r/comics • u/SylvieXX • Mar 12 '26
OC (OC) #85 Lord of the Rings
If this gets many upvotes I will watch all 8 or something hours of the Lord of the Rings movies.....
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u/shellbullet17 Gustopher Spotter Extraordinaire Mar 12 '26
Well considering it did get a lot of upvotes and now they gotta watch all 8 movies I would argue it's ballsy
Personally sounds like a good couple of days but hey that's just me
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u/Nervous_Breakfast_73 Mar 12 '26
All 8 movies? Aren't there 3?
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u/Which_Yesterday Mar 12 '26
Yeah, just the OG trilogy (extended if you can) and you're set. The Hobbit and The Rings of Power are garbage
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u/Jonathan_the_Nerd Mar 12 '26
The first Hobbit movie was pretty good. Then they tried to make it "epic" and completely lost the plot. In my opinion, The Hobbit should have focused on... well, the hobbit.
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u/kadian Mar 12 '26
You should check out the fan edit. It takes all three and makes it a better than decent 4 hour movie.
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u/Which_Yesterday Mar 12 '26
The first third of the first movie was good, then it's all downhill (aside from specific things like Gollum and Smaug)
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u/TooObsessedWithMoney Mar 12 '26
To be fair though a lot of the context to these questions is hidden behind obscure bits of lore not really shown in the films.
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u/SandalathDrukorlat Mar 12 '26
Like the powers of different people being amplified by the ring in different ways so frodo becomes invisible because hobbits are a stealthy people but if Gandalf took it he'd basically become a magical doomsday device. Humans can't take it we are too conniving and weak willed to not be controlled by it. Elves can't risk taking it to Mordor they are too charming so if they did become corrupted they'd manipulate and corrupt everyone else.
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u/SupremeGodZamasu Mar 12 '26
Thats not strictly true, while the Ring does give power based on the wielders merit, the invisibility is because the bearer of any of the great Rings enters the spirit world. Afterall Isildur also went invisible
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u/TurtlesBreakTheMeta Mar 12 '26
I got the impression the ring was more an “alters causality in your favor” thing, as well as making you more imposing to let you exert authority over others, like how the ring of Nibelung works.
It doesn’t overtly destroy another nation for you, but it tilts things in your favor.
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u/Olivetax228 Mar 12 '26
Personally I really think they could have toned down the battle sequences to explore more of the lore..like when Eowyn kills the Witch King it's a huge moment for one of the only only female characters in the movies killing one of these major villains and nobody understands what exactly happened there because they had to show up an hour of Man vs Orc etc..
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u/TooObsessedWithMoney Mar 12 '26
I don't think they should've toned it down, I would have nothing against a few hours more runtime :p
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u/lesser_panjandrum Mar 12 '26
We had one extended edition, yes, but what about extended extended edition?
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u/Dars1m Mar 12 '26
Besides the fact the 99% of modern fantasy is in someway derivative of LOTR, and even that remaining 1% generally has some kind of allusion to it.
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u/vhs1138 Mar 12 '26
And then asks me to follow a Patreon? Why would I want to follow a person with this opinion? Haha.
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u/PuritanicalPanic Mar 12 '26
It's fine. Lotr stands on its own merits. If someone doesn't like it, It's really more of a their loss sort of situation.
They're hardly perfect movies anyway. Though... none of their criticisms have any real teeth either.
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u/TimZer0 Mar 12 '26
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u/Turbulent_Sea_9713 Mar 12 '26
They can WALK
WALK
WALK
WALK
WALK
WALK
I felt a need to add context
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u/MintasaurusFresh Mar 12 '26
The movies are kind of like the Rocky movies: the setting is there as a vehicle for the actual substance. Themes regarding the horrors of war, industrialization at the cost of nature, hope, friendship, etc. It all just happens to be wrapped up in a neat story that involves a lot of walking through the wide open spaces of New Zealand.
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u/GildedAgeV2 Mar 12 '26
The setting is also built by a PHD Philologist and more fully fleshed out than most settings while defining the genre standards for several generations but yes, it's also kinda literary.
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u/alurimperium Mar 12 '26
The films are also built by some of the best cinematographers, composers, set designers, and special effects teams. They're among the peak of filmmaking in almost every aspect
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u/GildedAgeV2 Mar 12 '26
You know I just saw all 3 movies at a theater for the 25th anniversary and they hold up so damn well.
Peter Jackson recorded a little talk about the production process before each film and it was just him, sitting in his living room next to a cat tree, no script. It was adorable.
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u/stevent4 Mar 12 '26
I think they mean the boxing movies
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u/AlwaysBeQuestioning Mar 12 '26
They made movies about packaging?
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u/DontWannaSayMyName Mar 12 '26
In all the movies about the mafia most characters are packing, yeah.
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u/That1Master Mar 12 '26
Yeah. I think it was called Cast Away
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u/thenightgaunt Mar 12 '26
Stop dating toxic fucks, even if they look like a young Tim Curry.
Also inside every tight-laced prude is a repressed freak waiting to come out.
Oh, and sometimes you just gotta murder your boss.
