I can even picture the final scene of the movie with Sam going into his house but instead of what they shot he enters Bag End like you said. How nice would it be if the camera slowly zooms into the door as it closes and the final shot focuses on the little scuffs on the door created by Gandalf's staff.

I haven't seen this question pondered anywhere before: what would've happened if the wearers of the Elven rings kept wearing them after Sauron put on the One?

I always thought their love of jewels childish.

I also appreciate the inclusion of the statue of the fallen king. From what I can tell, Tolkien never specified who this king was, but it seems in the film, he was modeled similarly to one of the Argonath statues, so I presume it is supposed to be Isildur.

Ironically, or fittingly, Stewart Townsend playing opposite Serkis wouldn't take me out of the moment as much as another actor would, despite how meta that would be.

The most underrated Tolkien film, by far.

What do you think is better in the theatrical vs the extended versions?

There must've been orc blood on the menu at some dwarvish restaurant.

You just made me realize that Jackson shot himself in the foot by killing off Saruman and Wormtongue in RoTK, for now he can't make a faithful Scouring film.

Mellon Geek: Your excellent review--even though some points seem to you a "stretch"--brings up visions of the epic in my mind. It's evident that PJ really wanted to convey the spirit of Tolkien's subcreation and the truths Tolkien portrays through his wonderful characters. My pointy hat off to you, O Wise Lore Master. May your beard grow ever longer (but always trimmed). Namarie.

To Tolkien lore: If I made my version of the Hobbit story, Azog would have died years ago by Dain Ironfoot II in the battle of Moria before the The Hobbit story took place. Azog was only mentioned by Gandalf, but Azog does not appear in my version of the Hobbit story, because he was already dead. Bolg should be the only one leading the orc-army in the battle of the five armies. Why did the Hobbit movie change this?

Funny to think that it’s a bit of a struggle to find things Jackson did well in relation to the books, yet Return of the King won eleven Oscars!

Do the guards in Minas Tirith in the movie really have winged helmets? I am pretty sure they don't

6:54: I wonder if any Gondorian nobility tried to change Minas Tirith zoning laws to build a straight path through the tiers of the city. Hm. Probably shot down by the lampwrights' guild, whose lamp shops would get less foot traffic if pedestrians didn't have to walk to the ends of each tier.

It's sad the War of the Rohirrim is going to be woke subversive crap, for the Superfans. Lol.

You forgot the worst of all. Gandalf the witch king defeating Gandalf the White without even touching him. And then you have a little hobbit with a little dagger hurting the witch king and a woman warrior killing him. Because PJ decided to exclude Tom Bombadil, we don't get to see Merry getting a dagger with spells that made it lethal to the witch king. Nevermind that the witch king could not beat Gandalf, and Gandalf the white at that in a million years. In the book, Gandalf himself says he is more dangerous than anything except for Sauron. Also the witch king destroys Gandalf staff and it magically reappeared later. This scene between the witch king and Gandalf is IMO the worst in the entire trilogy, it makes zero sense, it's against the book and against everything we know about Gandalf. Gandalf the Grey killed a balrog, a creature way above the power of the Nazgûl, and Gandalf had already defeated all the Nazgûl together in weather top, again, as a far less powerful Gandalf the grey. Does Peter Jackson think we are stupid?

I wonder why Theoden had so few few soldiers in the Two Towers vs the Return of the King. It makes sense in the books but none in the movie.

Thank you so much. I'm quiiite late into watching your videos but...they are great. 🙏🏻🩶

If the Tolkien Estate has withheld the rights for any production to use some of the published works then it is entirely reasonable for the show runners to make up whatever works for them in the 2nd age. As I understand it the show only has access to LOR and The Hobbit.

I’ve lost all interest when the princess claims she’s the best rider in the kingdom. Seriously, none these young men training all their lives in the military can’t ride a horse better than the princess?

