#comparable to frodo in the return of the king actually

[hanayotta]

i love that xiaobaos nr. 1 skill is pathetically clinging to other peoples sleeves and sobbing while begging them to fix his relationship with huai'en

[erulasse23]

Frodo & PTSD: Healing

At the end of Frodo’s journey, he is left feeling isolated, alone, and without joy. It says in “The Grey Havens” that he withdrew from Shire life. When he becomes “ill” on the anniversary of being stabbed (by the Nazgul and Shelob), he hides it from Sam and says nothing. We know that his self-concept has been irreversibly changed. He set out from the Shire as a kind gentle-hobbit, with the idea of adventure being exciting and fun, only to be confronted with suffering, the reality of evil, and his own perceived failures. 

In the end, he cannot conceive of a life outside of his trauma and how he has been changed by his journey. He decides to sail to Valinor. Now what is interesting is that while the fandom (at least recently) has interpreted this as Frodo going to find healing in Valinor since he could not in Middle Earth, Tolkien never says that he is going for the purpose of healing. Rather, you get the impression that he has given up on healing. That his wounds are too deep and his joy too far lost. Sailing does indeed mark an end to his suffering, but not necessarily because he has healed. 

I want to interject a bit of historical context here. While Tolkien was writing the Lord of the Rings, post World War II, research on mental health was lightyears behind where it is today. The diagnosis of PTSD would not be added to the DSM until 1980, after wide study in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. In Tolkien’s time, it was called “battle fatigue” or “combat stress reaction”. Treatments ranged from electroshock therapy, to sedatives, to psychotherapy. The field of psychotherapy was a bit chaotic then, with the emergence of several new styles such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), still widely practiced today. 

The problem with these treatments, including CBT, is that they do not address the actual cause of PTSD. As previously discussed, PTSD occurs when the body’s stress response is overwhelmed and becomes “stuck”. CBT aims to change our rational thoughts and ideas, which then change the resultant emotions. This is a “top-down” approach. People who have experienced trauma do not necessarily respond to this because symptoms don’t come from a thought or belief from our rational brain, they come from our subconscious brain being stuck in crisis mode. Therefore, a “bottom-up” approach works much better.

Currently, some of the most-recommended treatments for PTSD include DBT (dialectical behavior therapy), EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), and neurofeedback therapy, all aiming to create a sense of physical sensation of safety, allow for traumatic memories to be processed appropriately, and to “unstick” our brains. A sense of community and mindfulness, fully inhabiting our bodies but not being alone in them, is essential to recovery. 

So let’s compare Frodo to Eowyn. Eowyn also suffers a grievous blow from the Witch-King himself and is left afterwards with the same symptoms: despair, dark dreams, and she is cold and pale. The difference between the two, however, is that, “Her malady begins far back before this day,” as Aragon says. Eowyn, for a variety of reasons (that’s a whole other post if we’re going to discuss her trauma), rode out with the feeling that her only purpose was to die in battle. She says that she does not want healing, she only wishes to return to the battle and die. Her injury and the Black Shadow of the Nazgul are not a new experience for her, they do not change her self-conception. They only make her more determined. 

Healing for Eowyn begins when Faramir takes the time to listen to her and validate her feelings. He does not tell her she is wrong, or attempt to change her belief. He sits with her, and eventually, he explains that he loves her for herself, fully separate from her trauma or depression and regardless of what emotions she is feeling. He enables her to see that she is more than her grief. He shows her a life where she is not alone and where she may feel happy again, and she allows herself feel that happiness rather than clinging to death. Her character evolution is almost an inverse of Frodo's in this way.

Now this is not at all a criticism of Sam (I love that hobbit to death!!) but Sam does not provide this same sense of community to Frodo. Sam loves Frodo, but his attention is divided between Frodo and Rosie (and the regular Shire goings-on). Sam struggles to understand why Frodo cannot enjoy the Shire as he once did, and he isn’t able to offer the same sort of validation. But I think Sam is the reason that Frodo stayed as long as he did, and the reason that Frodo was able to complete his quest. And I like to think that once Sam arrived in Valinor, he was reunited with a Frodo who, while not the hobbit he was before the Fellowship, has regained a sense of joy and togetherness. 

If you want more information about any of the topics that I briefly touched on here, let me know! I’m always happy to yap about my interests :)

Part One | Part Two

[anythingforstories]

Currently reading Lord of the Rings for the first time. Never seen the movies (I want to read the book first) and the majority of my LOTR knowledge comes through memes and spoilers on Tumblr analysis posts. I've made it through Fellowship of the Ring and am now in The Two Towers, specifically the chapter where Merry and Pippin meet Treebeard.

Thoughts and predictions at this point (contains spoilers, but it's been out since 1954, so deal with it):

-So I guess "They're taking the hobbits to Isengard" was Merry and Pippin? In which case, they did not end up taking the hobbits to Isengard. Pity.

-(No but really, I had thought that referred to Frodo and Sam because I think they're slaves at some point? IDK. Maybe they're slaves in Mordor. I shall have to wait and see.)

-I am happy that Merry and Pippin have had more page time and got to have a clever escape. I was beginning to wonder why they were there in the story. I do like them, though.

-I wonder if Treebeard is important?

-During the entire second half of Fellowship of the Ring, I was thinking, "Surely Legolas has a bigger role, based upon the number of fangirls?" I now see that he does have more page time, though still at this point, I feel his fangirls may have overinflated his role within the story. Perhaps he shall do more later, though. Still a cool dude, in any case, sleeping while walking and all that.

-Gandalf's defeat was less dramatic than I'd always imagined. Pretty sure he's not gone forever, based mostly upon memes and fanart. And also the fact that he seems to be rather too important to be gone this soon.

-I'd honestly anticipated a long redemption arc for Boromir. Based upon all the analysis I've seen about him, I had vaguely known he sacrificed himself for the hobbits, but didn't expect it to be this soon. Not sure how I feel about this. (I did cry, and then I cried again when Aragorn didn't reveal what he'd been up to to Legolas and Gimli. I didn't actually expect to cry while reading LOTR. But the tragedy hit hard.)

-I know there's gonna be a romance between an elf-lady and a man, but I'm not sure who with whom. I don't think there's been a single hint of that yet. Maybe I'm wrong.

-Pretty sure they're going to see the ocean?

-"I am no man!" (Or something along those lines. I hope that wasn't movie-original; I think I've seen pictures of that text in the books? But it sounds very epic.)

-Gollum is a persistent chap. I rather like him. I do, unfortunately, know his fate. My sisters watched the movies when they were little and that's one of the only things they can remember.

-It's definitely picked up compared to the first book! Unlike many people, though, I did read through all those pages of pure worldbuilding lore at the beginning. It was boring and yet delightful.

-I need a map. I'm borrowing a friend's version where there's all the books in one cover with lots of illustrations and such. There was a map of the Shire but not of everything. I could easily look it up online, but I'm stubborn and want to see if the book will have one at some point.

-Can't wait for Aragorn to come back as king. I assume this shall happen in Return of the King. It would make sense. He seems a good fit for the job.

-I would DEVOUR an anime of this series. Specifically, a book-accurate one.

-Sam is excellent.

