The Best Lord of the Rings Scene Wasn't Even in the Book

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I think one thing that is overlooked about the beacons (at least I've never heard anyone talk about it) is the fact that there are still two guys at the top of these frigid, harsh mountains just waiting to light the beacons. Both Denethor and Théoden are hesitant to help each other and the alliance of Men has fractured, so why still have people man the beacons? Surely the guys atop the mountains keeping the beacons would rather be home and warm. The mere fact that the beacons are still being looked after shows that not all hope is lost for Men.

"I'm assuming that, like me, you're intimately familiar with the story and have been feeling both blessed and frustrated because of it. Blessed because your time on earth just so happened to overlap with the creation of these movies, and frustrated because no movie has given you quite the same experience ever since." This. 100% this.

“Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.“

The scene also encapsulates the very important theme of "it's the small individually insignificant deeds of ordinary small people, which often have the profoundest effect in keeping evil/dispair at bay". Gandalf could have lit the beacons, but that would have defeated the message. Gandalf gets killed, the mighty Elves are fading and have to leave Middle-Earth, Denethor gets driven mad by dispair, Boromir wants to oppose force with force and nearly causes defeat, Saruman is turned evil by trying to fight Sauron like for like, the Dwarves can't hold onto Kazahad-dum, and the unified forces of men are nearly defeated. But in the middle of all that gloom and dispair a few small relatively insignificant people are continously rallying everyone and kicking evils ass, not by force but by being decent beings. With the arguably most heroic of them all being a gardener, who has no greater ambitions in life than helping his friend and growing a tree.

The best and most significant moment in The Lord of the Rings, by far, is Frodo sitting under a tree in the woods, reading his book, surrounded by bluebells. It is the quintessential moment that the purpose of the whole trilogy is trying to return to. Despite its brevity on screen, that scene is more important than the cosiness of Bag End or the majesty of Rivendell. Those bluebell woods are pure English nature, in contrast to the grey industry of Saruman or the black gates of Sauron. The bluebell woods, where we can read a good book sitting under a tree on a warm summer's day, are many an Englishman's vision of an idilic paradise.

“There never was much hope. Only a fool’s hope” gains a new meaning after Pippin the ‘Fool of a Took’ rekindles hope by lighting the beacons.

"Unstoppable hope" was always the only way I could describe the emotion the beacons scene filled me with. Another big thing is that the first heroic thing that Gondor does (with Gandalf's meddling, sure, but followed by the beacon-watchers eagerly rushing to do their job) is asking for help. Asking for help becomes heroic.

I think that the lotr character that I think of most often is Saruman. He joined Sauron simply because he thought that he could not be beaten, and in the end he was beaten despite the major support that Saruman himself provided. "Imagine if Saruman fought for the side of good", I've thought to myself ever since I was little. "How much less suffering and loss would the victory have cost". And as for The Hobbit, Bilbo shouting for more time in riddles in the dark was something that I always found to be somewhat profound.

For me, its at the climbing of mount doom, when Sam says: I cant carry it for you, but I can carry you. Perfectly encapsulates his whole character, and how important it can be to support others.

You know, I've been dealing with severe clinical depression for a large part of my adult life. That dreadful mental illness brings with it negative thinking, pessimism, and if left untreated, ultimately complete despair. Alongside a feeling of terrible loneliness and isolation. It is truly horrifying. The Lord of the Rings movies and books always remind me that I can never give in to that feeling. That I have to find hope somewhere, somehow. And to keep going, no matter how deep and endless the darkness may seem sometimes. Thank you for pointing it out again, I needed that. Honorable mention to Samwise, he has a special place in my heart. More than any other character in my opinion, he simply refuses to give up hope. I want to try to be a little bit more like Sam every day. ❤

The lighting of the Beacons has also always made me think of how the world as a whole is so much more powerful than any of the malicious actors within it. It's an unstoppable chain reaction. Neither Sauron nor Denethor could do anything to stop it once the reaction has begun. In that sense it gives me the same feeling as the last march of the ents or the flood that destroys Isengard.

The emotion behind the lighting of the beacons is that it is a call not just for aid, but for any free peoples of Middle-Earth to unite. In the perspective of Aragorn’s overarching arc, the lighting of the beacons is one of the external calls for him to take up his mantle as King of Gondor… until further into the movie’s climax when Aragorn cements his role via rallying the Fellowship and armies of Rohan and Gondor to march at the Black Gate to give Frodo more time to destroy the Ring. Given how Two Towers was about Aragorn slowly rallying allies in the world of Men and slowly taking up the leadership role, ROTK is Aragorn actually taking up his leadership role and taking action.

To paraphrase one of my fav philosophers: "Hope becomes a material force as soon as it has gripped the masses."

Truly beautiful essay. As someone that grew up in Colombia during the 80's, 90's and early 2000's in poverty, I can tell you, every single day that you made it alive and unharm is a defiance to death lurking at each corner, my mother didn't give up and against probabilities, today, Im alive, wearing the scars but looking to the future, passing to an other generation the beacon that gives strength to the weak and small.

I look at this scene as the first part of the very next scene. Theoden is told by Aragorn about the beacons being lit, meaning that Gondor is asking for help. Theoden had been ambivalent about the possibility of helping Gondor since they had not come to Rohan’s aid when it needed it. A moment passes between when Aragorn asks Theoden what Rohan would answer Gondor’s cry for help. We see the expectant looks of the characters waiting for Theoden’s answer, maybe expecting him to say no and think of his own people which he had every right to do. Instead, Theoden says “and Rohan will answer!”. Then he calls to Eomor to muster The Rohirim. Cuts immediately to my favorite half of the whole scene; the bell calling the Rohirim. “Now is the hour! Riders of Rohan, oaths you have taken fulfill them now for lord and land!” I may have just stood in the theatre and run to the screen to join them.

The movie has many stirring moments. But the most moving part for me is in the book when Aragorn calls Faramir back from under the Black Shadow. “My lord, you called me. I come. What does the king command?” Faramir is getting the love he never got from his father. “who would lie idle when the king has returned?” Who, indeed? Gets me every time.

Hey man, my dad just died 2 days ago and I just wanted you to know you're videos have always given me hope and guidance through the years. This might not be the right video because there are other that are much more suited to the grief I was not ready for. But I just wanted to thank you for your videos and understanding of your subjects and the bigger context in our lives. If Joseph Campbell ever wanted a successor, it would've probably been you. Keep up the awesome work.

"People speak of hope as if it is this delicate, ephemeral thing made of whispers and spider's webs. It's not. Hope has dirt on her face, blood on her knuckles, the grit of the cobblestones in her hair, and just spat out a tooth as she rises for another go." @CrowsFault What can men do against such reckless hate? The best they can. And when our strength is spent, when we stand alone against that hate, we ask for help. And we hope that we will get it.

The other inspiring thing about that sequence is the implication that the keepers of each of those beacons had to dutifully keep vigil for a long time, like a prolonged version of the army's "hurry up and wait", for the one moment when their action was needed. Every link in the chain, across lands and cultures, had to exhibit the same hopeful call to action as pippin