Thoughts About Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 1

For a long time, I resisted Game of Thrones, for much the same reason that I resisted Harry Potter: people kept telling me it was "better than Lord of the Rings." Now, I'm a die-hard Frodo Fanatic, so a comment like this was usually enough for me to turn my nose up in indignation and refuse to acknowledge the matter further. My wife even bought me the first book in the series (not because she's a reader, but because she thought I might like it, bless her heart), and I started to read it, but quit part way through. Lord of the Rings isn't filled with nonstop action or salacious political intrigue, but when I read those books, I feel like I'm reading the basis of something that could become an Oscar-winning blockbuster film series. By contrast, when I read Game of Thrones, I feel like I'm reading something that could be the basis of a cheesy TV program. But then, something utterly expected happened: they made Game of Thrones into a cheesy TV program... and it turned out to be damn compelling.

I'm not saying Game of Thrones is perfect show, nor am I saying that there weren't some moments that were so disturbing and distasteful that I considered not continuing to watch. But when taken as a whole, over more than six seasons (just barely, as of last night), I'd say there were more fun moments than cringe-worthy ones. And over those 6+ seasons, I started to get a little obsessed with the show, as is my nature - I read all the books between seasons 4 and 5, and then prior to this season, I re-watched (most of) the show and tracked all the storylines in a color-coded document, for my own amusement and edification. If only there were a career path where I could put some of these skills to use. Oh, right, there is: TV producer. Anybody want to see my Emmy (certificate)?

Anyway, let's look back at the Season 7 premiere and see how each scene falls into place when considering the larger arc for each story:

WARNING: SPOILERS AND ADULT CONTENT AHEAD!!!

Scene 0. (Cold Open) Arya finishes off the Freys

My color-coding system technically tracks characters, not storylines per se, although Arya Stark has had her own storyline since Season 1, when her father Ned allowed her to pursue her own interests (i.e. water dancing) rather than forcing her to conform to established gender roles. Side note: Ned had his own storyline in Season 1 (for which I used Dark Green), which was then continued by his eldest son Robb in the next two seasons (since his main reason for becoming King in the North was to avenge his father), all the way up through the Red Wedding - which was prominently featured in this week's Prev On segment. In this direct reversal of the Red Wedding to start this season, Arya makes use of the class levels of Assassin she gained while working for the Faceless Men to impersonate the (literally) late Lord Walder Frey and lure all his kinsmen to their poison-induced doom. Then, after she unmasks, Mission: Impossible style, Arya delivers an updated version of House Stark's words: "Winter came for House Frey," or as it will surely be parodied in the Game of Bones porn parody: "Winter came... ALL OVER House Frey!"


Scene 1. Bran and Meera arrive at Castle Black

This scene exists pretty much just to showcase the special effects on the army of the dead (now with giants!) and to reassure viewers that Brandon Stark will in fact appear in this season (he sat out all of Season 5 while he was gaining class levels in Druid with the Three-Eyed Raven). Oh, also to remind us that "Dolorous" Edd Tollett is now in charge of the Night's Watch. Side note: did anyone else think they were gonna do a gag where Edd bumped his head on the gate as he turned to go back into the tunnel under the Wall?


Scene 2: Sansa disagrees with (but respects) Jon's style of leadership

If only there were a song about being reunited and it feeling so good, it could be the theme song for the combination of Jon Snow and Sansa Stark's storyline into one. I counted this one as a Jon scene because the main content revolved around Jon making decisions in his capacity as King in the North; or at least "all the LIVING North." Most of the subtext occurred during the second part of the scene, a sidebar between Jon and Sansa, which also provides some good "Uncle/Father" fodder for the Arrested Westeros Twitter account.


Scene 3: Cersei refuses Euron's marriage proposal

This scene is also split into two parts. In the first part, Cersei Lannister-Baratheon (is she still technically Baratheon after Robert died?) recaps all her enemies and Jaime Lannister posits that they desperately need some allies. (Jaime gets his own color for all those episodes he was off with Brienne and then later Bronn... all the B characters.) Then in part two, Cersei rejects one of those potential allies, Euron Greyjoy (uncle of Theon), who offers a marriage proposal, "a thousand ships, and two good hands." He's off to find a suitable present for the Queen, which will probably involve bad news for the Starks in one way or another.