I hope we're over thinking the 'rule the world' line. It could be just a proud and loving father talking to his daughter and praising her strength of character and nobility

Im currently going through the first book now. I was suprised that it was Gandalf that wanted to go through Moria all along. Also, Aragorn already seems to understand that he will be king and already has the reforged Narsil

I tried to like Rings of Power. I really did. And some things I could deal with. But they just kept piling on until it literally crushed me with its disrespectfulness. I mean I don't expect line for line faithfulness. I even enjoyed The Hobbit overall. There were things in it I really didn't like. But there was enough good stuff to outweigh the bad. Rings of Power however just went to far. It made me angry.

I’d very much like an adaptation of all The Silmarillion’s stories in series form, done by HBO. The shorter ones combined in two or three episodes and the main stories in whole seasons

Am I the only one that says "Bom Tombadil"

Anyone who defends Amazon's Rings of Power is unaligned to goodness.

How can you claim to have an authoritative view of how sex is used in Martin’s stories when you admit you haven’t read them and you are getting your information from the general zeitgeist around-not even his books-a television adaptation of his books. This video might have had some value if you had any interest in exploring Martin’s works at all rather than speaking with conviction from a place of ignorance

I love that they had Sam do the right final line...but in addition to the Bag End issue, it's supposed to be at night! The imagery of Sam coming in from the dark is so strongly drawn!

Thank you for this two-parter. The keyword is dumb it down as you said. I remember leaving the cinema with a feeling of utter disgust and disappointment. The cherry on top is the amount of people defending the movies for their faithfulness to Tolkien and sometimes even claiming that they surpass the books. When raising objections your're almost always met with the strawman argument of "you can't have everything from the books or the movies would have been 20 hours long." Well of course you have to condense and adapt but it have to be true to the characters and spirit of the author and story. Peter Jackson often went for contemporary comic relief, shallow action and nonsensical plotting to appeal to the masses. How any lover of the books find these changes acceptable is beyond me. High fantasy takes itself serious. The books are without it's share of badass moments and fun but not like this. Oh well many were more sceptical to the changes in the Hobbit so there's that at least that, although they often excuse PJ for having to little time. That wasn't the problem - he's always been doing stuff like that.

It's interesting that the Uruk-Hai of Isengard are equipped better than the Orcs of Mordor. Is there any text passage indicating that this was the case? Sauron undoubtedly had more resources than Saruman, but that doesn't necessarily mean he would or could outfit his troops fiercely

I'm surprised you didn't mention the Army of the Dead. This was the only book I read before seeing the movie, and that was the scene where Peter Jackson's vision really crashed and burned for me. This movie was good, but not great. I think its the weakest of the trilogy.

My nitpick - Shelob stabs Frodo through his mithril shirt which shouldn't be possible. In the book she stabs him in the neck.

On the subject of short pikes at pelannor fields i have to disagree on multiplcounts. First historically armies were quite capable of using shorter pole-arms to ward off cavalry. Musket armed troops with bayonets fixed have about a 6 ft reach and when in formation were deadly to cavalry charges. Also importantly mordors 's forces weren't armed/prepared to fight an open battle against cavalry, but a close quarters, urban battle against an infantry heavy garrison

Corey Olsen impressed me as glib and disingenuous. His lecturing is unwarranted and presumptuous. I really think you should not defend his recent statements and listen more carefully why he managed to upset so many people.

Aragorn's "For Frodo" charge. Dismounting and solo charging 10000+ orcs and trolls, then everybody else giving up a tight defensive shieldwall AND the high ground to blindly follow him. Literally the ONLY advantage they have while surrounded and outnumbered at least 2-1, and their only hope of buying time. But naw... "LEEROY JENKINS!" Dumb dumb dumb. Kills me every time 🤦‍♂️ Should have killed Aragorn too. I'd LOVE to see a parody of this where one orc arrow drops him mid-charge, then rest of them just stand there in stunned silence, Gimli puts his hand over his mouth, then roll credits.

Like ShmuelSch, I wondered if Merry's Numenorean sword was the thing that cut through the Oliphaunt's hide. As for the scene where Frodo demands the ring from Sam, could it have been done that way to show that the Ring has not yet entirely taken Frodo: he can still see Sam as Sam, although the effort of doing so adds to his exhaustion?

