#so afraid to be corny or cheesy that you have to tack a joke onto every real emotional moment

[andromeda3116]

people actually went on about how game of thrones made it socially acceptable to be a fantasy nerd, as though the lord of the rings movies hadn't been released less than a decade earlier and left far greater cultural ripples and i am just

got may have made the adults feel better about liking fantasy, but lotr got into the kids' heads when they (we) were just young and impressionable enough to be absolutely transported and emotionally rewritten by don't you leave him, samwise gamgee and my brother, my captain, my king and and rohan will answer

lotr was rewriting entire generations' brain chemistry long before asoiaf and so obviously it's not fair to compare any post-lotr fantasy novel to it, and each book series was trying to do different things within their own spheres and so that also is not a fair comparison, but in terms of the cultural impact of the adaptations that came out within a decade of each other, saying that it was game of thrones that made fantasy mainstream is baffling

game of thrones could only run because the lord of the rings movies laid the path, and i will die on this hill

#lotr #lord of the rings #lord of the rings movies #i started this post because ''may it be'' came up on my playlist but now i think i'm going to start my nth rewatch of the trilogy #there is a lot to discuss about it re: comparison to the books but it's like... #for all the changes they made - good and bad and neutral - everyone involved in making the films *loved* the source material #they all *wanted* to do justice to it and believed in it and it shows #i think of some posts i've seen about how frustrating this modern push towards tongue-in-cheek irony over sincerity #so afraid to be corny or cheesy that you have to tack a joke onto every real emotional moment #like no fuck that #give me sam hauling frodo onto his shoulders saying ''i can't carry it for you but i can carry you'' #give me aragorn gently kissing boromir's forehead as he dies #give me merry and pippin throwing themselves at the uruk hai to distract them from frodo #give me theoden's grand speeches and gandalf's pained expression when frodo says he'll carry the ring #tbh i think that sincerity is a large part of *why* it has such staying power even now #because it is a story you are meant to get deeply emotionally invested in and not hold yourself a little ironically apart from #it isn't meant to sell merch it's meant to bring you to middle-earth and capture your heart and make you believe that the war can be won #with love and loyalty and hope and fellowship and fidelity and integrity and just... just refusing to give in to despair #it is earnest. it is unafraid to be melodramatic or corny because it believes in the story it's telling. #and so it imprinted onto a whole generation growing up right at the cusp of a barrage of apocalypses #anyway. i have Feelings about these movies and their impact and how that mirrors and enhances the books' own impact