These documentaries are simply the best.

The million reasons I love Tolkien

For someone that didn’t like allegory, Mr Reuben surely made a lot for them. Frodo being physically broken and suffering from shame, guilt, and at the same time lacking that power of holding a weapon surely must spoke a lot with any soldier suffering from PTSD. I was yesterday trying to explain to maybdaighter why Frodo chose to leave the shire and his friends to go to the immortal lands. It’s because he’s no longer Frodo, he’s a broken, suffering, guilty for what he do and DINDT do, individual. He’s suffering from a trauma that no earthly pleasures can relieve him from, no good nights sleep, no tasty food, no good pipe smoke can make relieve or make him forget. He ultimately failed, and the fate of middle earth and all the happiness the inhabitants of middle earth can enjoy now, aren’t his victory to claim, but to be ashamed that nothing but fate and greed from a miserable creature that, let’s remember, wasn’t so different from a hobbit, was ultimately the one to blame for the destruction of the ring. It the same exact thing a soldier suffer either winning or loading a conflict. You’re either embarrassed from all the killing you did, or ashamed for the killing you didn’t. Either way you’re not the same anymore, never to look at life the same way.
There’s no victory for Frodo to celebrate, for, wasn’t there a Gollun that Bilbo spared in the first place, to take the ring and blind by its almost demonic possession lose sense and fall to its doom, by all that Frodo did, the middle earth might as well be in Sauron’s shackles.
Is Frodo the ultimate hero or a Judas figure? You decide.
It’s an extremely forward thinking and modern piece of literature from Tolkien, as contemporary as any we have today.
There’s no writer alike Tolkien, and for the people that dislike the newer movies, take in consideration that people like me, born in Brazil, probably would never, specially in early 2000s with very little in the way of internet, be even aware existed, and for that I’m extremely grateful for Mr Jackson’s work.

This is me favourite to watch before I go to beddy-byes

I loved the documentaries, great job. I think you only missed going deeper into explaining Eowyn as a character.

I saw this VHS tape at a thrift store and I just had to see what it look like just for the aesthetic. Thank you for the upload 🤙

55:23 - 57:18 - Such a lovely summary of some of the story's most significant themes. We're not perfect, the world is complex. We're always searching for good but also tempted by evil, and in all of that, we have to do our best to strive for humanity that's not bound by desires for earthly, fleeting power or wealth or fame.

I think this four-part documentary miniseries was a big improvement over an earlier documentary done by largelly the same team ("Master of the Rings"), about two years before this newer documentary, also in the very early 2000s. This four-part series feels like a much more mature, measured, focused and less thematically scattered version of that earlier attempt. And this finale of this docu-series is absolutely excellent, encapsulates many of the deeper ideas and exploration of themes readers can take away from Tolkien's fantasy fiction.

Personally, I've always been surprised many people tend to overlook the fact that Tolkien, contrary to his seemingly old-fashioned attitudes, seems to have a rather modern habit, a rather subversive habit, of exploring the topic of heroism itself, and particularly, the tendency towards "hero-worship" or fetishization of the idea of "heroes". For all his love of medieval literature and poetry, and his respect for people being capable of heroic deeds, Tolkien is skeptical of the idea of a hero as an infallible figure. Given his distaste for nationalism and the horrors of the modern world which he saw throughout the 20th century, Tolkien seems interested in bringing things back to ground level.

Showing that, no, neither physical power or ego are what make a hero, but the inner strength, a capability of self-reflection, and of selfless behaviour. Even if you're a seemingly "lowly" figure, your humbleness alone also can't guarantee you'll be heroic, never mind infallible. All of Tolkien's characters are fallible. Rather than consider that a limitation or as something "boring", Tolkien's works actively provoke their readers to engage with that theme, to consider the real nature and true costs of so-called heroism. To be heroic, even on an everyday level, requires ethics, compassion and intelligence. An overblown ego (either in pride, or in foolhardy recklesness masquerading as bravery, or in overestimating yourself or select others) can only create a half-hearted parody of heroism. Real heroic figures are not infallible, they can and do fail, they are only human. Many heroes in Tolkien's Legendarium allow their egos to get the better of them and this proves either their own downfall or the downfall of their descendants. Arch-villains like Morgoth and Sauron actively prey on that pride, that ego, because they know it's one of the quickest ways to corrupt and destroy even outwardly, seemingly heroic figures. Letting go of egotistical desires, but standing one's ground on ethical principles is what I've always felt Tolkien was hinting at when writing many of the stories in his Legendarium.

P. S. I find it rather amusing that Graham McTavish is the presenter of this 2003 documentary, and ten years later, he played Dwalin. :-)

Pronunciations of Cirith Ungol and Celeborn are wrong, beside that, great analysis  :)

The ring was just too strong in that place for anyone to willingly cast it in or even away.

Brave Heroes of Middle Earth

Most excellent doc! Thank you SO much.

I love the rock music 😂

I have always wrestled with the question if Gollum, a character who mighr be easily one of Tolkien's very best inventions,  ended up badly or not. And l came to the conclusion that he didn’t have a bad end at all!  Gollum was finally reunited with his beloved  "precious" - and Tolkien granted him the mercy to become the ultimate force of good! Yes, although it wasn't exactly a voluntary choice, Gollum became the  saviour of Middle Earth, and he died during the happiest moment of his rather long life 😊 I think Illuvatar had mercy with Gollum's tortured little soul.

I LOVE  the women in LOTR.     The love story  of  Faramir and Eowyn  is one of my favorite stories!

I wholly agree that modern architecture is soulless, to the very great loss of all of us.

Could listen to Patrick talk about LOTR all day 😂

Disagree. The Scouring of the Shire is absolutely essential to the story. The first stroke of the War of the Ring happens at Bag End when Frodo accepts the Quest, though not knowing the full extent of it, and the last stroke of the War also happens at Bag End. A brilliant set of bookends to frame the saga within. Then, and only then, can Frodo find healing in the West as he departs with the three Elven Rings. The story would not be complete without The Scouring and The Grey Havens. The last line in the story, spoken by Sam, "Well, I'm back." is, by far, not only the best ending line, but summarizes the entire Quest from Sam and Frodo's perspective. They cared nothing for praise and glory and being heroes. They just wanted to be simple people living simple lives. Something we also really should aspire to.

Am I seeing things or is that Graham McTavish??  He played Dwalin in The Hobbit movie!

Still totally love that it was a warrior woman who kills the king of the ring wraiths! Lovely plot twist. :)

There should be documentaries that analyze The Wheel of Time and maybe even A Song of Ice and Fire when it gets finished (I have faith in Martin).