Favorite Characters (in no particular order)
Gandalf
Legolas
Aragorn
Faramir
Tom Bombadil
Treebeard
Glorfindel
Eowyn
Beren
Earendil
(Some of these don't directly appear in the films or even the book The Lord of the Rings; in fact I know at least two of them are only mentioned by name in the book and films, and one was completely cut from the films.)

Favorite Film: Tough choice, but I will have to say The Fellowship of the Ring because it's the one I watch most often and feel closest to, and I think it was my first real introduction to the world of Middle-Earth. (I had read a stageplay version of The Hobbit and scene the cartoon films of the books, but as much as I love those, this was something much more real for me.)

Favorite Scenes Films: the wizard's duel between Saruman and Gandalf, Gandalf on the Bridge of Khazad-dum, the "last march" of the Ents, the prologue to FotR, Gandalf's return,

Books:Tom Bombadil's house, Glorfindel fighting the Nazgul, the Council of Elrond, the Bridge of Khazad-dum, Faramir's conversation with Frodo and Sam that fantasia quoted above, most of the film scenes I mentioned in their book forms,

There are also stories from The Silmarillion that I enjoy reading such as the tale of Beren and Luthien, the stories involving Earendil and Glorfindel, and anything to do with the Valar.

I'm really due for a reread of LotR and Sil.

who are your favorite characters and what's your favorite film or scene(s)?

Is this to be restricted to LotR? Cause that makes it a lot harder. Almost all of my favorite characters and scenes from Middle Earth are in The Hobbit.

Hobbits: Bilbo is my favorite character that Tolkien wrote. I think the Hobbits in general cover the majority of my favorite characters throughout the whole of the Middle Earth books. They're so simple, so unassuming, and yet they have a bravery and strength in them that you never see coming.
So I also love each and every Hobbit in LotR for different reasons. Sam was my favorite in the movies, I think Frodo was my favorite in the book. Gotta give a shout out to Merry for his scene with Eowyn in RotK and Pippin for his scene with Faramir. Yep...
I even love Lobelia Sackville-Baggins at the end of book LotR.

Humans: Gotta go with Aragorn and Faramir for my two favorites with Eowyn, Eomer, and King Theoden as runners-up. And also Bard in The Hobbit.

Wizards: Gandalf hand's down, but must make a special nod to Radagast. My Sil is pretty rusty but I'm thinking there was another wizard in there that I liked too.

Dwarves: Thorin Oakenshield, King under the Mountain!!! And Bomber, Balin, Gloin, Fili & Kili

Elves: Galadriel and book Elrond are my two favorite elves I think. I also think I remember liking Cirdan a lot, which is funny because I only barely remember that character from Sil.

Misc: Beorn I think I had a crush on this character when I was a little girl, and then I grew up and married a man who reminds me a great deal of Beorn...
Tom Bombadil, I understand why he was cut in the movie, but he's one of my favorite characters from the book.
Treebeard, he's just... awesome.

Baddies: Shelob, Gollum, Morgoth (kind of ironic that I remember very few good guys from Sil, but I sure remember the bad guy)

I really need to reread Sil.

Favorite Movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, hand's down.

Favorite Scenes, Really? Again, this would be so much easier if I could just say 'all of them'. Well....
Riddles in the Dark - The Hobbit
Spiders and Flies - The Hobbit
The Death of Smaug - The Hobbit
A Thief in the Night - The Hobbit
The Battle of Five Armies - The Hobbit

The big party scene at the beginning - FotR (movie)
Shortcut to Mushrooms - FotR (book)
The Barrow-Downs & Tom Bombadil - FotR (book)
Passing through Moria - FotR (movie)

The Exorcism of King Theoden - TTT (movie), yes, I did actually like this change
Helm's Deep - TTT (movie)
Shelob - TTT (book)

Eowyn

- RotK (movie and book)
Faramir and Eowyn- RotK (book)
The Mouth of Sauron and the final battle - RotK (book!)
Sam carrying Frodo - RotK (movie)
The Scouring of the Shire - RotK (book)
What happens with the REAL gift that Galadriel gives Sam - RotK (book)

The creation of Middle Earth, when Melkor chooses to sing a different song *chills* - Sil
When Aulë creates the dwarven race, and then thinks he must destroy his creation and the dwarves back away and everyone realizes that they're alive and want to live *chills* - Sil
The entire theme of living forever vs. dying - Sil (this is cheating cause it's not really a scene, but it's one of my favorite parts of this book)

I'm really due for a reread of LotR and Sil.

