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Which moments are the least precious? Find out as the Nostalgia Critic counts down the Top 11 dumbest Lord of the Rings moments!
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Ah, the Legolas moments. Good thing they didn’t continue this in The Hobbit movies;)
-The Lord of the Eagles would not take them anywhere near where men lived. ‘They would shoot at us with their great bows of yew,’ he said, ‘for they would think we are after their sheep. And at other times they would be right. No! we are glad to cheat goblins of their sport, and glad to repay our thanks to you , but we will not risk ourselves for dwarves in the southward plains.’
-The Hobbit, ch. 6; Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire, pgs. 110-111 J.R.R. Tolkien
At least they explained about Number 1 😛
Thank you.
I must say I didn´t notice these flaws when watching and went along with the story. But the flaw I noticed was how weak and feeble those orcs/Uruk-hais were. As far as I remember in the first movie there´s the scene in the woods when they fight off the elite Uruk-Hai warriros. And some of those big-ass highly trained muscular monsters fell over dead when being hit with a stone thrown at their heads.
Legolas is like those aliens from Space-Jam (I’m sorry I reminded you Space-Jam), he stole all of Gimili’s talent. That’s why he gets better as Gimli gets worse.
P.S
That dubbed over bit with Gandalf and Boromir would be great for an Abridged LotR.
I cringed when I heard “human villain” referred to Saruman. Saruman, like Gandalf, is of the exact same nature as Sauron himself. They’re lesser angels. There’s nothing human about him, unless you argue about his lust for power and the loss of the vision of his true objectives.
Thank you.
The eagles thing actually goes back to Tolkien himself saying that he didn’t want the eagles to appear as Mordor’s taxis and always doing the work for those who kind of started the problems in the first place. They’re like a responsible parent telling their idiot child to clean up their own mess with only a little aid from the parent themselves.
There’s an even simpler explanation for why they didn’t use the Eagles, than going into lore and philosophy..
There would be no story if they had taken the easy way out. Indeed, NC, your infinite list of awesome moments would simply not exist if they had flown the Eagles and taken care of the Ring within a day.
I must be one of the few people out there who really enjoyed Gimli. Everyone else in the movie was so… well, to quote a Red Dwarf line, “very prim, very proper, almost austere.” Which, okay, it’s high fantasy, that’s kind of expected. But I feel like too much of it kind of drags a story down – who can you connect to when even the ranger’s acting like he doesn’t shit in the woods? Don’t get me wrong, I loved almost all the characters in this movie – but as a class clown who has spent her life dreaming of going on great adventures just like this, Gimli was one of the characters I connected with the most. He’s brave and loyal and a damned good fighter, but he also knows how to let loose and enjoy himself and even laugh at himself. And unlike some of the humans in the movie, he’s okay with throwing away some of his dignity for the greater good (thinking here of the “toss me” line just before the bridge scene you didn’t like). I also really loved Merry and Pippin for this reason. They just kind of get dragged into it, they’re lighthearted, fun-loving, and clearly out of their depth. But once they’re in, they don’t ever give up. Yes, they fuck up in some pretty terrible ways, but when shit starts to fly, they’re in the thick of it. Despite knowing that they will most likely die, despite knowing that they are vastly outnumbered even in a one-to-one fight with most of what they’re going up against – they are going to die trying. And always, always, at the end of a fight, they are ready again to have some fun.
In short, if I were asked to go on an adventure with all these people, I would gladly say yes. But if I were asked to go to a party with them, I’d only go if it were the type of party Gimli, Merry and Pippin were at.
18:17 and because they made him fall from a waterfall. Who would survive that?
I’ve read a theory somewhere that deals with the eagles, actually. People have often pointed out that Gandalf should have just had the eagles fly everyone from the Shire to Mordor and toss the ring as they passed over Mt. Doom, but flying all that way would have certainly let Saruman and Sauron know their plan very quickly, as Saruman had spies everywhere at the time, even at the Prancing Pony.
The theory posits that Gandalf actually did intend on flying the eagles to Mordor, but he planned on meeting them on the west side of the mountains, so that once Saruman and Sauron realized they had taken to the air, Gandalf and company would already be well past their defenses. However to make sure that the plan stayed secret, Gandalf kept this knowledge to himself. (One, so no one would overhear them, and two, so that if one of the party was captured, they couldn’t give up the plan under torture because they didn’t know it!)
