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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   1823 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026

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So, what is everyone watching (films, shows, even YouTube if you think it counts)?

I've seen two movies recently:

  • The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017): This is the second Lanthimos film I've seen after Bugonia and Dogtooth, the former of which I loved and the latter of which was meh. KSD felt like it was awkwardly edgy and vague, but I very well may have missed the point. The actors did an excellent job of making me feel uncomfortable throughout. 4.2/10 enjoyment, give me those hours of my life back.

  • Train Dreams (2025): I've always enjoyed movies about everyday, simple lives (I don't have any others off the top of my head, but I know they exist). This one resonated with me because of a forest in my life, one that I half-seriously say I grew up in through mountain biking, trail running, airsoft battles, exploring, fort-building, and general elementary and teenage debauchery. 8.1/10 enjoyment, give me those years of my life back. I was a bit surprised everyone else's ratings were so high, though.

Decided my kids are old enough for Lord of the Rings, so we got started with that. We have the Extended version, which I've never watched before, and I found myself noticing that several scenes were actually made worse by the extra stuff added in. We're only one movie in so far, so I think we'll watch the theatrical version of the second one.

That's a very wild take. The extended editions of LOTR are by far the better versions, as there is a lot of the book which only exists in those extra scenes.

The book gets defiled even more in the extra scenes I've seen. The worst one that I've seen is the one with the Mouth of Sauron; instead of in the book, where the Mouth of Sauron has its intended effects on common folk like hobbits or random soldiers, the movie has the entire cast crestfallen and eating all of the Mouth of Sauron's propaganda full force. In the book, Gandalf calls his bluff and asks him to produce the hobbits, and when he snarls in response, dismisses him. In the movie, Aragorn gets so angry that he rides his horse up and then when he's past the line of sight of the Mouth of Sauron, heaves his great sword and decapitates him in a sneak attack full of rage. That last part is so incredibly far off from the way the book portrayed Aragorn that it's a total insult. If @HereAndGone2 is the same person as FarNearEverywhere, then she might have more to say...

That last part is so incredibly far off from the way the book portrayed Aragorn that it's a total insult.

Jackson's Aragorn has always been significantly different from his book counterpart though. Probably somewhat of a necessity if you don't want to get into details of his and Gondor's history (though they do bring in the Numenorean stuff in the Extended editions)

It actually affects what you think the themes of LOTR are. A lot of people take the One Ring to represent power as such which I think can be directly traced to the idea that Aragorn, the good king, doesn't want to be king unless it's pressed upon him by the most extreme circumstances. e end...

Ah, how well you know me.

I've complained about Jackson's changes, there are some I accept because you're making a movie and that's a different medium, some I don't because yeah as you say, totally misunderstands the characters.

But by God, when they're compared to "Galadriel forgot she was a married woman and started making googly-eyes at Sauron in between doing her damnedest to be a war criminal and general pain in the backside to Man and Elf", I didn't know how good I had it.

I think I'm most pained on Celebrimbor's part. "Gosh, these durn metals just won't do what they're told and form the vital rings that will save our people from immediate death!" "Yeah, about that: have you ever heard of the amazing new technique called 'alloys'? It's a little thing we scruffy Mortals came up with recently".

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