Ditto, but one is big and the other is deep.

In TFOTR, Aragorn tells Frodo he doesn't want it, so...he's obviously capable of refusing, pretty simply too, I might add.

Yeah.... that scene doesn't exist in the book.

The entire theme of living forever vs. dying - Sil (this is cheating cause it's not really a scene, but it's one of my favorite parts of this book)

I think you would like (perhaps you already know it) a story that Tolkien wrote and that was included in History of Middle-earth #10 - Morgoth's Ring. The story is called Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, which is Sindarin for The discussion of Finrod and Andreth. Finrod is an Elf (Galadriel's brother, as you'll know when you've read The Silmarillion), and Andreth is a mortal woman (great-grand-aunt or something of Beren).

They discuss questions of life and death. The thing is that Elves do not necessarily live forever. They are bound to the world - and they know that if they don't get killed, they will live till the end of the world. Which may feel wearisome after some millennia. They have not been told what will happen to them after the end of the world. They have no promise for any further future.

The mortals, however, will live for a relatively short time and then die. But after death, they are free of the world, and the Creator, Eru Iluvatar, has a separate fate for them - where they may well live forever.

Finrod and Andreth discuss whether it's possible that Eru will extend that gift to the Elves as well, so that the Children of the Creator may continue to live together - forever. Finrod finds that his hope grows during their discussion.

There are even more elements in that story that contribute to making it my favorite Tolkien story ...
I think I have managed to mention it earlier in this thread somewhere.

who are your favorite characters and what's your favorite film or scene(s)?

My favorite character in the movies is Sam. He was fairly close to the books. There was on glaring exception but I'll not mention that. Also, I think they got the look of the elf prefect with Legolas.

In the books, my favorite character is ... um ... yeah ... Well, since I can't decide I'll use categories.
Human - Faramir
Hobbit - Sam

My favorite movie is Fellowship of the Ring because it is closest to the book.

The Exorcism of King Theoden - TTT (movie), yes, I did actually like this change

I must admit that I did too. Not enough for it to be a favorite scene though.

I think on the TTT movie where PJ comments on the whole thing, he explained the reason he changed Faramir so much was because he couldn't understand how Faramir could resist the ring when no one else could. Kind of sad the character of Faramir was ruined because of it.

That reason really doesn't work. Boromir is the only one of the fellowship that ever tries to take it from Frodo. Gandalf and Gladriel don't take it. Sam gives it back to Frodo. Bilbo gives it to Frodo (yes I know he wants it back but he doesn't take it). In the movie Aragorn, doesn't take it.

*Also needs to do some rereading.*

So...do we actually see Sauron? OR is he just. "The eye"?

Sauron was a fallen angel, and so was created without a body. He learned to put on a body as we put on clothes. Every time Sauron was "killed" (as in the downfall of Numenor/Atlantis), it was only his body that perished. Eventually he grew or put on another body.

Sauron put so much of his magic/strength/essence into his Ring that, when he lost it, he lost the ability to grow a body to live in. He also was not as strong as his original spirit self. He had tied too much of himself to matter/the material world through his Ring.

I like to think of this disembodied Sauron as cigar/cigarette smoke. If you smoke outdoors, the smoke dissipates on the wind. It doesn't cease to exist, but it cannot hold together. However if someone has smoked indoors for years, you can take a painting off the wall and see the difference between the clean wall under the painting and the sooty wall of the house. Sauron needed his Ringwraiths to prepare Dol Guldur and then Barad-dur, otherwise his "soot" could not build up upon the walls of the towers. As the years pass and more soot builds up on the wall, the good guys begin to say things like, Sauron soon will be strong enough to destroy us all even if he does not recover his Ring.

...

On Faramir versus Filmamir (or Farfromthebookamir), even the third film doesn't get it right. Faramir does go forth to hold the line, but Denethor sends out a sortie to rescue them when things go wrong. Faramir does not make a suicide charge, and only a handful of his soldiers get killed.

And of course book-Denethor isn't around the bend until the very end. He's depressed and shows it through anger, but he sends the armies exactly where they need to be and gives them the resources they need.

