#the lord of the rings the third age

[miloscat]

[Review] The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (GCN)

I’ve been sent back, until my task is done.

So I took some time off from my quest to play Lord of the Rings games. Quite some time, in fact. But no matter. Previously, I’d wrapped up the movie-based tie-ins and was ready to start on sidestories. So, after EA Redwood Shores (later known as Visceral Games) finished the Return of the King game, they started on a game ostensibly called LotR Trilogy, teased at the end of the former. I don’t know if this is what they were planning it to be all along, but the name at least changed.

I’ve heard people call this a Final Fantasy X clone. I can't really speak to that, but it’s certainly a turn-based RPG with one of those initiative queue systems. Progression is streamlined: some areas have branching paths but many are straight corridors, the skill trees are simple, there’s no shops and no currency. The traversable zones seem like little more than set dressing until the next drawn-out battle. These are mostly prescribed (most areas have no random encounters) and give predetermined loot. You’ll be spending a lot of time in the menu between battles fiddling with stat numbers and equipping the new drops (they’re cosmetically reflected on the characters which is nice).

If it sounds a bit railroaded, well it is. Or you could view it as one of those miniature trains in a model village, a pleasant ride to see some sights. I do recommend turning on Easy mode in the options, as it will reduce the amount of time you’ll spend watching those belaboured battle animations. (Note that I tried to play this on my Xbox but the disc was too damaged and failed after my first session, so I continued using Dolphin; the blessed speed-up feature saved me figuratively millions of years.)

There is some freedom with your character builds and your choice of party. I chose three of the six available (Idrial, Morwen, and Berethor) and used them as much as I could, and got by just fine. There’s a mechanic where you gain skill points in one of your two ability fields for each time you use an action of that type in battle. This incentivises using your skills—and they are useful—to learn more of them. I literally never used the ordinary attack! The game throws restoratives at you and you’ll frequently level up for full heals too, plus the save points replenish you. OK, so I was on Easy but the way I see it the harder difficulties were just wasting my time, and there was some challenge later on anyway.

Anyway, as an RPG it’s fine, but how is its use of the licence? Well, it feels quite fanfictiony, for better or worse. The story plays it safe by following a B-team Fellowship, closely shadowing the actual Fellowship and cleaning up after them, and almost all the six party member are expies of other characters, at least on the surface. Berethor is a Boromir type, although you find out later that he was secretly brainwashed by Saruman... and also Sauron I think? He’s a paladin type with excellent party-wide buffs. Idrial is just Arwen in the Fords of Bruinen scene, has sword but mainly healing and magic. Elegost is Strider-like, a Dunedain ranged attacker and debuffer. Hadhod is a Gimli-esque dwarf, a tank with some defensive and fire spells. Later you find Eaoden aka Éomer-lite, a Rohirrim knight with some technical buff skills, and Morwen. She’s a bit similar to Éowyn but the most original, a woman of Rohan with a tragic past and a need for vengeance who fights with double axes and thievery skills.

There’s some developments with these folks, aided by cutscenes with new narration by Sir Ian over movie footage, lending some authority while bridging the narrative to the films’ events... and the events and backstories of the game and its characters. You see, it’s told in a disjointed way, and supposed twists are just tossed off, so it ends up feeling a bit half-arsed. There’s even an unnecessary forced love triangle. It doesn’t help that several of the actors seem to be Americans faking British accents, and the voiceover recording in general could have used a pronunciation coach, but this has frequently been a problem in the movie games with their proper nouns.

It is fun getting something of an original story in this world, but it sticks very closely to the movie events for most of the time, unlike the later and more ambitious War in the North. The new characters are fun but heavily retreading known archetypes. You do get a ridiculous climax by fighting the Eye of Sauron at the summit of Barad-dûr: this is the fun kind of nonsense the game could have leaned into more, and even it seems thrown in at the last minute with no lead-in at all. There’s apparently a co-op mode but it is separated from the main game in some way, and the touted “Evil Mode” where you play as the baddies is a minor side-event that’s just a series of battles. Basically I just wish this game had gone harder and more out-there, but it’s a fun fluffy bit of fanservice all the same.

[velvet4510]

The thing about Éowyn giving up being a shieldmaiden is that those who complain about it are entirely missing the point.

What she truly wants is not to specifically fight and kill and kick ass in battle. All those things are representations of her actual desire: to be recognized.

She is constantly being cast aside and forced into the corner and left behind, and she wants to actually leave an impactful mark, a legacy, which the society of Rohan will not permit her to create. She directly tells Aragorn that she wants to do great deeds, and she is most afraid of losing her chance to do anything meaningful with massive ripple effects. She has the very human and very relatable need to be seen and noticed and remembered.

