Lord of the Rings Characters: Screen Time vs. Mentions in the Books
Lord of the Rings Characters: Screen Time vs. Mentions in the Books
Looks like they mostly did a good job matching up
73Yeah, I saw the image and thought it was going to be bad, but it's not like you'd expect any of them to be exactly on the line. They all generally track - I don't see any giant outliers.
24Tom Bombadil is probably the biggest omission - both the character and all tge activities that take place around their house. I remembered that sticking out to me when I watched the films for the first time, but at that point I last read the trilogy at least five years prior.
23
The Legolas-Gimli discrepancy is astonishing.
40Gimli was turned into the comic relief dwarf, which was a bit sad
45Is it, though? Conventionally attractive, blonde dude vs grim, beardy dwarf? I'd rather look at the latter all day but I doubt I'm in the majority there.
11Similarly, heroes are emphasised in the film more and villains under emphasised. Sauron, Saruman and Denethor all having less screen time than mentions.
That Sam is relatively underplayed is interesting also. Pretty sure Tolkien is on record saying Sam is the actual hero of the story. Which is there in the film, but clearly with a preference for focusing on Frodo more.
12
Honestly surprised Legolas is over represented considering how much of a boner Tolkien had for him. But I guess everyone did, right.
10
Can’t say no to that face.
21
Good riddance, Tom Bombadil. I don't care how merry a fellow he was, those were my least favorite chapters of Fellowship.
26That's disrespectful! He also had a bright blue jacket, and his boots were yellow.
4
Tom Bombadil was my favourite part of the book, and I was so disappointed when I realised that that part had been taken out of the film.
22This got me confused
Why didn't just Tom wear the Ring as he makes passionate love with his wife, so he can force Sauron to watch.
Sauron, who is a virgin, who never had a gf and was dismembered and reduced to a giant eye by a fucking human would realize he is nothing compared to Tom, whose girth is beyond even Eru Ilúvatar's comprehension.
Wishing to die but unable to kill himself as he doesn't even have a fucking hand to pull the trigger, he would order his orc armies to piss on him, so that the flames of his eye can be extinguished and his mind can be set free of Tom's all encompassing girth. His spirit would be released to the boundless void that ripples and contorts with Tom's mighty thrusts and he would find no solace.
Edit: When Tom thrusts his final thrust and shoots a billion Bombadillos deep into Goldberry's loins, the impact would shatter Sauron's soul into a billion Saurodillos and he would be free. When this happens, not even the wisest can tell.
11Was there a point to Tom Bombadil? All I really remember was that he helped the hobbits escape the. And I'm not even 100% sure about that. Also that Gandolf said he might go visit him at the end of the book. Was there some important part about it I missed?
8He could wear the one ring and remain unaffected by it, laughed at it even. Then he could make the ring vanish and bring it back at will.
He seemed unconcerned by the war, almost as if he knew of and had seen wars greater and far more terrible. Yet he had chosen a side and was willing to provide what aid he could.
He was Doolittle to all lifeforms, his songs tranquilized ancient evils, and he could be called upon at long range to swiftly respond.
His very existence suggested fundamental mysteries about the world; old and powerful.
Bombadil, moreso than Strider, was the embodiment of strong, old roots not withering, remaining out of reach of the frost. Old roots that could reason with willows and wights.
18Not that I remember, which is probably the reason why it was cut from the film. There is a lot of activity around him and the area around his house in the books, but it's more side quest than main quest.
8It was just a relaxing, peaceful section of the narrative, which the film could have done with more of.
3
20The duality of fan
10"I think I was trying to suggest something about the duality of fan, sir. The Jungian thing, sir."
4
... Glorfindel was in the movies?
16In The Fellowship of the Ring, Glorfindel's role in guiding Frodo Baggins to Rivendell is filled by Arwen, though he does appear during the prologue when Sauron is defeated. In The Return of the King, Glorfindel is seen walking next to Arwen as she is having her vision of her son Eldarion during the journey to the Grey Havens. In his last appearance, he is seen at the crowning of King Elessar, behind Legolas and in front of Arwen. In all appearances in the movies he has no speaking lines
30I hink that's the 0 line. There with good old Tom bombadilEDIT: nvm I'm blind
1
The scale is neither linear nor logarithmic. What?
12Because the point isn't to compare 2 characters, but to see how one character performs in the books and in the movies.
And for that, it doesn't matter. But they could have used a bar graph instead.
0Well, I'd like to know if Arwen's screentime/mention ratio is 2x or 3x that of the Frodo baseline. This arbitrary scale makes it impossible. It would not hurt to add more values to the axes, and perhaps a faint grid.
1
I wonder if this is off the theatrical or extended and what the other might show.
11Biggest surprise to me is that Faramir has more mentions in the books than Boromir.
9He's around longer.
4Are you saying Boromir should have died earlier? Dude!
1Not at all, I really like Boromir’s story, but that’s why I’m surprised. I feel like his development got a lot of attention, and even though Faramir was around for longer in the story, he never seemed quite as prominent to me. I guess that duration made up for the attention boromir got early on, though.
1
8Gothmog gets screen time?
Edit: nvm that's the uruk general. I was thinking of Morgoth
7I'm actually fairly ok with this, more or less what I would expect from a mainstream movie(s, and the fact that they are good is just a nice bonus).
6A mention is not the same as an appearance, so the discrepancy for some characters could be even greater if you take that into account.
5The balance of this doesn't surprise me. The shift between book and film is quite heavily based on gender.
The books were certainly much more male character based and the films evened it up a bit more. Although obviously still not even.
4Not surprising considering the hours of "Oh Frodo!" "Oh Sam!" "Oh Frodo!" "Oh Sam!" Hobbitses are little girlses
3How can Sauron be under represented? Who do you think the Lord in "Lord of the rings" is??
It's like saying the book on Tom Bombadill doesn't have enough mentions of Tom.
1