Scene 4: Sam gains access to Oldtown's restricted area

In the first episode where Oldtown is featured on the Main Title Map, everyone's favorite future maester Samwell Tarly stars in his very own training montage! After emptying more buckets of shit than should be allowed to be shown on cable television, Sam sweet talks his maester-mentor into letting him into the adult section of the Oldtown library so he can do his part to fight the incoming zombie apocalypse... with KNOWLEDGE! Side note: I enjoyed seeing Jim Broadbent make his first GoT appearance if only because it gives me the excuse to make the case that he should play Tom Bombadil in the long-awaited spinoff of the Lord of the Rings films...


Scene 5. Brienne distrusts Littlefinger

Even though Brienne of Tarth has her own storyline in my color-coding system (she took over Catelyn Stark's storyline since Brienne is oath-bound to carry on Cat's main mission in life: to protect the Stark children), I gave this scene to Sansa because she's the one making the decision to let Littlefinger stay in Winterfell. Sansa rightly points out that "Littlefinger saved us," but she neglects to mention that the saving came after he sold her out to the Boltons and all but promised to deliver her head on a spike to Cersei Lannister. (That was in Episode 506, Scene 5, although it wasn't featured in the Prev On.)


Scene 6. Arya camps with some Lannister soldiers

We've already seen Arya at her most badass, so this scene really only exists as a vehicle for an Ed Sheeran cameo (who I wouldn't have recognized had my wife not been sitting next to me, mostly ignoring the show as I watched). I did, however, recognize the song he was singing, as it was one of my favorite lines of verse in the book series.


Scene 7. The Hound sees a vision in the flames

Sandor Clegane is the protagonist of the newest storyline in the series, as he only started getting his own scenes to carry 7 episodes into Season 6. He was an important character prior to that, but his scenes were always subsumed by more important characters: specifically Sansa when she was at King's Landing, and then Arya when he took her captive and tried to sell her for ransom. But now it looks like the Hound is not only getting over his fear of fire, but he's also joining the fight against evil in earnest.


Scene 8. Sam learns there is dragonglass on Dragonstone

OK, that's what HAPPENS in the scene - it's a callback to Scene 2 when Jon starts his meeting by telling everyone to keep their eyes open for any dragonglass (i.e. obsidian) they can find because of its use against White Walkers. But the main revelation in this scene (as predicted by Ozzy Man in his review of the Season 7 trailer) is that Jorah Mormont (who never really had his own storyline) has not yet found a cure for his greyscale and is slowly but surely turning into a stone man. Tough break for Jorah the Explorer...


Scene 9. Daenerys arrives at Dragonstone

This scene consists of only one line of dialogue (not counting the SEAGULLS SCREECHING and DRAGONS SCREECHING descriptives that appear in the closed captions), but it's tremendously significant in the Game of Thrones timeline, as it represents the end of Daenerys Targaryen's journey from across the Narrow Sea to her ancestral home on Dragonstone... the very same dragonglass-rich Dragonstone that is the title of this week's episode! Also of note, her entourage includes prime mover/shaker Tyrion Lannister, and they arrived using ships provided by Theon and Yara Greyjoy. And Khaleesi also unveils another gem in her collection of Going Out Tops, the original backronym for GoT.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Trilogy

I don't think this math is right...

I experienced something of a first this weekend after seeing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: I was accused of not being a Lord of the Rings fanboy. Needless to say, this description wounded me to the quick, and I don't think it's fair to question my nerdly resolve just because I thought that the first third of the film adaptation of the tale was painfully long and stuffed with far too much meaningless filler. (Also that the high frame rate was a pointless, inexcusable gimmick that has no reason to ever catch on ever.) And even though I loved Peter Jackson's first Lord of the Rings movies, I loved J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings novels even more. So while I would still consider myself a fanboy, I would have to qualify that by saying I'm a fanboy with extremely high standards and who's fiercely dedicated to the source material.

And while there was undoubtedly a whole lot of source material packed into this newest film, there was also a lot of superfluous action added in there that slowed down the story and pulled me (at least) out of the experience. When I first heard that The Hobbit was being split into three movies - a book which, at 255 pages, is 65 pages shorter than the shortest book in the trilogy (without the appendices, Return of the King clocks in at 311) - I didn't immediately despair. With some interesting additions from some ancillary works and a nice, fast pace, I could definitely see Jackson & Co. coming up with three enjoyable movies. That is, until I heard the running time: a butt-numbing 2 hours and 48 minutes. It was at that point that I knew we were in for no shortage of Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens-inspired extras.

