Further observations from re-reading Lord of the Rings:
– Tolkien clearly didn’t care for battle depictions. When Sauron is defeated, he just quickly moves on to other things, like Gandalf.
– The romance between Faramir and Eowyn gets multiple pages, the wedding of Arwen and Aragorn is not even described.
– Aragorn gives the land back to the people of Ghan-Buri-Ghan, that were “hunted like animals”. Despite the many racist elements in the books, this feels well before its time.
@jhilden Don't remember much about LOTR, but The Battle of Five Armies in The Hobbit was like five pages and apparently the third Hobbit film is basically just that battle?
I’m also a bit surprised that the books probably do better with regards to number of lines spoken by female characters than the films. You get the feeling that Tolkien was symphatetic with Eowyn rebelling against narrow gender roles, while still depicting the overall society as very male-centered, because that was what felt “realistic” to him.
@milesizdead Your mileage may vary, but I’ve been finding them quite enjoyable. Reading aloud to my 9yo. They really are mostly hiking fiction! Also in some ways weirder than a lot of the stuff they eventually inspired. I’m sure there are more lines of silly songs and depictions or vegetation than there is of swordfights, by a significant amount.
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