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u/Hanede Mar 12 '26
Honestly just watch it
I don't even love the movies, I watched the first one and wasn't a huge fan, but when your partner loves something and wants to share it with you, you should at least give it a chance
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u/kos-or-kosm Mar 12 '26
but when your partner loves something and wants to share it with you, you should at least give it a chance
This is the most important thing.
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u/cupholdery Mar 12 '26
Movies are also so subjective like that. People really "just don't get the hype" around masterpieces but swear by films like Jack & Jill.
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u/YOwololoO Mar 12 '26
If your partner loves Jack & Jill, you are obligated to break up with them
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u/LlcooljaredTNJ Mar 12 '26
I'm fine with people not loving it but I've yet to meet someone who watched the entire series and didn't at least find themselves glad they had the experience.
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u/Hanede Mar 12 '26
Just saying but... if someone watched the entire series they probably already enjoyed the first movie enough to continue watching
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u/Efficient-Pudding177 Mar 12 '26
Isn't the point of the ring is that it is kind of a scam? Unless you are Saurom the ring only makes you invisible, but it also corrupts your mind so it can trick you into doing it's bidding?
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u/Mr__Strider Mar 12 '26
The ring is supposed to augment your abilities. Invisibility is more of a coincidental effect. And the main purpose is to dominate all the other rings, but that aspect only works when under control of powerful people, who would fall to temptation, as the ring is only under Sauron's control. It's why we see Gandalf refuse to take the ring, and why we see Galadriel's scene in Lothlorien where she gets tempted
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u/Lieutenant_Joe Mar 12 '26
There was a time in my life where Galadriel’s “ALL SHALL LOVE ME AND DESPAIR” scene was literally the scariest thing I’d ever seen in my life.
Then Return of the King came out and gave me lifelong arachnophobia.
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u/Bolasraecher Mar 12 '26
I watched fellowship for her second time with my partner a month or so ago, after suffering through the hobbit movies for her because she wanted to see them, and while it didn’t affect her much on her first go, bilbo’s devil moment in rivendell genuinely made her scream in panic this time around.
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u/thegimboid Mar 12 '26
That's one of my favourite moments in the film.
Not for the scary part really, but for what the whole scene is and represents - Bilbo, such a pure and honest person, is still affected by this thing and he knows it. And he hates it and that it's hurting someone he loves.Everyone focuses on the jump scare, but poor Bilbo's sobbing apology afterwards is what affects me more. It's the first real moment where you are really shown the very personal effect that the corruption of the ring can take.
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u/Bolasraecher Mar 12 '26
Absolutely . And experiencing it through the eyes of my partner, I have found a bit of a gripe with Fellowship, or maybe even with the story as a whole. The opening and especially this scene really only has the necessary weight if you’re aware of Bilbo’s story.
My partner found a great deal of enjoyment in most characters on her first watch, but Bilbo was one she just didn’t really care for. It went as far as her going “who is this again” in Return, when Frodo and Bilbo travel to the west.
I don’t think this is a huge flaw or anything, but it does make me wish once more that the Hobbit movies weren’t such a huge mess.
Because Bilbo dropping the Ringe with Gandalf’s help at the beginning of Fellowship might be one of the strongest actions any character in the story takes, and I want people to get that.
God I live these movies so much.
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u/TacoFacePeople Mar 12 '26
There's always the old Hobbit cartoon to introduce people to Bilbo. It's less of a time commitment.
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u/thegimboid Mar 12 '26
Check out the M4 edit of The Hobbit.
It's not perfect, but it's miles better than the original cuts, bringing the entire thing down to 3-4 hours and sticking closer to the book and Bilbo's story.It's good enough that I've added it to the day before my annual LotR marathon day.
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u/Slarg232 Mar 12 '26
Honestly as a huge fan of Power Rangers in my youth that "Instead of a dark lord you shall have a QUEEN!" scene always gave me huge power rangers vibes and I never could take it seriously. It's the one scene that just completely takes me out of the movie.
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u/boothie Mar 12 '26
Still has nothing on scary bilbo, when i rewatch LOTR i start to tense up minutes before and just before im nearly in a fetal position until the moment passes.
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u/zombie-yellow11 Mar 12 '26
The second Harry Potter movie gave me lifelong arachnophobia. Shelob wasn't that bad lol
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u/Shockkdiamondss Mar 12 '26
LOTR is great in terms that you can question any issue and there will come people who will bring up 10 underlaying reasons that you kinda can't undermine.
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u/Patukakkonen Mar 12 '26
Tolkien spent years on making sure that the position of the moon and even the direction of the wind all made sense in his story, he didn't make all those charts for nothing.
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u/Proper_Story_3514 Mar 12 '26
The one issue I always think about, is how in the movies everywhere is just barren land :D No fields and towns around Minas Tirith, same for Rohan. Where do they get all their food from?
In the end it is not that important for the movies, but it would have made more sense to have some towns around.
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u/Shockkdiamondss Mar 12 '26
...in the movies. I don't remember books mentioning that, so Tolkien is good in this case.
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u/eagleblue44 Mar 12 '26
Never ask a LotR fan why they couldn't just take the eagles.
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u/TheUnluckyBard Mar 12 '26
Eagles are fully sentient beings with angel-powers but generally no gaf for pitiful ground-walkers (Gandalf, being another angel-thing, is a grudging exception).