One of the few scenes that actually took place in the book...

You'll recognize these types of tacked-on time-wasting story points from the first trilogy: stuff like adding in a red-herring death for Aragorn in The Two Towers. Or completely altering Faramir's character to make him exactly like Boromir. Or having Frodo and Sam get in a friendship-threatening fight for no apparent reason at a critical point in Return of the King (as if that movie wasn't long enough already). And what's up with Elrond showing up at Dunharrow to deliver Aragorn's sword to him - a sword that defines his character and which he should have had at his side since the Fellowship left Rivendell? You'd think 1,086 pages would be enough out of which to adapt three three-hour movies without adding useless filler.

But you know these Hollywood types: always having to change stuff around and add their own stamp on things, otherwise they don't feel like they're doing their jobs. And the job that Jackson and his screenwriting team did on The Hobbit gets you yawning right from the start. I remembered thinking how much I couldn't wait until all three Hobbit movies come out on DVD, so that some clever, enterprising Tolkien nerd with film editing experience could put together a fan-edit of the trilogy, ideally clocking in at just under three hours for all three movies combined, with all the treacle cut out and the story arranged in a way that could actually hold an audience's attention.

First on my list to cut would be anything involving Saruman, Radagast, and the White Council. If you need material to pad nine hours' worth of movies, the story from the appendix dealing with the Necromancer in Dol Guldur is a good place to look, but a) there's no reason to make nine hours' worth of Hobbit movies, and b) according to said appendix, that storyline took place a full 91 years before the events of The Hobbit, with Gandalf the protagonist instead of Radagast. (How do you think he acquired the key that he gives to Thorin? He took it from his father, Thrain, who was imprisoned in Dol Guldur.) And don't get me wrong, I like Radagast as a character... for all of the three pages of Fellowship in which he appears. I just didn't like the comic relief gimmick with bird shit in his beard that he became for the movie. And I know that Christopher Lee is the biggest Tolkien nerd of the entire cast, the only member of which to actually meet J.R.R. himself, but it honestly looks as if it's time for him to hang up his staff and fake-ass looking beard. I don't think he's got much left in the tank (which would be understandable at 90 years old) since he looked absolutely miserable in his scene.

"Radagast the Brown. Radagast the bird-tamer. Radagast the simple.
Radagast the fool." - Saruman's description of the character in Fellowship.

Notice how my list of things to cut didn't start with the trudging prologue introducing the plight of the Dwarven city Erebor, which feels like it takes up an hour before the real action even starts. In fact if I had my choice, I would keep some of those images, but I'd move them to a little later on. The movie would start where the book starts, with Bilbo's narration explaining what Hobbit life is like. (This means we'd have to cut Elijah Wood's cameo as Frodo, because why the hell would Bilbo need to explain the inner workings of a Hobbit hole to someone who spent his whole damn life living in one?) No, I would intercut the visuals of the prologue with the Dwarves' song they sing by the fireplace. (Howard Shore's haunting melody, incidentally, and the leitmotif it becomes, is still in my head, three days later.) That song has a full ten verses in the book, only two of which appear in the movie. If that sequence was extended a little bit and beefed up visually, kind of like an epic music video, it would set up the Dwarves while also giving us some more nice music.

I would have also liked to see the elimination of Azog the Defiler except in flashbacks (his character, after all, died more than 150 years before The Hobbit took place), the stone giants (although they did appear in the book, for about a sentence's worth of time), and about three feet off the Goblin King's scrotum-chin (maybe it was just the high frame rate, but I swear I could discern at least one testicle floating around in there). But with two more of these epic mistakes coming down the pipeline, it's silly to agonize over each one. So until we finally get to see that fan-edit, I will do what I always do with a piece of entertainment I desperately wanted to like more than I actually did: I'll accept the good parts, and mentally replace the bad parts with what I would have liked to see. This doesn't always provide me with a crystal-clear view of the actual movie, but I sure do leave the theater feeling a lot happier...

