The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
🎬 Peter Jackson
+ IMDb trivia (FotR trivia)

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The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
🎬 Peter Jackson
+ IMDb trivia (FotR trivia)

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Remember what Bilbo used to say: “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
It’s been a while since I hit you all with a Tolkien hot take, who wants my essay on why I think Thranduil, out of all people, actually really does like Gandalf
So like, this is not all hypothetical, we do actually see the two of them interact in The Hobbit, and it is decidedly friendly. That was actually one of the things that prompted this train of thought for me, because I was joking about how Bilbo must have embellished exactly how much they got along, because it didn’t seem very likely to me that Gandalf, annoyance to at least half of the leaders of Middle Earth (and also plenty of ordinary people, if the Shire is anything to go by) would be all that welcome in the halls of someone as reclusive and paranoid as everything we know about Thranduil paints him to be.
(For what it’s worth, Bilbo totally still embellished, because he’s Bilbo and that’s how The Hobbit is written, but I have come around to thinking that the gist of their exchange at the end of the book – “Farewell! O Elvenking!” said Gandalf. “Merry be the greenwood, while the world is yet young! And merry be all your folk!” / “Farewell! O Gandalf!” said the king. “May you ever appear where you are most needed and least expected! The oftener you appear in my halls the better I shall be pleased!” – might actually be closer to verbatim than my knee-jerk instinct would have suggested.)
Anyways, after thinking about it further, I think that’s half true. I don’t think he liked Gandalf much at first, when the Istari first showed up in Middle Earth. I think it probably would have taken a while for him to actually trust him at all. But I also think that by the time of The Hobbit (and probably a fair few centuries before that, too), he had completely turned around to thinking of Gandalf as one of his only real allies, and that’s for one simple reason: Mirkwood is fucked, and very few people are listening.
Let’s backtrack though. It’s the start of the Third Era, and Thranduil just became king of the Greenwood. It is absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the worst thing that has ever happened to him. Not only is is monarchical succession a pretty raw deal if you are an immortal and also like your parents, but the particular conflict that his father was killed in also completely decimated their people – TWO-THIRDS of the elves from the Greenwood that fought in the War of the Last Alliance died over the course of the conflict. So he leads an utterly wrecked, almost certainly traumatized group of people home after Sauron’s defeat and has a lot of responsibility placed on his shoulders at the same time.
This makes him. Uh. Paranoid.
In the Unfinished Tales, we get this:
But there was in Thranduil’s heart a still deeper shadow. He had seen the horror of Mordor and could not forget it. If ever he looked south its memory dimmed the light of the Sun, and though he knew that it was now broken and deserted and under the vigilance of the Kings of Men, fear spoke in his heart that it was not conquered for ever; it would arise again.
And this is when a lot of other people were still a little more optimistic that Sauron was gone for good!
(As a side note, this is also one of the reasons why I think he might have been colder to Gandalf at first. Oh? You’re a messenger from the Valar that’s here to help now? After the war that killed my father and the bulk of my people? Thanks for nothing. I have my own problems to deal with now.)
For a while I think he didn’t give much of a thought to anything outside the borders of his kingdom. After all, there was probably a lot of work to do there turning things back into a functional society – especially for a new ruler – and I think he was probably not feeling the most charitable towards some of the rest of his own people, as a Sindar elf who had lost a whole lot in a war that he probably chalked up to problems that the Noldor had caused (or at least made worse). And I don’t think he would have interacted much with Gandalf in this time.
But then, the strangest thing happens! Guess who moves into the Greenwood around 1050 of the Third Age. That’s right! Our old buddy totally not Sauron the Necromancer!
(It’s Sauron. It’s Sauron.)
It sounds like the effects of him making his home there were pretty immediate – the timeline in RotK actually suggests people were calling the wood “Mirkwood” instead of the Greenwood by 1050, and it isn’t until a vague couple decades later that the Necromancer was a known entity. It’s also a little unclear who exactly first came to the conclusion that it was actually Sauron there, but my money? Is on Thranduil. Not only would he have known more about what was going on in his own kingdom than most of the other leaders in Middle Earth would be aware of, but Tolkien describes him as so explicitly afraid of the return of Sauron that I can’t imagine him not taking the threat incredibly seriously as soon as it arose. Even if he wasn’t the first to realize it, I still think he would have accepted it quickly and early.
And that’s exactly why I think he likes Gandalf: because the only other character we see regularly, consistently taking the threat seriously – and not only that, but trying to do things about it, too! – is Gandalf.
RotK tells us that by 2060, “the Wise” suspected it was Sauron in Dol Guldur. Three years later, Gandalf himself goes to investigate, chasing Sauron away for a bit. The Watchful Peace commences. 400 years later, Sauron comes back. The Watchful Peace ends, and the White Council is formed. In 2850, it’s Gandalf again who goes to Dol Guldur to confirm it’s definitely Sauron there, and urges the Council that they need to do something about it. Almost ONE HUNDRED years later they finally do (because Saruman was mucking things up for his own purposes and preventing the others from acting).
I am pretty sure that for centuries, conversations in Mirkwood went like this:
THRANDUIL: Hey, Gandalf, I know you believe me and can see how much of a problem this is, when is everyone else going to come help?
GANDALF: I’m going to try bringing it up at the meeting again, hopefully it will work this time since you and I both know we REALLY need to act on this.
THRANDUIL: SAURON LIVES IN MY BACKYARD, GANDALF
GANDALF: I know
THRANDUIL: I’M RAISING A CHILD IN THESE WOODS, GANDALF
GANDALF: I know
THRANDUIL: YOU’RE THE ONLY ONE WHO UNDERSTANDS ME, GANDALF
GANDALF: No, I won’t punch Saruman in the face for you this time. Sorry
THRANDUIL: Never mind. I hate you.
(Side note, but how much Schadenfreude do you think Thranduil got when his son came home and said “Oh, by the way, that Saruman guy? Evil. 100% evil. We fought against his armies and everything.” Galadriel and Elrond left Middle Earth just so they wouldn’t have to deal with his next few centuries of “I was right and you were wrong” gloating)
So anyways. That’s why I think Thranduil likes him. Gandalf was his earnestly-doing-his-best committee guy for CENTURIES (and occasional on-the-ground help, even – certainly more times than anyone else was) while he constantly petitioned for someone to help with his overblown invasive species problem, and probably really genuinely one of the only allies he trusted actually had Mirkwood’s best interests at heart – something which I think would have gone a long way with him. Mirkwood was fighting the battle that would become the conflict of the Lord of the Rings books for far longer and way earlier than any other corner of Middle Earth. And they were doing it mostly alone.
Most needed and least expected, indeed.
@lotrweek day two: silver / have you ever been called home?
'It reminds me of Númenor,' said Faramir, and wondered to hear himself speak. 'Of Númenor?' said Éowyn. 'Yes,' said Faramir, 'of the land of Westernesse that foundered, and of the great dark wave climbing over the green lands and above the hills, and coming on, darkness unescapable. I often dream of it.' 'Then you think that the Darkness is coming?' said Éowyn. 'Darkness Unescapable?’ And suddenly she drew close to him. 'No,' said Faramir, looking into her face.