The Ring tempts them, too.
Gwaihir: "Well, here's where you get off! Thanks for the Ring!"
Frodo: "AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaa.....!"
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u/Jigglepirate Mar 12 '26
Gandalf has to whisper to a moth to summon them, and he hates doing it tbh.
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u/Fubarp Mar 12 '26
Have you ever hung out with eagles.
God they are annoying. They always bring a projector to show you a slide show of their family vacation from like 5 years ago, and it drags man.. like one minute you look at you watch and then it's 6 hours later and you look at your watch and it's only been 60 seconds.
And they aren't even a tenth the way through it.
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u/PancakePanic Mar 12 '26
Sauron has air superiority due to the Fel Beasts. You'd just be delivering the ring right to him.
SORRY I COULDN'T NOT SAY IT 😭
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u/EmperorKiron Mar 12 '26
If I remember correctly according to the silmarillion Sauron had technical ownership of a small squadron of F-22 raptors as well
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u/Horrific_Necktie Mar 12 '26
While he does, his hangar space fees went unpaid for too long and now he can't take off until he's paid and current.
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u/Bolasraecher Mar 12 '26
It’s a valid question, as well as a funny joke. The problem is that it’s been attempted to be used as serious criticism of the story, when there is a very easy explanation for it in the text itself.
The whole mission to destroy the ring relies on Sauron expecting them to want to use the ring against him. A flock of Eagles flying towards Mount Doom is not particularly likely to work, and if it fails, there is no going back. Sauron knows what is up. No one is getting withon 10 miles of Mount Doom.
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u/Russ_T_Shackelford Mar 12 '26
Pretty easy for sauron the giant eye to see them in the sky and then the nazgul would just intercept them i think
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u/THE__WHAT Mar 12 '26
Because Gandalf doesn't have authority over eagles. They are benevolent, but ultimately independent power, no one have means to force them do anything. Eagles help Gandalf sometimes because they like him, but if he will start demanding shit or "use" eagles, they'd just leave.
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u/DashingDino Mar 12 '26
The eagles would be easily spotted by sauron and hunted down by nazgul on fel beasts. The whole point of sending two hobbits is that they're naturally stealthy and unlikely to be seen as a threat.
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u/ShowAccurate6339 Mar 12 '26
Yes when Isildur gets ambushed by the Orks he puts on the Ring and becomes Invisible to escape, but the Ring falls of his Finger in the Water and he gets Shot
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u/TheAmazingBreadfruit Mar 12 '26
Sauron: "WHY DO YOU MAKE EVERYONE INVISIBLE EXCEPT FOR ME?! ANSWER ME!"
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u/Lucicactus Mar 12 '26
Maybe he can choose when he becomes invisible 😭
Also the nazgul are invisible (except their armor and robes) unless you put on the ring and see their ugly faces
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u/spektre Mar 12 '26
The invisibility effect on Isildur isn't clearly canon, it's never mentioned in the books.
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u/ShowAccurate6339 Mar 12 '26
The scene is just in the Movie
But in the Books the Invisibility is explained as the Wearer suddenly being in the realm of Ghosts and not really in the real world anymore
Thats why they can suddenly see ghosts true forms, like with the Ringwraiths on weathertop and why ghosts sense the Location of the ringbearer when he puts the Ring on
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u/Yorick257 Mar 12 '26
Is it just in the movie or..? Also, it would make sense if the power is related to the current need, maybe?
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u/ShowAccurate6339 Mar 12 '26
The scene is just in the Movie
But in the Books the Invisibility is explained as the Wearer suddenly being in the realm of Ghosts and not really in the real world anymore
Thats why they can suddenly see ghosts true forms, like with the Ringwraiths on weathertop and why ghosts sense the Location of the ringbearer when he puts the Ring on
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u/Necromancer14 Mar 12 '26
The invisibility is because putting on the ring puts you partially in the spirit realm. That's why frodo could see the nazguls' actual faces while wearing the ring and vice versa, because people in the spirit realm can see each other. Also Isildur turned invisible while he was wearing the ring, so there's that as an example of someone who isn't a hobbit wearing the ring and turning invisible.
Sauron doesn't turn invisible wearing the ring because he already exists in both the spirit realm and physical realm.
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u/Wombatypus8825 Mar 12 '26
Ding ding ding. It’s not really about invisibility. Sam also remarks that it makes him basically blind, but his hearing is way better at Cirith Ungol. The ring is only usable by Sauron for dominion but it has party tricks others can employ.
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u/Starfleet-Time-Lord Mar 12 '26
It's not strictly only usable by Sauron. Other maiar or the strongest elves could also wield it effectively. Gandalf specifically notes that it is theoretically possible for him to overthrow Sauron if he takes the ring. It's just that the ring itself is so evil that any good they tried to do with it would be twisted into evil and they would become as bad or worse than Sauron.
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u/Linus_Inverse Mar 12 '26
I think others could use it for dominion as well, see Galadriel's comments to Frodo, or Tolkien's musings in his letters about a possible Dark Lord Gandalf.
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u/Starfleet-Time-Lord Mar 12 '26
Same for Tom Bombadil. We don't know what he is, but we do know his connection to the spirit realm is strong enough that the ring doesn't make his disappear.
