FA+
Shop
First month, ninth day, Lord of the Rings
12 years ago
Nonsense following.
In my lifetime I've read The Lord of the Rings three times.
The first time I was very young, I think I was ten, because I saw it had a big huge map (I liked books with maps) and it was fantasy. I didn't understand much of it then.
The second time I was 19, in the summer vacation after the end of the highschool's end. At that time I appreciated very much the epic tones of it, I had studied a great deal of greek literature and was fascinated by what connection I could find in the book to the ancient epic genre.
Last year, following an ancient desire of mine, I bought the book in english (I've always wanted to see how he really wrote, not some trasposition in another lenguage*). After a very long hiatus I finished reading it yesterday. I still appreciate it, but I now find that my judgement on each character has significantly changed.
Aragorn, of whom I was quite fond of, it now strikes me as a show off and a dick. He's the heir of everything and whatever and therefore better then you and if I just had wanted you dead, you short fat-assed hobbits, you already would be, boo! Scared? You should be. Or not, my sword is broken.
Gandalf's never been one of my favourites and I'm not the first guy to point out that he's nowhere to be found when you really need him (or his, conveniently, untempestive knowledge, like any good DM NPC).
Faramir, I liked the guy, and still do but I now think he's gotten tainted too by the "ohgoshI'msosadandwiseandwe'redamned" trope of most of the good guys in the book.
Merry and Pippin, I didn't hold them in any regard before but now I quite think they're cool. They don't drip gloom and wise sadness like the hukans and the elves and what have you but still, having fled from imprisonment minutes before, and fled for, what? Ten metres? They sit down and have a bite, and that is while still a battle is being fought not that far away. That's baddass.
Sam remains the coolest.
Gimli... I like dwarves. I didn't remember them to be such comics reliefs in the LotR. I'm sorry for him.
Now, for the grand finale, I will give a shoutout to those characters whom I found the most cool and worthy:
Hàma the doorwarden, whom gets degraded just because Aragorn and Gandalf were dicks. Later he dies as a hero so to show that you don't have to be sad and noble (and a dick) to be cool.
Ioreth, who is an adorable housewife and talks too much. Especially when other people try to do their little parade of entering the city, no you first.
Gorbag and Shagrat, uruk chieftains. Of all the book these two were those whose political commentary was more sensible and pragmatic, as well as delivering a CSI quality grade crime scene analisys. Too bad they killed eachother not far later, they could have been the real stars of the whole tale.
*I don't mean to diminish in any way the job or the role of book translators in any way. I just find it funny that ever so often what we read is not what the author actually wrote.
The first time I was very young, I think I was ten, because I saw it had a big huge map (I liked books with maps) and it was fantasy. I didn't understand much of it then.
The second time I was 19, in the summer vacation after the end of the highschool's end. At that time I appreciated very much the epic tones of it, I had studied a great deal of greek literature and was fascinated by what connection I could find in the book to the ancient epic genre.
Last year, following an ancient desire of mine, I bought the book in english (I've always wanted to see how he really wrote, not some trasposition in another lenguage*). After a very long hiatus I finished reading it yesterday. I still appreciate it, but I now find that my judgement on each character has significantly changed.
Aragorn, of whom I was quite fond of, it now strikes me as a show off and a dick. He's the heir of everything and whatever and therefore better then you and if I just had wanted you dead, you short fat-assed hobbits, you already would be, boo! Scared? You should be. Or not, my sword is broken.
Gandalf's never been one of my favourites and I'm not the first guy to point out that he's nowhere to be found when you really need him (or his, conveniently, untempestive knowledge, like any good DM NPC).
Faramir, I liked the guy, and still do but I now think he's gotten tainted too by the "ohgoshI'msosadandwiseandwe'redamned" trope of most of the good guys in the book.
Merry and Pippin, I didn't hold them in any regard before but now I quite think they're cool. They don't drip gloom and wise sadness like the hukans and the elves and what have you but still, having fled from imprisonment minutes before, and fled for, what? Ten metres? They sit down and have a bite, and that is while still a battle is being fought not that far away. That's baddass.
Sam remains the coolest.
Gimli... I like dwarves. I didn't remember them to be such comics reliefs in the LotR. I'm sorry for him.
Now, for the grand finale, I will give a shoutout to those characters whom I found the most cool and worthy:
Hàma the doorwarden, whom gets degraded just because Aragorn and Gandalf were dicks. Later he dies as a hero so to show that you don't have to be sad and noble (and a dick) to be cool.
Ioreth, who is an adorable housewife and talks too much. Especially when other people try to do their little parade of entering the city, no you first.
Gorbag and Shagrat, uruk chieftains. Of all the book these two were those whose political commentary was more sensible and pragmatic, as well as delivering a CSI quality grade crime scene analisys. Too bad they killed eachother not far later, they could have been the real stars of the whole tale.
*I don't mean to diminish in any way the job or the role of book translators in any way. I just find it funny that ever so often what we read is not what the author actually wrote.
