Small Rant on Lord of the Rings Books vs Movies

So, with the Hobbit movie coming out in December, (Read about it here!) I decided to do a little brush-up on my Tolkien. After reading the books, I watched the movies, even the Lord of the Rings ones (leh, duh. do you REALLY use THAT as an excuse to watch them? Seriously). Now, these movies irk many who've actually read the books. And yes, naturally, the movies irk me just a little bit. 

First off, though, I must say how much I am obsessing over Aragorn and Legolas. Just crikey! They are beautiful creatures that do beautiful things! Though my favorite character overall, (book-wise) is Smeagol, I do love me some Strider and Greenleaf in the movies. 

Speaking of Smeagol, Tolkien depicted him in the books as a creature fighting the ring, and fighting himself, but succumbing to the evil power greater than him. He was weak to start off with, and hence, easy prey. Because of that, he was a miserable outcast that could never REALLY go back to how he was before. The ring cut too deep into him, and though he still had goodness deep down, it was faltering even as he tried to strengthen it. The movie only portrayed about 42% of the complexity of Gollum's and Smeagol's character. Though I understand, this sort of moral ambiguity is EXTREMELY difficult to capture, I still wish it was better... somehow. I don't know. The book Gollum was better for sure. 

And what was up with those added Arwen-Aragorn scenes? Yes, there was a love triangle in the books. But the books NEVER mentioned ANYTHING of their children, Arwen's vision of the future, Elrond not supporting their love, or any "elf heals human through a fancy hallucination when the said human is on the brink of death after a battle that never took place in the book." Seriously, it never happened. That is called fanfiction. 

And what about Faramir? I could honestly go on a WHOLE RANT on how Peter Jackson did not show Faramir's character AT ALL, and how that really affected the plot. But, too bad there already are threads about that, so I'm just going to cover the basic fact, and then link some threads for you to check out. FARAMIR NEVER WANTED THE DAMN RING IN THE FIRST PLACE! He would not have taken it ever, because he knew that he would not resist the ring's power. He was not like Boromir at all, and he would not have even come close to repeating Boromir's mistake. He did not take Frodo and Sam anywhere out of the hideout cave, much less to Isengard to give the ring as a present for his father. Nope. No! He was gentle and kind to Frodo and Sam, and to Gollum once he scurried into the pond to catch fish. In the movie, he was harsh with Frodo and Sam, and when Gollum was brought in, his men repeatedly hurt Smeagol with physical violence and harsh words. That went against the very nature of the men of Gondor! Like whaaaa? And on the final note, when Faramir released Sam and Frodo, he was told that he would be executed for releasing prisoners.... He was never killed. Peter Jackson made that whole part up, and did not even have the consistency to go through with it! Like, no! PJ, you best get your ish together for dat Hobbit movie! :3

But even though his movies are flawed, I am still SOO SUPER DUPER EXCITED FOR THE BATTLE OF FIVE ARMIES! XD 

Link for interesting Faramir thread is here :3

Peace out XD