The Humans of Middle Earth

  As the title says, I did finally finish my rewatch of Peter Jackson’s LOTR trilogy. It was a pretty crazy 11 hours worth of movie and there was so much that I definitely picked up on a lot more than what I did when I first watched this trilogy way back. In case my last post didn’t make it more obvious, I was most certainly inspired by the recent Magic LOTR crossover set. It was the big talk of the commandfest I went to and the art/flavor was so nice that I figured I might as well give it a rewatch just so I could re-experience it all. 

If there was one thing that I enjoyed the most out of these movies, it was most certainly the battles. The two main battles, Helms deep and Minas Tirith are absolutely peak fantasy genre battles for me. A ragtag force of humans and sometimes elves for Helms deep, vastly outnumbered by the forces of Mordor, must hold out lest they be taken over and the empire of man falls into the darkness that Sauron brings from his evil tower near Mount doom. You can really feel the stakes as the forces of good are backed into a corner with one singular goal in mind: survive the night. The actors do a phenomenal job, you can see fear on every soldier’s face as the armies march on them, how courage drives them forward to whatever glory they’ll find on the battlefield. The absolutely grotesque sounds and costume design of Sauron's armies. The absolute scale of armies is insane. When they say 10,000 orcs, you really feel that on the screen. You can see that despite not being at full strength, the humans muster together large armies of their own. Filling the walls of massive keeps with imposing walls. The weight of thousands of footsteps is felt through the rumblings on the ground and the battlecries being let loose from both sides. When they collide in melee the camera goes absolutely chaotic. Despite this, you can spot individual fights. A human is able to cut down three orcs before an arrow from offscreen ends his moment as quickly as it began. Archers are frantically letting arrows fly into the wall of skin and metal that seems to have no end. The heroes are in the fray, shouting orders and keeping themselves in the fight. The comical contest between Legolas and Gimli adds some nice comedy to a situation that would feel too dire without. 

One thing that really speaks to me about these battles though is how it perfectly shows what the humans are in Tolkien’s world. While elves are known for their great magic, wisdom, longevity. The dwarves are great miners and craftsmen of the mountains. The humans are… well… they’re portrayed as having always been flawed to an extent. You even get this sense from the Ring Verse

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,

The Elves and Dwarves seem grand and noble while the men simply seem expendable. The greatest human flaw on display through the entire thing is their ambition. Even though it was the great Isildur who slay Sauron the first time around, his desire for power is why the ring was even allowed to exist past that. Saruman, even though a wise and great wizard, gave in to his own fear for the chance to become a great general in Sauron’s army. Denethor, the one who was charged with keeping the nation of men ready for their new king, became weak during his time too comfortable as the steward of Gondor. The human kingdoms are shattered, their old capital is nothing but ruins laying in the shadow of Mordor. They aren’t even united in the war with many of the eastern factions choosing to answer Sauron’s call and fight for the forces of darkness. Yet, within those flaws exist the capacity for greatness. How else would those two battles end victorious for the humans? The armies of man were placed in impossible situations, all of them were told that there would be no shame in running. Yet, not one of them chose to run, many knew that it was going to be a time where many of them would not ever make it out, but they chose to stand and fight for the chance that they would be able to live to see it through. In mankind’s ambition lies courage and determination that allows them to reach higher than the arguably more powerful elves and dwarves.

I think it’s crazy that I’ve gone this far without even mentioning Frodo and Sam. While I do enjoy their journey and appreciate how those two grew to meet their impossible journey, I can’t help but be captivated by the other story that was happening alongside theirs. The middle earth humans are possibly the most prime example of why I choose to keep them in the spotlight within a genre where you have the great opportunity to depart from humanity. Other races do come with their own set of powers and flaws, but none resonate as deeply with me than humans. Obviously, being a human myself, any chance to delve into that part of ourselves would most certainly make me more biased, but I do feel that there is so much to explore within that idea. Whether it be through stories, settings, or more reading on my part.

That’s kinda my spiel about LOTR. The world has inspired so much of my personal engagement with the fantasy genre that I don’t know what I would’ve been doing without it. The settings, the way characters are created, and the plot make it feel like watching two incredible DnD campaigns playing out at the same time. A cool last scene I want to mention is the eagles coming into get Sam and Frodo off mount doom. The way the sun lights up the cliff face in a gentle way versus the eruptions and lava with the silhouette of the eagles against the sun make that scene one of the most memorable ones in the series. The battles are going to forever be a treat and why Total War will have a special place in my heart as a game as well. Topic for another post of course. While I definitely won’t be setting aside a week for the movies again anytime soon, it is something that I will most definitely do again. 

Hey, you there, thanks for reading this far! I do appreciate it if you have taken however long it has taken to listen me ramble about things on the internet. For me personally, this has honestly been a little more fun than I expected. I will definitely say sometimes it’s hard to find things to talk about/write about, but when I get into it, I end up writing more than I expected. Something I do want to do is actually write things that are more creative and not just opinions. Hopefully me saying that actually leads to that stuff, but who knows, we will see. Until then, I will see you tomorrow hopefully!