"Great! ... Where are we going?"

[ashkiryn]

I am mildly annoyed for the moment. I uploaded this pic to use for when I finished reading The Two Towers, and the entry I'll eventually post about that, and then I tried to upload 3 different pictures of Aragorn for this entry, but for some strange reason it wouldn't let me. When it got to the part where you size the picture, it kept reverting back to this one. So...okay then, stupid picture. Whatevs. At least Aragorn's still in this one, I guess.

ANYWAY. So, last time, I talked about The Hobbit. This time around, it's time to talk about the first "book" of the Lord of the Rings "trilogy" proper: The Fellowship of the Ring.

(Mildly interesting factoid: the assumption that LOTR is a trilogy is actually incorrect. Tolkien wrote it all as one book, but his editor/some person with executive power insisted on publishing it into three volumes, because otherwise the book would have been too big, and supposedly there were paper shortages. They also therefore got into quite a few arguments over the titles of each volume; Tolkien was admantly against naming the third book "The Return of the King" because he (correctly, in my opinion) thought it was a huge spoiler for the book, but he was overruled.)



I suppose it's time, then, for me to expand upon my ~history~ with the LOTR series. I already mentioned that I read the trilogy backwards, and how that was a pretty huge mistake. I mean, I'd seen the second movie, but for those of you who don't know and/or don't care to read and find out for yourselves (I love you R-girl!), a lot of the events that are in the third movie actually take place in the second book, The Two Towers: Shelob being the biggest thing, but also Pippin stealing the palantir and looking into it. The second movie ends directly after the Battle of Helm's Deep, and therefore before Gandalf and Co. go to Isengard and the palantir is discovered (in the book, Saruman threw it at them out of a window of Orthanc; rude, right?). And as for Frodo and Sam, the second movie ends just as they are leaving Osgiliath, which is quite a bit of time before they come to Cirith Ungol and Shelob.

The second book, however, ends the first part with Pippin and Gandalf riding off to Gondor, and Frodo's been attacked by Shelob and carried off by Orcs, leaving Sam with the Ring and following him.

So imagine me, a sixth grader, having only seen the Two Towers movie, and then picking up the Return of the King book, and Pippin and Gandalf, who hadn't been reunited as far as I knew, were riding off to Gondor for some urgent reason that I didn't know, and then later Sam's got the Ring and Frodo's all fucked up and captured by Orcs in goddamn Mordor...yeah. To say that I was confused would be an understatement. I had no fucking idea what the hell was happening. But, for some reason, I just went with it and kept reading. And then I read the second book, and I can't tell you how relieved I was that it started with a familiar scene: the death of Boromir, which was in the first movie.

So, when I read the Fellowship of the Ring book for the first time, there were a couple of things to note about my mindset, the most important of which being that Aragorn was my favorite character. And, having the last two books first, I was used to having him around, and even if I was reading the Frodo and Sam sections, at least I knew that Aragorn was going to reappear pretty soon. But reading the first book, where it takes the hobbits EIGHT GODDAMN CHAPTERS to get out of the Shire, and for Aragorn to not properly show up until GODDAMN CHAPTER TEN?? To say that I got impatient would be putting it lightly. Plus, keep in mind that I was 11. I swear I was practically screaming at the book to hurry up and get to Strider already! And then when it finally DID get to Strider/Aragorn, I was very indignant and impatient with the hobbits again when it took them a while to trust them. In hindsight and in-story, that's actually sensible of them, but at the time I was baffled. This is ARAGORN, the most AWESOMEST character in all of this series, why wouldn't you trust him?? I ended up skipping chapter 8 altogether, and this reread was actually the first time that I fully read the book all the way through.

So, how were my thoughts on the book the second time around, and about a decade later?

Well, firstly, I think it helped immensely that I was actually reading the books in order this time. I didn't have nearly the problem with waiting for my beloved Aragorn to show up this time. And I'll say that I definitely enjoyed just reading it much more this time around. In fact, I pretty much tore right through the book, but it didn't have the same feeling of CRUSHING DENSITY this time. I'll be curious to see if this feeling holds up if I ever get around to reading the books for a third time.

Anyway, so let's talk about my favorite characters; I've been actually keeping two lists throughout this reading. One list is cataloguing all of the female characters that get named, because women in LOTR are few and far between. And the second is, obviously, a list of characters that have impressed me enough to be deemed a favorite character. Note that I'm not going to be referencing much about the future books in this case; if I talk about a character below, it'll be strictly on their FotR merits.

