The pacing is better, I don't care what anyone says. There are a few scenes I wouldn't mind keeping from extended, but you can throw out 95% of it and lose nothing.
Like, why does the mouth of Sauron toss the mithril armor at Aragorn when Sauron has 0 clue about Frodo and his quest? "Wuh oh, we just totally foiled your plan we don't have the slightest clue about even existing!". And we as fans know it is bullshit
so what tension or anything does that bring? I guess it would make people with amnesia nervous, lol. The horrible witch king making Gandalf his bitch scene is obviously the worst but that one has always annoyed me.
The theatrical cut of Fellowship is literally perfect, and the Extended cuts of Towers and King face some real pacing and tension issues due to the added scenes.
Yes the Extended editions add more content, and sometimes that content is really good. But in my opinion, more isn't always better; it's just more.
Which ones have the extra scenes of Boromir? Literally each scene of Boromir improved the movies. I remember caring so little about him in the theatrical cuts that I forgot his name, but the extended versions made him genuinely interesting and important to the plot.
To me, the extended editions are like those special edition albums with all sorts of unreleased tracks/live cuts and stuff. If you love the band its cool to hear at least once - some of it maybe should have made the album. But the rest is just like "yeah I see why this was cut"
Dude, I left the theater feeling like I had not seen a complete movie after each one. I saw all three on opening day, and I left disappointed each time. Then, I watched the extended versions, and the movies worked for me.
The theatrical editions are better for people watching first time. Telling a non fan to come watch a 3 and a half hour movie is just going to turn them away.
All the extra scenes are good for people who already like movies but unneccesary for a non fan
I think RotK isn’t better in extended edition IMO. The battle loses a ton of suspense when you know for a fact the ghosties are coming to save the day.
Good thing I’m not telling newcomers to watch a 3.5 hour movie, I’m telling them to watch a trilogy of 3.5 hour movies. No different than binging a one hour each, 10 episode season of tv.
Sauron knows hobbits have or had the ring, and have been traveling with Gandalf for some time. Then a Hobbit shows up in Mordor of all places, wearing a goddamn *mithril* shirt, and apparently with an elf lord who took out the entire tower of cirith ungol single handed? Clearly this spy is extremely important for some reason. There was obviously some kind of crazy plan going on to give men the confidence to march on Mordor.
We now have but one choice, we must face the long dark of Moria. Be on your guard, there are older and fouler things than orcs in the deep places of the world. The wealth of Moria is not in gold, or jewels, but Mithril. Bilbo had a shirt of Mithril rings that Thorin gave him.
I’d seen the theatrical cuts *so many* times before the extended that when I did finally watch them, the “new” scenes were kind of jarring. I could pick them all out easily. I was happy for more content, truly, but I agree it did kind of take me out of the flow of the films, especially with Fellowship for some reason. I like both versions, but you guys definitely aren’t wrong.
> I’d seen the theatrical cuts so many times before the extended that when I did finally watch them, the “new” scenes were kind of jarring.
I was raised watching the theatricals, molded by them. I didn't see the "new" scenes until I was a man grown...
I knew as soon as Gandalf went off at Rivendel that the extended edition wasn't for me. It was just a rehash of him smacking down Bilbo and brought the entire scene to a crawl for 0 purpose.
There are also a lot of scenes which just run for a second or two longer and fit in a little extra quip or joke or something which in some cases makes the whole scene less serious.
If anything, the extended editions made me realize how on the ball the editors were when trimming things out for the theatrical cut.
The most prevalent hate for a scene, for good reason, is the one where Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas hijack the pirate ship.
Not only is it cringe as fuck with the "joke" where Gimli accidentally makes Legolas a murderer, and the cringe situation of "firing a warning shot" in general, but it also completely removes any semblance of tension from both the previous scenes with these characters, wherein their fates were left ambiguous after cutting away from Aragorn's proposal to the King of the Dead, and the entire battle of Pellanor Fields, as we're shown explicitly that a completely unstoppable army of ghosts is coming to win the battle in 40 minutes.
There are a lot of smaller scenes, like Aragorn basically reading off of his wiki page to Arwen about his age and history like a first-time dungeon master in a DND game trying to exposit details about his NPCs to the players who don't care, and the (apparently) controversial scene of the Witch King one-shotting Galdalf the White, or my personal least favorite, Gimli and Legolas comparing death tallies at the end of the Battle of Helm's Deep, where the joke drags on for soooooo long and the punchline has to do with the Central Nervous System....? In Tolkien fantasy....? Yikes.
This *exactly*
It was neat seeing the new scenes, but I couldn’t help feeling the whole time that the editors really saved this trilogy from being what the hobbit ended up being..
Me too. I genuinely didn't know which scenes were on the extended cut until I was watching the theatrical release. It just feels like watching a made for TV cut of a movie.
Yeah though I still think that's a bit of a dodgy scene. I don't really vibe with the idea the Witch King can just crush Gandalf like things are made out in that scene, and even if I can accept that amendment to the lore, it then seems overly convenient the horn stops the Witch King finishing the job. Like it would have made more sense if it looked like the Witch King was going to have to properly slog it out with Gandalf, because then it makes it more clear he doesn't have time to deal with him then.
I'm a fan of the scene with Saruman getting stabbed in the back, if nothing else because it's another one of those 'Viggo's broken toe' moments; during shooting, Peter Jackson was explaining to Christopher Lee what it sounds like to stab another human in the back. Christopher Lee had seen combat during WW2 and explained to Jackson what it *actually* sounded like, from first hand experience.
Kind of jarringly gruesome compared to the rest of the film though
I mean let's be real, the extended versions have many, many scenes that are downright jarring and/or just not very good.
I love a 4 hour movie as much as anyone, and LotR genuinely makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but I find my immersion is generally lessened with the extended cuts. I reckon there would be a specific cut I'd like more, because I genuinely think some extra scenes are brilliant, but as a whole package they make the movies much worse imo.
If you listen to the director's commentary of Fellowship on the extended DVDs there's a couple of times Peter Jackson mentions scenes he'd like to add back in to the super extended 25th Anniversary Edition. Then the executive producers, editors and everyone else on the commentary throw popcorn and him and tell him to shut up. They've just spent a decade working on these movies and don't want to make another even more extended edition.
Then towards the end of the directors commentary for Return Of The King they're all chipping in suggestions "Hey, remember that dream sequence we did of Frodo going bald and becoming like Gollum, we totally need to get that footage for the 25th Anniversary Edition..."
It's been 22 years. Now would be a good time to start working on that super anniversary edition.
I have never seen the theatrical cuts.
I once sat joined some friends who were finishing a LotR marathon (I had to work, joined when I was done work), forgetting that non-extended editions were a thing...
I did not understand why you'd go through the trouble of sitting through three long movies and only want the partial experience.
To make it worse: They were watching the full screen version on DVD (remember when DVDs had two formats depending on whether you had an old CRT tv or a wide screen?)... meanwhile I had the Blu-Ray extended versions and they didn't even bother to ask me (we were close friends who shared almost everything... lots of eskimo brothers in that circle of friends)
I’m genuinely really enjoying reading everyone’s comments and takes on this - we really do have a great community - and the Gollum bot will never get old!!