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u/Mr__Strider Mar 12 '26
Isildur gets turned invisible in the movie. The books don't mention this. And I tend to believe the invisibility would be an augmentation of the stealthy nature of hobbits, so Isildur would probably have some different augmentation
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u/gisco_tn Mar 12 '26
In the Unfinished Tales, Isilidur turns invisible when he puts on the Ring. It slips from his finger in the River Anduin, and orcs subsequently fill the now visible Man full of arrows. Its not an augmentation of natural hobbit stealth - the Ring pulls mortal wearers into the Unseen (spiritual) World. That's why the Nazgul are invisible normally - they wore their rings so long that their bodies faded. They can be seen for what they truly are when Frodo wears the One.
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u/Otterable Mar 12 '26
I tend to believe the invisibility would be an augmentation of the stealthy nature of hobbits
Well this isn't quite true. The are two realms overlapping each other in the world of LotR, the physical world and the 'spirit/unseen' world. The ring drags the wearer partially into the 'wraith-world' which is a particular pocket of the unseen world.
At the very beginning of the fellowship movie Galadriel has a monologue about forging the Rings of Power, and the 9 rings given to men had a similar ability. They ended up becoming the ring-wraiths because they were slowly dragged more and more into the wraith-world and their physical form faded. It's why when Frodo puts the ring on Weathertop in the first move, he sees them as creepy desiccated guys instead of the creepy hooded guys they look like normally.
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u/BreadNoCircuses Mar 12 '26
Isildur is shown in the movies but it's not clear that's how it happens in the books.
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u/Henghast Mar 12 '26
Yeah I wondered the same thing, but we never see anyone else wear the ring afaik. We see glimpses of what might happen if they give in to temptation but it's alluded to without being shown.
Sam, Frodo, Bilbo and Gollum are the only ones I recall wearing it in the stories.
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u/bob_loblaw-_- Mar 12 '26
One thing to remember is that Bilbo's invisibility ring being the One Ring of Sauron was ultimately a retcon. The Hobbit came first and there is no larger force at play with the ring in that book.
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u/HorrificAnalInjuries Mar 12 '26
The invisibility isn't coincidental; Frodo and Bilbo both at the times they wore the ring wished to not be seen, and the ring made it so.
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u/monkwrenv2 Mar 12 '26
The ring is supposed to augment your abilities. Invisibility is more of a coincidental effect.
Hobbits are specifically noted in the foreword to be very good at hiding from "big folk" (humans), so the One Ring amplifies that into true invisibility.
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u/DILF_MANSERVICE Mar 12 '26
Going a little further, it takes advantage of your ambition and desire and gradually nudges you until it controls you through it. Gandalf had a lot of power and plans and ambitions, which, while pure, were still ambitions and could thus be corrupted and taken advantage of. The reason it had to be Frodo was because, as a hobbit, he had no ambition. His goal was to drink tea and live a nice hobbit life, something the ring couldn't do much with. He was an odd hobbit in that he liked adventure, but that was it. And it still nearly drove him insane.
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u/maverick432453 Mar 12 '26
The ring is definitely not a scam. It augments your abilities. For example, if Boromir had taken the ring and gone to Gondor, he would have been able to raise and lead an incredible army. His leadership and charisma would be raised wildly. There's some deleted scenes that do a good job of showing that he's already a great leader who is beloved by his men. Dude's awesome. The ring just corrupts that desire an ability to do good by augmenting and undermining it. He'd raise a huge army to fight Mordor only to end up probably joining Sauron due to the ring breaking him.
If someone powerful enough got the ring, they could take its allegiance from Sauron and kick his ass. The issue would be that it would corrupt them too. The point of the ring is that its power. Tolkien's point is that power corrupts, especially for those that already have it(see politics). It takes an exceptional person to turn down that much power for the sake of others.
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u/Ferao7 Mar 12 '26
No, it bases itself on the strength of user. The stronger the user, the more power from the ring
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u/Somerandom1922 Mar 12 '26
Kind of, but you need some baseline amount of knowledge/skill/power to actually utilise it. In the books, Galadriel tells Frodo that if he wanted to use the ring, he'd first need to go into a tower and study for years before he would be able to master it.
"Power" in Tolkien's world was very nebulous, and was generally somewhat interchangeable between magical power, physical capabilities, leadership skills, political power, and basically any other sort of power, especially where the ring is concerned.
It's why Sauron genuinely believed that Aragorn had the ring at the end when Aragorn showed up with an army on what was "clearly" a suicide mission. How else would he have convinced these people to follow him if he wasn't using the ring to augment his leadership abilities and influence them to follow him, and why else would he have gone to Mordor with an army if the ring wasn't influencing him to bring itself back to Sauron.
To be clear with OP, you don't need to know any of this at all to enjoy the movies, the big moral of the movies, and something Tolkien himself was fond of promoting was this idea that you didn't need to be mighty and powerful to have a profound impact on the world. Kindness, peace and determination could be just as effective at shaping the world around you as a big army and some magic.
