Return of the King and the Inflammed Tonsils

I've been down with tonsilitis all this week... which means I've been sleeping in, passing in and out of troubled sleep, and basically bored out of my skull. Just my luck that all the movies I have on hand at the moment are pure piss.... so I've been digging deep and pulling out old films I wouldn't mind watching again.

This way, I saw Return of the King a few days ago. Due to my limited attention span and propensity for headaches, the film stretched over three days... at the end of which I was all teary eyed.

Even after all these years, it gets to me. Frodo and Sam... Merry and Pippin... Gandalf, Aragorn... regardless of what people may make of the films, to me at least the stories came across, and that's what counts. A lot of people are aghast at the changes in the films, but well... I'm too teary eyed to care!! Boo hoo!! Araaaaagorn!!

A few things I noticed (or rather, re-noticed) from the films:

1. Why oh why are the Elves blond? Apart from Galadriel, there is no mention of any blond elves in Middle Earth. Elrond and his children are dark haired due to their part Edain heritage. What of the other elves? After all, most Elves in Middle Earth are probably of Telerin/Sindarin heritage. So shouldn't they have silver hair (like Cirdan)?

2. I have always felt a bit iffy about Aragorn's legal claim to the throne of Gondor. There's a lot to be said about it, one way or another.... though I still feel his claim was quite shakey.

3. The charge of the Haradrim... reminded me of the Persians from 300.... though not as much slo-mo.

4. There seems to be no internal logic about the use of Cirth/Tengwar. Cirth should normally be preferred for stonework/metalwork, and Tengwar for pensmanship, but again... no logic seems to be in place. While the stone door of Moria has Tegwar, Anduril and the helmet of the Mouth of Sauron have Cirth. Hell, even the Ring has Tengwar.