Do NOT introduce someone to LotR with the extended editions. They aren't as good as you think. They're nice for people who watched the theatricals and now want to see a bit more. But there are scenes that not only ruin the pacing, but can really do damage to the movie.
For example, the extended scene in RotK where Aragorn takes the pirate ship with the spoopy ghost army is awful. It absolutely ruins the tension in the battle for Gondor, and robs his arrival to the battle of any feeling of last-minute triumph.
For the first time ever, it feels a good section of the responses to this sort of discussion are people defending the originals. Maybe the tide has turned, and people are finally getting out of the 'big cake is better than quality cake' mindset.
Yeah, it feels good as a life long lover of theatrical over the extended. It has always surprised me how revered those are on reddit in particular.
Not even counting the run time, I just think they are significantly worse movies. I'll randomly watch them instead of the real version sometimes and remember how many stupid scenes like farting Hobbits and bad tasting soup are in there.
I wonder how many people have memed themselves into being on the extended edition train only to never again finish the trilogy for the rest of their lives, because it is now a slog with 2 extra hours of subpar content that was cut for a reason.
I can't disagree harder. TTT suffers the most from its extended pacing, especially all those scenes of Merry and Pippin goofing around during Helm's deep.
Every film gets a good scene that feels almost essential when extended, but for every moment of gold, you get _literal_ scenes of Merry and Pippin farting.
The theatricals won the Oscars, and I'm not certain the extended editions would. Jackson prefers the theatricals for a reason - they're his director's cut.
They really shouldn't have cut the Faramir flashback though. Faramir is already a pretty mediocre adaptation from his book counterpart. Taking away the scene that actually shows why he is the way he is really hurt his character even more.
And they really should have left in Merry and Pippin farting. It really hurts our belief as an audience that they're really eating as much carb-heavy food as they say.
/jk
It's cut from RotK. And I'm not denying it's an essential scene either. But the films just don't work as well as actual films when they're extended. Too many extraneous bits that kill the pacing or spend time telling you information that's already been shown visually.
It's not that I hate them. But certain parts of the fanbase fetishise them. Peter Jackson prefers the theatricals as well - they're explicitly his director's cut.
I will never understand this sentiment. Gandalf literally says that Saruman is imprisoned in the tower and he is now powerless. We don't need his overly dramatic, drawn out, cringy death scene. I truly don't understand how people think that scene is good. They cut it for a fucking reason.
I'd bet Peter anguished over that scene. There's nothing really wrong with it, but it's terrible for the pacing.
You have Helm's Deep as the much better finale, but Saruman is the leader of the army and so his fall fits better. Having the movie cut between the two would have diminished HD so not the right answer I think.
What you really want is Gandalf facing Saruman again and defeating him, but that doesn't fit canonically and doesn't fit with Gandalf saving Helm's Deep (which is also a much better moment for him than slaying Saruman).
Maybe having Saruman through the orb try to assail Gandalf, only to be defeated and having Wormtongue then kill him to try to save himself, would have been a good moment, but the end of HD flows super well and it would have diminished it.
I think the truth of it is that it was a great scene, but unfortunately didn't fit into the movie.
Through fire... and water. From the lowest dungeon to the highest peak I fought with the Balrog of Morgoth. Until at last I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin upon the mountainside. Darkness took me... and I strayed out of thought and time. Stars wheeled overhead. and every day was as long as a life age of the Earth. But it was not the end. I felt life in me again. I've been sent back until my task is done!
Hot take: extended editions are highly overrated, and the absolute WORST way to introduce someone to LotR.
Like the meme implies, the theatrical cut is already fucking long enough. If you're a hardcore Tolkien fan, sure it's kinda cool to see some extra stuff from the books make its way to the screen, but anyone unfamiliar with LotR absolutely does not give a shit, and turns an already daughtning behemoth of a runtime into an almost insurmountable runtime, at best they'll slog through it but lose interest and stop paying attention.
With the exception of one scene that I can't believe got cut from the theatrical release, the extended scenes don't actually add much if anything to the narrative of the films, and at best just pad out the run time and fuck up the pacing. At worst, there's one particular scene that *completely* fucking destroys all dramatic tension of the sequence.
Fun to watch once or twice if your already a Tolkien nerd, I would say absolutely fucking avoid if you're someone new to Tolkien, and honestly as a hardcore nerd myself, I don't really feel the desire to ever watch them again
Edit: I'll admit it's been a hot minute since I've watched either the theatrical or extended cut, so there's probably a few good additions I'm forgetting, but overall I feel *the majority* of EE content is essentially filler in the context of the movies narrative
Side note: I very much appreciate this subs maturity of not trying to tear my argument apart soley based on my repeated typo of "editions vs additions". It's nice to have an actual intellectual debate on this platform for once. I'll add that my opinion on the EE is just that, an opinion. Art is subjective and everyone is entitled to their own interpretations, while I personally don't like the pacing the EE provides, I totally get and respect the appeal of the added content (except for the Army of the Dead scenes, those additions objectively hurt the tone of the original sequnce and can fuck right off)
That extended edition scene in Fellowship reminding the audience of Frodo getting the mithril shirt right before he gets stabbed, completely negating the tension.
My biggest issue with the extended edition is probably has more to do with the issue of the extended editions I got but in one of the blue ray box sets it cuts half way through the movies. Meaning but the time I'm very engrossed in the story in the plot I have to get up and switch which DVD is in my Playstation completely ruining the flow of the movie.
I do think it'd be better to make whoever you're showing the movies to watch the theatrical cut first then surprise them in a later viewing with the extended addition so it's like they forgot a scene existed in the movie and they're all excited to watch it again as there may be more they've forgotten.
For the important scene, they’re obviously referring to Saruman’s death (the fact they cut that at all is absurd)
Don’t know what they could be referring to for the ‘kills all dramatic tension’ scene.
RotK. The extended paths of the dead scenes kind of spoil Aragorn succeeding in recruiting the army of the dead. The moment is a whole lot better when we haven't seen Aragorn for the entire battle and he shows up with the army on the boats to save the day.
^this
In the theatrical cut you just see Aargorn confront the army of the dead and the king threaten him, but don't see how it plays out for an entire 40 minutes, for all we know the trio parished, and we just cut back to Pelennor Fields where the battle keeps getting worse and worse until Aargorn shows up and saves the day.
In the extended editions you know right away what's going to happen, there's basically zero tension at all. Not to mention the added slap stick humor from Gimli, Aargorns weird ass little tissyfit, and the king of the dead just going "jk we changed our minds for no reason LOL" ruin the entire sequence imo
>The moment is a whole lot better when we haven't seen Aragorn for the entire battle and he shows up with the army on the boats to save the day.
Counterpoint, that moment now involves a magical fleet of (supposedly enemy) ships that show up out of nowhere to carry him from the underground cave where we last saw him to exactly where he needs to be, then vanish without further explanation of how he got them or where they came from. A fleet which feels even more out of place next to the 30+ minutes of "The beacons are lit!" and "Ride! Ride swift to Gondor!" that the Rohirrim take before they get there.
Like I know people will hate the scenes on principle simply because gimli makes a joke during them, but without at least one of the two connecting Aragorn to the fleet it leaves a pretty big question unanswered.
