this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
399 points (97.8% liked)

Lord Of The Rings Memes

709 readers
627 users here now

founded 2 months ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I knew it. Florida is (mostly) in Mordor! That makes so much sense!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Can't help but wanna see this overlaid on a mall map: these hobbits had to get to JC Penny from the Books-A-Million. A harrowing journey of many months.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

They were smart to avoid Atlanta, the traffic there is horrible.

Also, the whole mines of Moria part makes sense, being Kentucky and all.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 days ago

They were smart to avoid Atlanta, the traffic there is horrible.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Ya but they had to go through Chattanooga, which is way more infuriating.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Mordor being in Florida checks out.

[–] DJKJuicy 11 points 2 days ago

Yup. Just outside of Jacksonville. I knew it.

[–] [email protected] 64 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I didn't notice the outline of North America until reading this. I thought it was just weird splotches.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

They’re taking the hobbits to Jackson-gard!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They had to go all the way to Florida 😔

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

Worse, Jacksonville.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 days ago (4 children)

After reading the books, I felt like the movies were rushed (yes, even the extended editions). You just didn't get a sense for how long and arduous their journey was. It took Sam and Frodo a month just to get to Rivendell alone, and you truly felt like you were out hiking and camping with the hobbits for all that time.

In the movies, they just bump into friends and allies, spend a night at Bree (plus a couple nights out camping in the wild), run from the Nazgul, then they're magically there at Rivendell. Doesn't seem like it took more than a few days tops.

The whole journey to Mordor and back took a whole year. Imagine spending a whole year walking and camping across America and you might get a sense for how long it took them.

Honestly, The Lord of the Rings should've been a miniseries to properly flesh out the long journey. Even the extended editions cut lots of story and rushed the pacing to keep the story moving forward.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

One way Tolkien adds tension and time is to end with a cliffhanger for Sam and Frodo in book 4 (part 2 of Two Towers) you then start following Merry and Pippin in book 5 (part 1 of Return Of The King) and have to read all of that before returning to Frodo and Sam in book 6.

Reference: A bit about the 6 books https://screenrant.com/lord-of-the-rings-tolkien-6-books-why/

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

Yes! The Two Towers novel ended with Frodo supposedly dead from Shelob, and Sam picking up the ring to finish the journey. It was almost halfway into Return of the King that we find out Frodo is still alive and Sam needs to rescue him!

That was such a great plot twist. I was kind of sad they didn't follow that chain of events in the movies. The whole Shelob thing was resolved really quickly, about halfway into Return of the King.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The other R. R. tried that too, except he still hasn't finished the book where the cliffhanger should resolve.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I haven't read or watched it so take it with a huge block of salt but ...

I don't think GRRM has it in him anymore. The hype was too great, the wait has been too long, he's been harassed about it for years, probably hates even thinking about it by now. add to that a very badly received conclusion to the TV series which already left a bad taste with the audience, probably doesn't help.

it's the HL3 problem: it's been so long nothing can possibly match the expectation. Trying to do it would be dumb at this point.

[–] threelonmusketeers 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

As a counter point, hasn't the poorly received TV show set a low bar to clear in terms of expectations?

Even if he doesn't write a great conclusion people could always say "well at least it was better than the TV series".

Disclaimer: I have not read or watched Game of Thrones yet.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

What the other guy said plus: it's kind of an ego thing. Could you imagine writing one of the most prolific series in history and then when you finish it everyone is like "yeah well at least it was better than the show"

I just wouldn't write it if that's all I can expect out of my audience lol

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

yeah but that sort of bad taste in conjuction with a long frustrated waiting period may lead to just vitriol no matter what.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago (2 children)

That or just some other more effective narrative exposition to give the viewer a better sense of time.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Narration is boring. Montages have the potential to overstay their welcome. Exposition in dialogue is dumb. There's already so much going on in the movies that adding more set pieces would actually generate the opposite effect. Busy movies feel like they rush and a lot happens in a short span of time (think what if tom bombadil). The only way was to actually cut more stuff to focus even more narrowly on fewer plot points, to gain time where to insert set pieces that illustrated the time passing, with slower pace. When a movie has very few things going on in a long time span, it feels like it's illustrating a very long span of time. This is a balancing act that all screenwriters and directors have to face. For example, look at interstellar vs. Castaway, which one objectively is about a longer period time, which one actually leaves you feeling like the characters experienced a lot of time?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I didn't mean explicitly "narration" when I said narrative exposition since that isn't it's definition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposition_(narrative). Regardless I agree with all your points in isolation and when taken to an extreme. But a well crafted script that includes ALL possible methods of helping the audience appreciate the passage of time is the goal. No movie, except a literal 1:1 real-time story, can ever communicate the passage of time in any way OTHER than some form of exposition.

Your interstellar vs castaway example is exactly my point. If they had tried harder with LOTR they could have made it clearer to the audience the length and duration of their travels. As it stands, and as you said, it was a balancing act to stay with-in acceptable movie run time, hit all the hard plot points, include some exposition (again to hit important plot points), and create a movie that didn't bore people to tears.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Honestly, The Lord of the Rings should've been a miniseries to properly flesh out the long journey

Depending on how well the Harry Potter show goes, I won't be surprised at all if we see this eventually

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 days ago

When you think about it, they basically walked twice as far as that since they’re so small.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

So Bilbo took I-88 but got to the border of New York, said nah I'm good, then went back the way he came.

Frodo & Sam took a wrong turn at the Indiana border and then got lost until they wound up in Florida.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

And took an Eagle plane back to Elvish palace

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Are you telling me california is the undying lands?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

And the Shire is in Manhattan, Kansas.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] prettybunnys 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This is dumb they def coulda gotten a flight

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago

Still better than staying in Ohio.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

if they really had to go to Florida they would've jumped in after tossing the ring

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I like how they noped out of Florida and back into Georgia.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (7 children)

ok, but then... how come at the end of the first movie can they see Mt doom in the distance. does sight work differently in this age?

i cant see the smokies from Florida.

//UNWATCHABLE

/s

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Pfft, that’s like 2 days’ drive, tops.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

$On the eagles$

Sam's club: we're not in Kansas anymore

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The Philadelphia Eagles are coming!

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›