Harry Potter and the First Time Readers

The magical system of Middle Earth is Bizarre...

One of the things I hear over and over is how Tolkien is creating a soft magic system. I think in my mind I define that just as an ambiguous magic system…one where you do

JRR Tolkien is the best perspective shift writer I've ever read.

When I was in college, I took a writing class. In that class one of the very first things that they taught was to never, ever, under any circumstances, switch the perspec

This was the moment Pippin became a man...or a hobbit

I think you can only really know the measure of a man by how they handle adversity and challenges. In this case, you can only really know the measure of a hobbit by how t

Why the world needs more men like Éomer

What happens when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force? And then both of those things meet Gimli? It’s a question that the philosophers have debated for ages, a

Peter Jackson left out all the tension that JRR Tolkien built...

The Riders of Rohan chapter of The Two Towers is one of the most tense chapters of literature that I have read in a long time. I’m a movie fan, so I know Merry and Pippen

This was the moment I fell in love with Aragorn

It’s time. I feel like it’s that moment in Lion King when Simba ascends Pride Rock…I am FINALLY going to talk about how in one simple chapter…one of the shortest in the w

The Beginning of the Two Towers is a MASTERCLASS in how to start a story

If you’ve read The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien, you know that this book starts off guns a blazing. It is drastically different from it’s film adaptation in that Boromir die

Why you should read the Fellowship of the Ring

Having just finished reading Lord of the Rings for the first time and publishing over 10 hours of video essays on the work, I think I am not a certified expert in this te

Who is the greatest writer of all time?

Who is the greatest writer of all time. It’s an impossible question…why would I even ask it…no one can answer that one in any kind of objective way…well Im gunna do just

Is the Fellowship of the Ring a better movie than book?

So I just finished reading the Lord of the Rings: The fellowship of the Ring for the first time in my life. And it was incredible. I will dote on it this essay. And so I

Samwise Gamgee is EVEN BETTER in the Books

So yesterday I talked about Boromir being the most relatable character in the whole of the fellowship because of his flaws…I take that back. I think Sam is

The Two Towers: Bk 4 - Ch 7-9

Jon, Danny, and Lizzy talk about the incredible ending of book 4, and the one point where JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis shed a tear over.

Did the Fellowship Fail Boromir? (YES...and no)

Did the fellowship fail Boromir? It’s a question someone asked in a comment a few videos ago and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head for the last few days. I thi

How Aragorn being "erect" makes Tolkien an absolute MASTER of the English Language...

Alright. So this is the weirdest, but the absolute funniest moment in the entirety of the Fellowship of the Ring. And what might sound like the start to a really immature

Three WILD EVENTS that happened on the River in Fellowship of the Ring

It took them 10 days to get from Lothlorien to the waterfall Tol Brandir. It’s a full chapter in the books and in the 10 days there is a whole heap of stuff that happens

I just want to talk about Galadriel giving Gimli three hairs from her golden head...

I just feel, even though I have barely scratched the surface of the legendarium, that Galadriel and Gimli are doing something here VITALLY more important that I know or u

The Gifts of Galadriel are SO INCREDIBLE in the Books...

Rope…you’re telling me that we go from the books, where Galadriel gives Sam Gamgee maybe the coolest gift known to Middle Earth, and all we get in the movies is that sam

This is the Reason why Tolkien "intensely disliked" Dune

I’m going to start this video off with a very very hot take. Since the Lord of the Rings films came out, in the early 2000s, there hasn’t been another movie that handles

The Mirror of Galadriel is so BIZARRE to me...

I have to say, for maybe the first time in this entire series I am confused. I just don’t know what really happened at the Mirror of Galadriel. Maybe I’m over-analyising

What did Galadriel offer each member of the fellowship?

There is this weird section in the FOTR when the Company meets Galadriel. And Galadriel looks into each of their eyes almost simultaneously, and seems to offer them somet