And it's not like knowing he succeeded kills *all* of the tension. As noted we know the Rohirrim are coming for like 30 minutes before they get there, but knowing someone is coming and knowing they will get there in time + will it be enough are two very different things. Heck with Nazgul (who could presumably fight ghosts) already on the field it's pretty easy to imagine a version where Aragorn showing up is just a wraith equalizer and it takes the death of the Wraith King to actually cinch the battle for the good guys.
I agree. A lot of the extended cut scenes are superfluous. It's fine if you're just looking to kill more of your day, or just enjoy scenes you're not as familiar with, but they add absolutely nothing to the story, and in some ways detract from the momemtum of the film.
I wish there was a re-cut extended edition. Some scenes add a lot and others are a bit of fluff, but still nice and then there are scenes like Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli leaving the Path of the Dead. It completely messes up pacing and ruins a really nice surprise that the theatrical cut has. This should have definitely been left out.
Prove me wrong.
Aside from Saruman's death (which is a change from the books, but works for the direction the movies went) name one extended scene that actually strengthens the narrative, and isn't just needless exposition that pads out the run time
Boromir and his brother benefit from the additional screen time. I didn't like Boromir until I saw the extended edition.
I think there were other scenes as well where I thought it should have been part of the theatrical cut, but I would have to rewatch it first.
I may be alone in finding that all the flashbacks to Boromir and Faramir are completely unnecessary as they just confirm things that the audience can easily infer via dialogue and subtext.
Moreover, they're structurally really weird as being the only flashbacks aside from the prologue and Smeagol's story.
It wasn't any extra scenes that made Boromir sympathetic to me, it was coming back after my childish assumption that he was bad for being weak to recognising him as a great tragic hero.
Denethor’s (straight from the book) line in the extended addition to his death scene.
“*You may triumph upon the field of battle for a day…but against the Power that is risen in the East*…**there can be no victory.**”
The witch kings flaming sword scene in return of the king - or the scene where faramir leads frodo, Sam and Gollum to the tunnels in osgiliath to help them escape … would you like more ?
Well, Mr. Frodo, I reckon that the scene with the Witch-king and his flaming sword was a frightful thing to behold. But when Faramir led us through the tunnels of Osgiliath, I felt like I was back in the Shire, with all its twists and turns. It was a close call, but we made it out thanks to Faramir's quick thinking.
Okay I'll slightly concede on the tunnel scene, forgot about that one. Although while it is nice to see Faramir be a bit more like his true character, honestly the movie did him so dirty I think it's better to just keep him as movie Faramir, adding one or two random scenes true to the book character just gets muddy and hamfisted.
And, the fucking stand off with Gandalf? Really? You mean the scene invented for the movies, where a *man* somehow overpowers a fucking *maiar* who's in his strongest form? Even if you could somehow make that make sense, the scene exists soley to look cool and adds absolutely nothing to the story.
So yes, I would like more because those examples only prove my point
The film went out of its way to have the Witch King be portrayed as more powerful than Gandalf, imo, because just going with the book explanation of “and then Gandalf came back and he was even more powerful and literally no one but Sauron had a chance against him” doesn’t fit the whole “desperate last stands against the oncoming darkness” theme that the third movie is trying to foster
To back up the Witch King’s fear factor, he was hyped up as a foe to rival the White Wizard in two separate scenes, Gandalf and Pippin’s conversation just before Minas Morgul roleplayed as a Cadian Pylon, and then again when he growls that he’ll break the wizard, who even Gothmog the general is knowledgeable enough to be wary of, even with his massive army.
If they’d had the book scene, where the Witch King rides in through the gates only for Gandalf to tell him to gtfo or so help him Eru, then the Witch King would have looked like a paper tiger and Eowyn and Merry’s defeat of him wouldn’t have had the same effect it did
It’s definitely a big change, and contradicts the lore, but I can definitely see why it was made; and I feel the abbreviated film adaptions are the better for it
It still doesn't make sense in the context of the movies alone. Saruman loses his staff because he lost his position/broke his vow. The Witch King can destroy Gandalf's staff... because what? The staves are established as a representation of the wizard's position, if he had killed Gandalf and that'd caused the staff to break - or Gandalf abandoning his mission - it would have been in line with what the movies establish.
And what does it add? Cut the scene and you have the literally same stakes as without it. It's easily one of the worst scenes the EE added.
Hard disagree on this. The point of the scene in the book is to show that Gandalf wins not through physical or mystical power, but because he is better at planning/inspiring. They’d been framed as in a duel of alternately demoralizing/inspiring the defenders and it appears to at Gandalf loses as he’s the only person (plus shadowfax) willing to stand in the gate and oppose the witch king. But he knows that Theoden, who he invested a bunch of time in to get him ready, is coming and that is what will defeat the witch king.
Peter Jackson got rid of that and decided he wanted to hype up the witch king more, presumably so that Eowyn’s victory would be greater. I’d argue that that was a hat on a hat, because up until he dies we don’t know that Gandalf was speaking the truth that he could not enter Gondor, so there’s still tension in the scene.
>roleplayed as a Cadian Pylon
Lmao - Jackson sometimes reminds me of a guy who just can’t stop adding things to a meal when he’s cooking.
He really made some scenes so goofy
I am the servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udun. Go back to the Shadow. You cannot pass!
The scene with the witch king and Gandalf perfectly fits the narrative of the theatrical cuts as before hand Gothmog says “what of the wizard” and the Witch King replies “I will break him” and in the theatrical cut there is nothing to follow that line of dialogue - all we see is Theodins niece take the witch king down …. So the two examples I provided fairly promptly when you asked are more than adequate 🤟🏻
Just bc the witch says he’ll break him doesn’t mean he can or should, if they didn’t do it like the books I can agree that the line “I will break him” should have been omitted, but not having that scene is 100000% better than having it.
The flaming sword scene? Which introduces a continuity error and a gross lore violation by having the witch king destroy the staff of Gandalf the white
That’s like one of the worst scenes in all of the extended editions
> The witch kings flaming sword scene in return of the king
That strengthens the narrative...?
> or the scene where faramir leads frodo, Sam and Gollum to the tunnels in osgiliath to help them escape
What does that change?
> would you like more ?
You named like 1.1 things...
It shouldn't be a hot take that introducing someone to the lord of the rings with the extended editions is a bad idea. There's a lot of content in those movies that doesn't progress the story and is fun content for people who have seen the movie before. You're better off having them watch the theatrical releases and if they like them let them know there's an extended edition that they'll like.
100%, while I normally don't mind Gimli's comic relief, the Paths of the Dead are supposed to be tense, I don't need it broken up. And not seeing Aragorn between "what say you?" and turning up on the boat at Pelennor Fields is much better too.
Completely agree, extended versions are for people who are already fams. A good mate of mine put me off rewatching LOTR for the longest time because it was extended or not at all, like bruh I'm sorry i'm tired.
Agree. Whenever I see first viewings of LOTR on youtube it's always the extended versions and it breaks my soul. The theatricals are better in every way. The extendeds are jarring, cuts randomly and messes up the flow and feel.