-Lots of fantasy seems so much less original after reading LOTR :P

[zahri-melitor]

Starting my 2025 reviews after a busy first two months of theatre:

Cendrillon: This was the English translation, 90 minute version (plus interval). I was absolutely delighted to get early bird tickets for this; I don’t go to a lot of opera, but this was clearly chosen for Sydney Festival with accessibility in mind, and so had a great mixed audience, from small girls through to groups of elderly women. I also ended up with the best possible seating companion, going alone – another woman who also was by herself, and who had enough experience with opera as well that we could sit there and chat about the performance at interval, and who was giggling alongside me at the comedic parts. In terms of the performance, the costuming was lavish in all the right parts, the set design was beautiful,  and the casting looked great. (In terms of my seat companion, she looked at our prince and went “traditional or progressive?” to which I pointed out that the program said the role had been originated as a breeches role, and she brightened up even more). In terms of the translation, it did amuse me that this was very much a translation from French for people who already are used to navigating French in performances: they didn’t bother translating over a whole chunk of loanwords which have clear French roots still in English, and occasionally the surtitles ended up translating things that were still French on stage.

The Bridal Lament: Family storytelling about diaspora and lost culture, set to the traditional bridal songs of Weitou communities from Hong Kong. Watching a piece about losing culture from someone who’s family emigrated after the handover, in the context of the current situation in Hong Kong gave this a lot of levels to enjoy. The singing was glorious too.

Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale: I didn’t have hugely high hopes for this, but one of my friends wanted to go, and honestly we had a ball. The lower expectations probably helped with that (My sister’s reaction, when I told her I’d just been, was ‘all the clips looked dreadful’). In terms of a LOTR adaption, it was one that both went back to the source material for a new adaption but also was done in full awareness and reaction to the fact the audience would be comparing it to the Peter Jackson movies. It’s definitely an unbalanced script: it spends the first act of the show on Fellowship of the Ring, then crams Two Towers and Return of the King into the shorter second act, but it’s not a terrible choice. Fellowship has a lot of everyone’s favourite scenes and storytelling, so spending more time there made perfect sense, and the story also made the concerted decision to adapt Frodo’s throughline, skipping rapidly over everything but the barest outline of the other plots; it meant the compression made more narrative sense. I did laugh that we skipped 90% of the endings to focus on the Scouring of the Shire: certainly the moment that was the most in communication with its differences compared to Peter Jackson’s version. Using didgeridoo music in Fanghorn Forest was inspired.  I really enjoyed the puppetry work all the way through; the Balrog’s eyes were a bit cheesy, but everything else came off really well. And the dance choreography and costuming was heavily Bollywood inspired, which was just a fascinating choice to watch. Stefanie Caccamo and Jemma Rix definitely outsang the rest of the cast (particularly Rix) which did lend to the uneven nature of the show.

Peter and the Starcatcher: this was booked on the recommendation of my sister, who saw the run in another city and highly recommended it as entertaining and worth enjoying the puppetry. The show itself is a massive pantomime cheesefest: I felt that it was so dependent on Captain Scott and Smee for comedic relief that unfortunately it didn’t actually pick up until the second act and the two got more space. The best bits were honestly once the audience finally got some energy up and started giving Captain Scott and Smee enough reactions to bounce off and extemporise the clearly to-be-adlibbed sections. We lost the cast at one point as the audience KEPT reacting and the adlibbing carried on for so long that the Captain had to stop, reset and grab a quick prompt to remember where he was in the show. I saw a Saturday matinee and it was probably the best choice of time and day for me to see it, as fortunately we had a heavily kid crowd who once they worked out they were allowed to yell at the stage in reaction came up with some CLASSIC lines.

They’ve had a hard run with it: my sister said they did NOT get the audiences hoped for when she saw it, and Peter Helliar literally went “oh thank you Sydney, Melbourne were hopeless” at one stage when reactions finally came through and they could play up the pantomime.

Wuthering Heights: this was a British touring production and stunning; it meant I’ve now hit my trifecta of Brontës on stage this decade (having seen a lavish Tenant of Wildfell Hall and a pretty scrappy Jane Eyre in 2022). I’ve never particularly liked Wuthering Heights as a story – I’m simply not a big fan of heavily gothic novels – but as Jane Eyre is one of my sister’s favourite books I’ve seen a lot of various Brontë adaptions over the years. And I really enjoyed this adaption, both in the liberties it took and the way it used the differences in theatre as a performance space to tell the story; it’s not a show where I wanted or needed to see a pedantically faithful adaption. The puppetry for this (I’ve seen a lot of puppetry-based performances so far this year, actually) really added to the storytelling, and the choices in set design and costuming really lent themselves well to the framing of everything. I found out about this at the last moment (actually in review) and I’m so glad I was able to pick up a last minute ticket for it.

Song of First Desire: this is one of those shows that exists in a canon of various live productions reacting to each other. Written by an Australian who found a passionate audience in Spain for his Australian stories, he went over there and, working with translators and actors wrote a story reflecting on the Spanish Civil War, firstly in Spanish and then in English. It premiered in Spain and this has now been the Australian premiere. It was painful and gritty and full of regrets and disasters, but also a truly beautiful piece: the entire set is turned into a garden, with most of the stage taking place on a bed of dirt. It’s definitely a play for people who like to see storytelling in live theatre, particularly Literary (with the capital) storytelling, but I was haunted by the connections and reflections in this that arose from that very specific conversation between Australia and Spain in the piece, because both sides were fully aware of the parallels being drawn out.

Picnic at Hanging Rock: what is there to say about one of Australia’s greatest mystery stories that hasn’t been said before? This has been adapted and readapted and adapted again ever since Joan Lindsay first wrote the novel: indeed, the whole conversation of how the editing of the novel to remove the last chapter (separately published as The Secret of Hanging Rock) changed the elements of the narrative means that even the novel itself can feel like an adaption; the last chapter reframes everything in terms of a magic realism read on the plot.

I adored this production, though even as I watched it I knew it would be controversial to some audiences and I hoped it would get the reviews it deserved (so far it has). Ian Michael turned the production into one that was fully enriched with the underlying horror and visceral terror that exists in the story: it really leant heavily into the conversation of othering and uncanny and ‘what is alien’, offsetting the conversations about colonisation and loss and sacred places and ‘English’ v ‘Australian’. I’ve been haunted by the story before, but I’ve never been so scared, with my nervous system jumping in anticipation, of this plot I’ve known since I was small. It was absolutely the thing I was most excited to see this year and my anticipation was fully realised.

Mary Poppins: This was a show I went to with Mum. It was am dram community theatre, so I went in with appropriate expectations. The onstage magic was well pulled off and mostly very simple tricks done effectively. The costuming was pretty orthodox, but the director is a costumer herself and had some inspired takes on Miss Andrew and Mrs Corry in particular: nothing outside the standard palettes but just really nice versions thereof. I was reminded that this is a show where the child cast mostly just stands in one spot and reacts to things, rather than getting to do things, but our Jane was solid at emoting, which really helped. They had put a lot of work into their dance numbers and they came off well.

Dictionary of Lost Words: I missed the original 2023 run of this, so I was really happy to see a new season put on. It’s a very faithful adaption of the book; there’s only a handful of plotlines that are simply alluded to and skipped over in the play. The way time and place were constantly portrayed via a live onstage camera feed that projected to the top of the backdrop, with the cast moving things in the projection was probably my favourite part of the set for this show. In terms of the acting itself, I was reminded very much that this is a book written by an Australian and an Australian production: the Covered Market scene where Esme asks Mabel to define the word ‘cunt’ for her was a delight, particularly as the audience kept laughing as it went on and on. It’s exactly the right level of dirty but not scandalous enough that the theatre wasn’t worried about a scene that said cunt so many times in succession.

[knowallthethings]

The credits of Return of the King are rolling and I'm just. So messed up about these movies.

They're so fucking sincere! And earnest!!! Like leaving aside that these specific movies could never get made today because the level of craftsmanship* in mainstream films has just cratered, there is just zero irony throughout the entire trilogy. All the moments that are most moving-- "but it is not this day!" "for Frodo" "i'm glad you're with me, Sam"-- would simply not appear in the irony poisoned hellscape of a modern blockbuster. Theoden would start in on his "now for wrath, now for ruin" speech and Merry would like side-eye Eowyn and be like "uh is he doing a big speech now? do people do that fr??" And all the characters just care about each other so much, like these people aren't coworkers, they are friends, brothers in arms, truly a fellowship.