I don't have a problem with the slender volume/large handwriting movie depiction of the Red Book. Frodo and Bilbo may have given fulsome outlines of their adventures in the original manuscript, but probably many of the details, descriptions, and dialogue in the published books come from Tolkien turning an ancient chronicle into a literary form more easily appreciated by a general readership. I wish the movies had an epilogue depicting the professor discovering the Red Book - maybe in the cellar of an old church or rectory in the Midlands somewhere.

Frodo never leaves Sam Bag End in the movie so why would they put that in at the end? You’d have to know the books for that scene to make sense!

What were your thoughts on how Peter Jackson handled the final fate of Saruman? Many feel the scene is absolutely necessary, other are of the opinion the scene feel tacked on. I like it for the most part, I so enjoy Mr Lee's rendition of the White Wizard (even though he felt that the films didn't explore Saruman's duplicity all that much). I just wish there was more of it I really miss the scouring of the Shire. Also blasting Gandalf with that fireball felt a touch out of character.

With the Corsairs, Aragorn is being too chivalrous. Gimli is from a harder school. With Sam at the end, thematically Sam has to still be the humble gardener. If we saw him as Mr Gardner of Bag End he would forfeit our sympathies. For me, Frodo leaving everything to Sam was the stretch -- there are some surviving Bagginses, for example Angelica.

You talk about Gandalf the White lifting Faramir as something physically super human he did the likes of which he never did before, what about surviving the fall in Moria, climbing all the way to the top of the mountain and physically fighting the Balrog with a sword for days in a row with no sleep?

That's an achievement, to nitpick and not to mention really important things. The worst thing is the charge of Rohirrim. It's a majestic thing in the book (they only had to copy it on the screen), and what we get? We should have pitch black dark surroundings, city in flames, Theoden's speech and a lightning charge. We get nothing in the end. Yes, you did good wth the Angmar-Gandalf encounter. One of the three worst things, besides charge and green slime is the murder of Denethor. Jackson after he murdered the character, he proceeds to murder him literally by Gandalf and his horse. Not only that, burning Denethor has to run from the cemetary on the slopes of the mountain ACROSS THE WHOLE CITY to the tip that jutts out. So incredibly bad.

Maybe the burrow-sword's magic is also good against oliphant-feet

I could have digested quite a lot of non-canon if it was a well written story, but it just isn't. It is full of contradictions, faulty logic and characters not acting as believable characters but just as needed by its, quite thin, plot. Bad characterisations, bad dialogue, bad casting choices, bad naming, bad choreography, problems with worldbuulding... it all just adds up and up.

Why Frodo never make a family ?

Tal-Elmar reminds me in many points of Agaldor the twilight walker, another unfinished second age story.

I think Tal-Elmar may have become an ally who possibly was instrumental in forming an alliance between the faithful and the Northmen who were his grandmothers folk. I would have liked his story ending this way, and him visiting Ettenmoors, W7lderland and eventually the Inlandsea...

If only Elijah Wood and Sean Astin were good actors so we could have only seen Frodo’s reaction of the Orcs’s killing each other in Cirith Ungol, and Frodo’s and Sam’s reactions of the Orcs and Haradrim/Southron’s, Easterling’s, or some other group, killing each other, and their own members, while the Hobbits are disguised as Orcs in Mordor! Also, again it could have been like how Chris Carter and the other X-Files filmmakers did a brilliant job with not showing the violence! One more thing: who knows? Frodo seeing Sam as an Orc probably would have been handled very well if the cinematography was eerie yet colorful and beautiful!

The reason Gimli messes up Legolas’ shot is so we can have a cameo of PJ dying

@The Tolkien Lore I keep hearing from so called “fans” that the sequence when the Rohirrim magically barge through the Orcs, in ‘The Return of the King’, is the best sequence in film history! Um, no! In real-life, the outcome would be so awful ! And, if you think that having a few soliders of Rohan flying in the air while Helm’s Deep gets bombed, (if you even noticed), then, oh NO, LOL! The Rohirrim charge in this sequence would be a thousand times worse because there would be soldiers flying every where from all of the Orc’s pikes! Think about it! 🤦‍♂️🤣