Annoying Amateurs

[Gil-Galad]

I know probaly everyone has heard of this before, but one thing that really annoys me after the movies came out was that people, who watched every movie like 7 times, think they no absolutly everything about LOTR. for example, if a iask them who was Tom Bombadil, they would say "theres no Tom Bombadil in LOTR" it really annoys me!

[Firefoot]

You know what is even worse than that? Is when they try to tell you something that they figured out or found on the internet which is something that anyone who had read the books would know. Or they try to tell you that they know so much more than you do. The other thing that gets annoying is when people claim to be obsessed yet they found the books boring.

I have to admit though, it is quite funny watching people scrambling around for a quote in the book that you know exactly which one and where it was.

[Knight of Gondor]

Yes, I agree it's annoying for amateurs to think they know more than you. I knew a fellow once who, having read the books, was a little snobbish about it, and kind of sniffing at the movies and saying they weren't entirely true to the books. Then he came up with some crazy idea that Tom Bombadil sent the Ents to Helm's Deep. I was like "uh...NO?" and he didn't agree.

I suppose I would suggest, however, that we as Tolkien fans (as representatives of Tolkien fans) take care not to appear intellectually snobbish back, and act like a know-it-all in return. (Not saying anyone's doing this...just suggesting we keep it in mind when dealing with people who are probably pining after all our superior Tolkien knowledge!)

Try playing Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuits with them. This is both helpful and revenge, since it will assist them in learning about LotR, but until they learn their stuff, you can totally cream them.

[Ellwyn]

I have a friend who claims to have read LOTR 7 times yet she didn't know who Faramir married. She was like 'Who's Faramir'? One time, I was really bored so I started daydreaming. She said:

"Ellie's taking a trip to the Shire, I'm gonna go there too!" and put her head down on the grass.

Argh! She's totally clueless!

[Phervasaion]

No amature has ever come up to and said 'oh i know everything about Lotr', but i do know quite a few amatures from my school. If any of them came up to me and started bragging though I would also be annoyed and I can see your point, especially if they were getting evrtything wrong. Another thing that annoys me even more is when people who havnt even read the books (or seen the movies for that matter) come up to me and say that they are boring or rubbish when they wouldnt even know.

[Lindalirien O Lorien]

Sadly I have many people at my school like that. I sometimes talk to people about differences between the movies and the books and the have NO clue what I'm talking about but then when they're talking to their other friends they'll either talk about the movies or say everything I have said to them... it annoys me so much. I also have people who think that they're waaay to cool to read the books. They don't even give it a chance and that gets me really upset.

[Gil-Galad]

One positive thing to this, before the thrid movie came out, i tricked like 5 girls that Legolas dies! ha ha that was fun...whew, if only i could have more moments like that...

[Lindalirien O Lorien]

Oh man that's wicked funny. Ha ha. Were they like fan girls? Ha I can just picture their faces...

[Kransha]

I actually mentioned this in another thread.

I have a "friend" who barely even understands the movie, yet he pretends to be as scholarly about the books and movies as I (not to brag, myself, of course). I can remember his most painful antics.

-First, after seeing FotR, he never got it into his head that Aragorn's name was Aragorn. He kept insisting that his real name was Strider and that Aragorn was in fact a nickname. I easily destroyed that visage by giving ALL of Aragorn's names, including the monker, "Strider." You should have seen his face when I said "Longshanks."

-This person is also a spoiler-maniac. Somehow he managed to find a spoiler site for TTT (why would this exist if people could just read the books to find out?) and was able to tell all my friends about the plot, pretending he'd read the book. I calmly asked him who Shelob was. He had the gall to insist that I had just picked out a really unimportant character so he would look stupid. I easily floored him by proving that Shelob is a crucial character in TTT.

[Sleepy Ranger]

I can't say anything like this has happened to me. People already know you can't beat me when it comes to Tolkien. Infact they ask me questions on Tolkien and what happens here and there. But once I was asked a really strange question. "Why did Harry go with Gandalf on the ship?" My answer-"Harry Applegate? Gandalf? Harry would've been at Bree not going with Gandlaf you're really mistaken my boy." And I've had many exciting moments. Like Legolas falling of an Oliphaunt and thus his death and of course Frodo turns evil and tries to kill Sam and Smeagol but Smeagol pushes Frodo in and falls in with him and Sam dies in the explosion and Aragorn, Gimli, Pippin and Merry are killed by orcs you should've seen their faces it was so funny. Best part they still haven't seen the movie 'cause they don't want to see them die. I mean how stupid can you get.

