Maybe Darth Maul just ate a lot of Oreos to keep his sugar & energy levels high. Those jumping spin kicks aren’t easy.
Aragorn lived to be 210 years old. He served as King of Gondor for 120 years. I’d say that spending his first 87 years gaining experience serving under other rulers is a relatively short period of time. Strength in knowledge. And no doubt he learned what kind of ruler he wanted to be when the time came for him to lead his people.
Also until the One Ring was discovered all he (or anyone else outside of Sauron & his forces) had to look forward to was Sauron attacking and no way to stop all of Middle Earth falling under his power. After Gandalf realized what Bilbo’s ring was, then there was some hope for Middle Earth.
The movies really don’t do justice to either Aragorn’s or Faramir’s characters.
P.S. Someone on ROFLrazzi crossed Monty Python with LOTR today, see below (and read the comments!):
http://roflrazzi.com/2009/12/14/celebrity-pictures-john-cleese-silly-mordor/#comments
I came across this video the other day and realized that it needed to be brought to the attention of GWC, considering the current arc.
So, first I have to jump on the Faramir/Borimir and Aragorn man fallen-ness thingy. I have to take all sorts of issues with Peter Jackson’s interpretations, and the worst of them come out in The Two Towers. It still has some of the best things in the movies (OK, by that I mean Helm’s Deep and the Ents) but it always seemed to me we dropped in random stuff to make the character’s more ‘complex’ or ‘human.’ Faramir was definitely the stronger in character of the two sons of Denethor, as Gandalf points out in the Return of the King. Faramir makes a statement, and then holds himself to that higher statement, and speeds Frodo on his way. He does care for his brother, and grieve for his death, but at the same time had a higher sense of morals. Faramir and Borimir are opposites that compliment each other.
Aragorn, shakes head The movies totally show him as less than he was in the book. In the book, from the time he leaves Rivendale he is planning to go to Gondor to retake the throne. It’s his goal so he can marry Arwen, because Elrond said only a man who was King of a United Kingdom of Men could marry Arwen among mortals. He has Narsil reforged into Aundrill in Rivendale, there is no Elrond bringing it along later. And he is faithful to Arwen, and promises they made to each other fifty something years before. Aragorn sees becoming King a destiny he is waiting for, to restore the family honor/ do the job that needs to be done.
first rant over.
Frodo and Sam. I was re-reading the trilogy, and I’ve managed to finish The Fellowship today. Listening to the Tolkien professor last week, and thinking as well, Sam really is a lower class character who sees Frodo as his better. But the important thing is, when you look at the story as a whole, we see Sam as the character who really grows throughout the story. Frodo stays mostly the same, he suffers and endures, but he doesn’t grow as a Character. Sam is the character we follow along with, that we identify with, that we grow with as the story goes on. And when we come back to the end of the Return of the King, Sam becomes the Mayor of the Shire for as long as he wants it, he becomes the master of Bag End and is well respected. He replants and regrows and repairs the Shire (when you have teh scouring of the shire in the book). We are able to see his growth, and we grow with him.
Also, it worth going back to look at Theoden from the book. Theoden goes from old and miserable to just being old, not to this hale and hearty fifty omething looking guy in shape. If you’ve ever seen the old Rankin-Bass Return of the King, I totally see Theoden as the ancient dude with the snowy beard who can’t physically do much. Read Theoden out of the book, he comes off much better. Actually, most of the men come off more craptastic in the movie when compared to the book (with the exception of Borimir).
As to the Ents, Sauruman knew of the Ents, but he had dismissed them as unimportant.
I can let a lot of the things in the movie go as things for a movie, but some things are just needless time wasters in my POV. The whole Arwen back in Rivendale, Faramir hauling Frodo in a 30 minute sequence we could have cut off RotK to Osgilliath, playing up the whole Aragorn Eowyn romance (in the book its one way only) etc. The movie cuts off far ahead of where the book does because of this extra junk.
And sorry I go on for so long, but this is something near and dear to my heart.
when you have to go…
Gryper… your newest sig picture has a frame of frodo facing the lava… it almost looks like he is peeing into the pits of mordor…
Hey, guys. Excellent podcast as usual. Just one comment… I think maybe you missed the main reason for Aragorn’s reluctance to become King (in the films). It’s first spelled out in Fellowship when Aragorn makes the statement, “The same blood flows in my veins. The same weakness” when talking about Isildur. He was raised by elves, and has probably been hearing talk of the weakness of men for some time. Even Elrond says to Gandalf, “Men are weak.” This is the kind of environment Aragorn was raised in. So it makes sense that he is ashamed of his own humanity.
The journey he has during the films is in discovering that there is something worthwhile to be found in his own race. Boromir appeals to him, saying “There is frailty, yes. But there is also honor and valor to be found in men.” Much of the rest of Aragorn’s personal journey involves him seeing this firsthand. It starts when he witnesses Boromir’s selfless bravery in laying down his life to defend Merry & Pippin. After setting Boromir’s body afloat, he puts on Boromir’s armguard, a symbol that he is beginning to embrace his own humanity. Then in Two Towers we see him admiring the bravery of the men of Rohan, even taking their side against Legolas when he shouts, “Then I shall die as one of them!” So when he finally embraces his role as king in ROTK, it’s been a gradual process of recognizing that his humanity is not something to be ashamed of, and that as king he can help his human brethren to reach their full potential.