And it helps that every performer is 110% IN IT TO WIN IT. At some point in the last twenty years I saw an interview of someone basically pointing out that dialogue like "dark fire will not avail you, flame of udun" does not work unless you have someone with Ian McKellen's skill putting their whole pussy into it, and we got that in scores. Yes some of the accent work is shaky, yes some of the line reads feel unpolished, but Bernard Hill, Karl Urban, Viggo, Ian, the whole lot went for it and fully committed and it shows.

*there are. SO MANY. physical sets in these films. SO much done with prosthetics and SFX makeup. like yes there's CGI obvs but so much of the film feels real because it's actually there on the screen, and the CGI is damn good for the beginning of the 2000s. Throw in a basically perfect score and delicious color grading and camera work that isn't up its own ass and it's just a real treasure compared to basically any blockbuster from at least the last decade.

[aemiron-main]

I’d Say You're Asking Me to Follow You Into Mordor: Eddie Munson, Mordor, Edward Creel, and March 22nd

So, like I’ve talked about a billion times now, Eddie Munson delivers Edward Creel subtext.

And so, this line from Eddie caught my attention:

Why did it catch my attention? Well, as I mentioned in this old post (ignore most of it LMAO), in LOTR, March 22nd was the day that Frodo and Sam started to actually go into Mordor/towards Mount Doom. That’s the exact date of what Eddie is referencing here. However, March 22nd was also the date of the Creel murders in Edward’s timeline. With that Mordor line, they’re connecting Eddie Munson to March 22nd. Which makes sense because of Edward Creel’s connection to March 22nd, and how Eddie delivers Edward subtext.

And Mordor is extremely similar to hell:

And what else is paralleled to hell/referred to as hell?

Hawkins Lab and specifically HNL during the NINA project.

March 22nd is the day that Sam and Frodo ventured into hell, but it’s also the day that Edward Creel went to hell- Hawkins Lab.

Eddie also says “straight” when he talks about venturing into Mordor/how he feels about venturing into it:

Versus Mike talking about “straight” and “straight down” when trying to double check the NINA coordinates:

And while it may seem like a stretch to tie these two scenes together simply via the word “straight,” there’s two things to keep in mind:

1.) Repetition of specific words is an extremely common way to connect things in writing. While people may use words like “straight” randomly IRL, this is a TV show and every word is an intentional choice. They actor don’t just stand there and make smalltalk/say whatever they want. They have lines that are written with intention & edited repeatedly. It’s intentional subtext.

2.) What is Mike referring to when he’s saying to keep going straight? He’s referring to the NINA coordinates/how to get to NINA. And Edward is most definitely involved with NINA/we see him during NINA.

And “straight down”- versus the hell imagery associated with NINA/the lab and Eddie Munson referencing Mordor and the idea of going down to hell.

And also, the Shire is burning? No it isnt, actually- at least not as of March 22nd.

That line is REALLY interesting to me because Eddie’s initial line is referencing Sam and Frodo’s March 22nd trek into Mordor, whereas his line about how the shire is burning is referencing The Scouring Of The Shire, which is the ONLY time that the shire was attacked during LOTR. But the scouring of the shire didn’t happen until October 30th, quite awhile after Sam and Frodo began to get into Mordor. So why reference it?

Well, they chose to reference it because it’s yet another instance of Edward Creel (who Eddie Munson delivers subtext for) being connected to mirror and timeline imagery. Because while the actual scouring of the shire didn’t happen until October 30th, in the LOTR movies, we DO see it before that- it’s shown to us in Galadriel’s Mirror, which shows possible futures/timelines, and the scouring of the shire is what the timeline would be if Frodo failed his quest.

And just as a quick fun fact- the LOTR movies are technically an alternate timeline compared to the books. Not in a “lol they got stuff wrong/changed stuff so that makes it an alt timeline” excuse way, but instead in a “in the books, the scouring of the shire DID happen” versus “in the movies, the scouring is avoided after Sam and Frodo see the scouring in the Mirror of Galadriel and the shire turns out totally fine” way.

Which has me staring at what Scott said in S1 about a timeline where “none of this bad stuff every happened,” because that’s literally what the LOTR movie timeline is re: the Shire. It’s the timeline where nothing bad ever happened to the Shire.

Hell, Matt Duffer even compared the ending of S5 to the ending of Return of the King (the very ending I just mentioned where it ends up as the timeline where nothing bad happens to the shire):

Long story short, this all reinforces thing I’ve already talked about such as:

A.) Eddie Munson delivers Edward Creel subtext

B.) Edward Creel is very likely one of the various 001s we see during NINA.

C.) There’s a chance for a Henward happy-ish ending/Henry happy-ish ending/stuff being fixed in the timeline, especially considering how we see various versions of the Creel murders & how there’s some time loop vibes there… so if that day had been messed with/was later changed, it could impact Henward’s future…. Much to think about…

[noweakergirl]

Hiii bestie 🫶🫶 I watched the two towers today and initially I was not liking it cause so many changes but then the movie got sooo good!!!! Legolas getting hopeless then realizing he trusts Aragorn completely!!! AHHHHHH Aragorn fighting all these people!!!!

And also Faramir!!!! He looks soo good!!!! 😏😏😏😏

And him in the end!! I don't remember the exact dialogue but I think it was something along how he was ready to risk his own life (by not following Denethor's orders) to protect frodo 🥺💖

Also I was reading Return of the king and how pathetic is Denethor! So cruel to Faramir. The fact that he said to his face that he wishes he could have had Boromir instead of him!!! HOW CAN HE SAY THAT?????? I WANTED TO LITERALLY ENTER THE BOOK AND PUNCH HIM.

Also it's so obvious how it actually affected Faramir :((((((( and then Aragorn healed him 🥰🥰 I hope they become friends like Eomer and Aragorn had become <33333

You met Faramir hehe :3

He is sooooooooooooooooo gentle. A pure sweetheart. But he is hot too. Husband material, honestly. 😭😭😭

Aragaron was super badass in the second movie, right?! Also that famous scene when he opens the door hehehehhe

OMG EVERYONE WANTS TO PROTECT MY BABY FRODO and honestly... same.

Denethor is awful :/ You're in for a ride with him 😬 and yeah, he is so cruel to Faramir! Comparing him to Boromir and saying all those things... just shut up old man ://

I hope you will love the third book!!! Movie is VERY VERY EMOTIONAL (I mean book too), so prepare yourself bestie 😭

[geth-consensus]

So Across the Spiderverse is a movie that just...doesn’t have a third act. The movie compromises its own integrity as its own film to extend the run time across two movies.

I can’t help but compare it to the first. A movie with a script so tight, and so well executed that I’m left baffled as to how the same creative team could have produced a sequel like this. To compare I would say you can sit down and enjoy Into the Spiderverse as its own complete film. An enjoyable complete package. Across the Spiderverse is like if Return of the King ended just as Frodo and Sam get into Mordor. It's lacking its finale! It's freaking conclusion as an independent story is simply absent!

As a Gwen fan, I’m elated by all the extended content we got with her this time. But I say this with love. Someone needed to affectionately take a hacksaw to this film's script and chop it down, use a scalpel to clean it up, and then stitch it back together such that it actually had space to, you know, include its own conclusion. Not have it be siphoned off and extended into its own film.

It almost feels like The Hobbit effect. Where the last chapter is needlessly padded out, and I can’t help but feel that it wasn’t done for the good of the movie, but for profit margin reasons.