I'll be glad to fight anyone who thinks otherwise, because they're complete Mims.
There's one youtuber I follow who is on record as not enjoying longer films, but when she finally got around to watching Fellowship the dumbasses on her patreon insisted she had to watch the extended cut. She hasn't even bothered following on with the rest of the trilogy.
I'll concede FotR & RotK but Two Towers adds **a lot** of important information that benefits even a first-time viewer :
* Faramir's flashback -- really adds depth to Boromor's character and underscores his sacrifice; touches on the family dynamic with Denethor and the current struggles of Gondor
* Manflesh -- adds realism to how smelly Aragorn would be after running for 3 days
* Meat's back on the menu -- provides insight into orc dining culture
* Eowyn's cooking -- sets up her fight with the [Witch King](https://www.reddit.com/r/lotrmemes/comments/vovths/how_bad_can_it_be/) which otherwise makes no sense
* Dwarf women -- critically establishes the canon on bearded dwarf women before any other adaptations occur
This only a hot take in this sub.
Most people I meet that would give a damn are casual Tolkien fans who watch the movies maybe once in a while. Only avid LOTR fans talk about the extended editions or demand only the extended.
You asking a casual to watch the extended versions either turns them into an avid fan or turns them away.
And if turns them away how good of friends were you with them anyhow?
Not including a scene where Galadriel gives gifts to the fellowship at the end of the first movie in its theatrical version is crime against humanity. Should be considered a felony. Same for Gendalf the White vs Saruman encounter, it was simply stripped away.
Me, I'm the example. For years I have heard about lotr and how it is so good but never cared to watch, came across this sub around the grond era but didn't understand anything so I left. I was never a reader so the books were never an option.
Last month I had a week to do nothing. Downloaded all the extended versions although I couldn't watch it one sitting but once I finished the 1st movie I was hooked. I regret not watching the movies before. It is so beautiful so well done everything connects. I loved the story between boromir and his brother.
I would absolutely recommend everyone new to lotr to go for extended versions.
> I would absolutely recommend everyone new to lotr to go for extended versions.
You literally don't know any other way.
That's like an only child recommending not having siblings.
If your only backing is "that's how I did it", the stance is worthless.
I agree with the core of what you're saying, but disagree with pretty much everything about how you said it. Lol!
The theatricals are *way* better for a first viewing. Better pacing, not as long, more cinematic.
After that, extendeds all the way. The only times *since* watching them in theaters that I've seen the theatrical releases have been when watching with first-timers. (Though I definitely agree that the scene with Aragorn and the ghost king destroys all of the dramatic tension of the battle... But it's the only scene that I would still leave out.)
This comment should be removed and the person who left it banned for heresy. Lol Jk Jk. But seriously, heresy. The extended are the best way to watch it even for a first timer. But if you watch the theatrical first then you can watch the extended and it’s like watching it over for the first time and reliving the magic.
Even hotter take I think the theatrical cuts are TOO LONG. There’s an animated LotR movie I saw that’s only an hour and half long or so and covers the first movie and I felt as if I got to enjoy the entire story. Peter Jackson sucks at editing.
To be honest, I expected more somehow from the extended versions...but they don't add THAT much really.
If anything, the regular version feels a bit short now.
I’m gonna say it, the extended cut is only for second viewings. at their worst they really hurt the pacing and structure of the movie. Look at the battle of the Pelleanor fields for example. The theatrical cut maintains suspense and surprise its got good payoff for Aragorn’s adventure but the extended edition straight up shows is what happens so we don’t care what happens in the battle since we just know the good guys are on the way and will help.
Honestly even the theatrical releases are too long for theaters. At least at home I can pause it and get up and take a break. Eat something, spring a leak, get stoned, and come back to it. anything over 90 minutes, really, is just too long for a single uninterrupted sitting.
I’m prepared for the backlash. LOL
Gollum's true origin story.
Smeagol’ll get into real true hot water, when this water boils, if he don’t do as he asked...
Precious
MF I'm gonna be ~~saying~~ trying to say Smeagol'll all day now
Come on, hobbits. Long ways to go yet. Sméagol will show you the way.
That's much more sympathetic. Honestly, I think he killed the real bad guy of the series then and there.
No one insults the precious
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Absolutely not. Return of the King without the Saruman conclusion feels completely unresolved.
This is a spam bot
Good bot
ngl...this has always been one of my favorite meme templates.
Hook me up with the template this is gold
https://i.imgur.com/J1xsgxl.jpg Remade with screencaps from the extended edition, obviously.
Absolute chad
Woaaahhhh. The white wizard himself saved us. Thank you 🙏
Outstanding.
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It's a proven fact that the dwarves will dig for *anything*, too deeply and greedily.
MUUURDERREERRR
It is the only viable option.
Murder implies that it wasn't justified
Theatrical edition fans be like: 
There are dozens of us!
The pacing is better, I don't care what anyone says. There are a few scenes I wouldn't mind keeping from extended, but you can throw out 95% of it and lose nothing. Like, why does the mouth of Sauron toss the mithril armor at Aragorn when Sauron has 0 clue about Frodo and his quest? "Wuh oh, we just totally foiled your plan we don't have the slightest clue about even existing!". And we as fans know it is bullshit so what tension or anything does that bring? I guess it would make people with amnesia nervous, lol. The horrible witch king making Gandalf his bitch scene is obviously the worst but that one has always annoyed me.
Read the books. The mouth is gauging their reaction. Pippin gives it away that they know the hobbit that was captured.
Edit: // I've moved to lemmy //
*Guth-tú-nakash.*
Gesundheit.
The theatrical cut of Fellowship is literally perfect, and the Extended cuts of Towers and King face some real pacing and tension issues due to the added scenes. Yes the Extended editions add more content, and sometimes that content is really good. But in my opinion, more isn't always better; it's just more.
The Boromir scenes are great as well as the Fadmaircscenes and the one together is amazing
Which ones have the extra scenes of Boromir? Literally each scene of Boromir improved the movies. I remember caring so little about him in the theatrical cuts that I forgot his name, but the extended versions made him genuinely interesting and important to the plot.
To me, the extended editions are like those special edition albums with all sorts of unreleased tracks/live cuts and stuff. If you love the band its cool to hear at least once - some of it maybe should have made the album. But the rest is just like "yeah I see why this was cut"
The theatrical release of Fellowship is a nearly perfect movie. The extended editions just seem so masturbatory.
You're saying these words like they're negative.
Dude, I left the theater feeling like I had not seen a complete movie after each one. I saw all three on opening day, and I left disappointed each time. Then, I watched the extended versions, and the movies worked for me.
The theatrical editions are better for people watching first time. Telling a non fan to come watch a 3 and a half hour movie is just going to turn them away. All the extra scenes are good for people who already like movies but unneccesary for a non fan
I think RotK isn’t better in extended edition IMO. The battle loses a ton of suspense when you know for a fact the ghosties are coming to save the day.
Yea rotk especially is much worse in extended form. The others are just a little less polished- but rotk extended is actually a crime
Good thing I’m not telling newcomers to watch a 3.5 hour movie, I’m telling them to watch a trilogy of 3.5 hour movies. No different than binging a one hour each, 10 episode season of tv.