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The ice cream flavour mini fellowship results are finally IN! via Dominic Monaghan Instagram
— Mary Oliver, White Flowers
@lotrweek day one: hobbit day
(yes, derogatory)
22 SEPTEMBER: happy birthday bilbo and frodo baggins!
"I'm just a girl☺️🥰💖💞💅🌺🌷🦄" when you were eight and the teacher said she needed some strong boys to carry something you used to be furious, and when you convinced them to let you help, you carried twice as many chairs as the boys with the righteous anger of a girl who knew she was just as capable as them. Where did that go?
People in the notes
@/girlglimmer (x) // @/christmas-winter (x) // fireflies - suzanne siegel // “orange and blue” - sarah jarosz // beautiful night - momcilo simic // christmas eve - julia andreevna petrova // @/hunting-brother (x) // @/bluecapsicum (x) // suzanne siegel

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I love Sam but the Sam glazing by LOTR fans has to stop.
#and if you don't understand that frodo gollum and boromir are the most important characters in that story i feel like you're missing something
I sometimes find it genuinely alarming when people don't seem to understand what Frodo's role in the story is or why he's like that. I do understand that Frodo's struggle is mostly internal and he's not the POV character and Sam is way more visible and relatable, so I'm not shocked that Sam is generally liked better. but sometimes it goes way beyond 'I prefer the more active and personable character', it's more like Frodo walks into the story 'hello I am a person who is not physically strong taking on a burden much too difficult for any living person because I want to do the right thing but i'm struggling intensely because it's difficult' and people look at that concept- which is not really that complicated!- and go 'what the heck is this? ew'
It's also like... listen, guys. "If Sam had taken the Ring-" the quest would have failed because he would have killed Gollum. I feel like people don't understand that this is a severe flaw of Sam's. He's a nice boy with a good heart but he just does not have pity in his heart until it's too late. Sam's inability to understand why Gollum acts the way he does dooms Gollum's redemption to failure. Unlike Frodo, who perseveres in the (vain) hope that Gollum can be redeemed, Sam does not until near the end of the book - when Gollum attacks the pair on the mountainside, he spares Gollum because, having carried the Ring now, he "dimly" grasps at what it would really mean to be Gollum. It's too late, though, because his earlier mistrust of Gollum has already set him against the hobbits for good.
And I know, the scene where the Ring tempts Sam with being "Lord of the Garden" is funny and awesome, but people forget that A) Sam had been wearing the ring for all of a couple days (compared to Frodo's 17 years in the book), and the Ring was clearly desperate and at the end of its tempting rope. Tolkien himself said that "no-one", not even Sauron himself (if he were inclined to do so), could destroy the ring at Mount Doom. The temptation at the ultimate moment would be too great. In fact, in the initial draft, this is exactly what happens to Frodo - the Ring shows him a vision of him using it to protect and save the hobbits from Sauron, and that's what causes him to finally put it on. (Presumably, Tolkien cut this because it didn't make sense for Frodo to narrate this moment.) So Sam's vision doesn't seem so ridiculous or out there now.
And ultimately, the whole point is that Frodo fails. He gives up everything on this quest he knows he is never going to come back from. He keeps going when it's obvious to him that they're all going to die. He keeps going when it's obvious he's not up to the task and never was. The fact that he only stumbles at the very end should be seen as a testament to his mental fortitude, not a failing. Frodo is all of us. We all love to think we would be Sam, or maybe Bilbo, or maybe Faramir wisely saying "I would not take it if it lay by the roadside" (note how Faramir, the smart guy, refuses to even look at the thing - in fact, notice how all the people who best "resist" the Ring's temptation do it by simply removing themselves as far away as possible from it!). But in reality, we would be Frodo. We wouldn't be up to the task, because who would? Instead, what saves Frodo is not his heroic willpower, but his mercy. Because he took it in his heart to have pity on Gollum, a fellow hobbit corrupted and twisted by the Ring's power (just like Frodo), the creature is there at just the right moment to destroy the ring. That's the message of Lord of the Rings. You have to understand that, right?
