The Road to Isengard [Two Towers, Ch.8] - a podcast by Cameron Fucile

Discussion of The Two Towers, Book Three, Chapter Eight

Join Cam and Maggie for a terribly strange chapter of Lord of the Rings. Tolkien’s style changes wildly here, it’s like he wrote this chapter in Old English. There’s an interesting meditation on history and legacy and myth beneath all of the stilted, depersonalized prose – but it takes a little digging to find it. We’ve got examples and theories out the wazoo (I just wanted to see how that felt to type, can’t believe I spelled ‘wazoo’ correctly on the first try) Gandalf the White suddenly has a lot more supernatural insight, along with a new interest in moral teaching – we take the opportunity to make fun of Aslan here, in addition to considering Gandalf’s status as an immortal mentor. There’s a new sentient weapon in Middle-earth, and this time it’s a corrupted part of nature (the greatest Tolkien sin!) We also dig into the ethical significance of the dead orcs being refused burial after the Battle of Helm’s Deep, and Cam thinks Merry & Pippin might be possessed by Sauron / Satan.

In our Second Breakfast, we look more closely at the stunning lack of good villains in LOTR by examining Grand Admiral Thrawn of Star Wars fame. Cam introduces the character and breaks down the difference between active and passive antagonists, before arguing that Thrawn could be considered both, simultaneously. He’s an incredibly compelling character, who puts Sauron and Saruman to shame. We end the episode by suggesting a few ways that Tolkien’s villains could have been more developed / involved in the story. Oh there’s a fun little idea about Gandalf in the afterlife, it gets me all tingly.

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