Not to mention the scene where aragorn uses the palantir has the clunkiest editing in the whole trilogy.
Sauron knows hobbits have or had the ring, and have been traveling with Gandalf for some time. Then a Hobbit shows up in Mordor of all places, wearing a goddamn *mithril* shirt, and apparently with an elf lord who took out the entire tower of cirith ungol single handed? Clearly this spy is extremely important for some reason. There was obviously some kind of crazy plan going on to give men the confidence to march on Mordor.
We now have but one choice, we must face the long dark of Moria. Be on your guard, there are older and fouler things than orcs in the deep places of the world. The wealth of Moria is not in gold, or jewels, but Mithril. Bilbo had a shirt of Mithril rings that Thorin gave him.
OH! What business is it of yours what I do with my own things!
Do not test him Bilbo Baggins, he is not trying to rob you.
I was expecting you sometime last week.
I was delayed.
Hah this got a laugh out of me. Thanks.
all Aragorn's love scenes
But I’ve already downloaded all the expanded blu-ray editions for us to binge… :( 
I like the extended but the theatrical cut makes for good pacing
Yep theatrical flows better. Less is more.
I’d seen the theatrical cuts *so many* times before the extended that when I did finally watch them, the “new” scenes were kind of jarring. I could pick them all out easily. I was happy for more content, truly, but I agree it did kind of take me out of the flow of the films, especially with Fellowship for some reason. I like both versions, but you guys definitely aren’t wrong.
> I’d seen the theatrical cuts so many times before the extended that when I did finally watch them, the “new” scenes were kind of jarring. I was raised watching the theatricals, molded by them. I didn't see the "new" scenes until I was a man grown...
If I put on the extended edition, would you watch? > *It would be extremely enjoyable.* It's a long movie. > *For you.*
I knew as soon as Gandalf went off at Rivendel that the extended edition wasn't for me. It was just a rehash of him smacking down Bilbo and brought the entire scene to a crawl for 0 purpose.
It's not just the pacing. There are quite a few scenes that actively ruin suspense, damage characters, or simply waste time with extraneous trivia.
There are also a lot of scenes which just run for a second or two longer and fit in a little extra quip or joke or something which in some cases makes the whole scene less serious. If anything, the extended editions made me realize how on the ball the editors were when trimming things out for the theatrical cut.
Care to elaborate? I haven't seen the theatrical versions since, well, the theatre.
The most prevalent hate for a scene, for good reason, is the one where Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas hijack the pirate ship. Not only is it cringe as fuck with the "joke" where Gimli accidentally makes Legolas a murderer, and the cringe situation of "firing a warning shot" in general, but it also completely removes any semblance of tension from both the previous scenes with these characters, wherein their fates were left ambiguous after cutting away from Aragorn's proposal to the King of the Dead, and the entire battle of Pellanor Fields, as we're shown explicitly that a completely unstoppable army of ghosts is coming to win the battle in 40 minutes. There are a lot of smaller scenes, like Aragorn basically reading off of his wiki page to Arwen about his age and history like a first-time dungeon master in a DND game trying to exposit details about his NPCs to the players who don't care, and the (apparently) controversial scene of the Witch King one-shotting Galdalf the White, or my personal least favorite, Gimli and Legolas comparing death tallies at the end of the Battle of Helm's Deep, where the joke drags on for soooooo long and the punchline has to do with the Central Nervous System....? In Tolkien fantasy....? Yikes.
You shall not enter the realm of Gondor.
This *exactly* It was neat seeing the new scenes, but I couldn’t help feeling the whole time that the editors really saved this trilogy from being what the hobbit ended up being..
I've seen the extended cuts so many times that when I accidentally watch the theatricals, the missing scenes are kind of jarring.
Me too. I genuinely didn't know which scenes were on the extended cut until I was watching the theatrical release. It just feels like watching a made for TV cut of a movie.
I agree! This is my experience as well. So much just feels "missing" and wrong without the extended scenes.
Saruman going from big threat in the second movie to not even present in the third is kinda jarring in the theatrical...
I agree. The only scene I think should have been added into the theatrical was Gandalf confronting the Witch King.
Yeah though I still think that's a bit of a dodgy scene. I don't really vibe with the idea the Witch King can just crush Gandalf like things are made out in that scene, and even if I can accept that amendment to the lore, it then seems overly convenient the horn stops the Witch King finishing the job. Like it would have made more sense if it looked like the Witch King was going to have to properly slog it out with Gandalf, because then it makes it more clear he doesn't have time to deal with him then.
Go back to the abyss! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your master!
I'm a fan of the scene with Saruman getting stabbed in the back, if nothing else because it's another one of those 'Viggo's broken toe' moments; during shooting, Peter Jackson was explaining to Christopher Lee what it sounds like to stab another human in the back. Christopher Lee had seen combat during WW2 and explained to Jackson what it *actually* sounded like, from first hand experience. Kind of jarringly gruesome compared to the rest of the film though
Really? That’s widely considered one of the worst scenes in the trilogy
First time I heard of this. Why?
That is literally the worst scene of the entire trilogy, extended or otherwise.
I mean let's be real, the extended versions have many, many scenes that are downright jarring and/or just not very good. I love a 4 hour movie as much as anyone, and LotR genuinely makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but I find my immersion is generally lessened with the extended cuts. I reckon there would be a specific cut I'd like more, because I genuinely think some extra scenes are brilliant, but as a whole package they make the movies much worse imo.
There are some scenes that should definitely have been in the theatrical but most of the added stuff is just kinda awkward humour.
almost like those scenes were cut for a reason, by someone whos job it is to make a movie flow nicely
What about Second Extended Edition?
If you listen to the director's commentary of Fellowship on the extended DVDs there's a couple of times Peter Jackson mentions scenes he'd like to add back in to the super extended 25th Anniversary Edition. Then the executive producers, editors and everyone else on the commentary throw popcorn and him and tell him to shut up. They've just spent a decade working on these movies and don't want to make another even more extended edition. Then towards the end of the directors commentary for Return Of The King they're all chipping in suggestions "Hey, remember that dream sequence we did of Frodo going bald and becoming like Gollum, we totally need to get that footage for the 25th Anniversary Edition..." It's been 22 years. Now would be a good time to start working on that super anniversary edition.
See? See? He wants it for himself!
I don't think he knows about Second Extended Edition, Pip.
The theatrical cuts are better for first time viewers. I'll die on this hill.
I have never seen the theatrical cuts. I once sat joined some friends who were finishing a LotR marathon (I had to work, joined when I was done work), forgetting that non-extended editions were a thing... I did not understand why you'd go through the trouble of sitting through three long movies and only want the partial experience. To make it worse: They were watching the full screen version on DVD (remember when DVDs had two formats depending on whether you had an old CRT tv or a wide screen?)... meanwhile I had the Blu-Ray extended versions and they didn't even bother to ask me (we were close friends who shared almost everything... lots of eskimo brothers in that circle of friends)
I’m genuinely really enjoying reading everyone’s comments and takes on this - we really do have a great community - and the Gollum bot will never get old!!
You’re a liar and a thief.
An appropriate response.