So, in order of appearance:

~Bilbo Baggins: still sassy and trolling in his old age, bless him. The fact that he willed the Sackville-Bagginses the silver spoons that they had tried to steal from him in The Hobbit made me laugh. And again, his defense of Aragorn at the Council of Elrond is a beautiful thing, as is the bond and love he shares with Frodo. And I never realized that Bilbo was the one who wrote that "All that is gold does not glitter" poem about Aragorn. Adorable. And his parting song to Frodo is one of the saddest things ever.

~Samwise Gamgee: My very favorite hobbit to have ever been a hobbit, I don't think I can truly communicate how much I love him. Seriously, his loyalty to Frodo FROM THE VERY FUCKING BEGINNING, which makes him the only one that didn't fall under the spell of Old Man Willow, his excitement over the Elves and ROPE of all things, oh, yeah, and his LOYALTY TO FRODO. Seriously, Sam's kind of afraid of rivers and can't swim, and yet he nearly drowns trying to follow Frodo across the Anduin, aka THE GREAT RIVER. His line, "Of course you are. And I'm coming with you!", and how he adamantly refuses to leave Frodo no matter what, and how when Frodo was sick and recovering in Rivendell, Gandalf had to FORCE him to leave and get sleep, it just...it makes me tear up. Bestest best friend EVER. Samwise Gamgee, there's not a person like you. He's in my top list of favorite characters.

~Farmer Maggot: Oh man, THIS DUDE. How the fuck didn't I notice how awesome you were the first time around. Okay, the help that he gives to Frodo and Co. is a beautiful, beautiful thing. Seriously, he only knows Frodo from when Frodo was a kid and stole mushrooms from him, and yet he's willing to risk injury and death from the Nazgul to help him? So. Freaking. Amazing. And he is SO FIERCE, because he tells a Ringwraith to his face to GET THE FUCK OFF MY PROPERTY, AND TAKE YOUR FUCKING PROMISE OF GOLD WITH YOU, OR NEXT TIME I'LL HAVE MY DOGS EAT YOU. He's probably my third favorite hobbit, after Sam and Bilbo.

~Aragorn/Strider/The Dude Who Has More Names Than Anyone Else in All of Middle-earth, And That's Saying Something Because Practically Everyone Has At Least Two Names: For the win. My very favorite character in all of Middle-earth. At least for this book, part of this is due to the fact that I have a great fondness for the Mysterious Figure of Badassedness, who basically shows up out of nowhere to the protagonists, and tells them, "Come with me, or else your ass is about to get fucked," and then there's this whole ~dilemma~ about whether they can really be trusted, and I just LOVE IT GREATLY, okay? So yeah, that's definitely Aragorn's role up until they get to Rivendell. Then you find out that he's a PERSON OF IMPRESSIVE LINEAGE, and the lost king of Gondor, and those Lost Kings/Princes/Heirs of Whatever always turn out to be really cool people. Plus, Aragorn's awesome in that he tends to not live in extremes. He's the most reasonable member of the Fellowship, and has Epic Negotiator skills, in addition to being the Healer of the Company and Ninja Tracking Skillz, and he's pretty much the resident Badass Extraordinaire of Middle-earth. Aragorn is just simply the best. Ever. Period.

~Glorfindel: The first time I read the book, this was a character that I sadly glossed over, and his part was replaced by Arwen in the movie; in the book, he's the one that shows up to help Aragorn and the hobbits get an injured Frodo to Rivendell. For the most part I approve of Peter Jackson putting in Arwen instead in the movie, because for the love of God, Tolkien, MORE WOMEN, PLEASE AND THANK YOU, but now having reread the book, I'm kind of sad that we didn't get to see Glorfindel as a result. Except for possibly a cameo appearance at the Council of Elrond. Anyway, this dude is one of only THREE people to have ever been successful in slaying a Balrog; one of the others was Gandalf. Of course, he died in the attempt and then was reborn again, so all in all I think he's kind of glad that he skipped the one in Moria, because I would imagine that the coming-back-to-life thing is a one time only deal. But anyway, Glorfindel's just a fun person to be around, because he's just an innately cheerful person. You don't get too many of them around, I guess Glorfindel's not around long enough for this cheer to get annoying to me.

~Elrond: Still one of the most awesome people around. <3

~Boromir: Who just makes me sad. But, I kind of feel him. A lot of the time he's kind of quietly, unassumingly sensible (at least until the Ring corrupts him), and on quite a few occasions, he Speaks the Truth, as far as my reactions if I were in the book are concerned. I would be there with him being flatly against going into Moria, is all I'm saying. And then it just gets sad that the Ring takes all of his ambition and desire to help his people, and twists him, and then he dies protecting Merry and Pippin against a horde of Orcs.