Ultimately the movie was good. Relatively solid. Just…incompetently pieced together. I guess I just feel disappointed, even though I suspected I would be going in.

The final word I would say on it is this. It's a movie without its ending. It's a movie you would never sit down to watch on its own. It's a movie that's only one-half of a full experience.

[rivalsforlife]

watched the rankin-bass return of the king and had to start making this post like twenty minutes in because I have COMPLAINTS my friends. I took notes. I tried to put them in order. 

Overall? I wasn’t a huge fan of this one. It missed the mark on quite a few important things. I’ll try to split my comments into things I liked, things I didn’t like but (I thought) were understandable adaptational changes, silly little nitpicky changes, and changes that I thought kinda went against everything important.

Things I Liked

- Since this is just an adaptation of rotk, I liked how they had the beginning talking with Bilbo when he asks what happened and they can go back a bit without having to start at the beginning of the story. 

- I like the idea of there being more songs in this. Though they were kind of uh. frodoooo and the nine fingers... and the ring of doom...... why does he have nine fingers......... where is the ring of doom..............

- where there’s a whip there’s a way

- I liked some of the scenes they kept in, like the part where Frodo tells Gollum “If you touch me ever again, you yourself shall be cast into the fires of Mount Doom” which is a pretty important thing there. Also Sam deciding to spare Gollum out of pity (though my Gollum comments overall are more in the negative sections)

- Eowyn got much more of her badass speech (compared to the jackson films at least) which is always appreciated

Changes That Made Sense For The Adaptation I Guess

- Plenty of major characters get cut. Like, lots. Legolas, Gimli, Faramir, Eomer, just off the top of my head. Aragorn gets a massively reduced role, he just kind of shows up at the end on the corsair ships and everyone’s like “yay he’s the king now” but he doesn’t actually really do much. More on him in the angrier ranting sections!

- Since it’s just an ROTK adaptation they kind of act like nothing exciting happened before, so there’s really no mention of the Fellowship (which makes sense when uhhh three of them are completely cut out). Instead of Merry staying behind with Theoden, he actually presumably is in Gondor first then leaves to go get Theoden and the Rohirrim to battle, and he’s allowed to ride with them instead of having to go in secrecy. 

- Since Faramir’s gone Denethor’s death scene is just kind of. He seems much more uhh out of it than in the books, no real trace of nobility. “if you are a dotard then you are dead” well he sure is dead. Lots of the tension is gone here.

- Eowyn pretty much has no role except for showing up at the moment to fight the witch king and standing next to this guy with dark hair at the end who actually might be faramir but it’s hard to tell. I guess they didn’t have time for her? but it’s a bit weird. Obviously none of her despairing or really any character at all, she doesn’t even really suffer after she kills the witch-king, she just says “UNCLE... I HAVE AVENGED THEE” and a single solitary tear drops down her face. that’s about the extent of it. The only reason this is here is because ugh time reasons I guess.

The Silly Little Nitpicky Things

- this one also has pronunciation errors. “sirith ungol”. “sore-on”, again.

- This is Elrond:

making lotrop celebrimbor look like a young lad of 20 or so

- there’s a weird comment near the beginning I just did not understand at all where it’s like. talking about the banner of the stewards over gondor and something about “it’s silken arms embracing a domain more fitting gwaihir, lord of the eagles, than those whose emblem it bore” which I still don’t understand but I guess it’s implying gwaihir + the eagles just live in gondor? which is weird. and unnecessary. imo. 

- sting makes this throbbing sound whenever it’s out and it’s really annoying and horrible. the phial of galadriel does too.

- they make up a lot of dialogue but it’s really not tolkienian at all. “god help us” is used at least twice and it’s quite jarring. I also think they insert more “thee”s and “thou”s than strictly necessary. but I’m no linguist. 

- theoden dies being thrown from snowmane but he isn’t crushed beneath him he kinda just flops to the ground and dies which is so useless. and merry shouts “HEAR ME DARKNESS I WILL AVENGE MY LORD”

- when Eowyn shows up everyone is just kind of standing there watching her fight the Nazgul. which is quite weird. The Nazgul’s voice is very painful to the ears which I guess is book accurate but it’s a lot more screechy than, say, jackson’s, which does seem more chilling.

- shadowfax has a saddle :/

- at one point frodo just kicks over a bottle of water onto the ground by accident like in the middle of mordor. and this is not a problem at all. 

- gollum looks kind of toad-like, he doesn’t really look like he could have been a corrupted hobbit at one point at all. so it takes away a lot from the pity and the sort of sympathy you can have knowing he’s been just like a hobbit but corrupted by the ring over years and years, you know? 

- sauron is a weird eyeball again guys. but not even like the jackson one he���s like... any of you had those eye exams where they take a picture of your retinas? it looks like that.

- the eagles come to carry aragorn’s army away from mordor. like the whole army. I guess there’s six thousand eagles now. why not. 

- the ending kind of implies that hobbits and humans will merge together over time. and maybe YOU have hobbit in you! which I don’t really like. iirc from the introduction to the hobbit the hobbits just kind of... hide from humans later on. The ending also says the dwarves disappear into the misty mountains? they might still have a balrog friend in there I guess.

- also when they’re offering to take frodo to valinor sam’s like “I don’t have to go do I :(” but there’s sure some Sam Problems in this that I have.

The More Significant Problems

- THE SAM PROBLEM. okay so this starts at the beginning of rotk after the shelob attack and where frodo is already captured and in cirith ungol. They take out Shelob, which is fine, I guess. BUT. Instead Frodo is beat up by orcs (where’s Sam? Who knows). There’s several like littler points I could make here.

- First point: Frodo in the middle of this fight loses his cloak, Sting, and THE ONE RING. and it’s just lying there for Sam to find later. I have no idea how Frodo would so easily lose the Ring, and I definitely don’t know why the orcs wouldn’t at least be a little bit interested in getting their hands on it, considering that thing would want to get to the orcs and then to Sauron.

- Second (and more important) point: Sam, knowing that Frodo has been taken alive, instead decides to go to Mount Doom himself, for a while. So they tried to do The Choices of Master Samwise but really missed the point. The only reason Sam abandoned Frodo is because he was convinced that Frodo was dead, and even then he was in agony and contemplating just waiting with him to die. And the second he learned that Frodo was taken alive he threw away any idea of going to destroy the ring himself and focused solely on saving Frodo, because everything he does is out of loyalty to Frodo and that’s part of how he resists the temptation of the ring. And Sam beats himself up for ever leaving him in the first place despite objective logic being “if Frodo’s dead go finish the task”. But not here! He kind of just. tries to break into the tower, finds the ring on the ground, and decides to go. When he decides to go back and save Frodo his internal logic is a lot more of “Frodo is the only one who can find the cracks of Mount Doom” which a) no he isn’t b) WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO SAM???

- They show Sam’s vision of what could happen if he claimed the ring, but it goes on for way too long and has so much focus on him being Samwise the Strong Fighting Sauron and like. I was convinced at this point they would leave out the garden part entirely, but at least they got to that, so credit where credit is due, but. I was so disappointed in them having Sam willingly abandon a living Frodo that I had a much less favorable impression of this scene than I might have otherwise.

- Sam has the phial of galadriel from Frodo’s cloak, but he has no idea what it is, and says stuff like “huh I wonder what magic is making it glow like that”. Cutting out the details alone would put this in the “reasonable adaptational changes” category but like... Frodo says “if I betray it’s trust and tell the secret, it’s powers will die!” GIRL IT’S THE LIGHT OF A SILMARIL. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. they just added this thing in as a reason to not explain the phial. But does this thing about the powers dying have any actual relevance to the plot? No. It would be much simpler to say “oh, this gift from the powerful elf lady we met on our travels” and it would be the same length if not shorter. or they could just cut out the watcher’s scene entirely actually, a third of a way into this movie they were still on chapter 1 and you sure can feel it.

