#ents tolkien

[ilostmycommunicator]

One thing about me is that I LOVE the LOTR Ents I just think they are so neat and I want to learn everything about them! So if you know some cool facts or just have any information about Tolkien’s Ents please comment on this post

[autistook]

Dom Monaghan and Billy Boyd on Merry, Pippin and the Ents, the Two Towers, Cast Commentary

[ghostly-atv]

The Two Towers is so funny because Tolkien was such a tree-lover he was basically just like “actually we should give every tree a gun.”

[deus-sema]

The spirit of Tolkien's works is encapsulated in this one scene right here.

[alexmurison]

The Ent This absolute stunning veteran oak tree hidden away in Cannock Chase is one of the most stunning trees I've ever seen. A true Tolkien Ent if ever i've seen one.

[amphorographia]

Shakespeare: So, in Macbeth, the forest doesn't actually move, it's just an army holding branches

C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien: And we took that personally

[fistfuloflightning]

Ents with flower crowns.

There are few things Ents do in haste. It is tradition after strong storms to gather all the fallen flowers—since it is a waste for them to wilt and fade so needlessly without one last use—and decorate themselves with them. The younger and less tree-like shepherds even go so far as to wind them into wreaths for the oldest who can no longer move.

thanks to @sharpestsatire for a challenging prompt and a new headcanon!

[my-deer-legolas]

[asianrabbit]

The Rings of Power: Season 2 (2024) Creatures of Middle-Earth

[fishfingersandscarves]

lol, lmao even

[tossawary]

Honestly, I don't think the Ents were scary enough in the LOTR Jackson films when they attacked Isengard. Like, it's great! It is great! It was amazing to see the first time; the effects are incredible for their time and they still hold up pretty well! I don't need to be told that they had various animation limitations. (More size variation in the Ents could have been nice. They could have been even bigger. But animation limitations and time constraints and such, I know!)

It's just that a lot of the camera shots were looking down on the battle (they're using bigatures and such, I know), so the Ents looked tiny, stomping on tinier orcs, or the camera is sitting with Merry and Pippin on Treebeard's shoulders, and that angle doesn't really get across how HUGE and NON-HUMAN trees are. I think the best shots in this battle sequence are the ones from the perspective of the orcs, where it's just utter chaos, and then some walking tree appears out of nowhere and it's ANGRY WITH YOU. Ideally, I think it would have been great if the storyboarding had leaned more into that bewildered and terrified human perspective more, getting more into the dirt of things, before then zooming out for the overview of the Ents overtaking Isengard for the end of the sequence. The boarding in the film does a lot of jumping in and out in regards to size and what's happening.

Like, have you ever been next to a massive tree in a windstorm? The sort that looms over the roofs of houses? When the whole tree starts swaying in the wind, hundreds of branches twisting like some kind of tentacled beast? And the rustling starts to sound like a dull roar? And you think to yourself, "Oh, if that tall tree ever goes down, it is taking that entire house down with it, cracking open the roof and bashing down the walls. It would smash that car flat. It would crush me easily and I don't even know how I would begin to get out of its way as it falls, because its branches and leaves would just swallow me."

And if you're ever in a heavily wooded area during a windstorm, it's even worse, because the old trees all around you are bending and shaking like they're about to pull up their roots and start walking. Like, you didn't forget that they're alive, did you? And it's beautiful, of course, but it's also dangerous. It looks like they're dancing in their own way, but the amount of wood being thrown around means that one good branch breaking could seriously hurt someone. And it's just a branch to the tree, the tree might be fine, it might just grow another, but that branch could easily be longer and heavier than a person.

It is cool to see all of the other Ents coming out of the woods to back Treebeard up and then go marching forward. But it does raise the question of "Wait, how did the other Ents get there so fast? Aren't they kind of slow?" (If there is lore explaining this, general movie audiences will not know it.) So, it would be fun if Treebeard made his call and the dramatic speech, all alone, and then we could cut away, so we have the plausible deniability of a time skip. There's also the tension of: "Oh, no, is Treebeard going to attack Isengard alone?"

And THEN we could pick back up with orcs on the walls of Isengard, boredly watching the industry below, before the ground starts shaking and the stone beneath their feet cracks. And a huge shadow looms over the wall as a MASSIVE TREE climbs over, basically falling over, and letting its sheer weight take down everything in its path. Followed by dozens more of these creatures. Making the machinery of Isengard look and all the orcs within feel very, VERY small.

If Ents are ever depicted again in any visual adaptation, even an illustrated version of the novel or a graphic novel, I feel like it should be a goal to really capture that feeling of being small and mortal by comparison. Some of the earlier interactions with Merry and Pippin and Treebeard get this feeling well enough. The LOTR films are over and done, obviously, and they did pretty well. But it could be better! I want to LEAN into those moments of smallness just a little more in future adaptations of Middle Earth. I would love to keep the camera LOW as much as possible and utilize advancements like more detailed models and better leaf animation. (Like hair, leaves are hard!)

We are not the Ents here. We are just witnessing them. You have to go out into a forest and ask yourself, "What WOULD it be like if trees walked around me?"

[black-sapphire57]

Saruman sending his entire legion to helms deep and leaving Isengard unprotected-

An angry tree whose upset cause he cut down his homies:

[sapphoismymuse]

the march of the ents is written so beautifully i am actively cheering along with them i haven’t been this hyped reading a book in so long!!

[valar-did-me-wrong]

die mad Haters™ :))

[raointean]