With the upcoming release of WotR, the consumers are out in force: "What do you want them to do, not make new films?" [Would that be a problem?] "I'm just glad to be back in Middle Earth" [What made you leave?] "I'll pay to see any new content branded LotR no matter how faithful" [I won't]. "They have to add their own filler because there's not enough text" [If there's not enough text then it's a bad choice for adaptation], "They have to make stuff up because they've adapted the real books" [Then it's time to stop]. And the one that confuses me the most: "It's better than nothing".

The alternative to the new adaptations like WotR and RoP isn't "nothing", it's everything that already exists and maybe something better. People like this are openly admitting they care more about quantity than quality, like that's something to be proud of. They missed the whole message of Tolkien. His books are a warning against this attitude. Saruman is the bad buy because he ignores the old trees to build new machines and have the biggest army. Gollum is destroyed by lust for a new shiny gold ring he actually has no need for. Thorin succumbs to gold-lust in Erebor. Frodo can achieve what an army can't.

There are people who just want more stuff for the sake of having more stuff. New for the sake of new. They want "more Tolkien content" forever, even when the source material has been bled white. People say they want more Tolkien adaptations, and I ask them what existing Tolkien adaptations they've consumed. Do you prefer the Baskhi adaptation or the Rankin-Bass adaptation? The BBC adaptation or the NPR adaptation? The Swedish adaptation or the Finnish adaptation? Without fail, they've barely scratched the surface of the Tolkien adaptations that already exist.

I've been insulted as a grandpa for suggesting people watch existing adaptations, and it boggles my mind because Tolkien was a literal grandpa. Why are you in a fandom for a grandpa if you hate grandpas. The whole message of Tolkien is a warning against consumerism, materialism, progress, industry, waste. It's about treasuring what you've got and not abandoning it in pursuit of acquiring more stuff. It's exactly about quality being better than quantity.

So the next time someone says new Tolkien content is "better than nothing", here's a reminder of what they call "nothing":

Book: The LotR book Volumes 1-3, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, The History of Middle Earth Volumes 1-12, Unfinished Tales, The Children of Hurin, Beren and Luthien, The Fall of Gondolin, The Fall of Numenor, The Nature of Middle Earth, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, the Hobbit comic, Tolkien's commentaries on the real-life legends that inspired him eg Beowulf, Finn & Hengest, Gawain & the Green Knight. All the documentary books about Tolkien and Middle-Earth, eg by Tom Shippey.

Screen: The Gene Deitch Hobbit, The Rankin-Bass Hobbit, The Bakshi LotR, The Rankin-Bass Return of the King, Hobbit: Treasures Under the Mountain, The Peter Jackson Extended LotR trilogy [plus the hours of behind-the-scenes features and commentaries], The Peter Jackson Extended Hobbit trilogy [plus the M4 and Tolkien book-edits], The Hunt for Gollum fan-film, the Born of Hope fan-film, the SVT LotR, the BBC Jackanory Hobbit, the Leningrad TV Hobbit, Guardians, the YLE LotR, Andy Serkis' Hobbitathon, the Tolkien film, multiple documentaries about Tolkien.

Audio [in English, there's more in other languages]: The BBC Radio Hobbit, the BBC Radio LotR, the NPR Hobbit, the NPR LotR, the BBC Radio Tales from the Perilous Realm, the Adventures of Frodo, the Hordes of the Things parody, the Martin Shaw audiobooks, the Rob Inglis audiobooks, the Andy Serkis audiobooks, the Phil Dalgesh audiobooks with full sound effects and music, multiple radio documentaries about Tolkien.

Games: [I don't know much about the games but I know there's games].

Tl;dr:
Why are you claiming you need more content produced when there's almost certainly existing content you haven't consumed? It's like ordering more food when your plate is still full. Slow down. Blow a smoke ring. Enjoy what you have.

Watching all the extended versions of the Hobbit and now LOTR movies

In the Two Towers Faramir directly refers to it as “the ring of power” as he’s talking to Frodo and Sam. Is the only time in the movie series that it’s referred to as “The Ring of Power”?

I feel like I’ve seen/heard it referred to as “the one ring”, “magical rings” and such. But never directly referred to as “The Ring of Power”

Sorry if this is a stupid post, just found it on interesting

The trilogy has always been my favorite of the few I have seen and in my personal opinion, the whole part of Fellowship when they leave Lothlorien to the end of that film may be the most perfect portion of film ever written. May be a stupid thing to say since I’ve not seen that many films really and the whole trilogy is pretty much perfect, but I mean, damn. That whole Amon Hen segment is fucking AMAZING, the pacing, emotion, dialogue, story telling and setting is just PERFECT.

That’s all I wanted to share, anyone else think this segment in particular is as amazing as I think it is?

I just wanted to share that in all my prevous readings Gollum was just an annoying character but in this last time I truly got empathize with his pathos. I've read this series maybe five times only this one time I finally got to understand how hard it is to give up on the one thing that marks your life and yet see it on somone else's grasp and, despite all of this, he still wanted to grow beyond his malice and envy. The lines Tolkien writes about this dilemma are truly heartbreaking.

If you could be anyone in middle earth, existing character or a new person, who would you be and where would you live? Which age would it be? Which wars would you be apart of?

What are your thoughts?

Don't know much about this one. Will it be streamed or just in theaters for a stretch?

My kids would probably like to watch it with me. They HATED RoP... like me. They were very disappointed.

Hi all! I’m looking for some guidance, any help would be appreciated! I am mostly naive to the world of Middle Earth, but I am part of a secret santa gift exchange and the person I am gifting to is a big fan. I would like to get him a gift related to lotr, but I want to be sure it is authentic and something that a fan of the series would actually like. Does anyone have suggestions for a good gift idea (memorabilia/art/games/etc.)? I thought about a vinyl of the music from the movies, but it seems that some are not the real thing. I am limited a bit in budget as our max is $50, but open to ideas. Thanks so much in advance :)

This questions has two parts. If somehow ROP doesn't get to the War of the Last Alliance but ends with the sinking of Numenor, couldn't PJ just add and film new scenes of Gil-Galad and Elendil fighting Sauron? Including shots of Numenorean and Elves fighting orcs and trolls? Didn't they film Gil-Galad get burned by Sauron? The actors for both kings are older now, but using CGI of them fighting Sauron can be a alternative? WB can finish a crucial part of the Battle of Dagorlad if ROP doesn't get there. Which is more likely now.

I was lucky enough to attend the Premier but sadly had to leave at 45 minutes owing to a break in. Trully gutted on many fronts but from what I saw I really enjoyed.

We marathon the Fellowship, Two Towers, and Return of the King every December.

Randomly talking about the importance of sunshine this time of year, but it hit me and I think I finally have a term for our special Saturday.

Please tell me if this is already a thing.

Do the barrow whites exist before the witch king or does he create them to prevent the men of arnor resettling the barrow down after carderland fell? (Sorry for the spelling)