If you look at the chronology in the back of the book, it makes plain why Denethor said to Pippin, "the fool's hope has failed. The Enemy has found it." Denethor looked in the crystal ball, the palantir, and saw that Frodo the ring-bearer had been captured. He also saw a Ringwraith leave the battle to go to Cirith Ungol (because Sam had "rung the doorbell" as he phrased it). Only then did Denethor do what he did. He knew how long it would take a Ringwraith to fly to Cirith Ungol and from there to Barad-dur. If you've ever seen Shrek 4 you know what "meat puppets" are. In Denethor's mind, anyone who was still alive when Sauron received the Ring could expect to be tormented like meat puppets. Only after Gandalf says (loosely translated), "I don't know what you saw, but I'm pretty sure you didn't understand what you saw" does Denethor admit he's jealous of Aragorn and will not live as his puppet either.

I know the film-makers said something about being pressed for time, but I don't think it would have taken ten seconds to add the few crucial lines that would have changed the whole "royal family" dynamics. If they'd made Denethor sane, they never would have been able to explain why Filmamir threw aside his ethics and his brain, plus the lives of all of his men. It's all beautifully acted, but it's not what Tolkien wrote.

Since we mentioned smoking, I also like to think of the Ring's seductive powers as being like it. Andy Serkis, the actor who played Gollum, compared the Ring to a narcotic drug that hooked Smeagol on his first exposure. But I think there's more to it than that. Maybe the Ring is "radioactive" with Sauron's will, to use a modern metaphor, and the more exposure you receive, the more deleterious the effects. Notice in the film, even more so than in the book, that Aragorn, Gandalf and the High Elves try to stay away from the Ring -- and in doing so, they stay away from Frodo. This increases his sense of isolation. It also means that Boromir, who doesn't seem to believe much in magic, spends more time with Frodo and so endures more toxic exposure. Whether we use Serkis' metaphor of drugs, this metaphor of radiation, or Boromir's warrior attitude that any failing must be a spiritual character flaw, the result is that Boromir was the first of the Fellowship to succumb because he didn't run away from the Ring. If it emitted even a noxious smell he might have believed this magic was real, but it didn't give off any clues.

...

Fun fact: there may have been an Unexpected Party in the Bible. In The Hobbit, Bilbo is surprised by a wizard and 13 dwarves. In the Bible, Mary and Martha are surprised by Jesus and His disciples. (Luke 10:38 says that they were with Him.) If it had been one guest I doubt Martha would have been so exasperated as to bawl out that one guest. After all, one sandwich doesn't take that long. But if she's serving the whole traveling circus while her sister sits around doing nothing, that story makes a lot more sense. When Bilbo is overwhelmed we laugh, and then he finally gets four Dwarves to help. When Martha is overwhelmed, she gets no help while the congregation nods solemnly and takes notes! Poor Martha!

I found this and thought it was lovely. I've been listening to TFOTR & TTT soundtracks the last few days and they're just - enchanting:

I like the bit about Aragorn's song...which film is that in?

Also, does anyone know what song is used in this?

Great find!

Aragorn's song about Beren and Luthien is from the first movie - but again, from the Extended Edition. He sings it somewhere on the way from Bree to Rivendell.

I don't remember the music in your third YouTube selection. Perhaps someone else does?

I think that last video is just a fan trailer with music from something else. I certainly don't recognize it as LotR and it doesn't even sound like Howard Shore's score.

Well my hopes for seeing a full Hobbit trailer in front of The Avengers are dashed. But we still have all summer to go so I'm hoping for a theatrical trailer soon.

Sauron was a fallen angel, and so was created without a body.

Again, my Silmarillion is really rusty, but I don't think this is correct. I thought Sauron was one of the Maiar, like Gandalf and Saruman. Are you sure you're not getting mixed up with Melkor/Morgoth? And someone feel free to correct me if I'm the one who's wrong.

Sauron was a fallen angel, and so was created without a body.

Again, my Silmarillion is really rusty, but I don't think this is correct. I thought Sauron was one of the Maiar, like Gandalf and Saruman. Are you sure you're not getting mixed up with Melkor/Morgoth?

Sauron was indeed one of the Maiar, like Gandalf and Saruman - they were all a lower rank of angels (while Melkor/Morgoth was of the higher rank), and I believe they were also created without bodies.

I don't think it's correct that Sauron didn't have a body at this time, though.

It was said that he couldn't again create for himself a fair body, he had lost all his possibility for beauty - and it took him much more time and effort to create a new one after he had lost the Ring. But he went to Dol Guldur as the Necromancer, and later he left for Mordor, and someone (I think Gollum) says about him that he only has four fingers on his hand, but that's enough. So he's not able to recreate the finger that Isildur cut off, but he does have a body.

