Ultimate Favorite

(Poor internet connection kept me from posting this yesterday, so just pretend it's still Thursday)

It’s Thursday – Throwback Thursday, if you will – and I’m reflecting on an ultimate favorite.

I hesitate to speak for all authors, but I’m willing to bet there are those, like me, who can name a definitive source of inspiration. A piece of fictional media that resonated so deeply, that tickled every creative corner of their brain so thoroughly, that it informed their craft. For me, that definitive piece of media is Peter Jacksons The Fellowship of the Ring. 

Firstly, I know there’s been lots of pushback against Tolkien in some segments of the fantasy writing community the past few years. Not so much a criticism of him or his work, but a lamentation that so many fantasy writers drew direct inspiration from him. So there’s a self-conscious part of me that wants to claim something much more niche and specialized is my all-time favorite. I wholeheartedly agree that far too many fantasy novels copied Tolkien’s example to a point that borders upon outright plagiarism, and I’ve certainly, in the last decade, drawn inspiration from other, non-Western sources. 

But. LOTR is my ride or die. And not because I want to write a fantasy world modeled after it. But because, specifically with Jackson’s films, the blend of characterization, storytelling, and visual effects so completely aligns with my own personal approach to the craft. 

I read Tolkien as a wee lass, old battered, eighties-era paperbacks with frankly terrible cover art. I loved the trippy old animated version. But then, when I was a freshman in high school, Peter Jackson’s version of the trilogy released – well, the first film, did – and I have genuinely never had a film-watching experience like that very first viewing since. The last ten minutes or so, including Boromir’s death, Sam and Frodo in the boat, and Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli deciding to go after Merry and Pippin: top moment in film. There has never been an on-screen death to rival Boromir’s. “I would have followed you. My brother, my captain, my king.” 

To take a step back from my emotions, and look at it analytically, the whole film trilogy has everything I love about fiction. Characters you absolutely love, all of whom are very distinct, and well-fleshed out, damaged but endearing. You have moments of urgency, yes, but overall a slow story pace that allows for deep reflection. That allows for the moments of complete and total melodrama that I love so much – but a melodrama well-earned, being rooted in the fate of the world and humanity, rather than a contemporary soap opera kind of melodrama. You have moments that deliver emotional satisfaction, even in times of crisis and tragedy. Our characters never let us down – they never let each other down. And, above all, the ultimate message of the story is one of finding strength in dark times; of trying because it’s the right thing to do, despite the odds; messages of love, and friendship, and loyalty, and sacrifice. LOTR is the antithesis of post-modern edginess. LOTR is the polar opposite of the ultimate message of the Game of Thrones TV show. LOTR makes you gasp, and cry, and cheer, and at the end, it rewards you for having become so invested. 

I think often that I want to write something like LOTR, not because I want to write a novel with elves in it – although I very much do – but because I want to create a piece of art that makes readers feel the way that trilogy makes me feel. It’s why I go about all the world-building, and character-crafting; it’s why the slow-moving stories, and the drama and heartbreak. I’ve not gotten there yet, and perhaps I never will. But that’s what I’ve always been chasing. To take the feeling those films inspired in me, and put it on the page.