As others have pointed out, this personal journey is not something that takes place in the books. But where I disagree with other comments is that I feel this is an improvement, at least from a movie standpoint. It gives Aragorn a character arc, and allows him to move into the character we see him as throughout the books. It introduces tension and complexity to the character and his story benefits because of it. The same goes for Faramir as far as I’m concerned. Faramir ultimately reaches the same decision as he did in the books, growing into the character rather than being him from the very beginning. This introduces much needed conflict into his story that makes him more interesting, IMO. Sure, it’s not exactly true to Tolkien’s conception of either character, but it was a good dramatic decision for the films, as far as I’m concerned.
Uh, it seemed to be one way in the movie, too. Aragorn cared for Eowyn… as he said, “I have wished you joy since the first time I saw you.” But he had no romantic feelings for her. I never once got the impression that Aragorn was thinking about being with her…
Great input, Chadster and Fallen. Welcome aboard.
The way he looked at her, it came across to me as: ‘I care about you, and maybe if things had been different I could have loved you.’ How could you not like Aragorn though (not that Im implying someone here doesnt)? Hard to fault poor Eowyn. Ill keep the extent of my man-crush hidden from the world and not list all of his many superior qualities, lol. 
In some of the older British literature there is a archetypal relationship between Master and servant, which is never shown as demeaning. And eventually the servant is seen with great respect toward the end of the story. This influence can be seen in the LOTR trilogy.
I always saw Sam as the true hero of the series, and what made him so endearing was the fact he never saw himself as one. In fact when Frodo tries to complement him, Sam seems to think Frodo is making fun of him and starts to take offense. To me Sam is the Gunga Din of the story, not only is he carrying the water. He is carrying the food and cooking ware too. And as the journey progresses he starts carrying Frodo as well, both figuratively as well as literally.
Though initially motivated by fear he latter becomes motivated by loyalty and devotion to Frodo. And becomes a hero by its truest definition, ‘Ordinary people overcoming extreme situations’. While not as flamboyant or iconic as the other fellowship members in their epic battles, if it were not for Sam none of their battles would have mattered. Because without Sam, Frodo would never had made it to Mount Doom now would he?
Oh, and just realized I must be part Hobbit too… Because last night when I was rewatching ‘Two Towers’ they got to the scene where the rangers captured Sam and Frodo right after they witnessed the ambush of the Oliphant riders. And as they were being dragged off, the first thing that popped into my mind was-
“Wait, wait… What about the Stew???”
BTW, one of the reasons ostensibly given for why MW2 doesn’t support LAN play was ‘cheating’ for some reason, right?
SUPER EFFECTIVE!
http://www.break.com/game-trailers/game/modern-warfare-2/modern-warfare-2-unlimited-ammo-hack-video.html
To paraphrase someone on Digg, the controller smashing and screaming frustration this caused must have been pretty epic, heh heh.
Just wondering, are there any rumblings on what Podcast 200 will be covering? I get this feeling that it will begin with an A, and will have been made by a guy whose initials are JC, but that’s just a hunch.
I’m sure that will be covered at some point, and 200 sounds like a nice convenient place for it.
Really fun podcast. I love the silliness of the conversation of the crew, followed by the academic level of discussion with the professor. That’s what GWC is all about.
Also, its great to see so many new faces (avatars?) around here for the Lord of the Rings arc. I’m a relative newbie with LOTR, so I’m glad others have taken up the task of explaining to the crew all the mistakes and misinterpretations in the cast.
Of course, the thing to remember with LotR is to take the movie separately from the books. Personally I have trouble with it a lot of the time, especially when you try to pull from a character’s book history to explain their movie history (the two may seem greatly at odds). A lot of things can apply both ways, but I am much more likely to explain in terms of the books (and I think I usually make that clear).
I think, and somebody mentioned this before, that the different character nuances are the result of the fast paced character development in a movie vs. the rich back story that can be told in a book.
On the whole, I think Peter Jackson did a brilliant job with movies and he obviously has a great love and respect for the books. I’m glad he didn’t follow the text verbatim. A good example of this is in one chapter, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are tracking the Orcs and the next tells of Merry and Pippin’s escape. In the movie they are interlaced as though the signs are telling the story. It wouldn’t have worked in the book but it works great on the screen.
I am disappointed that The Scouring of the Shire was not included, but with a run time of over 3 hrs it’s understandable. It’s another good reason to pick up the books if you haven’t read them. The chapter shows, and somebody mentioned this before, how much the hobbits have grown as a result of their journey when they are called on to show their metal. It’s not unlike Ulysses returning home to Ithaca and cleaning house. There is a great line, something like: “Hobbits with bright swords and grim faces were a great surprise”.
A friend of mine said that the hobbit with the prize pumpkin (who looked suspiciously like Smeagol) was meant to represent Ted Sandyman or someone else benefiting from “Sharkey’s” control and it was Peter Jackson’s way of giving a shout out to The Scouring of the Shire. I can neither confirm nor deny the truth of that.
ExacTly! Thanks for the breakdown, Chadster, and welcome!
This was my take, too!
American Recordings, by Johnny Cash? It’s about time we got to that.
Thanks for the welcome, bkitty! And you too, dxf!
Tolkien Professor podcast is very good. He’s on the iTunes. I’ve listened to a couple so far, but some of his recent topics include things they touched on the last couple GWCs, including “On Masters and Servants,” “On Knowledge and Evil,” and “Tolkien and the Environment.”
This spring, he’ll be podcasting his entire undergraduate class that covers The Silmarillion.