I was reading this essay about Aragorn’s claim to the throne of Gondor. (Hat tip to Sarah at Glenn’s.)
What is that? You don’t know what or who Aragorn or Gondor is or are? The two names come from the Lord of the Rings books, and you should probably just ignore the reference if you aren’t interested in really involved high fantasy novels. After all, discussing whether or not a fictional character is entitled to rule other fictional people smacks of way too much inside baseball.
Still, I am hardly immune to such discussions myself. In fact, one such geekout occurred way back in 2002 when I went to see The Two Towers, the second movie in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. I made the mistake of bringing along Ralph, a buddy of mine who is blessed with an extremely active imagination. This means that he is rarely bored like the rest of us, but it also means he has never come across a work of fiction where he could resist putting himself in the middle of the action. This was no exception.
A little background. See, some Viking dudes who ride horses had a vast enemy army bearing down on them, so they bunkered up in an ancient fort.
Up on the wall were the good guys, hugely outnumbered and looking worried.
Down in the plain below the walls were these guys.
Things went along well enough for me so far as the cinema experience is concerned, but then the defenders decide to thin out the invading army via some bow-and-arrow work.
That is when Ralph leaned over and started to voice his opinion as to what the guys on the wall were doing wrong.