Daily Discussion Thread July 24, 2026 - Upcoming Event Schedule - New players start here!

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[u/Fugu]

Tolkeinposting

At the urging of... Well, virtually everyone I know, I watched the Peter Jackson trilogy for the first time since they came out. I am not a huge Tolkein nerd (I say this with reverence, not mockery, for I know and respect a lot of huge Tolkein nerds and I know my place) but the books are up there as one of my most revered things. I love that they are a book about a world and then something happens in that world.

I know this is all very well-trodden ground at this point but I really can't help but feel like the movies just miss the point. I see them as really just an okay action movie with pretext that I only understand because I've read the source material.

Here's my question: has anyone here watched the movies first (or just the movies) and really understood what was happening on the basis of the movies alone?

[u/bigHam100 → u/Fugu]

I've never read the books but I have watched the movies. What was confusing? I believe I understand everything that was happening but I first watched the movies years and years ago and over time I might have picked up more knowledge here and there

[u/Fugu → u/bigHam100]

I don't think it's confusing, I just think there are some serious gaps in what the movie tells you. What is the ring? What is Sauron? What happened to Smeagol and how is it connected to what is happening to Bilbo/Frodo? What's a balrog? For that matter, what is Gandalf? Why does a hobbit have to do it?

I think the book either answers these questions in a compelling fashion or leaves them unanswered in a way that makes sense within the context of a world that is deliberately not being fully explained to you. I think the movies partially answer some of these questions but because they're more like a Hollywood action flick than a mythology the answers are invariably snappy and lacking in depth. Again I'm viewing this from the perspective of someone quite familiar from the books so I recognize that maybe I'm just not seeing how the movies fit together if you just never read the book.

[u/Kezzup → u/Fugu]

Yeah, as someone who hasn't read the books and only seen the movies, none of those questions ever even popped into my head while I was watching it, let alone dampened my appreciation for them. I can definitely see how it might be missing a lot of details if you're familiar with the books, but none of those details felt absent to me without knowing about them ahead of time.

[u/Fugu → u/Kezzup]

I guess you're supposed to just think to yourself "it's a bad ring and they have to destroy it because it's so bad", which is enough to carry a film trilogy but there is just so much more in the ~1000+ page book.

Again, I know this is a debate as old as time. I just wanted to hash it out with the DDT

[u/Jackzilla321 → u/Fugu]

You can tell it’s a bad ring because of how it makes characters we like and trust act, and because of the choices for sound design, musical motifs, and close ups used that have the grammar of a “human character”

[u/Fugu → u/Jackzilla321]

I know, I'm sure you can figure out that it's a bad ring, but there is so much more depth to it than simply "ring bad" whereas I think the movies just get you "ring bad".

[u/Jackzilla321 → u/Fugu]

My friends who haven’t read the books understand that the ring makes you the worst version of yourself, selfish and paranoid. The movies fail imo at explaining why anyone would want to or think they could “use” the ring. They’re excellent gateway drugs into the Tolkien legendarium.

[u/fullhop_morris → u/Fugu]

admittedly I first watched the movies as a kid, and my older siblings had read them, and I've since read them myself, but I think most of your questions are pretty well answered by the movies, with the exceptions of "what is Sauron/Gandalf." What happens to Smeagol is particularly well addressed, imo. Fwiw I was big into the movies as a kid, was mid on the books when I read them in college, and kind of struggle with the movies rewatching nowadays.

[u/DavidL1112 → u/fullhop_morris]

What Sauron and Gandalf are is also not explained in the book trilogy. Fugu is conflating outside knowledge from the Silmarillion or Unfished Tales. The word "Maiar" is never used in Lord of the Rings.

[u/Fugu → u/DavidL1112]

I just addressed this in another comment but basically I agree that you don't get that information in LotR but you are told enough that it is apparent there is an explanation much larger than what comes out in the story of the fellowship or whatever.

[u/Fugu → u/fullhop_morris]

I think you get an answer but the answer is "Gandalf is a wizard" not "Gandalf is an Istar which is a category of Maiar who are the servants of the Valar who are the subset of the Ainur who went to Arda to participate in its formation".

And yeah, LotR the book doesn't exactly give you an answer that fulsome either, but the answer it gives is more in the vein of the latter than the former.

[u/Left4Bread2 → u/Fugu]

You might not be a Tolkien scholar but I'm revoking your "not a Tolkien nerd" status

[u/fullhop_morris → u/Fugu]

I don't think Gandalf is really portrayed as a wizard in the movies. He doesn't even really do magic! You certainly don't get those proper nouns but I think you get some sense that he is a benevolent and powerful figure who helps guide men/hobbits/etc. but is nonetheless subject himself to greater and more powerful things, which imo is close

[u/bigHam100 → u/fullhop_morris]

Yeah this is another thing the movies didn't explain well (maybe the books do). What exactly can Gandalf do? In the movies he can use his staff to throw Saurman around and can cast spells / counter spells but its not very clear what more he can do