went and saw avatar way of water tonight after personally waiting for the sequel for almost a decade. i have many thoughts but my most initial reaction is it’s a very beautiful and heartfelt film and i really truly loved it. james cameron you’re on my fucking list tho
wakanda forever honestly reminded me of how good a marvel movie can be when they create character-driven stories instead of focusing on unfunny jokes and repetitive action sequences
i’ve been having some lord of the rings thoughts recently and the only place i can safely word vomit about it is here so. buckle up i guess it’s time for some sam theories
*all in reference to the films*
so in the two towers when sam and frodo are captured by faramir and his gang, they find out from faramir that boromir is dead. both frodo and sam are visibly shocked by this, obviously, because they left before it happened. most notably for my point here, sam is shocked, and looks to frodo for agreement. we think that’s the end of it until later in the film when faramir tries to send them off to denethor that sam shouts at him about boromir, and we get the incredible quote:
“do you wanna know why your brother died?!”
he then goes on to say that boromir tried to take the ring from frodo and tried to kill him over it, that it drove him mad. it isn’t surprising that sam knows this. likely when he and frodo set off on their own, sam asked him what made him leave by himself, and frodo explains to him what happened with boromir, and why it made him realize he couldn’t run the risk of his friends falling under the same corruption. however. remember that at that point, neither of them knew boromir had died, so why on earth would sam so confidently say that boromir died at the hands of the ring? well. here’s where i go insane. in fellowship of the ring, we get the famous scene of frodo busting it in the snow on the mountain and dropping the ring, and boromir picks it up. this is the first time we start to really see how quickly boromir is drawn in by its power, and we get the amazing shot of boromir handing the ring back over, and aragorn takes his hand off his sword. this sends the message quickly that aragorn will defend frodo and the ring, at any cost. this is known throughout the company after that. my theory, and overall point here, is that when sam hears that boromir is dead, he quickly puts the pieces together using what little information he had of the events that occurred right before frodo, and the ring, left. honest to god, i think that sam assumed aragorn killed boromir because he was too corrupted by the ring. he knows that aragorn would’ve at least caused him harm on the mountain, and hearing what he had done to frodo in the forest, well it only makes sense to assume that boromir had been pushed over the edge, and aragorn had to do what was necessary, and right.
while this is a slightly dark theory to have, it’s made infinitely funnier to imagine the whole company in rivendell after the events of everything, waiting for frodo to wake up, and sam approaches aragorn to tell him that he understands that aragorn did what he had to do, boromir was all but lost, a threat to them all, and sam has great respect for him and this honorable show of mercy. it was a kingly action. aragorn is extremely confused.