Hey everyone! 

 Anyone else still waiting for fall weather? I definitely am! I’m severely lacking in colder weather and falling leaves and I’ve been waiting for it to come since it ended last year.

But in the meantime, Hobbit Day is just around the corner! And as a big fan of Middle Earth, I obviously have to celebrate it. Did I use Hobbit Day being this Sunday as an excuse to write an entire rant about Lord of the Rings for a blog post? Absolutely. I tried to keep this post mostly to Lord of the Rings so that it wouldn’t be way too long, but I just had to add my opinion on the Hobbit movies (and why I actually enjoy them. Please don’t come after me!) So have fun reading this rant and I hope I don’t bore y’all with it lol. 

 Characters 

 Something you’ll figure out about me, if you haven’t already, is that my favourite thing in any story is always the characters, especially when it comes to their relationships. I honestly don’t even know where to start when it comes to the Lord of the Rings. I love each and every one of the characters and it’s really hard to pick a favourite. (I do have a soft spot for Pippin and Faramir especially though.) 

 I feel like there are some underappreciated characters when it comes to Lord of the Rings though— namely Frodo and Boromir. I’ve seen them both get hate or be appreciated less than other members of the Fellowship for different reasons, which makes me sad because I love these characters. Okay, to be fair, when I first read (and later watched) Lord of the Rings, I didn’t exactly like Frodo either. But after countless rereads and rewatches, I don’t think he deserves the hate that he gets. Sure, at first he may seem weak, especially because in the end he wasn’t able to throw the ring into Mordor. But if you really think about it, Frodo was honestly one of the strongest people there. Seriously, he carried the ring of power for literal months before it finally corrupted him, when it took significantly less time to corrupt the others who had or were even near the ring. And he didn’t even have to take the ring to Mordor. Even though it was his duty to take the ring to Rivendell, no one expected him to carry it all the way to Mount Doom. And yet he volunteered to do it anyway and actually managed to carry it till the end, despite how much it tortured him. Now that takes plenty of courage and strength. 

 And then there’s Boromir. Of course, Boromir made some mistakes and he was corrupted easily by the ring, but I feel like that’s all people focus on when it comes to his character. They forget how he was a great warrior and an even better brother to Faramir, and redeemed himself by fighting and sacrificing himself in order to save Merry and Pippin. If it hadn’t been for Boromir, Aragorn and the others wouldn’t have known that Merry and Pippin had been taken by Orcs, and without him Aragorn would have no hope in the race of men. Boromir deserves appreciation!! 

 Besides the characters, I absolutely love the relationships the characters have. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are an iconic trio; Merry and Pippin are an absolute riot; and I don’t even have to say anything when it comes to Sam and Frodo. I love seeing the characters support and inspire each other as well as others as they go throughout Middle Earth. I just love Lord of the Rings. (Could you guys tell?)

 I could go on for way longer but it would take a novel’s worth of pages to explain absolutely everything I love about Tolkien’s stories, so I’m gonna leave it here so I don’t bore y’all more than I probably already have. 

 Worldbuilding

 One of the things I appreciate most about the Lord of the Rings trilogy is that even though J.R.R. Tolkien is known for extensive worldbuilding (and extensive descriptions of said worldbuilding), he doesn’t let it take away from any of the characters or the story. I feel like many fantasy writers can get too excited about the world they created that they use the story as a way to write about the world, instead of the world being a place for the story to take place in. But even though Tolkien has an extremely complex world that we get to learn a lot about throughout the story, he’s still able to keep the focus on the story and the characters. 

 In defense of the Hobbit movies 

 Now we come to the extremely controversial part. I know the Hobbit movies are very different than the book and obviously the book is amazing. And yes, I did read the book before I watched the movies. But. I actually like the Hobbit movies.

 Obviously, they’re not at all perfect. I have my complaints when it comes to them. (Especially when it comes to the attempted romance between Kili and Tauriel. That was… not it, to say the least.) The violence is a bit overdone in the third movie (which, to be fair, is kind of reasonable since it is a battle, but I feel like they overdid the bloodiness of it). It gets a bit absurd at times. But the movies took my love of the characters from the Hobbit and raised it by a hundred.

 One of things I appreciate most about the movies is that they actually did something with not only Thorin’s death, but especially Fili’s and Kili’s. They took the time to get us attached to these characters, which made their deaths hit harder even when we knew it was coming. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Hobbit book, but Fili and Kili’s deaths didn’t really hit me in the feels when I read it. First of all, we never really get the chance to know or really care about their characters in the book. And second, their deaths are sort of offhandedly mentioned? And Thorin’s death doesn’t really have the same impact in the book as it does in the movies, at least in my opinion. Even if the movies aren’t the best, I still love how we get to focus more on the characters and really get the chance to care about them. (Not that we can’t care about the characters in the book, obviously, but you get what I mean.) 

 Another thing I actually liked is that we get to see what Gandalf is up to while the rest of the party are on their adventure. I thought it was an interesting addition (and yes, I know it wasn’t in the book like a whole lot of things in these movies, but I still enjoyed it!). 

 So yeah, I get why a lot of people don’t like these movies, and even though there are things in it that I could complain about too, I still enjoy watching it. (Also the soundtrack!!! You can tell me you hate the movies but you can’t hate the soundtrack. C’mon.) 

 So that’s my probably way too long rant on why I love Lord of the Rings so much (and why I don’t hate the Hobbit movies)! Anyone else looking forward to Hobbit Day? I totally didn’t use this post as an excuse to remind everyone of its existence… (Seriously, go celebrate it!!)

 Thanks for reading! – Em