (but he’s a nice person so they manifest more as heightened empathy)

– Gandalf ALSO has mindreading powers but for entirely different reasons. he reads Frodo’s mind while he’s sleeping at one point, casually reveals this to Frodo, and Frodo’s just like ‘huh neat’

– rather than bravely drawing the orcs away from Frodo like in the film, in the book Merry and Pippin just kind of, panic, bolt into the woods, and run directly into the orcs’ arms.

– Merry then draws his sword and hacks a bunch of orc hands off

– Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli name themselves ‘the three hunters’ before setting off to rescue Merry and Pippin because they are dorks

– they also improvise a whole song about how much they loved Boromir

– Aragorn does not initially tell the hobbits he’s a friend of Gandalf bcos he wanted them to like him for who he is. im not kidding. he openly admits to this.

– i feel like this is fairly well known but, if you didn’t know Frodo is 50 years old and looks 33

– hobbits PROBABLY age different to humans so looking 33 in practice means he looks about 21

– in accordance with the above Pippin is the equivalent of a 16-17 year old human

– Pippin can pass for a human child and looks like ‘a boy of nine summers’

– this isn’t that weird i just think it’s really cute: Pippin has 3 older sisters and their names are Pearl, Pimpernel and Pervinca. 

– Sam & Rosie have 13 children. One of them is called Goldilocks.

– Frodo has another best friend. His name is Fatty. He stayed behind in the Shire to cover for Frodo’s absence and ends up getting jailed for months by Saruman’s forces.

– Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, who steals spoons, is also jailed by Saruman. (She whacked one of his goons with an umbrella.)

– Grima Wormtongue MAY have eaten an entire hobbit

– Saruman invades the Shire and turns it into a communist hell police state.

– the whole Tom Bombadil thing is common knowledge but if you haven’t read the book i guarantee you he is weirder than you think. 

– to give just 2 examples: 1) the whole tom bombadil arc provides the explanation as to how Eowyn and Merry were able to dispatch the Witch King

– and 2) for unknown reasons sleeping in his house causes everyone to have horrible nightmares… EXCEPT for Sam who has a peaceful and dreamless night. no explanation offered for any of this. 

considering that Pippin’s dad is named Paladin, you fucking know he claimed the right to name each and every one of his children and his poor wife just begged him to choose a different letter to start with

also aragorn openly admitting to being fucking lonely and just wanting friends is treated like a weirdly funny joke in the book by the way that some of the hobbits react to it, and frodo also proceeds very soon after to basically tell aragorn that he’s pretty foul-looking but seems a good guy

yes to the above & a small correction + one i forgot:

– Merry does in fact gift Saruman the weed. It’s the bag it’s in that Saruman steals and runs off with. (also give that Merry stole the weed from Saruman’s personal supply in the first place i can’t say i blame him)

– Aragorn literally has magical healing powers. i don’t think they ever explain this in the films but he does very much have healing powers.

– the Ents are able to tear down the entire wall around Isengard, but can for whatever reason not make a single dent in the tower of Orthanc itself

– several riders knew that Merry was there and coming with them to the fields of Pelennor even though he was forbidden to do so, and they just sort of shrug and don’t tell the king

– GOD Merry and the riders: they don’t just shrug they straight up act like he isn’t there. to the point where if he talks they just pretend like they don’t hear him. this hurts his feelings.

– Merry doesn’t recognise Eowyn until she reveals herself to the witch-king. it could be that her disguise is just that good but Eowyn herself seems to be kind of surprised that he doesn’t recognise her so it’s possible he’s just a dumbass.

– Pippin goes all in for a suicide mission at the Black Gate because he thinks that Frodo and Sam are captured and/or dead and everything is lost anyway, so he just decides that if he’s going to die, he’s going to die fighting, and then he almost gets squashed by a troll

– Gimli found Pippin underneath said troll after the battle, only because Pippin’s fucking foot was sticking out, and probably had a bit of a panicky moment while he was MOVING the troll to drag Pippin out of there

– i can’t believe i forgot about the troll: Pippin single-handedly slays a troll & then its body falls on him and he’s just lying there like ‘well i guess this is how i die’

– Gimli 100% thought pippin was dead when he found him and was so distraught he almost ripped his beard out

– There’s also Aragorn making the Mouth of Sauron flee with terror because he glared at him. Not a joke. (An argument can be made here for Aragorn having psychic powers)

Or intimidation proficiency

Wait, Wormtongue did WHAT now

systlin:

autumnhobbit:

it’s a good thing denethor died when he did. he narrowly avoided getting his ass kicked by his daughter-in-law, who would doubtless be steamed on behalf of her kind-hearted husband over the crappy parenting he received.

I’m now picturing Eowyn dangling Denethor upside-down over the edge of the walls of Minas Tirith and yelling “I SAID APOLOGIZE”