Post LOTR marathon thoughts

I decided to re-watch Lord of the Rings again in a day-long extended edition marathon that has so far lasted about 11 hours (admittedly I'm still in the midst of Return of the King) with a bit of a break in the middle to go for a walk. I figured since it had been shamefully long since my last homage to the series and my epic failure during a recent game of LOTR Trivial Pursuit today was as good as any. But I've been thinking all day of things to comment on and wished I'd thought sooner to start up a running commentary whilst in media res. here are just a few things that stuck out during the day:

- Frodo has the prettiest eyes.

- Merry and Pippin are so awesome.

- Yeah, but what about second breakfast? 

- The Nazgul would not be nearly as scary if they didn't have any kind of transport. It wouldn't be the same if they were just running after you.

- Elrond's face palm when Gandalf launches into Black Speech.

- John Rhys Davies! 

- Poor Boromir.

- Maybe we shouldn't trust Boromir, even if it's not his fault.  

- Why does no one ever call Aragorn a Prince? 

- There couldn't have been one single woman in the fellowship? 

- Saurman is such a dick.

- Mellon. 

- You shall not pass!

- Are celeborn and Galadriel actually together?

- Galadriel would be way scarier than Sauron if she got that ring.

- She jokes with Gimli about what to give a dwarf...but still doesn't give him anything.

- Poor Boromir.

- Sam and Frodo have the most touching, homo-erotic bromance of all time. 

- Remembering that Sean Astin sliced his foot open running into the water.

- Which are the two towers they're referring to?

- They're taking the Hobbits to Isenguard guard guard guard guard....

- That awkward moment when Eomer thinks he's burned Merry and Pippin to death amongst the Orcs.

- Viggo kicking that helmet and breaking his toes...we thought his scream was just good acting.

- I am Gandalf the White. 

- Eowyn is the best! 

- Grima wormtongue...and you really thought he was a good guy? 

- Apparently Middle Earth has Elephants...do they have lions?

- Murderer!

- We wants it, precious!

- Kudos for Aragorn for desperately pretending to like Eowyn's cooking.

- it takes an entire day for a bunch of Ents to just have one conversation..?

- Who tipped of the Elves again to help at Helms Deep? 

- Legolas is hard core to skate down the railing and still shoot off arrows! 

- Victories all round! 

- Lol @ Treebeard, the Ents, Merry and Pippin taking Isenguard. 

- Saruman has the most grisly death of the whole trilogy. 

- Drinks all around!

- Legolas is a drinking champion!

- Dammit Aragorn stop leading Eowyn on!

- Seriously Pippin, don't touch the giant marble/orb/thing. 

- Why does Gandalf sleep with his eyes open?

- Did they play the scenes with groups of elves walking in slow mo? Or did they just walk really slowly when they were filmed? 

- Why is Minas Tirith so perfectly white? 

- Denethor is such an ass. 

- Light the fires, the Huns are coming!

- Does anyone else think the Army of the Dead is incredibly freaking scary? 

- What the hell is Denethor eating? Raw bloody meat?

- I'm Arwen, I'm just going to lie down on this bed and die. 

- Rivendell has an upkeep problem, there are hundreds of leaves inside the buildings.

- Don't trust Gollum, you Idiot! 

- Please don't kill the beloved Faramir, everyone loves Faramir...well, except you.

- Orcs popping out of Osgiliath like daisies.

- Gandalf beating the crap out of Denethor like everyone wishes they could.

- I want a dragon like the Witch King has.

- Eomer's like go back to the kitchen, Eowyn, this battle is for men not women and hobbits. 

- Wait, how did Arwen's life become tied to the fate of the ring, again? 

- Giant spider - epic nightmare! 

- I wonder if Shelog is related to Aragog at all.

- RUN! 

- I wish Sam was my best friend, too. 

- GIANT GODDAMN SPIDER. 

- Suit up, we've got evil to defeat. 

- Sam is the true hero in this duo. 

- Uh...Faramir's not dead, guys. 

- Denethor, you are the worst father in the history of the universe.

- You have to admit that the witch king is all sorts of awesome. 

- Theoden is a pretty good king. 

- A crap load of Orcs are just literally trampled to death by Rohan's horses before the battle really starts. 

- Why are those guards just enabling Denethor's psycho murder/suicide? 

- I love how Gandalf just writes him off before he even makes his fire run off the top of the Citadel. 

- Where did the Orcs even get those elephants? 

- I am NO man! 

- Gimli and Legolas, competitive BFFs ! 

- That still only counts as one. Even though it was really hardcore and you showed up literally everyone else on the battlefield.

- I forgot this happens to Eowyn. This makes me really sad. She's still my hero.

- Can't help but fantasise about Eowyn and Faramir.

- Orcs sound too much like dogs when they're hurt that it makes me feel bad. 

- Sam is so pure of heart! 

- Only 10,000 Orcs stand between Frodo and Mount Doom? 

- I just hallucinated Sauron flipping off Aragorn when he contacts him through the orb. 

- Sam isn't appreciated nearly as much as he should be. He saves the whole day! Frodo would not have made it to Mt Doom without him. 

- The guy that just came out of the gates really freaks me out. So, so much. 

- Until Aragorn just beheads him. 

- What if Mt Doom had just randomly erupted like Vesuvius? 

- Where is the rest of Sauron? 

- Tiny people, titanic courage. #Merry, Pippin and Sam.

- Seriously, who keeps sending the Eagles?

- Inanimate objects shouldn't be able to whisper. That's like every childhood nightmare.

- Surprise wedding! 

- You will never again see Hugo Weaving cry...

- Is Eomer king of Rohan now?

- Everything is all tied up so nicely and everyone lives happily ever after in a way that makes you have warm fuzzies...but it seriously goes forever! 

- I feel like I went on an epic quest, too.

And so concludes another very satisfying LOTR marathon, and I'm once again reminded just how much I love the entire thing. Even through some of the lulls and things I just don't quite get. And on that thought I realised that Game of Thrones does not compare to the awesome of LOTR. Don't flame me, just hear me out: whilst GOT has scores of sex, witticisms, incest, half naked dragon women, gratuitous violence and politics, you're garunteed that everyone will suffer and you're favourite characters are all eventually going to die. Plus there's more than one overarching story and hundreds of characters and a very long continuing story. On the other hand, LOTR was groundbreaking for it's time, a pioneer in that kind of fantasy world building and language building that GOT draws from like it's a bible. It has a very clear overarching plot with scores of subplots and histories to fill in all the gaps, plus a prologue or two just to add some more flavour to the mix. It's got a battalion of loveable and hate-able characters that Tolkien didn't kill off everytime he wanted you, his readers, to suffer a bit more. Although LOTR didn't have much sex and only one sort of love triangle, I think I prefer that than the hours of nudity and hot sex you get from GOT. Call me crazy, but I think that LOTR just has this purity as a fantasy/medieval/war/good vs evil series that GOT just doesn't since it leans far closer to pulp than just fantasy. 

I will say though that my basis is from the films (LOTR) and the television series (GOT), because I haven't read either book series although I intend to someday in the future - LOTR was just too dense when I was younger and GOT is too freaking long for my patience right now. But I do own all of both and will get in that sooner or later. And you never know - it could change my opinions. I'll remember to take notes. 

Again I say: and so concludes this commentary of my LOTR marathon. I hope you enjoyed my rambles and that I inspired you to watch (or read) the trilogy all over again. 

Night! 

Sam xox