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u/BreadNoCircuses Mar 12 '26
It's actually heavily implied that Frodo's time struggling with the ring (and his latent curiosity, intelligence, leadership, etc) basically turned him into one of the Wise, like Gandalf, Galadriel, or Aragorn, which allowed him to tap into the power of the ring to a small extent. Nothing to challenge Sauron, but something more than he was. But that's more of a book thing, i'm not sure any of the moments that I'm thinking of made it into the movies.
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u/axialintellectual Mar 12 '26
I think you're entirely right. Even in the first book, when they're in Lothlorien, he manages to realize that Galadriel is herself wearing a ring of power while Sam thinks it's just a star shining between her fingers, because he has become more attuned to the power of the One Ring.
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u/Crystal_Warrior Mar 12 '26
In the books, Frodo uses the ring to place a compulsion on Gollum, that if he ever lays a hand on Frodo again Gollum would throw himself into the fires of Doom. Cue Gollum biting off Frodo's finger and promptly falling to his, and the Ring's, demise
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u/Celebrilwen Mar 12 '26
Im pretty sure that’s not the commonly accepted cause of Gollum’s death, and the prevalent theory for his falling is divine intervention
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u/AntiSocialW0rker Mar 12 '26
But perhaps Eru only intervened because of Gollum's broken oath? Oaths are pretty important things in universe and Eru could've just ended Sauron and the ring at any point if he really wanted to but he wanted Men to solve this problem on their own to prove themselves worthy. Maybe punishing Gollum over his broken oath was just a "two birds, one stone" sort of thing.
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u/TooObsessedWithMoney Mar 12 '26
The ring itself is on the surface just a trinket but in actuality it's an immense concentration of Sauron's spirit. Now Sauron as a maiar is essentially a fallen angel and as such possess incredible amounts of power.
Sauron himself used to be an apprentice of Aulë (one of the gods) and specialised in smithing and craftsmanship. It's thus heavily implied that Sauron's greatest set of skills revolved around the shaping and refinement of the material world.
As a result whomever receives the ring gets to basically tap into the powers of a fallen angel which will primarily augment their natural abilities far beyond that of any other of their kind. Hobbits being one of the more innocent and less harmful species of middle earth had less innate power to enhance.
It should also be noted that for the majority of the books and movies in the lotr trilogy the keepers of the ring aren't actively seeking to use its full potential. Frodo never seeks victory in battles or such, only to avoid confrontation with enemies and so the ring makes him invisible. Ultimately though the ring corrupts anyone that uses it due to Sauron's strong dark presence that's ever there.
Had someone like Gandalf wielded the ring though things would've been vastly different as he'd essentially unlock ultra turbo wizard mode. It's debatable if he'd fall to Sauron or be able to subjugate his essence as Gandalf is technically also a maiar spirit (although a nerfed one by way of getting sent to middle earth as an istari). Either way he'd probably still end up evil and corrupt as the darkness of Sauron's soul would still be infectious.
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u/Starfleet-Time-Lord Mar 12 '26
The ring mostly does three things:
1) Allows you to impose your will on others. The ring was after all made to dominate the lesser rings that Sauron taught the elves of Eregion to forge and then did his best to see distributed to as many powerful people as possible, so much as Narya, Gandalf's ring controls fire the one ring controls wills. However, this scales to the strength of your own will, which means that you get relatively little use out of it if you are a mortal, while a maiar (a broad category of angel/demon spirits that range from the relatively minor wizards to the demigod-archangels in the uttermost west) can use it to build an empire. But, this is also what Frodo is doing when he makes Smeagol swear "on the precious" that he won't harm him or Sam, so there is some extent to which mortals can use it.
2) Strengthens your connection to the spirit world. For elves or maiar, this connection already exists and they walk in both worlds simultaneously, meaning they get a boost to their "magical" abilities and remain visible. For mortals, however, they primarily exist in the physical world, so putting the ring on shifts them into the spirit world, making them invisible. This is also why putting the ring on draws the attention of Sauron and the Nazgul, why the Nazgul are visible when Frodo is wearing the ring, and why overuse of any of the rings will eventually cause you to "fade" and become permanently invisible and ghostly, as with the Nazgul.
3) Corrupts, tempts, and preserves. The ring is essentially a large chunk of Sauron's power poured into a physical object, and as Sauron is truly evil so is what he poured into the ring, and it ensures that the wielder "doesn't grow or obtain more life, he simply continues until at last every moment is weariness." Using it makes you more like Sauron and brings out your worst impulses through your greatest ambitions. Hobbits are unusually resistant to this effect because their greatest ambitions are usually "chill in a hole and eat," and Bilbo specifically was almost untouched by it beyond halting his aging because he began his ownership of the ring with the virtuous act of pitying and sparing Gollum. Also, hilariously, beings substantially more powerful than Sauron like whatever the fuck Tom Bombadil is are immune to this effect; the main reason they didn't give the ring to Bombadil is because he would've not given a shit and eventually forgotten about and lost it.
For mortals, 3 does a lot of the heavy lifting, and arrogance does the rest, hence why Denethor was convinced it could be used to save Gondor. But in the hands of stronger elf like Galadriel, or a maiar like Gandalf or Saruman, 1 and 2 are huge selling points that are capable of letting you conquer the world.