the postal service names their shit exactly like how a 16 y.o. names angsty fanfic
Explain.
try and tell me literally any one of these would not fit above a short story about two wholly random men from the MCU fingering each other, or possibly 12 chapters of one or more characters from a CW show being in high school while having a photogenic but terminal kind of cancer. try.
ok so i want to say in hindsight i think i could probably have been clearer
my mum was googling for an article about why everyone in the lord of the rings film is white (like to be clear she was annoyed by this) and the google ai was apparently like “everybody in the lord of the rings is not white. gandalf is grey.”
my advice to you is to never waste your time trying to fit into a club or hobby or any community who makes you beg for acceptance and approval just to participate when you could do the alternative—get involved in a niche and endangered hobby run primarily by old people.
i wanted to learn how to hunt ruffed grouse and train bird dogs so i sent an email to my local chapter of the ruffed grouse society explaining that getting into wildlife groups is intimidating to me because I’m trans
and all they saw was that someone under 60 wanted to learn to hunt grouse & several months into my mentorship I was told that like 7 old guys argued over me until they had to pick a number between 1 and 100 to decide who got to personally mentor me.
imagine vying for the acceptance of some gatekeeping weirdos when your mere interest could be inciting verbal combat among retirees
my mentor was so sweet & funny too. he suggested we meet over lunch first so he could tell me about what to expect before we got started & I emailed back “I’m ready to get started right away!”
and he said “I was actually suggesting lunch first for your comfort on the assumption you wouldn’t want to get together with a man you’ve never met, in the woods with a gun.”
Like, I trusted him because of the referrals I got from one of my professors but like, right you are sir fair enough. Lunch it is.
exactly 😌
[Image ID: Tumblr tag reading: #you're right. murderers can't have lunch (thumbs up emoji) /End ID]
Just went to a dye workshop run primarily by women aged 50-80.
They were DELIGHTED to see young adults interested in the art, and I got sent home with a PILE of dyes, chemicals, and expensive yarns to practice dying on. I was invited by each of them on different times throughout the event to please come to their new years workshop too.
Like, unanimous welcome. I don’t know most of their names, but I know they want to see me again.
August evenings around my house...

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Jean Valentine, from “Sanctuary”
Dunno how to put it properly into words but lately I find myself thinking more about that particular innocence of fairy tales, for lack of better word. Where a traveller in the middle of a field comes across an old woman with a scythe who is very clearly Death, but he treats her as any other auntie from the village. Or meeting a strange green-skinned man by the lake and sharing your loaf of bread with him when he asks because even though he's clearly not human, your mother's last words before you left home were to be kind to everyone. Where the old man in the forest rewards you for your help with nothing but a dove feather, and when you accept even such a seemingly useless reward with gratitude, on your way home you learn that it's turned to solid gold. Where supernatural beings never harm a person directly and every action against humans is a test of character, and every supernatural punishment is the result of a person bringing on their own demise through their own actions they could have avoided had they changed their ways. Where the hero wins for no other reason than that they were a good person. I don't have the braincells to describe this better right now but I wish modern fairy tales did this more instead of trying to be fantasy action movies.
"In [fairy tales], power is rarely the right tool for survival anyway. Rather the powerless thrive on alliances, often in the form of reciprocated acts of kindness - from beehives that were not raided, birds that were not killed but set free or fed, old women who were saluted with respect. Kindness sown among the meek is harvested in crisis."
-Rebecca Solnit