- oh and despite spending a third of the movie on the tower of cirith ungol and also having frequent songs in here, they don’t have Sam’s song in the tower to find Frodo. What’s the point. (this is nitpicky. but I’m keeping it here anyways.)

- ARAGORN. he doesn’t really have a role in anything. he really just walks in like “I’m the king now”. Obviously no houses of healing to prove his claim and hardly being a leader in battle since he shows up like 20 minutes from the end with his corsair ships. He also says some weird comments like to Gandalf “why so glum, wizard? Does the mere thought of Sauron’s forces overwhelm your spirit?” he has so much more respect for gandalf than this. come on.

- Aragorn leads the march on the black gate like usual, but he does not do this to provide a distraction for frodo and sam to make it to mount doom, which is like... the whole point. the whole point of this whole hopeless battle. instead it’s “if we sit here and wait for sauron, we’ll probably die, and if we go to battle, we’ll probably die, SO WHY NOT JUST GO OUT IN BATTLE” and it makes aragorn seem like such a fool instead of being wise and self-sacrificial for the sake of defeating evil forever. 

- Frodo actually claims the ring during the battle of pelennor fields, so I thought they were going to cut out the last debate / the black gate opens entirely. but no he claims the ring and then just. hides in mount doom. for a week. this makes absolutely no sense to me because it means sauron is just incapable of telling when somebody in the very heart of his domain has claimed the ring? he should know instantly. and it’s an utterly unnecessary change to make too, is the thing. it’s like they got close to the end of the frodo-sam story and realized they would be abandoning it for a long time to wrap up the gondor stuff, so instead of restructuring stuff they just decided to pad on a week with nonsense. frodo and sam are hanging out in mount doom for a week with presumably no food and water! then gollum finally shows up to finish things off.

so yeah it just felt like it missed the point in a lot of critical places for me, so I can’t honestly rank this one very high. probably one of the poorer lotr adaptations in terms of faithfulness to the spirit of things, and some completely unnecessary changes that contribute absolutely nothing. where there’s a whip there’s a way is unreasonably catchy though, I get why it’s a bit of a meme.

[starryeyedrogue]

legolas headcanons

part of my ongoing LotR headcanons series! I’ll post a masterlist when I’m done:) hope you enjoy!

he’s really close with his dad, Thranduil, now, especially since returning from his Journey with the Fellowship

he constantly brought home orphaned animals as an elfling. his dad begrudgingly accepted but wasn’t thrilled until Legolas brought home an elk, one of his favorite animals 

he smells like spring air, specifically the air after an early spring snowstorm (cool and crisp, but still sweet and soft)

he grew close with Sam and Frodo, constantly discussing plant life in the Shire and their mutual love of poetry and nature

Sam taught Legolas typical Hobbit meals, which he still makes on occasion!

he actually enjoyed Merry and Pippin’s pranks, so he asked them to teach him! he pulled a prank on Aragorn once and Gimli didn’t stop laughing for ages afterward

he’s actually super sassy, but feels like he should “dial it down some” since he’s a prince. he still jokes around with his closest friends though

he’s an expert forager, and he, Aragorn, and Sam often looked for ingredients together during the Journey

he’s an expert healer! 

he’s a bit of a helicopter-parent around the hobbits, despite them being only a bit younger than him comparatively 

he’s a sucker for sweets, especially Turkish Delight-type desserts

he sings to himself in the early mornings and loves hiking, the earlier the better

he constantly teases Gimli about the many times he out-drank the Dwarf (Gimli hates this so much and is always demanding a recount or new contest to prove it was the fault of the liquor - “that manling drought is too weak, I was going easy on you!”) 

he makes an effort to visit his friends as often as possible, bringing the finest Elven wine each time 

he loves early mornings and is always up at least two hours before sunset

he makes an effort to see the sunset and sunrise, no matter how busy he is! he often paints it or writes poems about it

he’s used to having servants around, so he’s actually surprisingly messy and a bad cook. over the course of the Journey, however, he’s improved and is actually decent at cooking!

that being said, he’s more comfortable cooking with a more experienced cook around “just in case”

he keeps in close contact with Aragorn

they often discuss the hardships of leading their kingdoms, as Legolas is Prince of the Woodland Realm and Aragorn is King of Gondor. they gossip about their people sometimes too lol 

that’s enough for now! hope you enjoyed!

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Timeline of Middle-Earth

To develop a clearer sense of the sheer scale of the timelines we’re dealing with in Middle-earth’s Ages of the Sun, I thought I would put it in perspective by comparing it to real-world history. This can be done comparatively simply because the main events of The Lord of the Ring occur in 3018-3019 BC. (3020 in Middle-earth is a very good year, conspicuously unlike our 2020.)

So if we analogize T.A. 3019 to our 2019, we can get a sense in our terms of how long ago various Middle-earth events were to (mortal) characters in The Lord of the Rings. The beginning of the Third Age, for example, would line up with 1000 BC (approximately the time of Solomon). The beginning of the Second Age would be 4441 BC, and the beginning of the (much shorter) First Age a little before 5000 BC. A lot of my dates will be from the history of the Ancient Near East and Europe, simply because those are the periods of ancient history I’m most familiar with.

Using this comparison, the beginning of the Second Age and the foundation of Númenor is roughly contemporary with the earliest development of the wheel (~4500 BC, Wikipedia tells me) and the earliest forms of writing. So if you want a timescale for just how old any elf who saw the First Age was, that’s a helpful starting point (Maglor and Galadriel are, of course, much older).

The forging of the One Ring (c. S.A. 1600) corresponds to a little before the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

The imperialist era of Númenor, under Tar-Ciryatan, begins at about the same time as the building of the Great Pyramid of Giza (~2500 BC) and lasts until roughly the end of the New Kingdom of Egypt (that’s the one that included Hatshepsut and Ramses II) a little before 1000 BC. That makes ancient Egypt really quite helpful for envisioning the span of Númenor’s history, except that Númenor also had about 1900 years of being non-terrible prior to that.

The Last Alliance of Elves and Men corresponds to around 1000 BC, around the tine of the start of the Chinese Zhou dynasty (for context, this is still well before Qin Shi Huang and the Terra-Cotta Army) and the time of David and Solomon in ancient Israel.

Arwen is born in the year 241 of the Third Age. This roughly corresponds to the time of the composition of the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer. So when Elrond tells Aragorn that Arwen is far, far older than him, he is, if anything, understating the point.

The breakup of Arnor into three realms occurs in T.A. 861. We have now skipped over a quite considerable period of time (past the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Alexander the Great in the ancient near east, andpast Qin Shi Huang in China) to the time of the Roman Republic and of the Han dynasty. So that gives some perspective on what Aragorn re-founding the kindom of Arnor means - the the people of, say, Bree, this is a kingdom from ancient history.

Around T.A. 1000 - corresponding to the time of the New Testament and the early Roman Empire - the Istari arrive in Middle-earth and the first hobbits come to Eriador (i.e. the land west of the Misty Mountains). However, the hobbits don’t cross the Brandywine and found the Shire until a long time later (T.A. 1600).

The centuries around T.A. 1300s-1400s see civil war in Arnor (incited by the Witch-king of Angmar) and Gondor, and in invasion of Arnor by the Witch-king. This corresponds to around A.D. 300s-400s in our time, and the fall of the Roman Empire.

The Shire is founded in T.A. 1601, corresponding to around our A.D. 600. This is roughly equivalent the time of the founding of Islam in our world. So the Shire’s got a very considerable history behind it!

