Lord of the Rings: Favourite & Least Favourite Parts?

Question

Although the WHOLE story is work of genius, I definitely like some parts more than others...

FAVOURITE chapters have to be...

1.) ***Shadow of the Past:***
Before this chapter, LOTR is as lighthearted as "The Hobbit". This is where the story really gets going and where the true gravitas of what they're dealing with is revealed.


2.) ***Council Of Elrond:***
Again, I love the historical exposition. I love the speeches and the beautiful use of language.


3)***Shelob's Lair:***
100 times more terrifying than the films! In the movie, they're just fighting a giant spider. In the book, they're fighting an ancient and intelligent evil spirit in horrenduous physical form.


4.)***Scouring of the Shire:***
The sense of loss and change is amazingly conveyed here:
The Hobbit's sadness at seeing the evil of Mordor brought to their beloved Shire.
Their own personal growth from having been on this amazing journey.
Sauraman reduced from greatest of the Istari, to "beggar in the wilderness."


***************************************************************************************


LEAST favourite parts have to be...

1.) The Songs and Poems: They tend to range from downright silly (e.g. The Cow Jumped Over The Moon) to incredibly boring ("Duhere and Deorwine, doughty Grimbold, Herefara and Herebrand... blah, blah, blah!").


2.) Everything that comes out of Tom Bombadil's mouth!
I mean seriously, I like the character himself but would you really have wanted to see him on film?? A fat man in yellow boots who sings about himself? "Merry Dol! Derry dol! Ringa Dol Dillo!"


3.) Frodo and Sam's Journey - apart from the aforementioned encounter with Shelob, these parts drag on.


4.) The 2nd Half of Return of the King: All the chapters BETWEEN "The Battle of Pelennor Feilds" and "The Scouring of the Shire" are laborious.

So what are YOUR favourite / least favourite parts?

Answer 1

Favorite parts: (Like my favorite characters, I have so many)

Some are just lines like Rosie Cotton to Sam: If you've been stickin with Mr. Frodo all this time don't you go leaving him just when things start to look dark!

I've always loved the image of Sam vapor locked in the doorway after she says that to him.

The Scouring of the Shire is absolutely my favorite section of the book

The houses of healing. You really get a sense of the characters of Eowyn and Faramir. You really start to understand where they're coming from and why they've made the choices they've made.

The Bridge of Khazad Dhum. It was always the most powerful image to me as a child of this old and battered wizard standing alone on the bridge before an ancient evil. He is bent and nearly broken, yet still he stands. And suddenly, almost out of no where it seems his back straightens and he becomes this unbelievably powerful force. It was always amazing to me

Frodo at the Fords of Bruinen. Riding alone to save his friends from darkness, wounded and dying, Frodo stands on that bank all alone, fully prepared to die to save his friends. Defying the nine with every bone in his body even though it pained him to do so. Even though the knife had worked it's way closer and closer to his heart and he was slowly succumbing to it, he was his own master in the end. It was a marvelous show of strength (one that I greatly missed from the movies)

I agree with The Fog on the Barrow Downs. I love that scene too and I really missed having it in the films. I get why it wasn't there, but I still missed it.



Least favorite parts:

The rest of Moria. It really seemed to drag on.

All the poetry...

Most of Rivendell with special emphasis on the Council of Elrond. I get that it's important. I really do. But it reads like Leviticus in the bible.

Answer 2

I love this book, but as I've got older I can see that even great masterpieces have their flaws...

the whole beginning had too much Hobbit-talk,for one.Once the Nazgul appeared, things immediately grew darker and more interesting on a whole different level. Bombadil was tiresome,although now I understand what he was (an earth-spirit, like the Green man), his behaviour makes more sense. I do like the much-ignored FOG ON THE BARROWDOWNS chapter, as it really evokes an ancient British landscape,and actually got me interested in archaeology! (I have barrows almost in my backyard,haha.) I wasn't that keen on the PRANCING PONY chapter--or rather I liked bits (Frodo's faux pas and Strider) but not the bit of the Nazgul being inside the town and just cutting up the bolsters. I figure if they were THAT close, they would have discovered their quarry. WEATHERTOP was great--loved the scene where Frodo puts on the ring and the Nazgul are revealed in their awfulness. The journey to the house of Elrond is a little long but still interesting, and it's neat to meet all the different races of Middle Earth (and Bilbo) at Elrond's house.

The Moria chapters are great and the flight under the mountains just heart stopping--possibly one of the best underground chase scenes ever written (Garth Nix did this well, too.) The scene where you think they are going to get away,and then the Balrog drags Gandalf into the abyss came as a huge shock--and was very clever. I really thought he was dead and did not anticipate his later return.