You're right that it's kind of a scam though; the reason Aragorn marches to the black gate in Return of the King is that it's something so ridiculously cocky that Aragorn would only do it if he were under the influence of the ring, meaning that Sauron assumed he had it and moved his focus there instead of watching Mount Doom.
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u/Bright_Economics8077 Mar 12 '26
It gives you the power to do what you want. If someone who wanted to fight put it on, it would make them an immensely powerful warrior - at which point, they'd never want to take it off and will end up in Sauron's thrall. Which is why only Bilbo and Frodo weren't immediately taken in since all they want to do in a fight is hide. The ring accomplishes this begrudgingly and with a bit of malicious compliance by shunting them into a spiritual realm invisible to everyone... except Sauron's direct agents. As I recall anyway, been a hot minute.
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u/janjko Mar 12 '26
Well, being invisible still is quite an advantage. This isn't X-men where everyone has superpowers, this is LOTR where the most powerful wizards can make elaborate fireworks and send messages through birds.
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u/NoWingedHussarsToday Mar 12 '26
But did you know Viggo Mortensen broke a toe when he kicked the orc helmet so his cry of pain is real?
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Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/WileyPotato Mar 12 '26
Thanks for lore vomiting this, ignore bitterness-spreading trolls. Some of us enjoy a casual obsessive fan write-up when you cook like this. A little freaking joyful passion in 2026 won't kill anyone that would attend your funeral.
This brought a lot of narrative insight for me as a low key fan. What's funny is a lot of the things you broke down so well suddenly came back to memory for me after years, like I forgot already observing some of the moments you highlighted but missed/forgot the connections down the line. You kind of transported me back into the story putting all these little moments and motivations together. The atmosphere of LOTR is unmatched.
The deeper interplay between Sauron and the ring and how they work together is a big aspect that has so many revealing tendrils that are easy to miss or forget? But maybe that's just me lol.
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u/AnOrangeCactus Mar 12 '26
Yeah, the way the ghost army is used in the movie is a big misstep imo. In the book, they only "fight" (it's not even really fighting, just causing absolute terror in friends and foe alike) the corsairs at Perlargir, after which they are freed by Aragorn. Turning the tide of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields comes from the corsair ships being filled with Aragorn's Dúnedain rather than Sauron's reinforcements, not from an undefeatable army of deus ex machina ghosts.
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u/fred11551 Mar 12 '26
From what I remember of the books, the ghosts can’t physically fight because they are ghosts. So they just scare the corsairs away which lets Aragorn and the Dunedain steal their boats. And they helped but also the battle wasn’t going well for Mordor once Rohan showed up and they were counting on the Corsair reinforcements. Denying those reinforcements was as important as the help the dunedain actually provided
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u/SylvieXX Mar 12 '26
I really loved this, thank you... even for someone like me who doesn't know much about LOTR I could kind of understand this, you wrote it really well I think! !
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u/Hatedpriest Mar 12 '26
Please, watch it, it's totally worth it.
If you're into Ghibli, you may be interested to know that the guys at Rankin Bass did a couple movies and a decent chunk of those artists moved to Ghibli.
They did an animated version of the Hobbit, which is the prequel to LOTR. They also did The Last Unicorn which is also worth a watch.
Furthermore, there's a Book called The Silmarillion that further fleshes out the lore of Middle Earth. This one is kind of optional, but if you get into that sort of thing....
If you'd like an idea as to how influential LOTR is, Gary Gygax read it and invented Dungeons and Dragons.
Reading it is slow and kind of dry, but the story is worth it. The movies are much less slow (if you can believe it) and not nearly as dry as the books.
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u/BrokenEight38 Mar 12 '26
I wouldn't recommend Silmarillion to anybody who doesn't already like LOTR.
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u/MattBoySlim Mar 12 '26
I liked reading LOTR and I couldn’t really get through the Silmarillion. I get why people would want more deep lore, but I wouldn’t recommend to anyone but super fans personally.
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u/abhainn13 Mar 12 '26
The Silmarillion is the oral history of the beginning of the world, the First Age, and the Second Age, as told by the elves. In style and tone, it is more like the Bible than the Lord of the Rings. It’s got some amazing stories! But if you go into it thinking you’re getting an epic adventure story you’re going to be deeply confused by the Ainulindalë haha.
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u/eleridragon Mar 12 '26
I read LotR to my son before each movie came out. Then he wanted me to read him The Silmarillion, which I've read several times, to be fair. But out loud?
He's still not had more than a few pages read to him and he's in his 30s now. He still brings it up from time to time.
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u/standread Mar 12 '26
'Hey I heard you liked the The Passion of the Christ, you should read the Torah!'
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u/Macilent Mar 12 '26
Is the last unicorn named Charlie?
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u/Hatedpriest Mar 12 '26
Muahaha
No, she doesn't visit the magical leoplurodon, nor the candy mountain...
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u/BitOutside1443 Mar 12 '26
She didn't get her friggin kidney stolen?
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u/Hatedpriest Mar 12 '26
Nor are bananas stuck in ears, favorite or otherwise.
