The Bearer Frodo. Poor dude isn't doing so well. It seems like every single shot of him is a close up on his face, emphasizing the distant look in his eyes. He's not feeling too hot, either emoti...

The Friend in NeedAll you have to know about our lovable, affectionate Samwise Gamgee comes in a quote at the end of the movie. Frodo and Sam are adorkably pretending to be hobbit kiddos, listenin...

Merry is usually the wiser, more thoughtful hobbit of the inseparable Merry/Pippin duo, and he certainly has his wise, thoughtful moments in a film which mostly… sees him hanging out on the top...

What is our "fool of a Took" up to now? When Pippin's not sending skeletons down old pipes and waking entire armies of orcs, he's eating mass quantities of lembas bread, setting off giant firework...

Poor StoorThe only Gollum we've ever known is a big eyed, bony creature that crawls almost naked on four limbs. He's, um, not a looker. He has weathered skin and only a few wispy strands of hairâ€...

Dúnedain and DutyWe thought we'd learned Aragorn's deepest secret. We knew he was the heir of Isildur. We knew dude was a man of noble birth, hidden away in Rivendell and raised by elves to becom...

The Prettiest Hair In Middle-earth Steady, trustworthy, and always right by your side to peg some orcs between the eyes when you need him, Legolas is one steadfast companion. Most of The Two Towers...

Gimli is played for laughs; he's the probably the most crusty-looking good guy in the entire trilogy, but he's got a heart of pure gold. Whether we're laughing at his expense when falls off his ho...

The Latest Model Comes in White That's right, Gandalf got an upgrade and it comes with a shiny new cloak and a sleek, fancy staff (we're also assuming he's probably more powerful with some new mag...

Éomer seems like a good guy. He doesn't like Wormtongue creeping on his sister and poisoning his uncle, and he lets him know it. He takes his Rohirrim and kills a whole company of orcs. And at th...

Finally, a second woman (too bad LotR still doesn't pass the Bechdel Test). Éowyn's presence in the beginning of the movie is exactly what you'd expect from a woman in a land of manly heroes. She...

Talk about a transformation. When we first see Théoden he's old and wrinkled and generally haggard looking. His hair is hoary and frazzled and his eyes are milky and clouded with old age. Mentall...

Ol' Faramir can be a little bit of a drama queen: FARAMIR: The enemy? [Faramir walks to an Easterling corpse, kicking it supine with his foot.] His sense of duty was no less than yours, I deem. You...

In our "Symbols and Tropes" section, we talk about how light always represents good and darkness always represents evil in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. When we see Gandalf in his shiny new White...

That's Grima Wormtongue to be precise. Grima Wormtongue… let that name linger in your mouth. How does it taste? Greasy? Sweaty? Like curdled milk on a hot summer day? Okay, you get the point; ju...

Treebeard is a leader of the ents, the guardians of the huorns that make up Fangorn Forest. And yes, when you can read that sentence without saying "Whowhatnow?" you too, young padawan, will be an...

We don't see much of Arwen in The Two Towers, but with this whole forbidden love-thing developing between her and Aragorn, they needed to fit her in the movie somehow. Originally, she was scripted...

Rivendell's master elf doesn't make much of an appearance in The Two Towers, but that doesn't stop him from trying to do the job of all fathers: protecting his little girl from boys. Well, maybe b...

Denethor is such a minor character in The Two Towers that he didn't even make the theatrical release. So why talk about a character who's been relegated to the extended edition? Well, he still has...