The fall of the north-kingdom of Arnor to the Witch-king occurred in T.A. 1974. Also in the late 1900s of the Third Age, the Witch-king returns to Mordor; a Balrog appears in Moria and drives out the dwarves; and Thrain I founds the Kingdom Under the Mountain in Erebor. A little after (T.A. 2050) the line of the kings in Gondor ends and the time of the Stewards begins. This is equivalent, in our terms, to around the time of the Norman Conquest of England, and of Cahokia in North America. When Boromir asks his father why the Stewards of Gondor are not considered kings yet, he has a point.

In 2463, the White Council is formed; this is also around the same time that Gollum obtains the Ring. Roughly speaking, this is equivalent to the time of the Renaissance in Europe for us. Gollum had the Ring for a really freaking long time.

The arrival of the Rohirrim, and the granting of Calenardhon to them as the realm of Rohan (irrespective of its actual inhabitants) occurs in 2510 of the Third Age, or close to equivalent with the beginning of the Reformation for us.

The Bagginses, Tooks, and Brandybucks can trace their ancestry back to the years 1000s to 1100s in Shure-reckoning (2600s-2700s of the Third Age), equivalent to a family in our time being able to trace its lineage to the 1600s-1700s A.D.

Smaug’s destruction of the Kingdom under the Mountain is in T.A. 2770, shortly followed by the War of the Dwarves and Orcs when Thror (Thorin’s grandfather) is killed by an orc in Moria. In our terms, corresponding to 1770, around the time of the American Revolution. Thorin dies in T.A. 2941 (equiv. A.D. 1941), to to get a perspective on dwarf ages, Thorin’s lifespan is equivalent to someone being able to fight in both the American Revolution and World War II.

Bilbo is born in T.A. 2890, equivalent to 1890 (the Gilded Age) in our time. The Fell Winter, when wolves attack the Shire over the frozen Brandywine, happens when he is 10 years old.

Aragorn and Denethor are born at almost the same time, Denethor in T.A. 2930 and Aragorn in T.A. 2931. Huh, hadn’t realized that. How mich does Denethor resent that he’s an old man while Aragorn is still in the prime of his life. Anyway, this is around the 1930s in our terms.

The events of the Hobbit take place in T.A. 2941, equivalent to our 1941 - a happier year for Middle-earth than for us, certainly.

Frodo is born in 2968, equivalent to our 1968.

Bilbo’s eleventy-first birthday, and the events of The Lord of the Rings, occurs in T.A. 3001, equivalent to our 2001.

So, hopefully that gives some perspective on how long ago the various events of Middle-earth’s history would feel to the mortal - or at least, human and hobbit - characters of The Lord of the Rings. The major difference is that the existence of elves mean that both written records and living memory go back far, far further for Middle-earth than they do for us.

[heavymetalchemist]

Okay so here's the thing about me and LOTR. I love LOTR, because I read it as a kid. My dad had these old copies from the 70's with ancient art on the covers and I read them when I was like eight years old. It took me time to really like it - I read The Hobbit first, which is much more child-oriented, and I had trouble getting into LOTR because the whole birthday party thing came across as kind of boring to me. I was young and usually if a book didn't hook me right away I gave up.

But I did persist and I was drawn in and there was so much I loved. I loved the conspiracy that Merry, Pippin, and Sam made, how much they had managed to put together about the Ring and Frodo and Bilbo, how they were ready to leave at a moment's notice if Frodo tried to take off without them. How Gandalf had to do research, so much research, because how could Bilbo have found The One Ring, that had been missing for so long? Ludicrous, surely! I loved the way the world felt ancient, that there was the Old Forest with semisentient trees, the relationship with the land, the way the Shire was insulated from the politics of the rest of the world, the old bones of vanished kingdoms.

And I could go on but basically, This Vibe means that I just don't like the Peter Jackson movies. And there's a lot that's good in them! The cast is amazing and the visuals are stunning and yet... it just frustrates me! I don't like the comedic relief of Sam just, like, what, forgetting he got a sword in the mines of Moria so he can hilariously hit an orc with his beloved precious frying pan? Like, it's that kind of thing. That's the level of my irritation. I see something and it breaks my suspension of disbelief. You're telling me that in this universe Boromir literally holds the One Ring in his hand and is like "oh hahaha oops sorry Frodo you dropped this" like WHAT? The ONLY people that have EVER given up the One Ring willingly are Bilbo and Sam! They are the only ones! Even Frodo couldn't do it in the end!

But! But. Dan Olson just made a video about Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings (which I have seen and also remember telling people about and then being told there was no animated adaptation? I guess that's how obscure it became) and it actually really pinned down what I think my main problem is.

Lord of the Rings is slow. It gives time and space to small character interactions. It sinks into the lore and explanations and the ways people feel. It gives character to the world to make it feel full and complex and ancient. There are long lulls in the story where the characters are traveling and suffering and while there is humor it's not really that, like, punchy?

And Ralph Bakshi really leaned into that. And Peter Jackson didn't. And I have realized that the reason I have such an issue with the PJ version is because he made it into an action adventure, and to me, from the feel of the original books, I want it to be a weird meandering 70's era thing that gives space for these characters kind of wandering around in the woods just trying to do their best.

Although full disclosure: I own the Rankin Bass Return of the King on DVD, "Where There's a Whip There's a Way" is 1000% a banger, and I won't apologize for liking it. And again - it's the vibe. I like it because the vibe is right.

I am writing this post because I got a lil into it in some tags and it's my tumblr I do what I want. I remain frustrated with how good the cast and visuals and sets and everything were in the PJ movies, and then they make the mines of Moria look so stupid and have spider-orcs coming out of the ceiling. It kills me! But now I realize I simply do not vibe with the blockbuster-movie adaptation that requires things to be more punchy. It's the same thing as the original Star Wars trilogy (made in the 70s) compared to the newer stuff. It's the vibe, it's the pacing, it's how everything has to pop-pop-pop.

PJ's Minas Morgul looks like it's made from green styrofoam and that's a mistake you can't change my mind.

[ghosteeez]

10 Facts about LOTR movies you may or may not know...

John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) is actually the tallest of the fellowship being 6ft 1.

Viggo Mortenson (Aragorn) broke his tooth on set and wanted to super glue it back but Peter Jackson got him to the dentist.

In the Return of the King, Billy Boyd (Pippin) was given the lyrics to the song 'Edge of Knight' and planned how he'd sing it. The scene of him singing in the film was the first time they heard and filmed the song.

Christopher Lee (Saruman) corrected Peter Jackson on how it sounds when someone gets stabbed in the back.

Ian McKellen (Gandalf) cried on the set of the Hobbit as he didn't like the amount of green screen time there was compared to LOTR.

McKellen has fallen asleep while filming.

Sean Bean (Boromir) doesn't like flying so he hiked up a mountain in full costume to the set.

Orlando Bloom (Legolas) and Viggo Mortenson did their own stunts.

Elijah Wood (Frodo) filmed his audition at home dressed in a homemade hobbits outfit.

To make Cate Blanchett's (Galadriel's) eyes shimmer Christmas lights were used behind the camera.

[overthinkinglotr]

Boromir, Frodo, and Childhood

I’ve mentioned before that Boromir sees the hobbits as children. Aragorn treats them as adults who happen to be short/inexperienced in battle, but Boromir plays with them and ruffles their hair-- Aragorn calls them “gentlemen,” Boromir calls them “little ones.”

It’s adorable but it’s also a character flaw.  It’s part of why he doesn’t trust Frodo with the Ring. Aragorn is used to hobbits, but Boromir has never seen them before in his life, and it’s hard for him to see the hobbits as the adults they actually are. 

