Cracked article on LotR

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Hi all. Thought I'd share this article I just found.

While I find Cracked an amusing website, it's not quite family-friendly at all times so approach with caution. (Hope it's ok, Mods.)

Characters who dropped the ball in The Lord of the Rings

Some of the points raised are certainly issues previously discussed on the Barrow-Downs.

[Nerwen]

So you like "Cracked", Eomer? Personally I've found it to be generally rather irritating and not all that funny. Oh well. Each to his own.

Originally Posted by Eomer of the Rohirrim

Some of the points raised are certainly issues previously discussed on the Barrow-Downs.

Although note that the Witch King's lack of "peripheral vision" is actually lack of vision, full stop– but maybe that isn't explained in the films? I can't remember. The real problem with the scene in question is that baddie-being-distracted-by-thrown-object is a terrible cliche.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

So you like "Cracked", Eomer? Personally I've found it to be generally rather irritating and not all that funny. Oh well. Each to his own.

I must say I got the same impression. There are hundreds of sites like that on the net and one needs not to look for them too hard. Anybody could write a thing like that and the humour is rather "dumb", so to say.

Although note that the Witch King's lack of "peripheral vision" is actually lack of vision, full stop– but maybe that isn't explained in the films? I can't remember.

Yes, well, I think of course the problem is how it basically criticises the movie: rightfully so, in many places, but only if one does not see the explanations beyond the movie which are in the books, which is unfair even to PJ (now hearing me defending him... anyway, not that the intention of that website is to be "fair", obviously). That however only proves my own words (*warms up his own soup*) that the movies without the books lack important things...

The real problem with the scene in question is that baddie-being-distracted-by-thrown-object is a terrible cliche.

Wow, actually, I have not realised it until I have read the article + now this comment of yours... but the scene in FotR is really almost the same as in Predator... (and maybe even four hobbits together make about as much body mass as one Arnold)

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

If there are hundreds of sites like that then please send me a list by PM, because I don't know any others and Cracked gives me a chuckle every day.

[Thinlómien]

It wasn't that bad, nor was it really that funny.

Although, I must say the writer has a point about letting Gríma go. That was merciful, for sure, but somewhat stupid - in the movie at least, because there he gives the crucial information to Saruman whereas in the books his words don't have an effect like that.

Maybe this proves all we who want to criticise the movies can do so. There are a lot of stupid things there anyway, for example Aragorn's horse is of the wrong colour.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

The No.1, about Sauron and his finger, is a point I made on here years ago, in the debate about how Sauron died on Dagorlad.

The Witch-King one is explainable, of course. The Gandalf one is pretty funny, in the context of the films - one would be hard-pressed to argue that Gandalf was useless in the book, mind!

Grima and Legolas examples are interesting enough to discuss in the movies-section.

[Bêthberry]

But the point about letting Grima go: if the writer thinks this was a serious mistake, (and wasn't just being hilariously silly) then said writer didn't get the point about Gandalf's talk with Frodo about showing mercy to Gollem.

Gandalf sensed that Gollem might still have a role to play and should not be killed. Grima, strangely enough, works into the same sense of predestination or kharma or, to use the Old English word, Wyrd. Grima does what no hero in the trilogy would consider doing: he rids Middle-earth of Saruman. He does so out of hatred, revenge, retaliation--all the wrong motives. So in fact Aragorn is not wrong to let Grima go. There are things at work in Middle-earth that no man can account for.

(Of course, said writer might be very well aware of the book and understands just how terribly PJ misappropriated them for his action flick.)

Thanks for the link, Eomer. I did laugh.

[The Might]

Well, nothing new really.
Some are just movie-related, which makes them uninteresting.
And those that do apply to the books have already been discussed a thousand times... probably funny for non-LotR fans, but for me personally it's... meh.

Though, I must admit, I have read some really funny lists on Cracked.