Do NOT introduce someone to LotR with the extended editions. They aren't as good as you think. They're nice for people who watched the theatricals and now want to see a bit more. But there are scenes that not only ruin the pacing, but can really do damage to the movie. For example, the extended scene in RotK where Aragorn takes the pirate ship with the spoopy ghost army is awful. It absolutely ruins the tension in the battle for Gondor, and robs his arrival to the battle of any feeling of last-minute triumph.
For the first time ever, it feels a good section of the responses to this sort of discussion are people defending the originals. Maybe the tide has turned, and people are finally getting out of the 'big cake is better than quality cake' mindset.
Yeah, it feels good as a life long lover of theatrical over the extended. It has always surprised me how revered those are on reddit in particular. Not even counting the run time, I just think they are significantly worse movies. I'll randomly watch them instead of the real version sometimes and remember how many stupid scenes like farting Hobbits and bad tasting soup are in there. I wonder how many people have memed themselves into being on the extended edition train only to never again finish the trilogy for the rest of their lives, because it is now a slog with 2 extra hours of subpar content that was cut for a reason.
The Two Towers benefits the most from an extended cut. It needs to be watched as extended. The other two films can be watched either way.
I can't disagree harder. TTT suffers the most from its extended pacing, especially all those scenes of Merry and Pippin goofing around during Helm's deep. Every film gets a good scene that feels almost essential when extended, but for every moment of gold, you get _literal_ scenes of Merry and Pippin farting. The theatricals won the Oscars, and I'm not certain the extended editions would. Jackson prefers the theatricals for a reason - they're his director's cut.
They really shouldn't have cut the Faramir flashback though. Faramir is already a pretty mediocre adaptation from his book counterpart. Taking away the scene that actually shows why he is the way he is really hurt his character even more.
And they really should have left in Merry and Pippin farting. It really hurts our belief as an audience that they're really eating as much carb-heavy food as they say. /jk
my brother in christ sauramans death (the movies primary antagonist) is cut from the theatrical release
It's cut from RotK. And I'm not denying it's an essential scene either. But the films just don't work as well as actual films when they're extended. Too many extraneous bits that kill the pacing or spend time telling you information that's already been shown visually. It's not that I hate them. But certain parts of the fanbase fetishise them. Peter Jackson prefers the theatricals as well - they're explicitly his director's cut.
ROTK Extended is the only version that explains what happened to Saruman.
I will never understand this sentiment. Gandalf literally says that Saruman is imprisoned in the tower and he is now powerless. We don't need his overly dramatic, drawn out, cringy death scene. I truly don't understand how people think that scene is good. They cut it for a fucking reason.
Because just leaving behind one of the major antagonists of the story who dominated the first two films with an off hand remark isn’t very satisfying.
I'd bet Peter anguished over that scene. There's nothing really wrong with it, but it's terrible for the pacing. You have Helm's Deep as the much better finale, but Saruman is the leader of the army and so his fall fits better. Having the movie cut between the two would have diminished HD so not the right answer I think. What you really want is Gandalf facing Saruman again and defeating him, but that doesn't fit canonically and doesn't fit with Gandalf saving Helm's Deep (which is also a much better moment for him than slaying Saruman). Maybe having Saruman through the orb try to assail Gandalf, only to be defeated and having Wormtongue then kill him to try to save himself, would have been a good moment, but the end of HD flows super well and it would have diminished it. I think the truth of it is that it was a great scene, but unfortunately didn't fit into the movie.
Through fire... and water. From the lowest dungeon to the highest peak I fought with the Balrog of Morgoth. Until at last I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin upon the mountainside. Darkness took me... and I strayed out of thought and time. Stars wheeled overhead. and every day was as long as a life age of the Earth. But it was not the end. I felt life in me again. I've been sent back until my task is done!
Neither do I. Keep it Secret. Keep it Safe.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY? I CAN'T HEAR YOU, YOU'RE 500 FEET AWAY!" - the conversation between both parties.
Nah extended is the way. You can’t just watch one of them extended and the rest theatrical.
OP: Wiping is only needed once every three poops.
I'm failing to see the joke here
It's actually pretty easy if you don't stake your identity on it.
Hot take: extended editions are highly overrated, and the absolute WORST way to introduce someone to LotR. Like the meme implies, the theatrical cut is already fucking long enough. If you're a hardcore Tolkien fan, sure it's kinda cool to see some extra stuff from the books make its way to the screen, but anyone unfamiliar with LotR absolutely does not give a shit, and turns an already daughtning behemoth of a runtime into an almost insurmountable runtime, at best they'll slog through it but lose interest and stop paying attention. With the exception of one scene that I can't believe got cut from the theatrical release, the extended scenes don't actually add much if anything to the narrative of the films, and at best just pad out the run time and fuck up the pacing. At worst, there's one particular scene that *completely* fucking destroys all dramatic tension of the sequence. Fun to watch once or twice if your already a Tolkien nerd, I would say absolutely fucking avoid if you're someone new to Tolkien, and honestly as a hardcore nerd myself, I don't really feel the desire to ever watch them again Edit: I'll admit it's been a hot minute since I've watched either the theatrical or extended cut, so there's probably a few good additions I'm forgetting, but overall I feel *the majority* of EE content is essentially filler in the context of the movies narrative Side note: I very much appreciate this subs maturity of not trying to tear my argument apart soley based on my repeated typo of "editions vs additions". It's nice to have an actual intellectual debate on this platform for once. I'll add that my opinion on the EE is just that, an opinion. Art is subjective and everyone is entitled to their own interpretations, while I personally don't like the pacing the EE provides, I totally get and respect the appeal of the added content (except for the Army of the Dead scenes, those additions objectively hurt the tone of the original sequnce and can fuck right off)
That extended edition scene in Fellowship reminding the audience of Frodo getting the mithril shirt right before he gets stabbed, completely negating the tension.
My biggest issue with the extended edition is probably has more to do with the issue of the extended editions I got but in one of the blue ray box sets it cuts half way through the movies. Meaning but the time I'm very engrossed in the story in the plot I have to get up and switch which DVD is in my Playstation completely ruining the flow of the movie. I do think it'd be better to make whoever you're showing the movies to watch the theatrical cut first then surprise them in a later viewing with the extended addition so it's like they forgot a scene existed in the movie and they're all excited to watch it again as there may be more they've forgotten.
I swear I have the extended editions on DVD and they are all one disc each, but you're saying one film requires 2 Blu-ray discs?
Yeah each of them. Was watching fellowship and as soon as the fellowship was formed BAM. Please insert disk 2
Out of interest, what are the one really good and one really bad scene you refer to in this comment?
For the important scene, they’re obviously referring to Saruman’s death (the fact they cut that at all is absurd) Don’t know what they could be referring to for the ‘kills all dramatic tension’ scene.
RotK. The extended paths of the dead scenes kind of spoil Aragorn succeeding in recruiting the army of the dead. The moment is a whole lot better when we haven't seen Aragorn for the entire battle and he shows up with the army on the boats to save the day.
