![]() To me, Frodo's weakness is really the ONLY THING that gives this whole series any dramatic weight at all.įrodo also bears the burden of being the only person in all Middle-Earth to take any sort of hurt away from the War of the Ring. It feels like if Aragorn had been the ring-bearer, he would have simply strode into the Sammath Naur over piles of mangled orc carcasses and flung the ring in. It's such an amazing moment when, at the Crack of Doom, Frodo decides, after all their horrible struggle, Fuck that, I'll take the Ring after all, totally overcome by the Ring's power, and it requires a heap of luck and a severed Frodo-finger for this quest to come to its successful conclusion. With these vulnerable heroes, feeling like real stakes are in play, these chapters are so much more thrilling, and of course the final confrontation with Gollum is an absolute classic. Who can't run up a stellar kill/death ratio on Sauron's army. It's so nice, after Aragorn and all them, to meet somebody that, for example, gets tired. There's a curious division between the protagonists talking all kinds of trash and braggadocio, and just generally ruling at life, and the narrator insisting on how dire and hopeless the situation is.īut the real saving grace for me, also like in Two Towers, was the story of Frodo and Sam and their relationship and struggles. He and Gandalf continue to blather endlessly about the coming of a new age, the sword reforged, the crownless kinged, and whatnot, and of course they march on to inevitable victory. Aragorn takes the scenic route to Minas Tirith and picks up a conveniently placed army of the undead. repeat themselves here, and in even greater degree. ![]() The same complaints I had with Two Towers re: the invincibility of Aragorn, Gandalf, & co. ![]() By the five-hundredth time I have to look up a place name, I'm tired of doing it. My interest in the by-the-wayside aspects of Tolkien's world has waned as the series has dragged on. These are like those beginning books of The Iliad that no one ever reads. Anyway, Merry and Pippin's big sections of this book are essentially tours of Rohan and Minas Tirith and descriptions of the gathering armies, which wore on me quickly. ![]() Merry chooses to serve Denethor, who had just bent him over for hours of interrogation and guilt-tripping, for the sake of Boromir? Pippin serves Theoden can't even remember the made-up reason? Okay, I'm getting too caught up in this. It was heartwarming when the two scamps wouldn't be denied from helping out their friend Frodo, but now that they're swearing fealty to any old asshole in a crown, the effect is diminished, and less believable. Show More Merry and Pippin manage to maneuver into the inner circles of Rohan and Gondor, though they have to break character and participate in really contrived situations in order to do it.
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