Billy Boyd and Dom Monaghan, the Two Towers, Cast Commentary

Thought I could have some fun redrawing a lotr screenshot with my hobbit designs and this was a delight, will definetly be doing this again.

Only issue is that they aren’t quite the heights I imagined for these characters, but I can live with that. Pippin’s not holding his sword because I couldn’t get the posing right, but he’d definetly be the last to draw his anyways lol.

((Also well aware that they look different to the canon of the books/wouldn’t have tails, but what’s the point if I don’t have fun with these?))

Incorrect Quote Poll

the fellowship

One difference between the Lord of the Rings books and the Peter Jackson films that I find really interesting is what the hobbits find when they return to the Shire.

In the books, they return from the War, only to see that the war has not left their home untouched. Not only has it not left their home unscathed, battle and conflict is still actively ravaging the Shire. They return, weary and battle-scarred, to find a home actively wounded and in need of rescue and healing. All four launch themselves into defending their home and rousting those harming it, and eventually succeed. But their idyllic home has been damaged, and even once healed, is never quite again the Shire they set out to save.

In contrast, in the Jackson films, they return to a Shire shockingly untouched by the horrors of war. The hobbits of the Shire talk, in the Green Dragon in Fellowship of the Ring, about not getting involved with issues "beyond our borders," and it seems those issues have not invaded their sanctuary. After having been bowed to by kings, dwarves, elves, and men alike at the coronation in Gondor, their only acknowledgment upon returning home is a skeptical head shake from an older hobbit.

One of the most poignant scenes to me in Return of the King (and there are a considerable amount) is the scene where Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin are sitting in the Green Dragon. The pub patrons bustle around them, talking loudly, clapping excitedly, drinking cheerfully, just as they had in the beginning of the story. But the four hobbits sit silently, watching almost curiously at what was once familiar but is now foreign to them. Their home has not changed. But they have.

Which is the deeper hurt? To come to your home to find it irrevocably changed, despite all you did to keep it untouched and the same? Or to return home but no longer feeling at home, because it is only you that is irrevocably changed?

Made some LOTR fellowship Valentine Cards 💘💌

the movie really undersells the fact that frodo spent half a year planning to make his departure from the shire as inconspicuous as possible and merry and pippin and sam saw him doing that, figured out he was leaving the shire and that it had something to do with bilbo’s ring, and then spent nearly as long preparing to go with him. icons

little dudes!

Dom Monaghan and Billy Boyd on Merry, Pippin and the Ents, the Two Towers, Cast Commentary

Art by Ami Thompson

Incorrect Quote Poll

Frodo: *stabbed by an immortal blade*

The Hobbits: What do we do Mr. Strider

The Hobbits: *looking to this big scary mountain man so intimidating and mysterious they don’t even know his real name*

Aragorn, truly just some guy at heart: I’m gonna call my dad

It amazes me that in a world where oaths are so valued and taken so seriously, Elrond does not have the members of the Fellowship swear any oath. He only encourages them to stay with the Ring-bearer for as long as they will. Yet every single member remains true to the Quest in their own way. Everyone makes contributions that make its success possible. Not because of any oath. Sam is under no oath to follow Frodo to Mordor. Boromir is under no oath to lay down his life for Merry and Pippin. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are under no oath to follow the hobbits. But they do all these things anyway, because it is right, and because they love each other. Boromir repents for his actions toward Frodo not because he has broken a literal oath, but because he has broken his friend’s trust, and his actions were just plain wrong. Frodo has sworn no official oath, but made a vow of his own will, because he knows the task must be done by someone, and he is not forced to be the one; he chooses: “I will take the Ring.” Within the entire Fellowship is pure love and nobility and loyalty and that, rather than any oath, saves the world. From the beginning, Elrond knows this is the better option. He knows what Fëanor’s oath did to the world. He knows that there has to be another way. And it turns out there is.