Lorien was magical and Boromir's betrayal was shocking and then, sad

I found it a little harder going once the company split; like you, i found some parts of Frodo & Sam's journey dragged, although bits were brilliant, such as when they come upon the evilly glowing Minas Morgul, which suddenly opens its gates to release the armies mustered by the Witchking.

I like the Rohirrim, but there was also maybe a bit too much 'high speech' going on.

I wasn't sure about the Paths of the Dead--it was supposed to be SO terrifying but nothing that scary seemed to happen! The battle of Osgiliath seems, well, just another battle. Denethor's madness was interesting though.

Loved the bit where Gollum bits off Frodo's finger, bringing home Gandalf's words that even Gollum might play a part in the end.

I got to admit there probably was too much poetry and song. A bit is ok, and it doesn't matter if it's doggerel, as this actually gave it a realistic feel--people in all cultures have had rhymes and bits of nonsense songs--but there was an awful lot, and some were very long.The Road goes Ever on, the lay of Earaendil were the best and could have stayed (with maybe the folky rhyme in the inn staying for the comic effect), most of the others could have gone.

Answer 3

Favourites:



"Shadows of the Past" - really introduces the back story and shows glimmers of the future.



"Council of Elrond" - the history etc. explained in this chapter was great, and made me devour The Silmarillion shortly after completing LotR.



The three "Lorien" chapters - Galadriel is one of my favourite characters, and its the biggest glimpse in LotR into the world of the High Elves.



"The King of the Golden Hall" - a pivotal chapter and it draws the Rohirrim completely into the story.



" The Voice of Saruman" - great confrontational scene between Gandalf and Saruman!



"The Palantir" - reveals more of the history of Aragorn, the palantiri and the history of the Numenorians.



"The Window on the West" - introduces Gondor and of course Faramir, another favourite character. It also contains one of the saddest parts in hindsight i.e. Faramir and his men toasting to "Numenor that was, and Elvenhome that is, and that which is beyond that will ever be". Such a nostalgic feeling to it.



"The Battle of the Pelennor Field" - who can forget Eowyn's legendary declaration to and killing of the Nazgul leader!



"The Black Gate Opens" - great scene with the Mouth of Sauron, and it casts doubt into the hearts of the main protagonists.



"The Steward and the King" - a fitting end to the main action, Eowyn and Faramir finding each other, the culmination of Aragorn's dream of wedding Arwen.



I disagree with you though, I enjoyed the next chapters i.e. "Many Partings" and "Homeward Bound". I actually *didn't* enjoy the "Scouring of the Shire" that much. And of course another favourite was "The Grey Havens", a fitting yet melancholy end to the saga i.e. the end of an age, the last High Elves leaving, the parting of Elrond and Arwen, the parting of Galadriel and Celebon, and so forth. Yet happy too... I also enjoyed the Tom Bombadil chapters, simply because the character is such an enigma.



There isn't really any part of Lord of the Rings that I didn't enjoy. I know some people found it laborious and struggled through some parts, yet for me it was all beautifully written and interesting. True mythic quality. But some parts that I didn't like as much as the rest:



"Shortcut to Mushrooms" - irrelevant, and though the Hobbits are the focus of the books, in a way I enjoyed their characters least.



"The Choices of Master Samwise" - don't know, just didn't enjoy reading about Sam all that much.



"Tower of Cirith Ungol" - same reason as above.



Well that's it. But I love JRR Tolkien's work, including The Hobbit and especially The Silmarillion.

Answer 4

My favorite part is when Sam uses the ring to hide from orcs and realises that Frodo isn't dead. His determination to get his friend back is much more powerful than any allure that the ring could bring. I think this heroic side of Sam that we hadn't seen before also sets up the climax nicely, where Sam carries Frodo atop mount doom. Frodo might be the main character, but without Sam he would have never had the slightest chance.



Least favorite parts: some of the descriptions. I remember particularly when Tolkien would describe some of the grand citadels after a few pages of descriptions I would get quite bored and wish that some kind of epic battle would happen soon. xD



(note: I haven't read the books since before the movies came out so my recollection may be off a bit)



I definitely agree that the battle with Shelob is much more awesome in the book. I think the way the light that Galadriel gives to Frodo is used is much more cool in the book vs. the movie.

Answer 5

My least favourite parts are the Tom Bombadil section and the Scouring of the Shire (sorry). It just seems a bit contrived to me that the return of a whole four people suddenly renders the rest of the hobbits capable of overthrowing their oppressors in about ten minutes flat. I feel similarly about the whole "Merry and Pippin both become crucial players with different leaders" thing, though it's not quite as bad.



I don't think I really have a favourite section. I love the entire book.

Answer 6

I liked that Bret from Flight of the Conchords played an elf. Other than that, I thought the color palate of the movies made everything look like the same muddied, boring color. This made me bored and I left the theater midway through each movie.



Is it true that they wrote a novelization of the movies, as a Token?