The eye is symbolic of his ability to keep an eye on everyone (whether by mental abilities or by the palantir only), and the symbol is used on the devices of his servants.

I think it's Peter Jackson's own interpretation to make the eye the only manifestation of his presence.

When all the power that Sauron put into the Ring is no longer present in the Ring, searching for its master, but destroyed in Mount Orodruin, he will not have enough power left to create another new body (I think Gandalf says so, or maybe just Tolkien says so in a Letter).

I think that last video is just a fan trailer with music from something else.

I've since found that out. The song is called "See What I've Become" By Zack Hemsey from Falling Skies.(?) A TV show maybe?

On Sauron (and Melkor) being created without bodies:

Now the Valar took to themselves shape and hue; and because they were drawn into the World by love of the Children of Iluvatar, for whom they hoped, they took shape after that manner which they had beheld in the Vision of Iluvatar, save only in majesty and splendour.

Moreover their shape comes of their knowledge of the visible World, rather than of the World itself; and they need it not, save only as we use raiment, and yet we may be naked and suffer no loss of our being.

Therefore the Valar may walk, if they will, unclad, and then even the Eldar cannot clearly perceive them, though they be present.

But when they desire to clothe themselves the Valar take upon them forms some as of male and some as of female; for that difference of temper they had even from their beginning, and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by the choice, even as with us male and female may be shown by the raiment but is not made thereby. But the shapes wherein the Great Ones array themselves are not at all times like to the shapes of the kings and queens of the Children of Iluvatar; for at times they may clothe themselves in their own thought, made visible in forms of majesty and dread.

And the Valar drew unto them many companions, some less [i.e. the Maiar], some well nigh as great as themselves, and they laboured together ...

--from "Ainulindale", The Silmarillion

Not surprising, considering that Tolkien as a Catholic Christian would believe that angels walk among us but we cannot see them. It isn't that angels were created with material bodies and walk among us without them, but rather that they are spirits and only clothe themselves in bodies to do the Lord's work.

As for Sauron's hand only having four fingers, that's a good catch. I'd forgotten that line. However I still think that if Sauron had a body, he would have used it a long time ago: riding with his pet Ringwraiths, for example, or personally visiting Isengard to deal with Saruman, something that none of the Wraiths could do on their own. So I like to think of the four fingers as one of those painting-shaped images on the wall: Sauron's handprint in the soot, as it were.

And one more whine on Denethor before I forget: although it's not quite so whiny when this other fellow writes about it.

I did read a criticism some decades ago that Tolkien killed off everyone who would have posed any obstacle to Aragorn-becoming-the-king. It's a valid point, and not to be confused with the observation that all of Aragorn's mentors also left the scene. It makes sense for Aragorn and Arwen to begin their married lives without the interference, however well-intentioned, of Daddy Elrond, Grandma Galadriel, and Uncle Gandalf. It also makes sense for the old generation to want to leave an inheritance of a better life for the young people, as the Baby Boomers inherited from the Greatest Generation.

What the ancient critic meant was that everyone who might have stood up to Aragorn is deleted by the author. Unless Lake-Town and Thranduil's kingdom count, every land in Middle-Earth is under new leadership. Elrond leaves, Galadriel leaves, Bilbo and Frodo Baggins leave, Dain Ironfoot dies, King Brand dies, King Theoden dies, Denethor dies, and Boromir dies. Nobody is left except his adoring fans (Legolas, Gimli, Faramir, Imrahil, Eowyn, and Eomer). The closest thing Aragorn has to an alternate point of view is the cautious protests of Barliman Butterbur and the sassy Hobbit trio of Merry, Pippin, and Sam!

It's partly that Aragorn Fan Club mentality that so irritated the sane book-Denethor. I might have mentioned it earlier upthread, but just because Aragorn knows all about war doesn't mean that he knows much about peace. Elvish poetry, courtly manners, and a famous sword won't rebuild burned-out towns, make the rains fall in a famine, or regulate the money supply. You need a career bureaucrat for that sort of thing. Denethor commented that he didn't want to be the "dotard chamberlain of an upstart" i.e. to do the same job of running the bureaucracy for no glory and no pay. Faramir would do it and like it, which is one of many reasons that Denethor claimed that Faramir was "not his own man." And we know that Boromir would have been climbing the walls with frustration if he had to perform such duties. C.S. Lewis had the same problem with King Rabadash but spelled it out more clearly. If Aragorn knows that Boromir is useless with a pile of paperwork, therefore Aragorn sends Boromir to fight his wars for him, it would bring too much glory to He Who Is Not Aragorn, and "that is how Tisrocs get overthrown." (Yes, Faramir would talk him out of it, but still, no king needs that kind of headache. So Tolkien killed him off.)

