| Books-Commentary - J.R.R. Tolkien |
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The main failing of the Lord of the Rings
Book Title
Lord Of The Rings
The Lord of the Rings didn't really have any "failings", but there were two distinct ways it could've been better.
First, more description of the Nazgul, Saruman, Sauron. What were these Nazgul guys all about, and what kinds of powers did they rings give them? Sure, we know they were all kings who had the nine rings, but aside from their leader, the witch king of Angmar, we don't know much about their resumes. Some back story would've been useful. Also, being invisible, what do they eat? Where do they sleep? If they were after the ring, didn't Sauron worry that they might take it for their own?
And what about Saruman? It would've been interesting watching him build his empire, and making his contacts with Sauron. And that brings us to the biggest deal: Sauron himself. We hear much ABOUT Sauron, but we never get to see Sauron doing anything. Who exactly is Sauron? Where did he come from? There is no back-story in the trilogy itself; and the appendices aftewards are quite vague. How did Sauron get the power to do the seeing eye thing he does? If he had the palantir, how come he didn't see Frodo coming? How did he build up his forces? What's it like in Barad-Dur? These things would've been interesting to read. Instead everything we learn about Sauron is second hand. That remoteness might help dramatically, but it leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
And second, the ending and following appendices were a bit depressing. The last two hundred pages were a long series of "goodbyes… farewells… such and such passes over the seas or dies now." That's pretty depressing. Instead of creating calendars marking the death of all the major characters in the story, it would've been more interesting to write about how the characters and kingdoms developed after the main story ended. What were the Dwarves up to? Did they ever go back to Moria? Was Osgiliath ever rebuilt? What did the remaining elves do?
We don't get answers to these questions, but instead a chronology of "…Aragorn died here… Merry died there….". Furthermore, the backstory of the previous kings & Stewards is very repetitious. "King #14 pushed back the easterlings, but King #15 was pushed back by the easterlings; King #16 pushed back Angmar, but King #17 was pushed back by Angmar". It almost looked like JRR ran out of steam when writing the appendices and ran out of ideas what to write about.
The final chapters of the main story would've been more interesting if they focused on what happened later. They showed the Shire coming back into full bloom, fine. But what about Rohan, and Dain's people, and Mirkwood, and Gondor?
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ciat
posts on 10/28/2005 6:02:15 PM
the nazgul were kings of men and there only real power was to drain the courage out of you
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The commentator keith
posts on 10/27/2005 5:25:34 PM
sauron is a maiar, he was a servant of morgoth and we cannot see him do stuff because he does not have a fisical form listen to gandalf in the movie
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Thrór
posts on 10/9/2005 7:20:29 AM
I believe that Sam is carring the mithril-shit, cause Frodo is to weak, but I'm not sure on that...
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aliciaskywalker
posts on 10/4/2005 8:35:42 AM
Blah, blah, blah. Sauron, Saruman etc baddies are MEANT to be like that. The greatest fear is the fear of the unknown *nods sagely*
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The laughing stock Anonymous
posts on 8/24/2005 2:24:57 PM
dont ask those kinda questions till uve read all the books including the simmeralion and the book of lost tales
ud get some answers
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The commentator Courtney
posts on 8/4/2005 2:31:16 AM
I need major help. What's the date of the concil? And what day do they set out? I know it's months after the concil but please help! I need MM/DD/YY.
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The commentator Ole Martinus Breivik
posts on 7/17/2005 11:44:16 AM
just have to say, read the other tolkien books, and you will find the answer to many of your questions, like who sauron is, and so on.
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The commentator Featherbrain
posts on 7/14/2005 1:41:36 PM
He's a Maiar, a lesser celestial being. He was the servant of Melkor, the inventor of Middleearthian evilness, before that guy was eternally imprisoned. Then Sauron went around with elves for a while, pretending to be repentant until his ring scheme was in motion.
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aliciaskywalker
posts on 7/14/2005 8:44:47 AM
Yeah, I think it would have been cool if there was a bit more explanation of what Sauron actually is. Is he a man? A mutant orc?
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Stevious
posts on 7/8/2005 1:37:18 PM
Well, burrahobbit is right. The Sillmarillion was Tolkien's lifes work that he never compleated. Some of the answers to your questions are answered in the Sillmarillion, but for what happens in the fourth age, well, that's just for the imagination of the readers.
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The commentator vader
posts on 6/30/2005 2:10:09 PM
If frodo was wearing the mithril protection under his clothes (it is the cause of the fight between the orcs in the tower while frodo was lying unconcious) will somebody, please tell me why she lob had no problem at all to sting him? Remeber that in Moria the same mithril protection save Frodo from the Orc spear. It was a movie or a book mistake?
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The controversial Maverick
posts on 2/24/2005 5:40:22 PM
Return of the king wasn't ended by J.R.R Tolkien. He died before he finished writing the Return of the king. After his death one of his sons finished the rest of the book. Its not that J.R.R ran out of ideas about the end , its his son who ended the book all wierd like that...In conclusion the ending of the return of the king was written by J.R.R Tolkiens son after his death... !
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The commentator Ricardo
posts on 2/13/2005 9:35:53 AM
In the book of the Lost Road Tolkien refers to himself and his son as decendants of the numenorian line and this was revealed through his dreams...why? why did he only write one chapter? Why does he compare today's world or connects it to the world of Middle Earth?
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Cantankerous Jack
posts on 2/7/2005 8:57:58 AM
I have to agree with your criticism of the chronology of events in the appendices, and it did feel somewhat like a long, drawn out anti-climax to have the whole journey home again AFTER the brilliant climax of Mount Doom. Still, the same criticisms have been made about the film of Return of the King, mainly that "there were too many endings." This is rather narrow minded as we've spent so long getting to know all these characters that to just end with the ring being destroyed would no doubt raise the question, "what happened to everyone afterwards?" Also, with regards to the Nazgul thing, The Silmarillion explains a lot of the background to the wraiths and Sauron and, well, everything really. But I reckon Tolkien didn't want to repeat a lot of that information in LOTR(even though the Silmarillion came out post-humously.) But, yeah; I'd loved to have seen more dwarves and elves involved in the war. Seem to have lost my point there. Hmm....ooh a squirrel.
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