True Adventurer, Part 2: Story Mode

Thanksgiving is a day for reminding ourselves what we have to be thankful for. Right now I personally am thankful that I had some time off work where I was able to play through the story mode of LEGO: The Lord of the Rings. I was going to review it piecemeal, similar to how I chronicled my journey through Batman: Arkham City, but I found that I just in fact couldn't bring myself to stop adventuring long enough to reflect. With the main story behind me, I'm ready to take a pause before embarking on my quest for 100% completion.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Upon playing through Weathertop and finding myself at Rivendell, I realized I had to amend my previous statements about multiple hub worlds: there is in fact only ONE giant Middle Earth hub world, but the various cities are spaced so far apart that at the time I thought I was dealing with multiple locations. This feature sets up a nice dichotomy between the actual action-packed levels on one hand and the low-key hub world on the other, through which you have to travel in order to reach the next level. You can use the map to go directly to certain locations, but only after you've unlocked the "Map Stone" for that area, but it's more fun to wander through the landscape and listen to the majestic music pulled right from the movie soundtracks. Plus, if you quick-travel, you miss out on all the side-quests and hidden Mithril Bricks hidden throughout the land!

I'll go into the rewards-collection process in my next post - before you can even begin thinking about collecting all the prizes in the game, you need to unlock more characters/items than are available to you simply from playing through the story mode. Suffice it to say, the game provides you with just enough resources to progress, but not to thrive in the treasure hunting business. For example, if you have to shoot down some boulders that are blocking your path on the Pass of Caradhras, you now have Legolas who's equipped with a bow. Or if there's a crack in the floor of the Mines of Moria that you have to smash through, Gimli's axe will do the trick. (And if that crack is situated high up on the wall, don't worry: one of the bigger characters can pick Gimli up and toss him! Just don't tell the Elf...) But forget about grabbing those orange handles or blowing up those shiny metallic LEGO bricks until way down the road.

Speaking of the mines of Moria, I was immediately struck by the lack of a boss fight with Gandalf vs. the Balrog - I guess you have to play The Third Age if you want to re-live that scene - but I was immediately gratified when we got to play as Gandalf as he plummeted through the chasm and fought the Balrog in free-fall. Plus we revisit the wizard's fight with the ancient demon on top of the peak of Zirak-Zigil two levels later, when Frodo sees the events in a dream while wandering through the Emyn Muil with Sam. But that doesn't happen until after you finish the levels associated with Fellowship and watch the game's credits roll, for the first of three times. At this point I was 10.8% done with the game.

Speaking of Frodo and Sam's adventures, it seems like this game struggles a bit with coming up with meaningful gameplay in the chapters that feature the Hobbits. For example, there's a long sequence where you have to search for fish to distract Gollum enough to punch him, and in the Dead Marshes using Frodo's Elven cloak to hide from the Black Riders over and over gets pretty repetitive. Thankfully the monotony is broken up by... Treebeard and the Ents! While these characters brought only minutes of slow-talking boredom to the table, it's much more fun to smash orcs and toss huge boulders while playing as them. Except for the missed opportunity to remove Aragorn's unnecessary red-herring death of falling off the cliff at the conclusion of the Warg Attack, the rest of The Two Towers plays out extremely satisfyingly, including an epic trip to Helm's Deep. My progress now stood at 19.7%.

Speaking of missed opportunities to remove superfluous bits added to the movie, I don't know why they found it necessary to keep in the whole bit of Frodo sending Sam away at the stairs of Cirith Ungol. I will speak out against that decision as long as I am able. On the other hand, a section of the movie that was cut but shouldn't have been was EVERYTHING THAT TOOK PLACE IN MINAS TIRITH! You don't meet Denethor, you don't get to play as Gandalf and Pippin inside the gates of the city, nothing! At least it's satisfying to fight the Witch King as Eowyn and to take out all the Oliphaunts with Aragorn and Legolas. The fight at the Black Gate was less so, as you basically just find three different yet similar ways to dispatch some trolls (which we'd already seen in Moria), before switching back to Sam and Frodo, who I'm glad to say get a costume change for their trek up Mount Doom. After completing Return of the King, I was 29.9% of the way through. That's a lot of ground to cover for my next post. But if anyone's up to the task....

