#sry!!!!

Do urself a favor and at least see the LotR movies omg (tolkien is p. much my main fandom I cannot rave about it enough lmao)

BUT OH GOSH I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS ON TOLKIEN SUPERFAN RICHARD HENDRICKS??? (I project too much on him WEEPS). Here’s some misc. thoughts, in no particular order:

He read The Hobbit when he was a very young baby Richard, and while it’s not his favorite work of Tolkien’s anymore, it still has a special place for him, and he has probably read it the most. He absolutely HATES The Hobbit movies, and probably walked out of the theater during the second one and never saw the third because he’s literally that mad about it (get over yourself omg). 

He actually likes the LotR movie trilogy for the most part. And he gets pretty pissy with people who don’t appreciate all the hard work and love that went into it. As much as it deviates from the books (which will always be his preference over the movies), it’s still something he holds very dear. His biggest complaint is the downplay of Merry and Pippin and Eowyn’s characters (as is mine tbh). And he will NEVER LET GO how they cut out Tom Bombadil. He really likes how the movies handled Frodo though. He complained about Arwen’s role in the movies when he was younger, but since getting older he appreciates her greater presence since Richard just really kinda digs Elves.

Silmarillion is his favorite book because it lends to him being a Pedantic Piece of Garbage about Tolkien. And he’s actually really into Elvish history, he has so much pointless garbage memorized (NO ONE CARES RICHARD!!!). He has a lot of feelings about the Feanorians that he can’t quite unpack fully. His discussions with Gilfoyle on Silm. help him to analyze his feelings about Feanor and how he internalizes the idea of Pride. (I know this lacks context to anyone who hasn’t read Silm. I’m sorry!!!!)

The movie casting of Arwen (Liv Tyler) bothers him cause it’s very different from his personal headcanon of Arwen ... however, he Headcanons Liv’s Arwen as his Luthien interpretation.

He’s very into the idea of how language and music is conceived in Tolkien as the literal fabric of the universe, and how it plays into magic in the world. I HC Richard as very into linguistics, and somewhat into music (theortical stuff more so I guess? Which is why he developed PP as a music app initially). He could talk about it for HOURS and it doesn’t make sense to most people once he gets going. Gilfoyle likes listening to him ramble about it.  

He can never decide who his all time favorite character is. It changes every few years. His first favorite was obvs. Gandalf, and after that, Frodo. As he’s gotten older he’s really learned to appreciate Aragorn and Merry a lot. His latest reading of LotR made him appreciate Eowyn a lot more too.

His favorite Silm. character is probably Luthien. He thinks she’s more of a badass than she is contextually (which Richard will concede to in discussions with Gilfoyle). He also really has grown to appreciate Feanor in a narrative context (thanks to Gilfoyle). 

Re-reading any of the main books is his go-to when he’s SUPER stressed. He’s lost count of how many times he’s read each of them.