Boromir can’t trust someone so child-like with the Ring of Power.

And I think this relates to Boromir’s own backstory?

In Return of the King, Pippin is given a hobbit-sized soldier uniform. It’s then revealed that the hobbit-sized uniform is actually child-sized, made for Faramir when he was a kid.

But “Boromir was always the soldier,” Faramir says-- even then, even when they were children.

And I feel like that line says so much about Boromir’s character. Since childhood Boromir has been trained and expected to become the Strong Soldier who Will Carry Gondor on His Shoulders. And since childhood he’s been so good at acting capable of carrying that impossible burden that, after his death, his brother remembers him as someone who had always been strong.

 I think that’s what Boromir sees when he sees Frodo: a child dressed in a soldier’s uniform. 

Boromir knows what it’s like to have a burden placed on you when you’re too naive to understand what that burden really means-- to choose to take on that burden before you’re mature enough to realize you’re choosing to die.

I think that’s part of why he’s so angry at the Council for letting Frodo take the Ring. From his perspective,  these cruel adults are giving an impossible burden to a someone who’s so incredibly child-like....someone who has only “chosen” to take that burden because he doesn’t truly understand what he’s “chosen” to do.

After Gandalf’s death, the elves refuse to let the Fellowship enter Lothlorien because Frodo is carrying the Ring. The other members of the Fellowship, exhausted, can’t look Frodo in the eye. Frodo is desolate. It’s clear that Frodo believes they blame him for everything that’s happened, and that he blames himself.

But Boromir looks him in the eyes and reassures him: this isn’t your fault. “You carry a heavy burden, Frodo-- don’t carry the weight of the dead.”

Later, Boromir says: ”I know why you seek solitude. You suffer, I see it day by day.”

And you can compare that to the scene in Lothlorien where Boromir wandered away from the Fellowship, to grieve alone.

When Boromir asks Frodo for the Ring, Frodo refuses. But from Boromir’s point of view, Frodo is only refusing because he doesn’t understand yet. Because Frodo’s just too child-like, too innocent and naive.

He believes that Frodo doesn’t actually know the depth of the sacrifice he’s chosen to make-- and that if Frodo DID know, he would never have made that choice. “What chance do you think you have?”

It’s like.... “I know you think you understand what you’ve signed up for, but you don’t. Trust me, I know.”

[shirecryptid]

@headgehug :  #oh man but this implies faramir resisted because he had lost faith in his city.

hi hello again i saw this tag under my post and i’m growing,,,,, allergic to implications actually maybe so. to not add to the other post’s notes have my comment here. first of all, faramir explicitly states that he loves and values his city and wants to see it propser, so jot that down:

“for myself,” said faramir, “i would see the white tree in flower again in the courts of the kings, and the silver crown return, and minas tirith in peace: minas anor again as of old, full of light, high and fair, beautiful as a queen amongst other queens: not a mistress of many slaves, nay, not even a kind mistress of willing slaves. war must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but i do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. i love only that which they defend: the city of the men of númenor; and i would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom. not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise. [...]” (the two towers: the window on the west)

faramir is less ambitious and more realistic than boromir (which makes sense given the absolute fuckery denethor calls parenting). he also wants to succeed against evil, but he doesn’t want to win at any cost. where boromir is ambitious to the point of self-destruction, faramir weighs the situation very differently. he recognizes that some things are not meant for him (like kingship, which both denethor and initially boromir thought to be the stewards’ right at some point). similarly, given the little frodo tells him about the quest, he recognizes the magnitude of what is at work there, i’d wager. second of all, the discussion about the ring between frodo and faramir is started through and thus framed by their conversation about boromir’s fate, and faramir’s love and regard for his brother. even though what actually happened in detail isn’t revealed (and couldn’t be, because frodo and sam weren’t present for boromir’s death), faramir accurately guesses at what caused the break in the fellowship and witnessed the outcome: the death of his brother. boromir’s fate outlined where that path leads, and faramir knows his brother well enough to guess that a) boromir must have regretted what he did, because he says he thought boromir’s face looked proud in death, like he died for something worth the cause (that is not related to the ring, per se) and b) boromir wouldn’t want him to go the same way. (also, comparatively, he’s in the presence of the ring only very briefly, and while it does call out to him, which he acknowledges, the pull is a lot weaker than it would be on people travelling with it for months.) more than anything, i think, faramir makes his decision in memory of his brother. he sees the ring leads to ruin - and for this brother, for his city, for his people, he simply comes to the opposite conclusion based on his difference in character. (also a case could be made that faramir is the most hobbitish non-hobbit character in the series which would. lend credence to some other theories but that’s also. neither here nor there.) thank u for ur attention and good night

[alectology-archive]

SJ/M’s plagiarism from fiction/media

I’m hoping to make a comprehensive list of all the sources SJ/M has outright ripped off from in the past. Feel free to comment down below or send an ask if you can think of anything.

SJ/M has very clearly ripped off of GRRM and JRR Tolkien’s works. Same goes for a lot of Anne Bishop’s works, too, and a lot of her favourite authors - so if anyone’s read books SJ/M has stated that she likes please let me know.

Note that this post will keep getting updated as I discover more evidences of plagiarism. Also note that there is every possibility that some resemblances are purely accidental and/or unintentional. So take it with a grain of salt.

(?) indicates a questionable addition to the post.

T/HRONE OF GLASS

- “The Queen Who Was Promised” comes from GRRM’s “The Prince who was Promised” prophecy in ASOIAF, who also goes by Azor Ahai, who wields Lightbringer, and is also known as the Son of Fire. 

- “Aelin” is probably derived from “Aelin-uial” in the Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien. Additionally, it may have been derived from Aerin Dragon-Killer/Aerin Firehair from Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown, as SJ/M stated it was one of her favourite novels.

- “Fireheart” is the name of Corlath’s horse in The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, an author SJ/M admires.

- Empire of Storms, 2016, contains the infamous line ‘velvet-wrapped steel.’ And… so does Fifty Shades of Grey, in 2011: ‘Steel encased in velvet.’ 

- “Valg” comes from Terry Brooke’s The Sword of Shannara, another author SJ/M admires.

- “Hope. You cannot steal it, and you cannot break it." is awfully similar to the line from The Princess Bride about love "you cannot track that, not with a thousand bloodhounds, and you cannot break it, not with a thousand swords". SJ/M has said that she loved the movie.

- The infamous “You could rattle the stars” is a ripoff of Treasure Planet’s “You’re gonna rattle the stars.”

- “To Whatever End” comes from The Two Towers where King Theoden says it just before the battle of Helm’s deep begins.

- “You bow to no one” is said by Aragorn at the end of the Return of the King after his coronation.

- Orynth has white walls and is surrounded by snow capped peaks. It has large white walls and bears an unusually striking resemblance to Minas Tirith in The Lord of the Rings.

- Aelin’s journey mirrors that of Aragorn. The lost heir to a powerful throne, spends years in the wilderness denying their claim, joins forces with the elf/faes to reclaim it and has an immortal elf/fae as consort.

- Nehemia names Aelin ‘Elentiya’, saying, “I give you this name to use with honour, to use when other names grow too heavy. I name you Elentiya, ‘Spirit That Could Not Be Broken’.” It sounds similar in tone and cadence to the way Galadriel describes the light of Earendil to Frodo. The name Elentiya even sounds Elvish, and sits discordant with the other naming conventions in Eyllwe.

- Manon gathers the witches to go to war by starting a series of beacons, lit all across Erilea, from snow-capped mountains to the woodlands - directly from the Return of the King when Pippin helps Gondor call for aid. 