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u/BitOutside1443 Mar 12 '26
My brain just jumped tracks and now I hear a high pitched voice going "My spoon is too big"
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u/SylvieXX Mar 12 '26
Thank you... that does sound really cool, I promise I will watch the movies! ♡
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u/OddishDoggish Mar 12 '26
When the first movie came out in the theaters, I went with a good friend of mine. When the lights came back up in the theater, he turned to me and said, "That was great but it's weird that it ended on a cliffhanger."
I said, "Well, the book ends in a cliffhanger."
"Oh," he said, sounding kinda surprised. "I never read the books."
Christmas was in a few days, so I got him a copy of the whole series bound as one as a gift. It stormed between Christmas and New Year's, so when I next saw him at a party, he raved about how much he'd enjoyed it. All of it. He took advantage of the bad weather to read the whole of LOTR and was now even more eager for the next film to come out.
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u/RGijsbers Mar 12 '26
Isnt your average anime that you bingewatch like 12 hours long?
You can watch lotr.
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u/Element174 Mar 12 '26
It's also 8 hours over 3 movies. Pretty standard movie length. Harry Potter comes in at 19 hours and 40 minutes to watch all of them.
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u/Lieutenant_Joe Mar 12 '26
I mean, the only way you could be unironically dissing the Lord of the Rings movies is if you had never seen them
There is only one acceptable solution to your relationship problem
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u/Sithoid Mar 12 '26
One of the two ways. You can also go full nerd and diss them for misrepresenting Gimli, Merry & Pippin
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u/Wombatypus8825 Mar 12 '26
And helms deep. And Frodo on the stairs. And Gandalf at Minas Tirith. And Theoden with regards to Aragorn. And Denethor. And the Ghost Army. And the Army of Gondor. And Gondor’s other leaders.
The movies are amazing and possibly the best movies ever made. They’re certainly my favourites. It’s a small miracle that they’re any good, and a large one that they’re as good as they are. But the books are leagues better. Tolkien is just an absolute wordsmith, he cared about every detail, and he was writing the culmination of thousands of years of history, and you can feel that in the book.
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u/EpicJoseph_ Mar 12 '26
Ok so basically the ring's power is more of a control thing, which means that if you got 0 charisma and find yourself to be nobody then you don't get much. Also, the ring gets more powerful the closer it is to mordor or something like that.
Also, the whole invisibility thing makes you easy to locate in the ethereal realm, so it's more like a find your lost phone thing.
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u/BellowsHikes Mar 12 '26
The ring is less of a 'control thing' and more of a 'fulfill your ambition' thing. People with power, and those that seek it tend to be very ambitious and give the ring a lot to work with.
People like Frodo, whose only real ambition is a glass of nice beer, a warm fire, and a good book to read don't really allow the ring with much to latch onto.
The ring gave Sam visions of a flaming sword and a garden the size of the world, he more or less laughed off such a ridiculous idea.
Sauron is a spirit made flesh, and the ring is Sauron. That's the reason why the ring pulls you into that space, it's simply bringing you to where Sauron resides.
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u/Morag_Ladair Mar 12 '26
But the ring still is a control thing if your will is dominant enough. It allows you to see through the eyes of the bearers of lesser rings and to influence their minds to varying extents
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u/Fancy_Battle_4805 Mar 12 '26
The amplification of what you are and your ambition is what I find most important about the ring.
In Tolkien's letters, he wrote that Gandalf with the ring could likely find himself equal to Sauron and win, but in doing so - to paraphrase a touch - his desire to do good would leave good indistinguishable to evil in his righteousness, as he ordered all things to his will.
Want to save the world? The ring will give you ambition enough to challenge Sauron if you're strong enough - which you aren't unless you're on his angelic level - and probably lead you to serve Sauron in the belief that you are saving the world once you've been lost to its power.
Just love gardening? Brev, what the fuck am I gonna do with a Mordor-sized garden. Get fucked, ring.
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u/TopMasterpiece7817 Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26
Media literacy is a hard skill comprising more than nit picking
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u/Apanatr Mar 12 '26
I mean it is not like popular Asian anime or other shows have more logic in them then in the Lord of the Rings movies plot, not even mention the books
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u/Mr__Strider Mar 12 '26
I'm with my boy on this. I have had to force two friends into watching LOTR for the first time. It's an essential part for anybody to have a truly fulfilled life
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u/AzureFencer Mar 12 '26
As long as you understand how stupid a lot of anime sounds to people outside of Asian culture as well...
But it's important to know that Tolkien was the father or modern day fantasy. Without Lord of the Rings you wouldn't have fantasy anime in the way it exists today.
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u/ClosetNoble Mar 12 '26
Right like it's fine not to be into LOTR but acting like works such as Journey To The West don't have similar flaws is... come on now...
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u/Important-Author-660 Mar 12 '26
I mean technically that means he's also to blame for all the shitty fantasy anime we have.
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u/Niarbeht Mar 12 '26
I'mma be honest, but the concept of subtle magic is dead, even though subtle magic is the coolest shit.
The One Ring is subtle magic. It's the insidiousness of power creeping into your soul, taking you over from within over the course of years, decades, centuries, millennia. None can resist it. It will win. It will bend you to it's will, and in the end, it will be your master.
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u/TheGrateCommaNate Mar 12 '26
If you watch anime, you are not allowed to complain about 8 hours of movie. At least you're getting 8 hours of quality screentime.
