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Tuesday, March 10, 2015

MEMM Day 14 - Lord of the Rings character you understand the least

To me, "understand the least" has nothing to do with "dislike the most" or "think I'm the most unlike."  It means the character whose head I can't getting into.  Whose eyes I can't see through no matter how I try, if that makes sense.  As a writer, I have spent years learning to see through the eyes of others, and I can do that for most characters in most things.  But not all.  Some characters block me, and I can never feel like I fully understand them.

So in the LOTR trilogy, the character I understand the least is Frodo Baggins.


Yeah, I cerebrally understand what's going on with him.  I know how he works, why he does the things he does, what's going on with him at the various stages.  But I never feel like I know him the way I do the others.  Even the bad characters, like Denethor and Grima and Saruman, I can understand more fully than Frodo.


The best way I can think of to explain it right now is that it's like the difference between seeing a picture of a chocolate chip cookie and actually eating a chocolate chip cookie.  (Not coincidentally, I baked said cookies today.)  I can see the picture of the cookie and imagine what it would taste like and smell like and feel like in my mouth, but it's not the same as actually taking a bite of a cookie.  I hope that makes some sense.


Do I wish I understood Frodo better?  Yes, I do.  But I've come to accept that there are some characters I just will never fully "get."
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6 comments:

  1. Carissa (Regency Woman)4:06 PM, March 10, 2015

    Hmm, very interesting. My sister has a few Frodo-like qualities occasionally so I understand him fairly well. More so in the books than the films, though. They totally changed him in the films.

    Mine is probably Boromir, both book and film. Oh, and Faramir in the 2nd film. Why bring the hobbits to Osgiliath? I don't get it. But with Boromir I just don't understand. He is reticent to accept Aragorn, desperate to jump on the Ring even though he's heard all the negatives. Like you I cerebrally understand him, but personally and emotionally, I cannot gasp his motivations because I have no connection with them. I still like him, most of the time, but I don't understand him.

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    1. Hamlette (Rachel)7:10 PM, March 10, 2015

      Book Frodo is a little easier for me to get, but even there he's still mostly closed to me. I like him a lot, I just don't "get" him.

      Boromir I like to think I get very well indeed. He's all about the pride, and proving repeatedly that he is as awesome as everyone tells him he is.

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  2. DKoren5:47 PM, March 10, 2015

    Great way to word it. It's like how I feel about Faramir. I understand him cerebrally, but his choices and decisions in life just preclude me getting in his head or knowing him the way I do the others.

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    1. Hamlette (Rachel)7:08 PM, March 10, 2015

      It's the same block I have for Hanley and Caje, Tony Stark, Jack Shepard, and I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of at the moment. They remain unknowable.

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  3. Charity12:45 PM, March 11, 2015

    Understand the least, huh?

    For me, it's Faramir. Many of his decisions are completely nonsensical to me. =P

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    1. Hamlette (Rachel)1:54 PM, March 11, 2015

      That was DKoren's answer as well. And I do agree, Movie Faramir is not very logical. But I feel like I can figure out where he's coming from most of the time, unlike Frodo.

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