[rutslegolas]

ya i think these amatuers are really annoying .
i have one in the my school who claims to have to read the book 5 times and he still when he saw the movies didnt knew who aragorn and boromir were.
i wished i could punch them in the face

[Sleepy Ranger]

Hey now lets not resort to violence. If somebody ever says that he/shes better than me I wait till theres a big crowd then till them that he/she knows everything about Tolkien. Then I ask a couple of questions which someone whos just seen the movies won't know. And for the fun of it I ask some from the Silma, then see the look on their faces its even better when they answer something then you can give the correct answer with proof. See its easy no fighting no nothing just plain ol' fun with a bit of cruelty
Serves 'em right for making false claims.

[Eorl of Rohan]

I've given up trying to convert these people. They always end up making impossible and ridiculous claims, stick to them, cakll up some of their more moronic friends to support them. I'd rather talk with more intelligent barrow-downers.

[Everdawn]

Awwww! Dont be nasty to the newbies! They need to start somewhere, and even if they arent *cough* The most learned *cough* of Tolkien fans, if they stick with it in time they will learn from you guys. After they get blasted a few times by the senior members of the downs, they will straighten up, youll see!


(By the way, Go the fangirls! A+ for spirit! )

[Fingolfin II]

Yeah, it is annoying sometimes. Like when I explained to my friend that Aragorn married his great-great-great- (one zillion greats) grand aunt and had a kid called Eldarion, she's like ***?

[Sirithheruwen]

There are only two people in my class that are REAL Tolkeinites: Myself and my friend Alex. Our friend, EJ, is an amuature (sp?) but she doesn't try to rub her Tolkein knowledge (or lack there of) in everyone's faces. She liked hearing me tell her about the books and she DOES plan on reading them someday: just not yet. I do believe she's read the Hobbit though. There are, however, twins in my class that are pretty amuature-ish. Once, when one of them was reading the books in school, she got to the battle of Pellennor fields when Pippin killled the troll but blacked out, and she told everyone that Pippin died (and this was before the movies, so there was no fangirls to mortally wound). I was arguing with her, and she read me the passage and said, "See! I told you so!" I asked her if she had read on, and she said no, she wanted to stop here because Pippin died. She annoys me so much! She's always trying to ursurp my throne, BUT SHE WILL NOT SUCCEED!!!

[Kransha]

Originally posted by Fingolfin II
Yeah, it is annoying sometimes. Like when I explained to my friend that Aragorn married his great-great-great- (one zillion greats) grand aunt and had a kid called Eldarion, she's like ***?

Somehow that doesn't seem like much of an issue. There's a large difference between noobs who don't understand more trivial facts and those who don't understand the basics. I've encountered many who don't trust the more unimportant and trivial things I tell them about the book, and I don't mind these people. Telling people that Arwen is in fact an extremely distant aunt of Aragorn would get them off guard easily, and is to be expected. Then there are those who think that Tom Bombadil is made up because he's not in the movies.

I've already mentioned that I have one overbearingly annoying counterpart who makes stuff up about LotR, but I have my share of people who just don't grasp stuff as well. I actually enjoy explaining to them the subtle nuances of the book.

[Nirvana II]

all of us are amateurs (sp.?) compared to C.T. and JRRT

[Knight of Gondor]

Awwww! Dont be nasty to the newbies! They need to start somewhere, and even if they arent *cough* The most learned *cough* of Tolkien fans, if they stick with it in time they will learn from you guys. After they get blasted a few times by the senior members of the downs, they will straighten up, youll see!

I agree we shouldn't be so harsh on Newbies. But this post is about annoying people, people who learn the name of a Noldor king from the Ancient Days, and instantly assume they know more than those of us who have read the books for quite a while. I should still consider myself a bit of a newbie, since I've only immersed myself in Tolkienology for the past two years. Nevertheless, in that time frame, I have read the series several times, gone over the Appendices several times, and purchased (or received) several of the Histories (including The Silmarillion) and have read them.

Still, I must again remind everyone that the image we should try to fight is a stuck-up know-it-all about Tolkien.

[Finwe]

Definitely. Just keep in mind that in the end, we are all newbies. Only the Professor has the right to not have the title of "Newbie."

[Knight of Gondor]

I would disagree with that. There are obviously people who have read and studied this sort of thing for years...or else there would not have been such things as Elvish language coaches for the movies!!

No one will ever reach "fully professional" stage, but lots of people will reach "very proficient" stage.

[Finwe]

Point taken, but what exactly does constitute a newbie?

[Firefoot]

I think that the definition of "Newbie" will depend on who you are talking to. For myself, I would say that it has nothing to do with how long you have read/enjoyed LotR and only somewhat with how much knowledge a person has. For example, who is more of a Newbie: a person who has read LotR four times, the Hobbit twice, and the Sil once but only understood half of everything they read or a person who has thoroughly read LotR twice, the Hobbit once, and got a quarter of the way through the Sil and decided they needed to read LotR again first before reading it? It depends on your opinion.