True Adventurer, Part 1: Live-Reviewing LEGO The Lord of the Rings

As we enter the holiday season, it's not uncommon for most Americans to have a lot on their plate. I am happy to say that at the moment I am no different. The Baseball season just ended, and rather than be content watching the World Baseball Classic qualifying rounds, I've taken it upon myself to create an extensive sortable database of every significant player in the Major Leagues this season. I was two teams away from completing said database when I came to realize that Part 3 of R. Kelly's masterful hip-hopera Trapped in the Closet is set to come out next week on IFC. So naturally we had to celebrate the occasion with a screening of Parts 1 & 2 accompanied by the drinking game associated with them: Trashed in the Closet. Also, I'm deep in the process of creating a Batman: The Animated Series video power hour - not because I'm unhealthily obsessed with drinking games, but because I consider making power hours an art form. And this is all on top of my day-career of producing unscripted television. If you're interested in seeing how that's going, you should tune in to A&E at 10pm on Sunday, December 2 for the uplifting competition show Be the Boss.

But sometimes there's an event that immediately circumvents every other project an obligation in one's life. Such an event was the arrival of my anxiously-awaited copy of LEGO The Lord of the Rings from Traveller's Tales and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. As soon as I was able, I eagerly fed the disk to my PS3 and dove into the experience. Right away, before you're even prompted to Press Start for the main menu, you hear Galadriel's immortal first lines lifted straight from the movie's audio: "I amar prestar aen... the world has changed..." Upon formally creating your file and starting the game, a cinematic takes you through the rest of the prologue, almost exactly as it appears in the movies except with LEGO minifigs instead of real actors. Of course you get the bits of LEGO humor - one of the seven Dwarf lords raises up a mug of (not)beer instead of his ring of power and one of the nine humans drops his on the ground - that are just subtle enough to remind players that they are not in fact watching a straight shot-for-shot LEGO adaptation of the films.

When gameplay starts, you are still in the world of the Prologue, controlling three of the Second Age's most distinguished characters: Elrond (of whom there was talk of receiving an exclusive minifig with the purchase of a "Special Edition" of the game, but to my knowledge that promotion never came to pass), Elendil the High King of Arnor (whose sword, Narsil, has the ability to destroy "Morgul" LEGO objects, the first taste of the character-specific abilities that are the hallmark of the LEGO games), and his son Isildur. The three parts of the tutorial-esque first level take you from the epic conclusion of the Battle of Dagorlad, through Isildur cutting the One Ring from Sauron's hand, to his refusal to cast the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom at Elrond's behest. Right around the time that we entered the Cracks of Doom (don't laugh, that's what it's called in the book too), a horn blast informed me that I had collected enough LEGO studs to achieve "True Adventurer" status, returning to the term from LEGO Indiana Jones; LEGO Star Wars used "True Jedi" and in the LEGO Batman series you could become a "Super Hero," but they all mean the same thing.

Let me now take a pause from reviewing the game to write perhaps the nerdiest thought I've ever had: the events of the prologue take place in the year 3441 of the Second Age. Here's the entry on that year from Appendix B, the Tale of Years: "Sauron overthrown by Elendil and Gil-galad, who perish. Isildur takes the One Ring." Now towards the beginning the Fellowship of the Ring movie, we see Gandalf travel to Gondor to do some research into the matter of Frodo's ring by way of reading some ancient scrolls. As he mutters what he's reading out loud, we hear him say:

                    GANDALF
              (reading)
          The year 3434 of the Second Age...here
          follows the account of Isildur, High King
          of Gondor, and the finding of the ring of
          power.

Well, mishter Peter Jachshun should have read Appendixch B a little closher, cuz it CLEARLY SHTATESH that Shawruon washn't overthrown until shix yearsh later, OBVIOUSHLY!!1 I sure hope shomeone got fired for THAT little blunder. That is all...

Anyway, after the prologue - for the completion of which I earned the trophy "The Strength of Men Failed" - I was awarded the characters Elendil and Isildur, plus three more mystery folks that I could buy. I can already see the economics of this game taking shape. As I choose to continue the story, the cinematic takes us to the night of Bilbo's long-expected party. The star of The Hobbit has already decided to leave The Shire for one last adventure, and we see him reluctantly agree to leave his ring behind before he walks out onto the road. Immediately after that, Frodo comes in, and just as immediately after that, Gandalf explains the danger he's in and sets he and Sam out on his quest. No passage of 17 years between the two events. No confusion on Gandalf's part as to the true nature of Frodo's Ring. Dramatic break from the source material, but you know what? I have no problem with that.