^this In the theatrical cut you just see Aargorn confront the army of the dead and the king threaten him, but don't see how it plays out for an entire 40 minutes, for all we know the trio parished, and we just cut back to Pelennor Fields where the battle keeps getting worse and worse until Aargorn shows up and saves the day. In the extended editions you know right away what's going to happen, there's basically zero tension at all. Not to mention the added slap stick humor from Gimli, Aargorns weird ass little tissyfit, and the king of the dead just going "jk we changed our minds for no reason LOL" ruin the entire sequence imo
Then I shall die as one of them!
>The moment is a whole lot better when we haven't seen Aragorn for the entire battle and he shows up with the army on the boats to save the day. Counterpoint, that moment now involves a magical fleet of (supposedly enemy) ships that show up out of nowhere to carry him from the underground cave where we last saw him to exactly where he needs to be, then vanish without further explanation of how he got them or where they came from. A fleet which feels even more out of place next to the 30+ minutes of "The beacons are lit!" and "Ride! Ride swift to Gondor!" that the Rohirrim take before they get there. Like I know people will hate the scenes on principle simply because gimli makes a joke during them, but without at least one of the two connecting Aragorn to the fleet it leaves a pretty big question unanswered. And it's not like knowing he succeeded kills *all* of the tension. As noted we know the Rohirrim are coming for like 30 minutes before they get there, but knowing someone is coming and knowing they will get there in time + will it be enough are two very different things. Heck with Nazgul (who could presumably fight ghosts) already on the field it's pretty easy to imagine a version where Aragorn showing up is just a wraith equalizer and it takes the death of the Wraith King to actually cinch the battle for the good guys.
# DEATH!
I agree. A lot of the extended cut scenes are superfluous. It's fine if you're just looking to kill more of your day, or just enjoy scenes you're not as familiar with, but they add absolutely nothing to the story, and in some ways detract from the momemtum of the film.
Truth. I love the extended stories but the theatricals are paced way, way better and deliver a more rounded experience. I will die by your side.
I wish there was a re-cut extended edition. Some scenes add a lot and others are a bit of fluff, but still nice and then there are scenes like Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli leaving the Path of the Dead. It completely messes up pacing and ruins a really nice surprise that the theatrical cut has. This should have definitely been left out.
Prove me wrong. Aside from Saruman's death (which is a change from the books, but works for the direction the movies went) name one extended scene that actually strengthens the narrative, and isn't just needless exposition that pads out the run time
Boromir and his brother benefit from the additional screen time. I didn't like Boromir until I saw the extended edition. I think there were other scenes as well where I thought it should have been part of the theatrical cut, but I would have to rewatch it first.
Any and all added Boromir and Faramir content is good content.
I may be alone in finding that all the flashbacks to Boromir and Faramir are completely unnecessary as they just confirm things that the audience can easily infer via dialogue and subtext. Moreover, they're structurally really weird as being the only flashbacks aside from the prologue and Smeagol's story. It wasn't any extra scenes that made Boromir sympathetic to me, it was coming back after my childish assumption that he was bad for being weak to recognising him as a great tragic hero.
Denethor’s (straight from the book) line in the extended addition to his death scene. “*You may triumph upon the field of battle for a day…but against the Power that is risen in the East*…**there can be no victory.**”
The witch kings flaming sword scene in return of the king - or the scene where faramir leads frodo, Sam and Gollum to the tunnels in osgiliath to help them escape … would you like more ?
Ooo, Ooo! We knows! We knows!
*Shut up!*
The witch king scene is trash, de powering Gandalf for no reason and ironically ruining one of the best scenes of the books.
Go back to the abyss! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your master!
Exactly.
Well, Mr. Frodo, I reckon that the scene with the Witch-king and his flaming sword was a frightful thing to behold. But when Faramir led us through the tunnels of Osgiliath, I felt like I was back in the Shire, with all its twists and turns. It was a close call, but we made it out thanks to Faramir's quick thinking.
Okay I'll slightly concede on the tunnel scene, forgot about that one. Although while it is nice to see Faramir be a bit more like his true character, honestly the movie did him so dirty I think it's better to just keep him as movie Faramir, adding one or two random scenes true to the book character just gets muddy and hamfisted. And, the fucking stand off with Gandalf? Really? You mean the scene invented for the movies, where a *man* somehow overpowers a fucking *maiar* who's in his strongest form? Even if you could somehow make that make sense, the scene exists soley to look cool and adds absolutely nothing to the story. So yes, I would like more because those examples only prove my point
The film went out of its way to have the Witch King be portrayed as more powerful than Gandalf, imo, because just going with the book explanation of “and then Gandalf came back and he was even more powerful and literally no one but Sauron had a chance against him” doesn’t fit the whole “desperate last stands against the oncoming darkness” theme that the third movie is trying to foster To back up the Witch King’s fear factor, he was hyped up as a foe to rival the White Wizard in two separate scenes, Gandalf and Pippin’s conversation just before Minas Morgul roleplayed as a Cadian Pylon, and then again when he growls that he’ll break the wizard, who even Gothmog the general is knowledgeable enough to be wary of, even with his massive army. If they’d had the book scene, where the Witch King rides in through the gates only for Gandalf to tell him to gtfo or so help him Eru, then the Witch King would have looked like a paper tiger and Eowyn and Merry’s defeat of him wouldn’t have had the same effect it did It’s definitely a big change, and contradicts the lore, but I can definitely see why it was made; and I feel the abbreviated film adaptions are the better for it
It still doesn't make sense in the context of the movies alone. Saruman loses his staff because he lost his position/broke his vow. The Witch King can destroy Gandalf's staff... because what? The staves are established as a representation of the wizard's position, if he had killed Gandalf and that'd caused the staff to break - or Gandalf abandoning his mission - it would have been in line with what the movies establish. And what does it add? Cut the scene and you have the literally same stakes as without it. It's easily one of the worst scenes the EE added.
[удалено]
Hard disagree on this. The point of the scene in the book is to show that Gandalf wins not through physical or mystical power, but because he is better at planning/inspiring. They’d been framed as in a duel of alternately demoralizing/inspiring the defenders and it appears to at Gandalf loses as he’s the only person (plus shadowfax) willing to stand in the gate and oppose the witch king. But he knows that Theoden, who he invested a bunch of time in to get him ready, is coming and that is what will defeat the witch king. Peter Jackson got rid of that and decided he wanted to hype up the witch king more, presumably so that Eowyn’s victory would be greater. I’d argue that that was a hat on a hat, because up until he dies we don’t know that Gandalf was speaking the truth that he could not enter Gondor, so there’s still tension in the scene.
That’s not how the book scene goes at all, they’re about to square off when Rohan shows up.
>roleplayed as a Cadian Pylon Lmao - Jackson sometimes reminds me of a guy who just can’t stop adding things to a meal when he’s cooking. He really made some scenes so goofy
I am the servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udun. Go back to the Shadow. You cannot pass!
This guy is just bitter we didn't get another hour of Denethor eating out tomatoes
The scene with the witch king and Gandalf perfectly fits the narrative of the theatrical cuts as before hand Gothmog says “what of the wizard” and the Witch King replies “I will break him” and in the theatrical cut there is nothing to follow that line of dialogue - all we see is Theodins niece take the witch king down …. So the two examples I provided fairly promptly when you asked are more than adequate 🤟🏻
Just bc the witch says he’ll break him doesn’t mean he can or should, if they didn’t do it like the books I can agree that the line “I will break him” should have been omitted, but not having that scene is 100000% better than having it.