~Bill the Pony: For sure. If only he would talk. The bond between Sam and Bill was so touching, and it was heartwrenching when Sam had to give him up. Frodo, be more fucking grateful, Sam is always having to give stuff up for you---wait. Not talking about that yet.

~Haldir: I have no idea. He Is Just Cool, okay? And I love both his book and film versions. (And as a minor note, I am glad that his book version so far hasn't died, like he did in Helm's Deep. UGH, I LEGIT CRIED DURING THAT SCENE.) Anyway, I guess you could call him as my irrational character love. I don't have much of a reason, and what's even stranger is that I'm content with not having a reason. *shrugs*

And that's all for characters in this book. On to my next topic: Ships.

~Aragorn/Arwen: I think PJ made a good call in the movies, because all of this stuff was originally in, like, the Appendices, aka, NOT EVEN REALLY IN THE BOOK AT ALL. This freaking CANON ship has only been vaguely hinted at MAYBE five times in this whole book. I mean, dude. Part of Aragorn's DRIVE at all to become the crowned King of Gondor is that that is the condition that Elrond set in order for him to be able to marry her. I suppose it goes along with Aragorn's MYSTERIOUS MYSTERIOUSNESS, but I very much approved of the fact that more focus was put on this in the movies. That made me actually BELIEVE IT, to see how much they loved each other. And the second book isn't doing much better on this score so far. In fact, it's worse: there is only ONE THING so far, which is the fact that Aragorn merely looks "troubled" and "doesn't smile" when he realizes that Eowyn is crushing on him. THAT'S IT. Granted, he's distracted by other Important Things, and I get that, but still, come on Tolkien!

~Frodo/Sam/Rosie: Again PJ did a better job at making me believe in Sam/Rosie. In the movie, before they leave the Shire, Sam is clearly shown to be crushing on her, and Frodo pushes him into dancing with her, and all of this makes the scene in the last movie when Sam and Frodo think they're going to die after destroying the Ring, and he says that if he could have married someone, it would have been Rosie, and then he cries---this establishment makes that INCREDIBLY HEARTBREAKING. In the book, however, Rosie doesn't even EXIST at this point. Instead, we get HEAPINGS AND HEAPINGS of homoerotic subtext with Frodo and Sam instead. Which, that exists in the movie too, but at least they made Sam/Rosie credible enough to counter and balance it and have it make sense to me. In the book, I'm getting the feeling that Rosie's going to swing in out of nowhere, and it's just going to fall incredibly flat. In any case, there is clearly no other person in the WORLD who is more important to Sam than Frodo. I'll probably be touching more on Frodo/Sam when I post my ~thoughts and feelings~ about The Two Towers, because there is going to be EPIC AMOUNTS of this freaking WONDERFUL relationship in that book, and then again when I talk fully about Return of the King, in which Rosie will probably make her first appearance. So, tune in later!

~Gimli&Galadriel: This is the most adorable thing EVER. But I will expand on this more after I finish The Two Towers.

And that's all I've got for Ships at the moment. As for my Thoughts regarding scenes in the book:

~The Mines of Moria: #2 on my list of LOTR Things That Give Me Nightmare Fuel. DO NOT WANT.

~Caradhras: See, this is why I would Epically Fail and DIE in an epic fantasy adventure. The Fellowship either has to climb, IN WINTER, over a SENTIENT MOUNTAIN that DOES NOT WANT YOU TO CROSS, in a FREEZING COLD BLIZZARD, or else journey through the ENDLESS NIGHTMARE FUEL that is the Mines of Moria. Yeah, I'd have been all FUCK THIS SHIT. If I could, I would have beelined for Cirdan and made him let me get on one of the ships that's taking the Elves away from Middle-earth; and if I HAD to stay, I'd have been on Elrond's heels like white on rice. And this is why there isn't a character like me in an epic fantasy.

~Rivendell: Speaking of, MORE ELROND, DAMN IT. What amounts to two chapters in total is not enough screentime. Plus, I would have dearly loved to see some true Elrond/Aragorn interaction. Aragorn's his foster son! Damn you, Aragorn, for being so ~mysterious~ that we can't know hardly anything about you, especially in these early stages. TEASE. Anyway, if there is a place in Middle-earth that I would want to live in, it's Rivendell full stop. Also, the Council of Elrond is the greatest info-dump known to man.

~Sassiness: Pippin and Gandalf sassing off of each other is one of the funniest things ever.

Anywho, it's getting ridiculously late, and I've got to get up early for a counseling session tomorrow, so with that I'll say adieu for the time being. At the moment, I'm only halfway through reading The Two Towers, and I don't plan to finish it until the weekend after next, so my next few posts will probably depart from the Lord of the Rings theme that I've had going on. Until then, keep it real!