Since becoming a story producer, I've come to realize that sometimes the best story you can tell isn't the most faithful retelling of what happened in reality, but rather an amalgamation of truth, exaggeration, and fiction. The story flows much quicker this way (even if it makes Frodo a much younger character) and gets players into the first open world section of the game: Hobbiton. Now this is next to impossible to prove, but long ago, back when the LEGO Lord of the Rings licensing agreement was nothing but a twinkle in Kjeld Kirk Christiansen's eye, I jotted down some preliminary ideas of how I'd like to see a potential LEGO Lord of the Rings video game play out. This was back in the day where they only had hub worlds from which you could access all the levels, such as the Mos Eisley Cantina from LEGO Star Wars II, or the Batcave from LEGO Batman. I wasn't sure if the technology would support it, but I thought the only way to adequately express the scope of Middle Earth was to have multiple hub worlds after each level, so that we could have the characters spend time in all the different locations that don't necessarily lend themselves to a whole level's worth of gameplay.

But at this point in my playthrough, all I had seen was Hobbiton, where Frodo and Sam could run around the countryside, using the special items in Sam's inventory to light LEGO fires, dig LEGO dirt patches, and grow LEGO plants. The inventory is another new feature in this game, which really helps expand the possibilities, however it's a little frustrating in that I couldn't figure out how to put an item away once I'd pulled it out. From there we meet Merry and Pippin, and enter the second level, which consists of sneaking away from The Black Rider (which is also the name of the level). But this sneaking is interspersed with a short mini-boss fight where you play as Gandalf as he does battle with Saruman. Another short word about the timeline: Appendix B CLEARLY SHTATESH that Gandalf is imprisoned in Orthanc (Saruman's stronghold) on July 10 of the year 3018 of the Third Age, where he is held prisoner until September 18. Frodo and his party don't leave Hobbiton until September 23. In my opinion, it's another good change to have these events happen simultaneously.

The level ends with a frantic race to the Buckleberry Ferry, where we control Frodo as he flees the Black Riders and runs straight towards the camera (think Batman fleeing from Killer Croc in Arkham Asylum). After a cinematic introducing us to Bree, I was absolutely thrilled to find that my idea of multiple hub worlds was indeed applied to this game! I was delighted that I was on the same page as the game's eventual developers, but somewhat disappointed that my obviously good ideas didn't directly impact the development of the game, except for inasmuch as they became part of the collective unconscious...

In Bree I was fortunate enough to have a friend join me, so I could check out the split-screen multiplayer mode. We were able to embark on a couple of sidequests, one of which involved forging items at the blacksmith's shop in exchange for upgrades that were available to buy. I opted not to purchase the "Quest Finder" for 50,000 studs (a little less than half my bank at the time) since I was pretty sure I'd want to save my studs for more interesting prizes ahead. Next time I'll pick up with how multiplayer and the events of Weathertop translate into an actual gameplay level. Until then, never stop adventuring!

The Arc of Frodo

As the lowest-rated World Series in history (and one of the most boring in recent memory) draws towards its inevitable conclusion, it's time to turn our thoughts away from the baseball diamond for a spell, and focus on some more exciting real-world pastimes. LEGO The Lord of the Rings - the latest videogame installment in the popular partnership between Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, TT Games, and the LEGO Group - doesn't hit shelves until November 13, but the brick and... brick sets have been out since May, which has given us fans plenty of time to get excited about once again controlling our favorite Middle Earthlings in an interactive entertainment setting.

Way back before the above-mentioned sets were even released, I wrote about the impending possibility of a LEGO LOTR videogame, and wondered whether it would be based solely on the movies, or more directly on the source material. That question has firmly been answered: it's the former, which is undoubtedly the easier, more recognizable, and more marketable choice, and I have no problem with that. And as the books and the movies (and thus the LEGO game) follow pretty much the same timeline, I'd like to pictorially examine the progression of the lead character (or at least the lead Hobbit) Frodo Baggins over the course of said timeline.