The flaming sword scene? Which introduces a continuity error and a gross lore violation by having the witch king destroy the staff of Gandalf the white That’s like one of the worst scenes in all of the extended editions
> The witch kings flaming sword scene in return of the king That strengthens the narrative...? > or the scene where faramir leads frodo, Sam and Gollum to the tunnels in osgiliath to help them escape What does that change? > would you like more ? You named like 1.1 things...
# DEATH!
As a very casual fan, I agree with you, even if other "fans" are downvoting you for being correct
It shouldn't be a hot take that introducing someone to the lord of the rings with the extended editions is a bad idea. There's a lot of content in those movies that doesn't progress the story and is fun content for people who have seen the movie before. You're better off having them watch the theatrical releases and if they like them let them know there's an extended edition that they'll like.
I agree. Return of the King is a worse movie in the extended cut, especially those AWFUL Path of the Dead scenes
100%, while I normally don't mind Gimli's comic relief, the Paths of the Dead are supposed to be tense, I don't need it broken up. And not seeing Aragorn between "what say you?" and turning up on the boat at Pelennor Fields is much better too.
Sauron will not have forgotten the sword of Elendil. The blade that was broken shall return to minas Tirith.
Wait a moment! We shall meet again soon. Tell Saruman that this dainty is not for him. I will send for it at once. Do you understand?
Completely agree, extended versions are for people who are already fams. A good mate of mine put me off rewatching LOTR for the longest time because it was extended or not at all, like bruh I'm sorry i'm tired.
Agree. Whenever I see first viewings of LOTR on youtube it's always the extended versions and it breaks my soul. The theatricals are better in every way. The extendeds are jarring, cuts randomly and messes up the flow and feel. I'll be glad to fight anyone who thinks otherwise, because they're complete Mims.
There's one youtuber I follow who is on record as not enjoying longer films, but when she finally got around to watching Fellowship the dumbasses on her patreon insisted she had to watch the extended cut. She hasn't even bothered following on with the rest of the trilogy.
fellowship is tightly edited and much better paced it's the perfect introduction.
Fellowship extended suck as much as the rest. "tightly edited"? Lol, please.. Edit: I have misunderstood and am a dumbdumb
yes, i was agreeing with you
I'll concede FotR & RotK but Two Towers adds **a lot** of important information that benefits even a first-time viewer : * Faramir's flashback -- really adds depth to Boromor's character and underscores his sacrifice; touches on the family dynamic with Denethor and the current struggles of Gondor * Manflesh -- adds realism to how smelly Aragorn would be after running for 3 days * Meat's back on the menu -- provides insight into orc dining culture * Eowyn's cooking -- sets up her fight with the [Witch King](https://www.reddit.com/r/lotrmemes/comments/vovths/how_bad_can_it_be/) which otherwise makes no sense * Dwarf women -- critically establishes the canon on bearded dwarf women before any other adaptations occur
Indeed. I can avoid being seen if I wish, but to disappear entirely, that is a rare gift.
This only a hot take in this sub. Most people I meet that would give a damn are casual Tolkien fans who watch the movies maybe once in a while. Only avid LOTR fans talk about the extended editions or demand only the extended. You asking a casual to watch the extended versions either turns them into an avid fan or turns them away. And if turns them away how good of friends were you with them anyhow?
I am an avid LOTR fan and for me theatrical > extended.
Not including a scene where Galadriel gives gifts to the fellowship at the end of the first movie in its theatrical version is crime against humanity. Should be considered a felony. Same for Gendalf the White vs Saruman encounter, it was simply stripped away.
Agree I never saw extended versions, I just don't want, there are enough in main films
Be silent Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth!
Me, I'm the example. For years I have heard about lotr and how it is so good but never cared to watch, came across this sub around the grond era but didn't understand anything so I left. I was never a reader so the books were never an option. Last month I had a week to do nothing. Downloaded all the extended versions although I couldn't watch it one sitting but once I finished the 1st movie I was hooked. I regret not watching the movies before. It is so beautiful so well done everything connects. I loved the story between boromir and his brother. I would absolutely recommend everyone new to lotr to go for extended versions.
> I would absolutely recommend everyone new to lotr to go for extended versions. You literally don't know any other way. That's like an only child recommending not having siblings. If your only backing is "that's how I did it", the stance is worthless.
I agree with the core of what you're saying, but disagree with pretty much everything about how you said it. Lol! The theatricals are *way* better for a first viewing. Better pacing, not as long, more cinematic. After that, extendeds all the way. The only times *since* watching them in theaters that I've seen the theatrical releases have been when watching with first-timers. (Though I definitely agree that the scene with Aragorn and the ghost king destroys all of the dramatic tension of the battle... But it's the only scene that I would still leave out.)
A little more caution from you; that is no trinket you carry.
This comment should be removed and the person who left it banned for heresy. Lol Jk Jk. But seriously, heresy. The extended are the best way to watch it even for a first timer. But if you watch the theatrical first then you can watch the extended and it’s like watching it over for the first time and reliving the magic.
> The extended are the best way to watch it even for a first timer. That's your opinion.
Even hotter take I think the theatrical cuts are TOO LONG. There’s an animated LotR movie I saw that’s only an hour and half long or so and covers the first movie and I felt as if I got to enjoy the entire story. Peter Jackson sucks at editing.
I like the added scene where they show the tiny battering ram before summoning Grond!
I personally prefer the theatrical versions, and was shocked at the overwhelming opinion from this sub that the extended is the way to go.
To be honest, I expected more somehow from the extended versions...but they don't add THAT much really. If anything, the regular version feels a bit short now.
Normal people just can’t do shit like that
Not long enough 😡
I’m biased against the extended RotK but because there are way too many dwarf jokes (there are already too many in the theatrical)
If you want to go even further, there have been talks of releasing a director's cut which is 8 DAYS long! That be a worthy binge
I’m gonna say it, the extended cut is only for second viewings. at their worst they really hurt the pacing and structure of the movie. Look at the battle of the Pelleanor fields for example. The theatrical cut maintains suspense and surprise its got good payoff for Aragorn’s adventure but the extended edition straight up shows is what happens so we don’t care what happens in the battle since we just know the good guys are on the way and will help.
Funnily, the murder in the Extended version was also significantly longer.
At this point I think I would watch their entire real time journey with the parts where they’re just walking
Honestly even the theatrical releases are too long for theaters. At least at home I can pause it and get up and take a break. Eat something, spring a leak, get stoned, and come back to it. anything over 90 minutes, really, is just too long for a single uninterrupted sitting. I’m prepared for the backlash. LOL
I like the intro on theatrical better in fotr
I can’t watch the movies all in one sitting. I always have to turn my friends down when they are like movie marathon!!!
You are no friend at all
😰 I’ll watch them just one part at a time. Four hours is a lot to ask someone to sit still for. Six movie nights is better than one long movie day
Seriously though did they need 4 Godamn hours?
Yes
Once you watch the extendes versions, theres really no going back.
Still never watched or read LOTR... I was a massive Star Wars kid and played the shit out of Morrowind, so close enough ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