- The wall defences of Orynth are completely sound, except there’s one more way in, through a grate in the water canal - another striking resemblance to a place in Lord of the Rings known as Helm’s Deep. There is even a scene where someone asks if there’s a secret passage the women and children can escape through.

- In EoS and ToD, Chaol is referred to as “Hand of the King”. In GoT the “Hand of the King” is a title given to the King’s advisor.

- The speech that Haldir gave when he arrived in Helm’s Deep, uniting the elven and human forces, is paraphrased at least three times in this book. Most notably when Manon brings the Crochan witches to fight alongside the humans. She actually says “Long ago, Crochans and humans fought side by side…”

- Kingsflame blossoms bloom only when a kingdom is at peace and the rightful monarch is on the throne. Also a very similar plot point to the White Tree of Gondor in The Lord of the Rings.

- The dam breaking in Anielle and flooding is based on the Isengard dam breaking in The Two Towers. 

- Chaol crosses the Narrow Sea to get to the southern continent. In GoT the Narrow Sea is the body of water between Westeros and Essos.

- The “Wyrdkeys” are the Silmarils. There are 3 Wyrdkeys and 3 Silmarils. They’re ancient and powerful stones forged by a being of great power (Feanor, who made the Silmarils, was the most powerful elf of all time). Everyone is fighting over them. And just like one Wyrdkey eventually ends up in the Terrasen Amulet, one of the Silmarils ends up in a necklace called the Nauglamir. They’re also all destroyed/lost at the end.

- Kingdom of Ash, page 543: “It was not arrows alone that had been fired, and now peppered the snow.But heads. Human heads, many still in their helmets.” In Return of the King, the orcs catapult severed heads (still in their helmets) over the walls of Minas Tirith.

- “What say you, Queen of Witches?”…….“I shall answer Terrasen’s call.” is a blatant rip-off of the scene where Aragorn approaches Theoden after the beacons are lit in the Return of the King.

- Rowan is referred to as, “My friend through many dangers.” which is exactly what Gandalf says about Shadowfax, his horse, in Lord of the Rings.

- The Land before Time, 1988: ‘Some things you see with your eyes. Other things you see with your heart.’

Crown of Midnight, SJM, 2011: ‘Some things you hear with your eyes. Other things you hear with your heart.’

- ‘Spirit that could not be broken’ is seen in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) and Throne of Glass (2011).

- It’s possible that SJ/M may have plagiarised Maria V Snyder’s Poison Study(?) (published 2005). Both books begin with the heroine being released from prison and being offered the choice to be freed by working for the very rulers who’d imprisoned them. Also, Valek - Yelena’s love interest - is the greatest and most feared assassin in the country and also acts as a mentor to Yelena much like Rowan does in Heir of Fire. However, I think this is a questionable addition despite similarities because SJ/M began writing Queen of Glass in 2003 and all the aforementioned aspects that are similar were already present in the version she published online.

- S/JM has saved a pin of Connor Kenway from the Assassin's Creed series (AC3) as Rowan and Lorcan on Pinterest. Towards the end of the series they started using hatchets as weapons, which is Connor's choice of weapon, outside of swords, and is used heavily in art which features him. Aelin's assassin suit from the earlier books also had a blade built into it, which was very similar to the hidden blade the assassins in Assassin's Creed use.

Further reading: Why not everyone liked Connor’s characteristic traits being ripped off: https://dragonidk.tumblr.com/post/614614548495859712/i-went-through-sjms-tog-pinterest-board-the-other

Further reading: An article comparing EoS’s ending to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: https://thebookfinch.wordpress.com/2016/09/08/review-empire-of-storms-by-sarah-j-maas-in-which-we-discuss-plagiarism/

A/COTAR

- “Prythian”, the A/COTAR world, is taken directly from Anne Bishop’s Daughter of the Blood.

- The Archeron sisters could be based off the painting “The Acheson Sisters” by John Singer Sargent which features three women.

- The Illyrians could have been based off of the Eyriens from Anne’s Bishop’s Black Jewels series. Both are warrior races with bat wings that use a war blade to fight with. They also both completely refuse their women any right to fight and consider losing their wings to be the absolute worst thing that could happen to them. 

- Feyre tells Tamlin, “The sun was shining when I left you.” which is basically Paris saying, “The sun was shining when your wife left you.” in the movie Troy (2004)

- Rhys proclaims, “Light can be found even in the darkest of hells,” Which is really close to Dumbledore saying (in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

- Daenerys: “We’re going to leave the world better than we found it.” 

ACOWAR: “Leave this world… a better place than how you found it.”

- “Pity those who don’t feel anything at all.” is a variation of “Pity the living and above all, those who live without love,” said by Dumbledore in the Deathly Hallows.

- A Dance of Dragons, George R.R. Martin, 2011: ‘He is fire made flesh, she thought, and so am I.’

ACOMAF, 2016: ‘Fire - he reminded her of fire made flesh.’

- SJ/M may have also plagiarised The Chronicles of Prydain for ACOTAR wherein Prythian is altered to Prydain and The Cauldron is derived from The Black Cauldron. This may be especially true considering the fact that SJ/M has expressed her love for the books and stated it on Twitter. She also went on to mention that she got the name for Prythian from those books. Similarities to the cauldron can also be seen in the fact that SJ/M’s Cauldron can transform humans into fae while Alexander's Black Cauldron is able to resurrect the dead.

!!!! Further Reading: Noticeable similarities between ACOTAR and The Chronicles of Prydain series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Prydain

- Possible plagiarism(?) of Titanic: Rose is Feyre, Cal is Tamlin, Jack is Rhys. The story is similar - the girl is involved with a guy who seems nice enough, but turns out to be abusive etc. There are similar incidents of the table being chucked across the room/and the study being destroyed. Then you also have the girl being told the other guy isn't nice and she should stay away from him, but then it ends up being the other way round. The guy bosses her about, making her decisions for her and ends up dying for her later on.

- Rhapsody by Laura Thalassa and A/COTAR have awfully similar tropes. Both involve faeries, in both the main female lead leaves her barbaric boyfriend to go with the dark, elegant Fae boyfriend who came to collect a debt.

Further reading: A conversation in comparing The Vampire Diaries(?) to ACOTAR:  https://crescentcitysux.tumblr.com/post/618622356795064320/iolanthepeverells-pokeyfaes

Further reading: Similarities between Shatter Me and the ACOTAR trilogy: https://discountalien-pancake.tumblr.com/post/174823303683/dont-take-this-as-an-attack-im-just

C/RESCENT CITY

- Similarities between the plot of Darkfever by Karen Marie Morning (an author S/JM likes) and Crescent City’s plot: https://polysorscha.tumblr.com/post/183661492639/funny-thing-i-came-across-the-crescent-city

- The Princes of Hel might be from the Seven Princes of Hell demonology (some ancient writings trying to classify demons in christianity). [MINOR INFRACTION]

Sources:

- @sjm-exposed 

- @soartfullydone 

- @falstaffing for “My friend through many dangers.”

- https://readatmidnight.com/2018/10/27/book-rant-kingdom-of-ash/

- strangestoryteller.com

- https://camryndaytona.com/2019/08/sarah-j-maas-and-jrr-tolkien

- @rougeam for “fire made flesh”

- @sylphene for Aerin firehair 

- @sylphene and @paperbacktrash  for The Chronicles of Prydain.

- An anon for the Laura Thalassa comparison

- @hireath24 for the Crown of Midnight quote and “spirit that could not be broken.”

- @pokeyfaes and @iolanthepeverells for The Vampire Diaries comparison

- A reddit thread for the Titanic comparison 

- An anon for the Eyrians

- An anon and @dragonidk for the Assassin’s Creed addition

- @longsightmyth for Fireheart