9/21/3001 (year 1401 of the Shire Reckoning)

We first meet Frodo on the eve of his Uncle Bilbo's 111th birthday party. At this point he's 33 years old, which is the "coming of age" year for Hobbits. He's wearing just a regular party shirt and has the boyish smile of youth. In both the movies and the LEGO sets, they make a big deal of him reading a book when we first see him, and maybe it was just for the sight gag of seeing a tiny Hobbit-sized minifig next to a giant tome nearly his own height. It is at this time that he takes over ownership of Bag End and comes into possession of the Ring.

9/23/3018

One of the most confusing timeline jumps in the movies comes between the night of Bilbo's disappearance after his party and when Gandalf returns to Hobbiton to warn Frodo of his imminent danger. In the books, 17 years pass between those two points, and Frodo is now 50 - the same age as Bilbo when he undertook his big adventure in The Hobbit. Ostensibly the same amount of time passes in the movies, but it's tough to pick up with the absence of explanation or timestamps, and given that Frodo doesn't appear to age at all during that time (the Ring gives its owner unnaturally long life). He wears this outfit (the addition of a jacket and dark green cloak) from when he sets out with his three Hobbit companions, through Bree, Weathertop, Rivendell, the Mines of Moria, and up to the gates of Lorien.

2/16/3019

When the Fellowship takes refuge in the Elven city of Lothlorien, they are all given special Elven cloaks that help conceal them from unfriendly eyes. It's hard to see in this picture, but Frodo is now wearing this slightly different-colored cloak, and his encounter with the Mirror of Galadriel has given his face a sterner, more focused look. He wears this outfit during the battle of Amon Hen, while wandering through Emyn Muil (where he and Sam first encounter Smeagol/Gollum), their ensuing passage through the Dead Marshes, and his first encounter with Faramir.

3/7/3019
I'm taking my cue from the movies for this costume change (hence the actual action figure inspired by the movies), since from the time we see Frodo and Sam are taken by Faramir in Ithilien, neither of them are seen with their jackets on for the remainder of the journey. I guess the southern portions of Middle Earth start to get hot with the first onset of spring. This is his costume when Gollum guides the Hobbits up the pass of Cirith Ungol and into Shelob's Lair. Just a quick word about a major inconsistency between the books and the movies at this point - it's both nonsensical (plotwise) and extremely out of character to add the "Parting of Sam and Frodo" vignette to an already crowded 200-minute third film. Gollum's plan to deliver the Hobbits to a frighteningly murderous giant spider is already evil and deceptive enough without adding a lesser deception involving framing Sam for eating their remaining food supply. It adds unnecessary time and complications to a part of the film that has to move the story along quickly and it makes no sense based on everything we've seen Sam and Frodo go through at this point. This is a scene worthy only of the extended edition DVD that should have been cut from the theatrical version. I sincerely hope it's not included in the upcoming videogame.

3/14/3019

After Sam rescues Frodo from the Orcs of Cirith Ungol, they set out for Mount Doom disguised as orcs themselves. They trek across the plain of Gorgoroth for 11 days before they reach their destination, whereupon at the very Cracks of Doom, as Frodo is about to fulfill his mission, his mind is overtaken by the Ring and he claims it as his own. The shirt should be a shade of white rather than green, but this is the crazed look that Frodo would have had on his face as he exclaimed, "The Ring is mine!" It's only due to Gollum's fearsome attack and fortunate loss of balance does the Ring end up being destroyed.

So this is the progression through which Frodo goes over the course of the three movies. I don't know if players of the game will get a different minifig version of him for each one of these costume changes or if we'll just have to use our imagination. But rest assured come 11/13, I'll have a full report. Until then, I guess I'll watch the Tigers try to start an improbable comeback tonight. It would be disappointing (yet altogether fitting) if Justin Verlander only managed one start against the Giants in the Fall Classic after shutting down the A's and the Yankees. At least he gets to go home to Kate Upton after they lose - I wonder if she makes him put on the Randy Johnson moustache so she can angrily tear it off his face...

Thoughts about LEGO Lord of the Rings...

When I got my first look at the upcoming LEGO Lord of the Rings sets this weekend, I was filled with equal parts excitement (for the hours of fun I'll get building and playing with them) and nervousness (for the hundreds of dollars I'll end up spending on them).  Then excitement took over for good when I thought of the impending possibility of a LEGO Lord of the Rings videogame coming down the pipeline.  I mean, LEGO has made successful games out of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Batman, Harry Potter, even Pirates of the Caribbean... pretty much every property they've licensed that wasn't based on a videogame to begin with (that of course excludes Prince of Persia).