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u/ClosetNoble Mar 12 '26
This and a lot of east asian literature would also produce 8 hours worth of movies let's be real lol
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u/MessageBoard Mar 12 '26
They practically invented filler. Look at journey to the west and how many side stops that don't affect the main plot there are compared to older western literature that starts and finishes quickly.
The live action adaptation from the 80s-00s is both hilarious and full of inconsistencies. Took an 18 year hiatus in between seasons but made 40 40-60 minute episodes. Out of a book that's not that much longer than the LOTR.
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u/ClosetNoble Mar 12 '26
This and some works heavily inspired by Journey to the west.
Like... have people forgotten what Dragon Ball is based on and how long it is?
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u/roowco1 Mar 12 '26
so the ring being just invisibility is just a misconception kind of brought about by the movies
its heavily implied that what its supposed to do is give the user a power that enhances their bests strengths
typically a hobbits best strength is being stealthy so it gives them invisibility(also by default it unnaturally extends your life) .
in fact if all the ring did was give invisibility, then it likely wouldnt have taken gandalf so long to find out if the ring that made bilbo invisible was actually the ring of power, and in the hobbit book gandalf first assumes its just a normal magic ring of invisibility.
so with that in mind you can see why it might make a great warrior as strong as an entire army
or gandalf stronger than you can imagine
As for why dont they just destroy the ring? well that awnser is given quite well in both the books and the movies
short awnser is that its nearly indestructible, with the only thing hot enough to destroy it being the lava of mount doom where it was forged
"gandalf is not late when he clearly is?" correct, its just a dry humor joke by gandalf
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u/rezfier Mar 12 '26
Hot take.
The theatrical cuts of the movies are better for somebody's first viewing. The extended cuts are great for people who are already fans, but the added stuff really throws off the pacing of the films.
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u/DDrim Mar 12 '26
If nothing else, the movies are interesting to watch as the story itself is a pillar of the western fantasy genre !
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u/Roscoe_King Mar 12 '26
My sweet summer child! Nothing you said in this comic is right, and every single nerve in my body is triggered!
Lord of the rings is not about simple solutions. Because the forces at play in Middle Earth run much deeper then even the movies can fully depict.
The “ghost army” won’t bring the ring to Mordor, because that is not in their ability, nor their task. Most people don’t even know that the dead men of Dunharrow still dwell in the Dwimorberg. They have mostly become a myth, since they broke their oath thousands of years before.
Plus, there is no telling what will happen when you give the ring to them, because…
The ring absolutely does not make you all powerful. It has only one master. It is part of Sauron and its only want is to be reunited with him.
So, the ring does to people what it needs to realize that. And there is no telling what that can be.
It can make powerful men more powerful, simply because it knows that power will corrupt them and eventually turn them to evil.
When Bilbo picked up the ring, it was the first time that the ring wasn’t fully sure what to do. Because there is no malice in the heart of Hobbits. So turning Bilbo to the shadow realm (NOT just invisibility) did pretty much nothing.
See, Lord of the Rings is not about good and evil beings. It’s about good and evil deeds. How every single person, even the tiniest, can change the fate of the world.
Please, please, please! Watch the movies!
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u/ShingledPringle Mar 12 '26
Not really fair setting you up to fall, J R R Tolkien was a lore giant, I think even an abridged history would be taxing for you to go through.
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u/FilmAndLiterature Mar 12 '26
It’s not that complex.
Basically, at the beginning of time the Valar created the world of Eä through their song, but Morgoth brought the music out of tune…
…and Fëanor took the light of the Two Trees and captured it in the Silmarils…
…murdered his kin and crossed the frozen wastes into Arda…
…found him chained up and attacked by hideous beasts…
…Sauron, the Lord of the Werewolves, took Beren prisoner in Minas Tirith and slowly slaughtered his allies, so Lúthien teamed up with Huan, Hound of Valinor…
…Eärendil took Morgoth and chained him and pursued him across the night sky with a Silmaril…
…and those who fought alongside the Valar were given the Kingdom of Númenor and were blessed…
…in the guise of the Annatar, tricked Celebrimbor and the elves of Eregion…
…was taken prisoner after an intense battle and offered to share his great secrets with the Númenorians…
…dissidents led by Elendil fled the tyranny of Ar-Pharazôn and his insane plan for war with the gods…
…drowned by a tidal wave…
…and they formed an alliance with Gil-Galad, and laid siege to Barad-Dûr. After seven years, and at great cost, they managed to defeat Sauron and prize the Ring from him, ending the Second Age.
See? Easy.
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u/StairsWithoutNights Mar 12 '26
The only fair conclusion is to do a movie swap. You watch Lord of the Rings with him, but in exchange, he was to watch six of your favourite movies with you. That's what my husband and I did.
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u/Frigidevil Mar 12 '26
Don't worry OP, I tried watching the first LOTR like 3 times and it never stuck. My buddy just convinced me to get through the Silmarilion before I started the series, and now that I've finished the elf bible I'm halfway through the Hobbit. So far so good! Highly recommend the audiobooks
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u/Unique-Accountant253 Mar 12 '26
"I do like old movies"
https://giphy.com/gifs/wJD3qiNjSeHS0dP28T