I watched fragments of Peter Jackson’s The Return of the King yesterday. I almost forgot how good that book is, and how bad that movie was. Still, there were a few scenes which were quite powerful. I have to admit that I like the death of Théoden more in the film than in the book. “I go to my fathers… in whose mighty company… I shall not now feel ashamed.” And this blissful face. The guy was so unbelievably happy! This is precisely the kind of death I’d love to have…
Yes, Théoden is really great. And don’t tell me that he is too good to be true; it’s irrelevant (and also not correct). I consider him (a bit) a vision of how a human should work if he weren’t broken by sin. And how some humans do work, in fact, even if not all the time. And, I have to admit, I like him personally. He’s so wise, courageous and good that he almost – just almost – beats the main character of the whole epic: Samwise Gamgee.