I also think there are two kinds of Newbies: the annoying kind who read/see LotR and think they know everything and the kind that you are glad to talk to because they know they don't know everything and are genuinely interested in learning more. The kind that Gil-Galad had in mind when he started this thread was probably the first kind. There is nothing to complain about with the second kind.

[Finwe]

Ok... thanks muchly...


I agree, the first kind can be more than a bit annoying, but we just have to be patient with them. Getting flustered is just going to make things worse, so there's absolutely no point in doing that.

[nynnd1]

The worst type are Orlando Bloom lovers. But i was once a film lover and what turned me to the books was the charcater of Tom Bombadil. he is the best.

[Hot, crispy nice hobbit]

Totally agree!

I really hope someone would get knocked on the head one day and wish to make a Movie on Prof T's work: The Adventures Of Tom Bombadil!

Or should I start writing a scribt...?

[bilbo_baggins]

I may not have many posts (a zillion like you real old 'downers'), but I can hold my own. Once a girl asked me what I thought of Tolkien, and I said I was crazy about his works. She whipped back with something like, "Well that's just wrong, because Tolkien's books are paganistic!" I could just have screamed out, "Well, Tolkien was the one who led the great C.S. Lewis to Christianity!" I thankfully held myself back.

(Not intended to be offensive to other religious entities, although Tolkien was Christian. )

[bilbo_baggins]

Originally posted by Hot, crispy nice hobbit
Totally agree!

I really hope someone would get knocked on the head one day and wish to make a Movie on Prof T's work: The Adventures Of Tom Bombadil!

Or should I start writing a scribt...?

I could be your scriptmaster! (Or maybe spellchecker?)["scribt"]

[The Mushroom]

I agree that Tolkien "fans" that think they know everything about Middle Earth but really have no clue, and no desire to learn from the real Middle Earth scholars (not that I am one), are rather irritating. I know afew of those. I tried to have a Tolkien discussion with this guy at my church who obviously thought his knowledge was vastly superior to mine (hehehe) and I came out victorious (hohoho)! Ah, It feels good to beat them, don't it? I'm kind of a newbie myself though (only read LoTR, Hobbit, and Silm once! Almost through UT) so I can't be too hard on anybody.

[elfearz1]

One positive thing to this, before the third movie came out, i tricked like 5 girls that Legolas dies!

hehehehe, I did this too! I mean, I know some fangirls who really know a lot about Lotr (one probably even knows more than me) but just happen to also find Orli cute. Some of them though.....


Like this one girl who said "I saw Lotr 11 times and I didn't even like it." grrrrr

[The Perky Ent]

A really weird moment is when the get the people mixed up. One time i heard:

So, the elves try to kil everyone but hobbits save the day with their allies, the orcs. then men come and throw spears at elves, but kill the hobbits. So the orcs are the good guys! Now i get it! It's so obvious!

The only thing i can say about that is and if only they'd use some common sense!

[Gil-Galad]

Well, on Starcraft and Warcraft 3, i played a map and on SC, it said that Elrond and Galadriel were the king and queen of the elves, both maps for wc3 and sc don't even have gondor and rohan and isengard in the right place! i mean come on! if you can't do a good job don't do one at all!

[bilbo_baggins]

It sounds as though the makers of that particualr map were rather uninformed!

(HeHeHeHe!)

[Gil-Galad]

i know, when i played them, they were horrible, and theres some people out there that say they are the best!

for wc3:


Rivendell Shire Lorien(with ents...)


Dwarves


Isengard Rohan Moria



Gondor Mordor


Its a rought copy of the map, titled "the war of the ring"

Team 1: elves, hobbits and dwarves
Team 2 Gondor and Rohan
Team 3: ISengard
Team 4: Moria and Mordor

And mordor has sauron at beginning! with like 83-97 damage at start!

[Thorongil]

I only know two persons other than myself who has read the book. All the others are too lazy. They like the movies, but the book is too much for them. They ask me questions about things not fully explained in the movie, so I tell them: read the book. But do they listen? Noooo.

[bilbo_baggins]

But you know all of us! We have read the books, too you know; or we would not be here to tell you, silly!

[Thorongil]

I guess you're right there.

[Fosco Burrows]

I've put the book in front of my housemate and all he does is flick through it reading the odd page, I've read it and if I do that it confuses me, what chance does he have?!
FB

[nynnd1]

I love reading the books, i know alot of people that say have but obviously havent, that is really annoying.

I have been looking for a copy of the Tom Bombadil book for ages but havent found one, and bombadil is my favourite character. is it worth tracking down or should i wait for a copy to find me.

[Hot, crispy nice hobbit]

Strangely, "Roverandom" was much easier to find than "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" or "The Road Goes Ever On"...

My copy was a birthday present... *fingers the precious* but that was a real long time since... If you are really impatient, you should order it, but the cost would be so much higher...