The Return of the King by J.R.R. TolkienMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This part of LOTR gave me all sorts of emotions.
Book V marked the beginning of the Return of the King. In this part, Pippin and Merry were separated. Pippin goes to Gondor with Gandalf, while Merry remains in Rohan with Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas with their new found friends, Theoden, Eomer and Eowyn.
ROTK tapped almost everything a story could possibly tap. Overall, it is a magnificent fiction that tells heroism, romance, friendship, the good and evil, and others.
Aragorn, the rightful heir to the throne of Gondor had proven his quality to Middle Earth. He had gathered his courage to face Sauron. He led people to battle, and healed those who were ill. He was the perfect King. Tolkien did not do an exaggeration, in my opinion, when it comes to Aragorn's character. I think, he simply believes that this is how a King should be like.
Faramir, the steward of Gondor had also proven himself by being so consistently gentle. I admired that quality of him for even if he had the right and chance to be ruled by anger and hurt inflicted by his father, he preferred to remain steady instead.
Eowyn's my favorite hero though. I'm not taking her at the lead spot because she's a woman, but because she surprised me the most. I thank Tolkien for letting somebody like Eowyn exist in LOTR. In most stories, women get let behind, and always had the role of those who should be protected. I like Eowyn's guts and her ability to have more than just guts.
Merry and Pippin's friendship brought a different kind of emotion to me. It's good that Tolkien proved that they're no less than Sam and Frodo's. Whenever Merry thinks about Pippin and Pippin about Merry, I feel great and wonder, can this be for real? And at the Battle of Pelennor Fields, when Pip found Merry, and told him he would take care of him, it was really beautiful, it was so weird and yet...well beautiful. And I started to wonder where Frodo and Sam could be and how they're doing, even if I knew well they'll all survive, I just can't help but forget I knew all about that.
Sam and Frodo were just as great as Pip and Merry. I really admired Sam's loyalty to his Mr. Frodo. And even if Frodo had his grumpy moments, I feel great every time I'd read "sorry Sam, it's the ring...". I am glad he's aware every time his tone changes to rude. Also, if Sam wasn't there at Mt. Doom with him, all would have been in vain. There would've been part 2, I think. If not, it would've been a disastrous ending.
Eomer also made a great impression. Since I've always wanted an older brother or sister, I did not skip a word from his lines. He was such a good character and when he thought Eowyn was dead along with his King, I was so affected by his line: death take us all. It's like I could hear him and he's just the kind of character you'd want to comfort.
Gandalf was consistently awesome and strong in this part too. He's a very important asset and it's like he represented the race of everyone who's not from the line of men. Maybe his existence is the reason why Tolkien thinks it's not necessary to involve most of the Elves and Dwarves in the battle. Middle Earth had Gandalf and his Eagles so... :)
Gimli and Legolas didn't make much appearances, only when battles are happening and such but they were still both so cool and whenever they're mentioned, the story feels lighter. I'm not sure if that's because Gimli's just really funny and witty or is it because Legolas just so cool and elvish.
I also found my favorite chapter in this part of LOTR. It's "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields". This is the chapter where Theoden died, and Eowyn killed a Ringwraith. This was the chapter that affected me the most, as proven by how many pages I folded.
I do know I didn't do justice in reviewing ROTK but well one does not simply get over the fact that Frodo is now separated from his fellow hobbits especially from Sam. T_T
That's all. I just- well I'll just end it here. T_T
P.S.: ROTK is my favorite part.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment