Fact: during the scene where Viggo kicked the helmet and screamed angrily, he broke his toe but kept going in the scene to give his character more emotion
did you know that elves in middle earth see farther because when Eru Ilúvatar put them there the planet was flat and that is how elves see the world; I don't remember why it happened but later on Eru Ilúvatar decided to make the world round (it happened before the humans got there)
Gollum is our raggedy little murder-bean. Fun Fact: Andy Serkis had to record every Gollum scene 3 TIMES. Once on the actual set because the filmmakers knew they HAD to have him actually interact with Sam and Frodo. THEN they had him in mo-cap but because it was literally brand-new and pretty much reinvented just for this movie, it had to be on a controlled studio setup. AND THEN he had to re-record all of his lines in voice over. Andy was an absolute beast and 100% deserves the respect he gets.
It’s always a treat to see people have their wound of Gandalf’s death be reopened, and then seeing their mood shift as the camera follows him down the chasm.
"Fell beast" is really just another way of saying "horrible monster", other sources have labeled them as "hell-hawks" or claimed they were bred from "cold drakes"
Real funny story about Gimli filming that scene of him having to run at the start - the actor John Rhys-Davies relates how he watched like 3 or 4 different people carrying his entire costume up to the filming location on set (because of its weight), which was all put on him as well as his axes, and then the director Peter Jackson tells him "right John, I want you to *run* up that mountain"
Rhys-Davies is also the tallest actor in the Fellowship. Which is just funny to me. Also, it is really respectable for the cinematography that they made him look so short.
So since we reached the point, let's talk more in depth about Gandalf. Gandalf, whose real name is Olórin, is a Maia. A lower ranking angel of God creator Eru Illuvatar, just like the other wizards like Saruman, the balrogs and Sauron himself. He along with the other wizard (they were 5 in total: Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast and the two blue wizards) were sent by the Valar (the high ranking angels) to Middle Earth with the objective of guiding people against the power of Sauron, with the order to also not use their full power too and disguise themselves as old men. Gandalf was considered the most humble and honest of the members of the White Council, which made Saruman grow jealousy and hatred toward him. When Gandalf fell with the balrog, who as I said was also a Maia like Gandalf, one corrupted by the evil of the first Dark Lord Morgoth, they landed in a secret deep lake and chased the Balrog in the caves down below, until they reached a secret spiral staircase built by the first dwarf king Durin I. That staircase which reached both the depths and the top of the mountain on which Moria in built in, was climbed by Gandalf and the balrog until they reached the summit and battled there using their full strength. Gandalf won but died in the process. His courage however got rewarded as Eru Illuvatar brought him back to life and promoted from grey wizard to white wizard, the new leader of the White council, to finish his role of guiding men and defeat Sauron.
@@soul6733 Well, yeah, in LOTR, they are at most minor dieties under Eru, who is the true God. It's not a direct 1 for 1. It's just the closest comparison.
Since you asked about the filming sequence, all 3 were filmed at the same time on site in New Zealand. Peter Jackson basically treated it as if he was filming one huge movie and then released it in 3 parts.
Useless Trivia: during filming for the “Great Chase” scene, Viggo (Aragorn), Orlando Bloom (Legolas), and Brett Beattie (The small stuntman playing Gimli) would get dropped off from a helicopter in the morning and then just run and walk all day while the camera crew filmed from the helicopter. They did that for several days and ALL 3 had injuries while they were doing it. Orlando had a back injury from falling off a horse. Viggo had a broken toe (you’ll find out how he got that from probably 2 dozen other commenters here), and Brett had a knee injury of some sort, I can’t remember what from, probably just accumulating injuries from being a professional stuntman.
In the scene where Aragorn kicks the helmet Vigo broke his toe so that pained cry is 100% genuine, the way he tells it he knew the take was going to come out great so he channelled the energy. And now I have passed on this knowledge I shall diminish and go into the west and my skills shall remain loading. Edit: Towers
The best part about Gandalf coming back in the Two Towers is that you realize he Leeroy Jenkins'ed the Balrog, got the solo XP bonus and then came back leveled up with high-class gear.
Tolkien had no real concept to which two TOWERS the title referred; after the volumes were split up, the publisher made him propose something, and he just thought, "Eh, there are a lot of towers; pick two." Other ideas included Minas Tirith/Anor & Minas Morgul/Ithil. He was also not keen on "The Return of the King" as he thought it gave away too much. I believe his preference was "The War of the Ring."
My dad reading the book in the 80s: "Guy in the corner is called some badass name like 'Strider', and the third book is 'Return of the King' . . . So yeah, that guy is 100% the King."
@@EchteSauerkartoffelthat's a far stretch as I don't recall Sauron returning to anywhere, he already returned to his fortress and his servants to his main bastions
The reason Gandalf didn't remember his name is because "Gandalf" isn't his true name, which is Olórin. He's only been called Gandalf for two to three thousand years-a drop in the bucket of his existence-and he was a little disoriented after being resurrected on Middle-Earth.
@mjbull5156 Partly right. The location of that battle was there, to the Black Gate, PAST the Black Gate, ALL THE WAY ACROSS DAGORLAD (which is why it is CALLED 'Dagorlad', 'battle plain') to the slopes of Orodruin. That battle, was one continuous battle, that lasted SEVEN FULL YEARS, and pushed from outside Mordor ALL THE WAY TO MT. DOOM AND BARAD-DUR, which was then besieged for ANOTHER THREE YEARS before the final clash in which Isildur hewed the ring from Sauron's hand. That particular site, though? That is where the battle BEGAN and, more accurately, is where the King of Mirkwood at the time, Oropher, and pretty much all his forces got slaughtered because they impatiently charged straight into an obvious strategic trap at the start of the battle without consulting anyone else. Somewhere in those Marshes lies King Oropher, never recovered, and most of Mirkwood's contribution to the Last Alliance. They were the first to fight, and the first to fall.
@@mjbull5156 Not quite, the Dead Marshes are outside of Mordor and in the books Sauron was defeated outside his tower, Barad-Dur, which was under siege (and that's where Isildur's younger brother, Anarion, died: due to a stone thrown from the tower). But it is correct to say that the battle at the marshes was a part of that large conflict: The War of the Last Alliance.
"An elf, a man, and a dwarf walk into a bar..." "Not the dwarf. He walked under it." You, Towers fans! Can someone make a tally of the number of comments who wrote "Alicia, did you know" about _THAT_ scene?
So funfact heavy armor is actually lighter then modern armor, only about 40-50 pounds. Knights in full plate mail could actually run, climb, and many other activities.
Yes. Sometimes even lighter. Depends on the armor type, region of Europe, and time period. There are some high Gothic harnesses from 15th century Germany that are extremely protective, very mobile, but only weigh around 35lbs.
i hope someone in her chat explains just how intense and bad ass the whole gandolf vs the balrog thing actually was. the fact they spent days side by side fending off lovecraftian horrors just to go back to their 1 v1 the moment they escaped is beyond bad ass
Tolkien always hated his story being used as analogy because that wasn't his intention, but a lot of people believe the faces in the water at the dead marshes were probably inspired by his time fighting in ww1 on the trenches, based on descriptions other ww1 veterans gave about bodies floating in water filled bomb craters and avoiding falling into them (because you'd get stuck and drown in them)
He specifically hated implied analogies, but as far as I've seen on the matter, he was pretty ok with whatever the reader came up on his/her own. And yes, the influence of the Great War in which he participated was huge on the books. There's later on a short passage where Frodo and Sam overhear two Mordor soldiers discussing things and if you remove the fantasy context, it can easily be a conversation between to embittered and miserable guys which are so done with the war. One of them even openly starts courting with the idea of desertion and the other threatens to report his (serial) number to his superior.s. The only thing missing in that convo were specific army ranks and a little more army jargon and you can easily swap it for a passage from a WW1 novel.
Orcs in Tolkienverse are *not* shrooms, this is not 40K. They're corrupted elves (the OLD orcs, ones that served Sauron's master Morgoth). The newer orcs (Uruk-hai in particular, Saruman's breed which are bigger and stronger) are incubated in the underground pits and vats. Mordor orcs are created in roughly similar way, though Tolkien never clarified how Sauron managed to mass produce his armies
I just came here to say... "They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard!! They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard-gard-gard-gard"
Some context on Gandalf coming back: Gandalf and Saruman are actually angels in the guise of wise old men, sent to Middle-Earth after Sauron was first defeated to counsel Men and prepare them against any resurgence of the darkness. While Sauron put his stock in Intelligence and power Gandalf put his stats on Charisma and Wisdom, knowing it is on Men to save themselves and not trying to control everything like Saruman does. After Gandalf killed the Balrog (which was super clutch that he did that before Sauron had a chance to recruit it for the war), the higher powers-that-be retrieved Gandalf's soul and we're like "Yeah so we actually need you to pull an over-time shift; your manager Saruman has gone completely off-script and hasn't returned any of our messages, so we'll need you to go fire him for us and cover his shift." Because time behaves differently in the Undying Lands when Gandalf respawns in Fangorn 1000+ years have passed for him and he needs to be reminded that everyone will thinks of him as "the Grey Wanderer" when he's had tons of power unlocks and retraining off-world.
At 21:39, Tolkien drew inspiration for Middle-earth from many of the old Norse and Gothic stories, but most modern critics agree that his two most original inventions were Gollum and Treebeard.
I must admit. The Twin Towers is where I got into Lord of the Rings. And j have to say, this movie aged really well. Especially Gollum! The effects on Gollum STILL hold up to this day!
At 2:00, all three movies were shot at the same time over a span of fourteen months; they were released a year apart. One of the last scenes in ROTK was one of the first to be filmed (the filming sequence had to be scheduled around Cate Blanchette's infrequent trips to New Zealand), and you'd never guess that the actors in this highly emotional scene had only met each other a couple of weeks previously and didn't even know each other that well! (They became very good friends by the end of filming!)
Well, the question is always what sells. If there's no media that is unironic and earnest it is because nobody actively searches for that and thus no one creates it.
@@DrunkenCoward1 That's why it takes one writer willing to take that risk to get a trend going. Rn we're waiting for something to take that first step of getting unironic and earnest stories back to the limelight
@@ReiseLukas The problem is that that risk can only be taken once someone is secure. The worst thing for art is stress and fear. I have some great stories in my head (though I am not sure how one would define "unironic and earnest", so I don't know if any of my stories are that, but I've gotten positive feedback from random people on the internet, so... But unfortunately I am poor, have ADHD and no connections in the industry and that excludes one from participation.
19:22 Vigo (Aragon's actor) broke his toe for realsies when he kicked that helmet. That scream afterwards was from the pain. That's the shot they kept in the film.
God I loved the beginning when we got backtracked to Gandalf vs. Baldrog. Nobody, nobody in the order of existence expected that. Best beginning ever. Except Infinity War. Gollum was considered once upon a time the most complex character in Universal literature. That's a bit much but that just comes to prove how difficult is to live beying Gollum.
Fun little fact about the scenxe at 4:05 they're on location. The fog camd in and Peter Jackson liked how it looked so he kept filming. About the armor's weight 10:35 one of the Dwarf actor's on The Hobbit described his costume as "feels like wearing my Volkswagen."
I’m loving this! Great reaction. And you being so invested in characters so quickly only means you’re enjoying it, so I’m happy for that! This one’s a serious ride girl, buckle up. And it’s the extended one too. I can hardly wait for the next one.
The shift from Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White is because they are technically two different identities. Gandalf’s true name is Olorin, and he is a being known as a Maia (the same as the Balrog/fire demon), who are basically minor gods/angels in Middle Earth. He was sent to Middle Earth one of an order of five Maiar called Istari (Wizards) to help keep the tide against Sauron. Saruman was corrupted, and so Gandalf/Olorin was basically promoted after his physical body as Gandalf the Grey was destroyed. He was sent back in a new physical body with the power of a white wizard (there are also two blue wizards and a brown wizard, the latter of which appears in the Hobbit).
@@robin_the_red_fox4082 I love that every comments is basically a variation of this. But then, this is the only joke where Alicia really can claim half credit.
"You have to see value in his life now". Also because that's exactly what Gandlaf told Frodo. Bilbo could have killed Gollum but spared him because he pitied him. Gandalf told Frodo that Gollum may have a part to play in this and that the pity of Bilbo may mean a lot
At 17:10, the producers recruited the Riders of Rohan by basically hiring every horse owner in New Zealand and dressing them up as Rohirrim. New Zealand is a fairly small country, so about half of those Riders are women wearing fake beards!
Your excitement toward Gandalf being alive was precisely what I hoped for and then some, Alicia. All the way from the fight against the Balrog to him being the new White Wizard. ^_^
Seeing this through your reaction... I've gotta say one thing; there are two Gollums, but neither of them is a good bean. There's the angry, protective and isolationist one, and there's the curious, happy and friendly one. However both are killers and both will do anything to get the Ring. Understanding that part took a bit for me, but when I got it... a few scenes really made sense.
OK, a bit of... gentle education and fun facts: Lord of the rings is 1 book split into 3 parts, the movies are the same. 1 movie split into 3 parts, essentially. Also all 3 parts' main bulk was filmed all at once, but pickups for each film each happened over the 3 year release period. In fact, the first film wasn't even fully finished on the day it premiered in the home of the Kiwis (New Zealand)... famously enough if you ever get to watch the extras: They were still editing it just before it was handed over to the theater. And that's just the theatrical release. These extended editions each received the same loving care long after the theaters had their moments.
At 8:00, Frodo may be moved by pity, but he isn't a pushover. In the book, a bit later in the story Frodo warns Gollum, "You swore a promise by what you call the Precious. Remember that! It will hold you to it, but it will seek a way to twist it to your own undoing...You will never get it back. But the desire of it may betray you to a bitter end. You will never get it back. In the last need, Smeagol, I should put on the Precious, and the Precious mastered you long ago. If I, wearing it, were to command you, you would obey, even if it were to leap from a precipice or to cast yourself into the fire. And such would be my command. So have a care, Smeagol!"
1. I was waiting for One Piece, but I will sate my hunger for now with this excellent movie :) 2. A new TOWER is rising! 3. Alicia perfectly predicting stuff again (something something trees) 4. FYI the elven things like the rope etc actually burn Gollum because he is corrupted/tainted by Sauron.
I believe, in one of the myths about vampires, the way to kill one is to pour salt and communion wafers in the mouth and then sew it up before decapitation...I think that's after the stake thru heart.
At 27:00, the Black Rider's mount is not a dragon. It is referred to as a "fell beast," although that is more a description than a name--"fell" is an old word meaning "evil." Here is Tolkien's description from later in the story: "The great shadow descended like a falling cloud. And behold! it was a winged creature: if bird, then greater than all other birds, and it was naked, and neither quill nor feather did it bear; and its vast pinions were as webs of hide between horned fingers; and it stank. A creature of an older time maybe it was...And the Dark Lord took it, and nursed it with fell meats, until it grew beyond the measure of all other things that fly; and he gave it to his servant to be his steed." There are no dragons in LOTR, but if you read The Hobbit or watch the Hobbit movies, you'll meet Smaug, a truly terrifying dragon.
6:20 - 6:48 It's still hard to believe a creature like Gollum used to be the hobbit, Smeagol. I swear, they must have been inspired to use this design of Gollum for the later game, Until Dawn, when it came to the monsters known as the Wendigo.
Fun fact 2: tolkein has been #1 and #2 for the most sold fantasy novels since the 1930s ( the hobbit ) and the 1950s ( the lord of the rings: the fellowship of the ring )
26:57 , I know others have probably said it before but that's not a dragon, that's a fell beast. There are no dragons in the War of the Ring. Fun Fact: After Gandalf took the tital of the white Saruman took the tital of Saruman of Many Colors
J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were good friends and wrote each other as characters into their respective books. In the Lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, C.S. Lewis basically made J.R.R. Tolkien a godlike figure... J.R.R. Tolkien made C.S. Lewis Treebeard.
So, Gandalf did die in the aftermath of the fight with the balrog, but the supreme diety gave him an extra life. So when you see Gandalf in the movie recalling information that should be fairly vivid in his mind, its basically the same idea as transferring all your old data and apps from one phone to another.
Reader of the Silmarillion here: The War of the Last Alliance contained one battle. But that battle... lasted SEVEN YEARS, and was fought from outside Mordor and pushed ALL THE WAY to Mt Doom and Barad-Dur themselves, where the Dark Tower was besieged for another THREE YEARS before the final sortie where Isildur finally hewed the Ring from Sauron's hand. The Dead Marshes? Almost all the Elves in the water are Legolas' kin. Including his GRANDFATHER, Oropher, who fell in that battle and was never recovered. Oropher was impatient and took his forces to attack immediately while Elendil, Gil-Galad and Durin the Whatevereth were still planning around the obvious upcoming trap. There in that swamp, he and his men, Mirkwood's entire contribution to the Last Alliance, were the first to meet Sauron's forces, were cut off, surrounded, and slaughtered pretty much to an Elf before any aid could come. Oropher's body was never recovered, nor were any others.
All three were filmed sequentially; though there was a changeover of camera equipment between fellowship and two towers which was the subject of extensive matching in the most recent remasters.
New to your channel and just wanted to sat that i really appreciate it. Normally I prefer seeing persons real faces, but I must say you really bring energy and good vibes into your avatar!
Lord of the rings is one of my top 5 movies. I love them so so much, Two Towers especially. The battles are so fun to watch, and ignited my love for weapons and swords especially. Longswords/Bastard swords specifically.
I am so happy you are watching the extended edition. The first time my mom watched LOTR she hated it. However, several years later when she watched the extended edition she loved it??? I believe it had to do with the much expanded character backgrounds, but in any case I’m glad you watched the full experience!
13:07 - 13:47 &17:56 - 17:59 This film introduced me to the bada-s Karl Urban before he played the diabolical Billy Butcher on The Boys or the infamous Judge Dredd. He's still one of my favorite actors since Lord of the Rings. I still remember one of the earliest media I saw him in was the 90s White Fang series that was shot in New Zealand for Alaska scenes. Also, he's alongside another one of my favorite actors, Brad Dourif, aka, Chucky the killer Good Guy doll, from one of my favorite slasher series, Child's Play.
19:04 Same thing happened to me earlier today. I liked a picture of an aunt's birthday, two minutes later my mom texted me to let me know they'd died. Unfortunately I don't think it'll be a fakeout in my case.
So much depth to explore, Alicia. There's a reason LotRs is thenmost possible book of the 20th Century. Lovin the energy of your reactions. Congrats on the engagement and soon to be marriage and family.
Also - re: Towers and "Two Towers" as a name - Lord of the Rings was initially written as one single book, and then had to be split up into a trilogy during the publication process for various practical reasons. Fellowship of the Ring was obvious for book 1 and Tolkien wanted to call book 3 "The War of the Ring" but his publisher overruled him in favour of "Return of the King" (which Tolkien felt was spoilery I guess). The middle book stumped them until they landed on "The Two Towers" because it sounded good, but they weren't sure which two towers in the fiction it actually referred to. Tolkien considered several options (there were five towers to choose from) as well as leaving it deliberately ambiguous, but instead chose Orthanc (Saruman's tower) and Minas Morgul (a tower that, for pacing reasons, shows up in movie 3 instead). I like the choice the movie made to emphasize the alliance between Saruman and Sauron during this middle arc.
19:24 fun fact: viggo mortensen, (aragon), legit broke his foot kicking that helmet. so his scream wasn't just of angry. it was of absolute pain. but it was so perfect of a reaction that peter jackson kept it in the movie.
Fun Fact: *LOADS* of people just can't help but mention Viggo's toe whenever these movies are brought up.
Thats because they have a foot fetish
did i ever tell you about the tragedy of viggo mortensens toe?
In fairness, a lot more people are into feet than you would think.
I am one of them
Fact: during the scene where Viggo kicked the helmet and screamed angrily, he broke his toe but kept going in the scene to give his character more emotion
There's the comment lol still love this fact everytime I see it
@@slipstream9619 same here
Was wondering who would say it, lol
It's a tradition
did you know that elves in middle earth see farther because when Eru Ilúvatar put them there the planet was flat and that is how elves see the world; I don't remember why it happened but later on Eru Ilúvatar decided to make the world round (it happened before the humans got there)
Gollum is our raggedy little murder-bean.
Fun Fact: Andy Serkis had to record every Gollum scene 3 TIMES. Once on the actual set because the filmmakers knew they HAD to have him actually interact with Sam and Frodo.
THEN they had him in mo-cap but because it was literally brand-new and pretty much reinvented just for this movie, it had to be on a controlled studio setup. AND THEN he had to re-record all of his lines in voice over.
Andy was an absolute beast and 100% deserves the respect he gets.
Andy Serkis crushes every single role he's in. Dude's got a disease or something that makes him physically unable to phone in a performance.
The Fact that man doesn't have multiple Academy Awards speaks to the truth that the Oscar's are crap.
Wasn't the process streamlined across the trilogy? The way you're describing it sounds more like how Fellowship worked
A man, an elf, and a dwarf walk into a bar.......The hobbit laughs, and walks under it
Nooooooooo ToT
And so begins The Fellowship of the Drink.
God I love the Tolkien fandom🤣
It’s always a treat to see people have their wound of Gandalf’s death be reopened, and then seeing their mood shift as the camera follows him down the chasm.
It must've felt so good to see this in theaters when it came out. Sadly I was 6 or 7 at the time and my family didn't go to theaters often
Best way I can describe the Wraith's "dragon" mount is that Sauron made knock-off K-Mart dragons from scratch. Those are "Fell Beasts"
To be fair I think they were made to be a counter measure against the eagles right?
For a time I thought those beasts were the nazgul not that nazgul just another term for the wraiths.
Sauron out here making Kirkland brand dragons
"Fell beast" is really just another way of saying "horrible monster", other sources have labeled them as "hell-hawks" or claimed they were bred from "cold drakes"
I believe one might classify them as drakes.
Real funny story about Gimli filming that scene of him having to run at the start - the actor John Rhys-Davies relates how he watched like 3 or 4 different people carrying his entire costume up to the filming location on set (because of its weight), which was all put on him as well as his axes, and then the director Peter Jackson tells him "right John, I want you to *run* up that mountain"
Mountains, why did it have to be mountains?
Rhys-Davies is also the tallest actor in the Fellowship. Which is just funny to me. Also, it is really respectable for the cinematography that they made him look so short.
"Smote his ruin upon the mountainside" is one of the most epic lines ever. Two Towers or not, that's an epic line.
So since we reached the point, let's talk more in depth about Gandalf.
Gandalf, whose real name is Olórin, is a Maia. A lower ranking angel of God creator Eru Illuvatar, just like the other wizards like Saruman, the balrogs and Sauron himself. He along with the other wizard (they were 5 in total: Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast and the two blue wizards) were sent by the Valar (the high ranking angels) to Middle Earth with the objective of guiding people against the power of Sauron, with the order to also not use their full power too and disguise themselves as old men. Gandalf was considered the most humble and honest of the members of the White Council, which made Saruman grow jealousy and hatred toward him. When Gandalf fell with the balrog, who as I said was also a Maia like Gandalf, one corrupted by the evil of the first Dark Lord Morgoth, they landed in a secret deep lake and chased the Balrog in the caves down below, until they reached a secret spiral staircase built by the first dwarf king Durin I. That staircase which reached both the depths and the top of the mountain on which Moria in built in, was climbed by Gandalf and the balrog until they reached the summit and battled there using their full strength. Gandalf won but died in the process. His courage however got rewarded as Eru Illuvatar brought him back to life and promoted from grey wizard to white wizard, the new leader of the White council, to finish his role of guiding men and defeat Sauron.
I don't think it's accurate to call the Valar high-ranking angels. They're more akin to pantheon gods you'd find in things like Greek mythology.
@corruptangel6793 Kinda. But they also are children of the supreme God Eru, so...
@@soul6733 Well, yeah, in LOTR, they are at most minor dieties under Eru, who is the true God. It's not a direct 1 for 1. It's just the closest comparison.
Sauron was also one of the Maia, while Morgoth, his master, was of the Valar.
Since you asked about the filming sequence, all 3 were filmed at the same time on site in New Zealand. Peter Jackson basically treated it as if he was filming one huge movie and then released it in 3 parts.
Like how Tolkien wrote one book that got published in three parts.
@ slight correction: he wrote it as one book and then actually wanted to publish it in 9 parts
Useless Trivia: during filming for the “Great Chase” scene, Viggo (Aragorn), Orlando Bloom (Legolas), and Brett Beattie (The small stuntman playing Gimli) would get dropped off from a helicopter in the morning and then just run and walk all day while the camera crew filmed from the helicopter. They did that for several days and ALL 3 had injuries while they were doing it.
Orlando had a back injury from falling off a horse. Viggo had a broken toe (you’ll find out how he got that from probably 2 dozen other commenters here), and Brett had a knee injury of some sort, I can’t remember what from, probably just accumulating injuries from being a professional stuntman.
Was looking for this comment😂 They apparently managed to look heroic until someone shouted "Cut" then the swearing started😅
In the scene where Aragorn kicks the helmet Vigo broke his toe so that pained cry is 100% genuine, the way he tells it he knew the take was going to come out great so he channelled the energy.
And now I have passed on this knowledge I shall diminish and go into the west and my skills shall remain loading.
Edit: Towers
HEY DID YOU KNOW-
And there it is. THE trivia of all time.
As is tradition
Every time someone tells a youtuber about that, Vigo breaks another toe.
Someone has to do it. It's a rite of passage for new watchers at this point
Andy Serkis was perfect as Gollum, his Gollum voice still gives me chills to this day. no one can beat his Gollum voice
The best part about Gandalf coming back in the Two Towers is that you realize he Leeroy Jenkins'ed the Balrog, got the solo XP bonus and then came back leveled up with high-class gear.
Tolkien had no real concept to which two TOWERS the title referred; after the volumes were split up, the publisher made him propose something, and he just thought, "Eh, there are a lot of towers; pick two." Other ideas included Minas Tirith/Anor & Minas Morgul/Ithil. He was also not keen on "The Return of the King" as he thought it gave away too much. I believe his preference was "The War of the Ring."
The return of the king could mean sauron
It doesnt mean the king necessarily survives after returning i guess
My dad reading the book in the 80s: "Guy in the corner is called some badass name like 'Strider', and the third book is 'Return of the King' . . . So yeah, that guy is 100% the King."
@@EchteSauerkartoffelthat's a far stretch as I don't recall Sauron returning to anywhere, he already returned to his fortress and his servants to his main bastions
The reason Gandalf didn't remember his name is because "Gandalf" isn't his true name, which is Olórin. He's only been called Gandalf for two to three thousand years-a drop in the bucket of his existence-and he was a little disoriented after being resurrected on Middle-Earth.
And, specifically, he's called Gandalf in the north. People in Gondor call him Mithrandir, like the Lorien elves do.
For those of you who don’t know, Tolkien a World War I veteran. The Dead Marshes represent what he witnessed during the war.
The marshes are the location of the battle where Sauron lost the Ring in the prologue of the first movie.
@mjbull5156 Partly right.
The location of that battle was there, to the Black Gate, PAST the Black Gate, ALL THE WAY ACROSS DAGORLAD (which is why it is CALLED 'Dagorlad', 'battle plain') to the slopes of Orodruin.
That battle, was one continuous battle, that lasted SEVEN FULL YEARS, and pushed from outside Mordor ALL THE WAY TO MT. DOOM AND BARAD-DUR, which was then besieged for ANOTHER THREE YEARS before the final clash in which Isildur hewed the ring from Sauron's hand.
That particular site, though? That is where the battle BEGAN and, more accurately, is where the King of Mirkwood at the time, Oropher, and pretty much all his forces got slaughtered because they impatiently charged straight into an obvious strategic trap at the start of the battle without consulting anyone else.
Somewhere in those Marshes lies King Oropher, never recovered, and most of Mirkwood's contribution to the Last Alliance.
They were the first to fight, and the first to fall.
@@mjbull5156 Not quite, the Dead Marshes are outside of Mordor and in the books Sauron was defeated outside his tower, Barad-Dur, which was under siege (and that's where Isildur's younger brother, Anarion, died: due to a stone thrown from the tower). But it is correct to say that the battle at the marshes was a part of that large conflict: The War of the Last Alliance.
"An elf, a man, and a dwarf walk into a bar..."
"Not the dwarf. He walked under it."
You, Towers fans! Can someone make a tally of the number of comments who wrote "Alicia, did you know" about _THAT_ scene?
I'm at 6
well done
@@IamMeHere2See 8
Everyone talking about Aragorn, I want to point out that the phrase "Looks like meat's back on the menu!" implies that Orcs have restaurants in Mordor
I always liked seeing the friendship between Legolas and Gimli further throughout the movies. Also, Billy Butcher has entered the film.
So funfact heavy armor is actually lighter then modern armor, only about 40-50 pounds. Knights in full plate mail could actually run, climb, and many other activities.
Yes. Sometimes even lighter. Depends on the armor type, region of Europe, and time period. There are some high Gothic harnesses from 15th century Germany that are extremely protective, very mobile, but only weigh around 35lbs.
There's a pretty cool video of a guy in full plate armor running an obstacle course
@@corruptangel6793is that the video where he’s competing against a fireman and modern soldier, both in full kit? It’s pretty cool
@@alexanderren1097 It might be. I don't remember if he was competing or not
i hope someone in her chat explains just how intense and bad ass the whole gandolf vs the balrog thing actually was. the fact they spent days side by side fending off lovecraftian horrors just to go back to their 1 v1 the moment they escaped is beyond bad ass
Tolkien always hated his story being used as analogy because that wasn't his intention, but a lot of people believe the faces in the water at the dead marshes were probably inspired by his time fighting in ww1 on the trenches, based on descriptions other ww1 veterans gave about bodies floating in water filled bomb craters and avoiding falling into them (because you'd get stuck and drown in them)
He specifically hated implied analogies, but as far as I've seen on the matter, he was pretty ok with whatever the reader came up on his/her own. And yes, the influence of the Great War in which he participated was huge on the books. There's later on a short passage where Frodo and Sam overhear two Mordor soldiers discussing things and if you remove the fantasy context, it can easily be a conversation between to embittered and miserable guys which are so done with the war. One of them even openly starts courting with the idea of desertion and the other threatens to report his (serial) number to his superior.s. The only thing missing in that convo were specific army ranks and a little more army jargon and you can easily swap it for a passage from a WW1 novel.
28:40 is the reaction we all wanted to see. I knew you were going to love seeing Gandalf come back
Orcs in Tolkienverse are *not* shrooms, this is not 40K. They're corrupted elves (the OLD orcs, ones that served Sauron's master Morgoth). The newer orcs (Uruk-hai in particular, Saruman's breed which are bigger and stronger) are incubated in the underground pits and vats. Mordor orcs are created in roughly similar way, though Tolkien never clarified how Sauron managed to mass produce his armies
I just came here to say...
"They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard!! They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard-gard-gard-gard"
8:45 “He’s having full @$$ conversations with himself!”
Oh you ain’t seen nothing yet!
An elf and a ranger walk into a bar, the dwarf, lagging behind ducks under.
Some context on Gandalf coming back: Gandalf and Saruman are actually angels in the guise of wise old men, sent to Middle-Earth after Sauron was first defeated to counsel Men and prepare them against any resurgence of the darkness.
While Sauron put his stock in Intelligence and power Gandalf put his stats on Charisma and Wisdom, knowing it is on Men to save themselves and not trying to control everything like Saruman does.
After Gandalf killed the Balrog (which was super clutch that he did that before Sauron had a chance to recruit it for the war), the higher powers-that-be retrieved Gandalf's soul and we're like "Yeah so we actually need you to pull an over-time shift; your manager Saruman has gone completely off-script and hasn't returned any of our messages, so we'll need you to go fire him for us and cover his shift."
Because time behaves differently in the Undying Lands when Gandalf respawns in Fangorn 1000+ years have passed for him and he needs to be reminded that everyone will thinks of him as "the Grey Wanderer" when he's had tons of power unlocks and retraining off-world.
The man Respecc'ed entirely
At 21:39, Tolkien drew inspiration for Middle-earth from many of the old Norse and Gothic stories, but most modern critics agree that his two most original inventions were Gollum and Treebeard.
The "Talk between the trees" segment of her rant made me bust out laughing.
Needs to be an animatic fr
"it would be funny if the trees were like: 'man they just cut done fred!' that would be funny..."
About that...
11:04 - no, Alicia, that was a goat.
11:10 - I think that was an ignition trying to turn over on a cold morning.
clarification for grima's nickname "wormtongue ", worm means dragon here, because dragons were famous for manipulating others.
I associated it more with slimy wriggling of words to fit the narrative, but manipulating dragons work too~
Yes, wyrm and worm are actually pronounced the same
I dunno if Alicia realised this in the full version, but the actor who plays Eomer in this movie is the same who plays William Butcher in The Boys.
A man, an elf and a dwarf walk into a bar. The bartender says, “2 pints?“. The man says, “Nay, 3 pints.“ The elf chimes in and requests “and a box.“
@@spaceshiplewis Bravo! 🙌 Beautifully original! So many jokes, including my own, just take it literally.
I'm lowkey excited to see your reaction to the battle in this movie. I was a baby when this came out.
From Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White, truly Gandalf is moving up in the world.
I must admit. The Twin Towers is where I got into Lord of the Rings. And j have to say, this movie aged really well. Especially Gollum! The effects on Gollum STILL hold up to this day!
17:30 An elf, a dwarf and a ranger walk into a bar. The bar keep looks up and says, "Get the fuck out of here!"
guys, we did it. we brought gandalf back and refilmed the whole movie and swapped out the discs just in time. yep. we did it, peeps! we did it!
At 2:00, all three movies were shot at the same time over a span of fourteen months; they were released a year apart. One of the last scenes in ROTK was one of the first to be filmed (the filming sequence had to be scheduled around Cate Blanchette's infrequent trips to New Zealand), and you'd never guess that the actors in this highly emotional scene had only met each other a couple of weeks previously and didn't even know each other that well! (They became very good friends by the end of filming!)
"Looks like reactions is back on the menu boys!!!"
20:15 "You know who I don't fuck with? People who are too motivated."
Vergil: 😔
It’s just so great to see media that is just completely unironic and earnest. Nothing mainstream does that anymore.
Well, the question is always what sells.
If there's no media that is unironic and earnest it is because nobody actively searches for that and thus no one creates it.
@@DrunkenCoward1 That's why it takes one writer willing to take that risk to get a trend going. Rn we're waiting for something to take that first step of getting unironic and earnest stories back to the limelight
@@ReiseLukas The problem is that that risk can only be taken once someone is secure. The worst thing for art is stress and fear.
I have some great stories in my head (though I am not sure how one would define "unironic and earnest", so I don't know if any of my stories are that, but I've gotten positive feedback from random people on the internet, so...
But unfortunately I am poor, have ADHD and no connections in the industry and that excludes one from participation.
Completely and utterly wrong. There are many recent movies who are completely earnest and believe in their stories 100%
Did you know that Lord of the Rings is filmed in New Zealand! Such a beautiful place!
19:22 Vigo (Aragon's actor) broke his toe for realsies when he kicked that helmet. That scream afterwards was from the pain. That's the shot they kept in the film.
God I loved the beginning when we got backtracked to Gandalf vs. Baldrog. Nobody, nobody in the order of existence expected that. Best beginning ever. Except Infinity War.
Gollum was considered once upon a time the most complex character in Universal literature. That's a bit much but that just comes to prove how difficult is to live beying Gollum.
Fun fact all three of these movies where shot at once
Fun little fact about the scenxe at 4:05 they're on location. The fog camd in and Peter Jackson liked how it looked so he kept filming.
About the armor's weight 10:35 one of the Dwarf actor's on The Hobbit described his costume as "feels like wearing my Volkswagen."
Fun fact: you’ll get a million and one comments about Aragorn kicking the helmet
@@lazymansload520 count’s currently at 8, but will update before next week.
Towers.
17:20 - 17:35 They all said "ow".
19:22 Alright, _LotR_ fans, you know what to do.
I’m loving this! Great reaction. And you being so invested in characters so quickly only means you’re enjoying it, so I’m happy for that! This one’s a serious ride girl, buckle up. And it’s the extended one too. I can hardly wait for the next one.
The shift from Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White is because they are technically two different identities. Gandalf’s true name is Olorin, and he is a being known as a Maia (the same as the Balrog/fire demon), who are basically minor gods/angels in Middle Earth. He was sent to Middle Earth one of an order of five Maiar called Istari (Wizards) to help keep the tide against Sauron. Saruman was corrupted, and so Gandalf/Olorin was basically promoted after his physical body as Gandalf the Grey was destroyed. He was sent back in a new physical body with the power of a white wizard (there are also two blue wizards and a brown wizard, the latter of which appears in the Hobbit).
A man, a dwarf, and an elf walk into a bar..."Ouch," said the dwarf
Ok that actually got me lol
@samwallaceart288 I am glad it made someone laugh today. It was the best I could think of at the moment.
@@robin_the_red_fox4082 I love that every comments is basically a variation of this. But then, this is the only joke where Alicia really can claim half credit.
"You have to see value in his life now". Also because that's exactly what Gandlaf told Frodo. Bilbo could have killed Gollum but spared him because he pitied him. Gandalf told Frodo that Gollum may have a part to play in this and that the pity of Bilbo may mean a lot
At 17:10, the producers recruited the Riders of Rohan by basically hiring every horse owner in New Zealand and dressing them up as Rohirrim. New Zealand is a fairly small country, so about half of those Riders are women wearing fake beards!
14:34 good filmmaking
18:43 Eomir's sword falls out of his scabbard on camera
Your excitement toward Gandalf being alive was precisely what I hoped for and then some, Alicia. All the way from the fight against the Balrog to him being the new White Wizard. ^_^
YES! Love this one! Alicia meets Gollum/Smeagol. This is where the real adventure begins.
Yessss!!! Kaiju Tuesday! Bring on the death tolls.
Towers, was so excited to see your reaction to Gandalf returning and it did not disappoint!
Seeing this through your reaction... I've gotta say one thing; there are two Gollums, but neither of them is a good bean. There's the angry, protective and isolationist one, and there's the curious, happy and friendly one. However both are killers and both will do anything to get the Ring.
Understanding that part took a bit for me, but when I got it... a few scenes really made sense.
OK, a bit of... gentle education and fun facts: Lord of the rings is 1 book split into 3 parts, the movies are the same. 1 movie split into 3 parts, essentially. Also all 3 parts' main bulk was filmed all at once, but pickups for each film each happened over the 3 year release period. In fact, the first film wasn't even fully finished on the day it premiered in the home of the Kiwis (New Zealand)... famously enough if you ever get to watch the extras: They were still editing it just before it was handed over to the theater. And that's just the theatrical release. These extended editions each received the same loving care long after the theaters had their moments.
Towers. Two Towers. If only the fellowship had a plane…
eagles can't melt steel beams.
At 8:00, Frodo may be moved by pity, but he isn't a pushover. In the book, a bit later in the story Frodo warns Gollum, "You swore a promise by what you call the Precious. Remember that! It will hold you to it, but it will seek a way to twist it to your own undoing...You will never get it back. But the desire of it may betray you to a bitter end. You will never get it back. In the last need, Smeagol, I should put on the Precious, and the Precious mastered you long ago. If I, wearing it, were to command you, you would obey, even if it were to leap from a precipice or to cast yourself into the fire. And such would be my command. So have a care, Smeagol!"
Love it that you are continuing watching The Lord of the Rings!
19:23 when aragorn kicked the helmet there and screamed it was half acting half he actually broke his foot doing that lol
1. I was waiting for One Piece, but I will sate my hunger for now with this excellent movie :)
2. A new TOWER is rising!
3. Alicia perfectly predicting stuff again (something something trees)
4. FYI the elven things like the rope etc actually burn Gollum because he is corrupted/tainted by Sauron.
Meat’s back on the menu boys!
I believe, in one of the myths about vampires, the way to kill one is to pour salt and communion wafers in the mouth and then sew it up before decapitation...I think that's after the stake thru heart.
At 27:00, the Black Rider's mount is not a dragon. It is referred to as a "fell beast," although that is more a description than a name--"fell" is an old word meaning "evil." Here is Tolkien's description from later in the story: "The great shadow descended like a falling cloud. And behold! it was a winged creature: if bird, then greater than all other birds, and it was naked, and neither quill nor feather did it bear; and its vast pinions were as webs of hide between horned fingers; and it stank. A creature of an older time maybe it was...And the Dark Lord took it, and nursed it with fell meats, until it grew beyond the measure of all other things that fly; and he gave it to his servant to be his steed." There are no dragons in LOTR, but if you read The Hobbit or watch the Hobbit movies, you'll meet Smaug, a truly terrifying dragon.
6:20 - 6:48 It's still hard to believe a creature like Gollum used to be the hobbit, Smeagol. I swear, they must have been inspired to use this design of Gollum for the later game, Until Dawn, when it came to the monsters known as the Wendigo.
An Elf, a Man, and a Dwarf walk into a bar.
The Dwarf rubs his forehead and swears "Damn, thought I could clear it"
Fun fact 3: samwise, marrian and pippens are named after tolkein 3 best friends he went and served in ww1, but only tolkein came back alive.
Fun fact 2: tolkein has been #1 and #2 for the most sold fantasy novels since the 1930s ( the hobbit ) and the 1950s ( the lord of the rings: the fellowship of the ring )
26:57 , I know others have probably said it before but that's not a dragon, that's a fell beast. There are no dragons in the War of the Ring.
Fun Fact: After Gandalf took the tital of the white Saruman took the tital of Saruman of Many Colors
J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were good friends and wrote each other as characters into their respective books. In the Lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, C.S. Lewis basically made J.R.R. Tolkien a godlike figure... J.R.R. Tolkien made C.S. Lewis Treebeard.
Towers. A Ranger, an Elf and a Dwarf walk into a Bar, the Hobbits were short enough to walk under it.😂
So, Gandalf did die in the aftermath of the fight with the balrog, but the supreme diety gave him an extra life. So when you see Gandalf in the movie recalling information that should be fairly vivid in his mind, its basically the same idea as transferring all your old data and apps from one phone to another.
Reader of the Silmarillion here:
The War of the Last Alliance contained one battle. But that battle... lasted SEVEN YEARS, and was fought from outside Mordor and pushed ALL THE WAY to Mt Doom and Barad-Dur themselves, where the Dark Tower was besieged for another THREE YEARS before the final sortie where Isildur finally hewed the Ring from Sauron's hand.
The Dead Marshes? Almost all the Elves in the water are Legolas' kin. Including his GRANDFATHER, Oropher, who fell in that battle and was never recovered.
Oropher was impatient and took his forces to attack immediately while Elendil, Gil-Galad and Durin the Whatevereth were still planning around the obvious upcoming trap. There in that swamp, he and his men, Mirkwood's entire contribution to the Last Alliance, were the first to meet Sauron's forces, were cut off, surrounded, and slaughtered pretty much to an Elf before any aid could come.
Oropher's body was never recovered, nor were any others.
All three were filmed sequentially; though there was a changeover of camera equipment between fellowship and two towers which was the subject of extensive matching in the most recent remasters.
New to your channel and just wanted to sat that i really appreciate it. Normally I prefer seeing persons real faces, but I must say you really bring energy and good vibes into your avatar!
Lord of the rings is one of my top 5 movies. I love them so so much, Two Towers especially. The battles are so fun to watch, and ignited my love for weapons and swords especially. Longswords/Bastard swords specifically.
13:58 hahaha oh my god. I never actually noticed the signature just sorta trails off, like he fell asleep signing it.
"Alecia the Black" actually has a nice villain ring to it lol.
Makes me want to make a evil Dark Elf baroness in DnD and name her that lol
Gandalf is a lootninja....
He got the levelboost, an epic robe & staff AND the the rare mount!
I am so happy you are watching the extended edition. The first time my mom watched LOTR she hated it. However, several years later when she watched the extended edition she loved it??? I believe it had to do with the much expanded character backgrounds, but in any case I’m glad you watched the full experience!
"They have a living corpse on the fucking throne!" Boy do I have a franchise for you.
A good review of The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers!
13:07 - 13:47 &17:56 - 17:59 This film introduced me to the bada-s Karl Urban before he played the diabolical Billy Butcher on The Boys or the infamous Judge Dredd. He's still one of my favorite actors since Lord of the Rings. I still remember one of the earliest media I saw him in was the 90s White Fang series that was shot in New Zealand for Alaska scenes. Also, he's alongside another one of my favorite actors, Brad Dourif, aka, Chucky the killer Good Guy doll, from one of my favorite slasher series, Child's Play.
19:04 Same thing happened to me earlier today. I liked a picture of an aunt's birthday, two minutes later my mom texted me to let me know they'd died. Unfortunately I don't think it'll be a fakeout in my case.
Oooooh Titan Tuesdays sounds like a blast! Can’t wait!!!
So much depth to explore, Alicia. There's a reason LotRs is thenmost possible book of the 20th Century. Lovin the energy of your reactions.
Congrats on the engagement and soon to be marriage and family.
Towers
A man, an elf, and a dwarf walk into a bar....
Fuck, I got nothing.
Also - re: Towers and "Two Towers" as a name - Lord of the Rings was initially written as one single book, and then had to be split up into a trilogy during the publication process for various practical reasons.
Fellowship of the Ring was obvious for book 1 and Tolkien wanted to call book 3 "The War of the Ring" but his publisher overruled him in favour of "Return of the King" (which Tolkien felt was spoilery I guess).
The middle book stumped them until they landed on "The Two Towers" because it sounded good, but they weren't sure which two towers in the fiction it actually referred to. Tolkien considered several options (there were five towers to choose from) as well as leaving it deliberately ambiguous, but instead chose Orthanc (Saruman's tower) and Minas Morgul (a tower that, for pacing reasons, shows up in movie 3 instead). I like the choice the movie made to emphasize the alliance between Saruman and Sauron during this middle arc.
19:24
fun fact: viggo mortensen, (aragon), legit broke his foot kicking that helmet. so his scream wasn't just of angry. it was of absolute pain. but it was so perfect of a reaction that peter jackson kept it in the movie.
A man, an elf, and a dwarf walk into a bar. The bartender points to the dwarf and says "Sorry, no miners allowed"
A man, an elf, and a dwarf were travelling together.
The man and the elf walked into a bar.
The dwarf walked under it.
You have no idea how hard it was to not spoil Gandulf’s return for ya, let alone him coming back even more badass than what he already was
Also Towers
Oooh and another fun fact Gandalf is basically a demigod along with all the other wizards including Sauron so extremely hard to kill haha