In a different novel, one in which Denethor and/or Boromir survived the war, it might have occurred to them that there's a whole world out there where Aragorn has no jurisdiction. They could have taken up residence in Eregion/Hollin and made a prosperous kingdom for themselves, all the more so with the Dwarves returning to Moria. Obviously that can't happen now. But the point is that no one else will challenge Aragorn (in a good way) either. Theoden didn't hesitate to tell Aragorn when he thought the newbie was wrong, and Theoden gets killed. So does everyone (except Faramir) who really knows how to run a kingdom. (I don't count Prince Legolas; they seem to party a lot where he comes from.)

Does this mean Aragorn shouldn't take the job? Not as such. Tolkien, like many Catholics, had a nostalgic respect for the "good king" because they could be written as restorers, healers, even Christ figures. It's probably the elected-form-of-government attitude in us that makes us evaluate whether Aragorn would be "elected" to be king if there had been other available candidates.

It is said that Tolkien gave up in his story "The New Shadow" because he became weary of the endless Fall(s) of Man that required yet more redemption. From the elected-form-of-government view, though, the rapid decline of Gondor after the War of the Ring makes sense. Traditionally wars for freedom/independence are followed by civil wars. Moreover, when the leader has to learn the job on the job, sometimes the people suffer while he is finding his feet. As a monarchist, Tolkien probably found that harder to visualize, which would make it harder for him to write the tale's solution.

Look what has just been shared with me on FB:

“In foramine terrae habitabat hobbitus.”

Okay, I know what is going to be at the top of my birthday list this autumn.

Or, since I am studying Latin, maybe I could justify the purchase by calling it a supplemental textbook.

And one more whine on Denethor before I forget: although it's not quite so whiny when this other fellow writes about it.

"I believe that in Denethor, Tolkien has given us one of the most psychologically complex characters in The Lord of the Rings."
[...]

"As a film audience we are never told of Denethor’s rivalry with Thorongil and the favouritism of his own father, which would clearly help explain his own attitudes towards Faramir."

I agree that Denethor is a much more complex character than what he was portrayed as in the movie. I remember the first time I noticed the implications of that second quote - told either in the Appendices or in Unfinished Tales - how there is a close parallell between how Faramir yearns for his father's attention, and how Denethor yearned for his father's attention.

It put the relationship between Denethor and Faramir in a new light for me. Denethor did not start the favouritism in that family.

I did read a criticism some decades ago that Tolkien killed off everyone who would have posed any obstacle to Aragorn-becoming-the-king.
[...]

What the ancient critic meant was that everyone who might have stood up to Aragorn is deleted by the author.
[...]

It's partly that Aragorn Fan Club mentality that so irritated the sane book-Denethor. I might have mentioned it earlier upthread, but just because Aragorn knows all about war doesn't mean that he knows much about peace.
[...]

But the point is that no one else will challenge Aragorn (in a good way) either. Theoden didn't hesitate to tell Aragorn when he thought the newbie was wrong, and Theoden gets killed. So does everyone (except Faramir) who really knows how to run a kingdom. (I don't count Prince Legolas; they seem to party a lot where he comes from.)

Does this mean Aragorn shouldn't take the job? Not as such. Tolkien, like many Catholics, had a nostalgic respect for the "good king" because they could be written as restorers, healers, even Christ figures. It's probably the elected-form-of-government attitude in us that makes us evaluate whether Aragorn would be "elected" to be king if there had been other available candidates.
[...]

Moreover, when the leader has to learn the job on the job, sometimes the people suffer while he is finding his feet. As a monarchist, Tolkien probably found that harder to visualize, which would make it harder for him to write the tale's solution.

You make a good point here. It seems that Tolkien made things easier for himself by eliminating the possibly conflicting relationships.

I hope that Aragorn surrounded himself by a good and competent Council. He did well to keep the office of Steward, even though Faramir might not be inclined to be stern with him even when needed ...

“In foramine terrae habitabat hobbitus.”

That line just sounds so cool.

I doubt I'd buy that translation, but I'd certainly look at it if I found it in a store. Now the English version, on the other hand, is nearing the top of my 'to read (or re-read)' pile.