The theory also said that there were three “safe” known mountain passes to possibly use. One was far to the north, so it was out. He tried to use the safest southern route to get to the eagles, but Saruman made the path far too treacherous with his snow storm magic, so all that was left was Moria.
And we all know what happened there, don’t we?
So as he’s there hanging onto the cliff, knowing that he’s the only one with the knowledge of the eagles and that he can’t shout out the plan due to time and all the goblins around to tattle, so he shouts the only thing he knows that hints at the plan without giving it away, “Fly, you fools!”.
And by the time he comes back as Gandalf the White and rejoins the party, Frodo and Sam have run off on their own and he doesn’t know where they are, so the eagle plan is entirely shot. Everything else that happened was not at all Gandalf’s plan, but what else could he do?
Anyway, reading that made everything make much more sense. I don’t remember the original post where I read this, but if anyone else can find it, post it here?
The bridge Gandolf was on just collapsed. Would you simply run into a collapsing bridge when you have something as important as the ring? Gimli IS showing character, He’s hitting on Eowyn, He’s trying on human sized clothing without realizing its human-sized. Taking out an elephant with three arrows, is different from taking on a army of twenty thousand orcs with 20,000 arrows. A few of those shots are designed to show the CHARACTER’S are uncomfortable. His character is actually shown to be quite insane, and that is why he’s not normal.
Gandalf came back to life because he isn’t human. Boromir is dead because he’s dead in the book.
As for arwen, in the book, she’s long lived after Aragon dies, and dies heartbroken and alone. She has decided to stay with Aragorn, and if the ring survives, Aragorn will die, and then by extension, Arwen will die. It all comes down to the ring now.
Sam’s discovery of the lampus bread solves the mystery of WHAT happened to the lampus bread. He realizes that he was set up, and that Gollum was the one who threw it off the edge. Frodo didn’t drop it, and he’s blaming him, Gollum set him up.
Its been theorized that Gandalf was always leading them to the eagles in the first place. He just didn’t broadcast it because he didn’t want to have Sauron’s men waiting for him. Or even then, have any sort of anti-eagle defenses ready. Gandolf says “I send them to their death.” Because he didn’t say “Oh, by the way, Frodo, don’t tell anyone, but we’re going to need to goto th eagles. Now, Merry and Pippin already told everyone of who you were, and so the spies of Sauromon already know you are in the town of Bree, so you know, don’t tell them.” Its why every iteration of Gandolf says “Fly, you fools.” He’s not saying “run” he’s saying “use the eagles to fly.”
Saruman was cut because his death wasn’t really necessary. What is REALLY important is how all the plotlines in the movie end. Its a story. Saurmon is trapped, that is how his story ends. The evil of industry is being washed away, along with Sarumon’s influence.
I’ve always thought of the eagles thing sorta like the US in World War II. We were an isolationist nation, we saw what happened in World War I and wanted no part of the second, especially since it was all happening in Europe, far away from us. Could we have made the war easier? You bet. But we didn’t join until we were forced to, despite the knowledge of what Germany would/could do if they won the war. I think of the eagles in the same light, they saw the first war with Sauron and wanted no part in the second, but eventually saw that they were desperately needed, came in, and stole all the last-minute glory, ‘Murican style 😀
I really dislike the nitpick that they could’ve ‘just used the Eagles’. The whole point is that you have to get the Eagles to a place they REALLY don’t want to be (inside an active volcano). They aren’t at Gandalf’s instant beck and call – he befriended a few of them and they saved him when he most needed it. That didn’t mean they would fly their entire group into Mordor for nothing. Plus, Morder DID have far more Fell Beasts than they had in the film. All it would’ve taken is just one of them to get lucky, and the ring falls into Mordor itself. Good luck finding it again. The only reason they seemed to defeat the Fell Bests so easily is because they weren’t expected and took them by surprise. There aren’t actually that many eagles – there are far more dragons (in the Withered Heath to the North of Mirkwood and Erebor), and there was an unspoken agreement between the eagles and dragons that neither would get involved in wars if the other didn’t either. So the eagles were taking a risk just showing up for the endgame. They were also very paranoid and distrustful of men.