She sees all these warriors achieving glory and becoming the subjects of songs on the battlefield, so she thinks that’s her only way. And she fears that once the war is over, there will be no other way, that it will all go back to the way it was for her.

Then by the end, she learns that’s not true. She can do great deeds and achieve recognition post-war, and she does.

She becomes the Princess of Ithilien, a land decimated by war which means she and Faramir essentially get to start from scratch in rebuilding the land and the society. As Faramir’s equal partner, it is up to her, as much as it is up to him, to make the land beautiful again, to decide how it should be run, to mentor the younger generation to take proper care of it all. She can introduce horses to the land and teach people to ride. She can teach self-defense because everyone needs to know that kind of stuff. She can do so many things and make so many major decisions for the benefit of so many people who look up to her and need her.

And above all, Éowyn can shape Ithilien to be what Rohan never was to her: a place where all women are seen and heard and respected.

And the best part is, she gets all the freedom and makes all the impact that she has always dreamed of, and yet she doesn’t have to deal with any of her responsibilities alone. While before she had no support in being Théoden’s nurse, and dealt with it all by herself, now she is surrounded by love and encouragement. She’s got Faramir there to always hold her hand. She’s got supportive friends in Aragorn, Arwen, and Merry.

Éowyn giving up being a shieldmaiden and warrior is not the equivalent of abandoning her dream; it is the equivalent of achieving her dream.

[unavidas]

Glorfindel

[thelien-art]

Elrond and Celebrian, how I love them~

[sesamenom]

what ship would bear either of you, indeed?

inspired by this post by @aureentuluva70

[friendlyneighborhoodplebeian]

Meme Drop #2

Guys I made more!

[the-writing-warg]

Something I've noticed that I haven't seen others talk about very much is this

The armour elrond wears in the hobbit is the base for the armour he wears in the war of the last alliance.

And it's not cause its his only suit of armour because in the first hobbit film we see him wearing this suit

He really went and pulled out the fancy armour to go rescue gandalf.

[tolkienosaurus]

Yeah, there is only twlve options I can ask for, so here we are.

[glorfindelridesagain]

Legolas talking of the Paths of the Dead: They say many years ago Isildur cursed these mountains.

[A long time ago]

Isildur: Fuck these mountains!

[miloscat]

Pixel art: The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (it's the title of a video game)

https://www.deviantart.com/miloscat/art/Lord-of-the-Rings-The-Third-Age-933933762

[velvet4510]

The fact that Celeborn refers to the love of his life as his treasure and refers to Arwen as Aragorn’s treasure … a trend picked up by Elanor who refers to Frodo as Sam’s treasure … it reminds me of how Thorin sought literal treasure but ultimately valued Bilbo above it all … who knows if that’s actually the source of this term for the great romances of the Third Age.

[atane-is-here]

Stinky Sauron

[elficially-done-with-life]

I think I would go with beginning of the third age, when there was still some peace but also some adventures to go on.

[windrelyn]

[Second Age and Third Age Parody 2022]

Part 11: Three Rings (read from the left)

Special thanks for my translator Eikyuu Yuki. Please do not repost without my permission ! ! ! (especially Facebook groups/pages)

[robins-egg-bindery]

Skin Deep by Epilachna

Thranduil knows better than any that beauty is only skin deep, but what does he believe lies underneath? Early Third Age and beyond.

fic by Epilachna

772 pages / 214,677 words

Title Font: Aniron

Body Fonts: Pilgrim, Cirth Erebor, Better Grade

More on the process below the cut!

Such an epic fic! This is the first and only fic I've done from FF.net, but the commissioner was kind enough to help with pulling the text off the site (FF.net does not make it easy!) It's a big early Third Age fic, featuring Thranduil and an OC that takes on a life of her own as Thranduil's future wife. The sun & moon paper with the graphite duo book cloth is stunning imo, and I modeled the rest of the book after the original LOTR novels. The title page took inspiration from The Hobbit, but the rest was influenced heavily by the trilogy. I dug up the original fonts as well; Pilgrim for the body text, and Cirth Erebor for the title page writings. It also matches the original lettering, which was "The Lord of the Rings translated from the Red Book". This version reads, "Skin Deep translated from FF.Net"

The only difference with this typeset was the inclusion of Aniron, the movie's title font, for the title and drop caps (the original books did not have drop caps; they were not as fashionable during this era of publishing, especially for fantasy novels). Overall, I think it works as a wonderful homage to the source material - and fits Skin Deep right alongside Tolkein's works on a shelf. The commissioner also commissioned a copy for the author, and I do hope you enjoy holding your work in your hands!