Now, an interesting question about these licensed LEGOs is whether they're based solely on the Oscar winning films, or whether they draw from the source material more directly?  This issue not only affects whether we'll get to see a Tom Bombadil LEGO set, but it also impacts the plot of this potential videogame.  Because, as much as I'm a fan of the movies, I definitely take issue with a few of the storytelling choices made by Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens - most notable among these is the complete deviation from Tolkien's character of Aragorn.  I'll explain this particular issue in detail below, and when I do, I hope I will get everyone hoping for a more faithful adaptation of the story in LEGO videogame form.

"I do not want that power. I have never wanted it."

This line is spoken by Aragorn in The Fellowship of the Ring movie when Arwen (haven't seen a minifig version of her yet) brings up the subject of his lineage.  For those of you who missed the movies, Aragorn is descended in direct line from Isildur, who took up his father Elendil's broken sword and used it to cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand.  It takes him three movies, but eventually Aragorn owns up to his role in the epic tale, reforges the Sword that was Broken, and takes his rightful place as the King of Gondor.

The story of the unwilling hero, imbued with some great innate talent, but who is unable to use it for whatever reason, is certainly recognizable enough in the line of epic storytelling.  Joseph Campbell describes it in depth, outlining the process whereby the potential-hero leaves the familiar world and goes on a journey of self-discovery in order to "return with the elixir" and activate the hero-potential.  Aragorn is certainly a hero in the midst of a Hero's Journey, but when we meet him in The Fellowship of the Ring, his journey is far advanced beyond the point of having any doubts about who he is, what power he has, or whether/how to use that power.

Aragorn's lineage carries with it more than just his inheritance, which is basically rulership over all the free lands of Middle Earth.  The fact that he's a descendant of kings means that the blood of a more ancient and powerful race of men runs through his veins.  Now, this isn't an issue of racism or eugenics; in Tolkien's world of fantasy and mythology, not all Men (or Elves) are created equal.  The very first and most  powerful humans (the Numenoreans) were taller, hardier, and longer-lived than the current species, their blood having been mingled with lesser men over the generations.  As a direct descendant, the blood of Numenor runs nearly true in Aragorn, which is evident in his advanced age: 87 years old, which is "no longer young even in the reckoning of Men of the Ancient Houses."

Perhaps Aragorn went through a period of doubt about his true potential, but if so, this liminal stage likely took place between age 20 and 25 - after Elrond revealed to him his true name and ancestry, but before his friendship with Gandalf.  All this is detailed in the extensive appendix to Return of the King (the book) and might potentially make good subject matter for a prequel to Aragorn's Quest (the Wii game).  Or maybe even another movie.  Lord knows Peter Jackson and Co. will need to come up with some more ideas before the intellectual property rights default to someone else.  But the point is, over his six decades of adventuring, the literary Aragorn has a fully-developed sense of who he is and what he will become.

Another way the Aragorn of the books honors his link with the past is his relationship with Elendil's broken sword, called Narsil.  This is Aragorn's heirloom, a symbol of both his lineage and his identity; so much so that when the Hobbits first meet Aragorn in the books, he carries the useless shards of Narsil with him rather than bear any other weapon.  He has the sword reforged in Rivendell (and renames it Andúril, Flame of the West) before the Fellowship sets out, and subsequently invokes the blade's ancient power at many points throughout their journey.  By contrast, in the movies he wields some random sword until the third movie when Elrond finally delivers Andúril to him.  Here I was assuming that Peter and Philippa made all these drastic changes to Aragorn's character so the audience could see him make the choice to become king... but then he doesn't even make the choice at all! His birthright LITERALLY falls into his lap.

The Lord of the Rings LEGO sets are slated to hit shelves this summer, and nothing about a game has been announced at this juncture.  We can only hope that The LEGO Group takes its tried and true path with licensed products and sends our favorite fellowship to consoles everywhere.  And if/when they do, we can only hope that the game draws from ALL the source material rather than acting as a copy of a copy of an adaptation.  But based on the company motto - LEGO is derived from the Swedish phrase "leg godt" meaning "play well" - I'm sure they'll make the right choice.