Monday, February 8, 2021

Tumblr Thread Goes Deep On Boromir's Death In LotR


We're no strangers to the wonderful, wandering minds of Tumblr going deep on different parts of the Lord of the Rings universe. Whether it's a post that honors the progression of the Elvish vernacular throughout the Lord of the Rings books, or another wild thread about how elves might actually be flat earthers...you just never know what Tumblr's going to dish out next. This thread though, brings on all the feels. Boromir was a true legend. 

1.

Font - extasiswings asked #if you ask I will write a whole essay on Boromir #and why his death means more to us as we get older *whispers* babe I want the essay letmetellyouaboutmyfeels Follow Why must you always enable me Heve it never stop. So. Wow. Where to even start. I rant through my tears about how much I love Boromir every time I watch Lord of the Rings, which I do about once a year with @captainofthefallen. Every time I watch it, his death means more to me, hits me harder, and I think t

2.

Font - Because as a kid? I wanted to be Aragorn. The reluctant king who rises up and does the right thing, always. The guy who gets the amazing (be still my bi heart) Arwen, the Evenstar, fairest of the elves. The guy who literally kicks The man who is noble, honorable, thoughtful, good with his words, humble, knows the burdens of leadership, who stands up and says there will be a day when the courage of men fails, but this is not that day. I wanted to be the hero. I noticed this trend among my

3.

Font - I got older, and I learned that men are not always honorable, or kind, or humble, or the leaders they should be. And I learned how hard and desperate it is to continue to believe in the strength of men. I got older, and I learned how temptation comes for us all, in different forms, and how we hurt people without meaning to, and how sometimes for all our regret and tears and apologies, we cannot mend what we broke. I got older, and I leaned what it is to be forced into a role I didn't want

4.

Font - Tolkien was very deliberate with his characters. They aren't just characters, flawed and wonderful though they might be. They also each represent something very specific. Aragorn represents the Ideal. The hero that we all can be, the hero that we should strive to be, the vision of mankind as we are supposed to be, if only we can let ourselves shed our hubris and our doubts. Aragorn represents who we should be. Boromir represents who we are. Flawed, frustrated, burdened, tempted, strugglin

5.

Font - Boromir went to the Council of Elrond reluctantly. He shouldn't have gone. Boromir is a war leader, as we learn after his death. He successfully fought for and defended Gondor from Mordor for years. That's where he belongs. Faramir is the quiet one, the diplomat, the "wizard's pupil," the soft-spoken and patient one. Note that even in the film version, which shows a differently characterized Faramir than in the books (Tolkien heavily based Faramir on himself), Faramir only wants the One R

6.

Font - But the Steward of aka Boromir and Faramir's father decides he wants Boromir to go, to represent their family, because Boromir is the son he values and is the "face" of Gondor. So Boromir sets aside what he wants, and he And the whole time he feels out of place, goes. feels like a fish out of water, feels second to Aragorn, feels lost, feels terrified his city will fall while he is gone, feels like the race of Men is being mocked and looked down on as weak. How many of us as we grow up ar

7.

Font - And of course that's the key. Boromir-darling, frustrated, stuck, fatally flawed Boromir-is so very relatable because he tries. He tries to teach Merry and Pippin to protect themselves and then tries to save them and dies for it. He tries to convince Aragorn (who at that point is more elf than man in his outlook) that there is no reason to give up on his people, their people-and he succeeds in that, although he dies before he gets to see it. He tries to make his father proud. He tries to

8.

Font - I have a laundry list of things I tried and failed at, and God, do they hurt. Sometimes it was something out of my control, sometimes it was my own behavior. And that scene with Boromir, the flawed man, staring up at Aragorn, the ideal hero, and begging him, begging him, "save them, they took the little ones, find Frodo," 95 begging him for forgiveness, apologizing for his failures? Talk about a metaphor. We make our ideals in literature so that we have something to look up to and strive

9.

Font - I had so many heroes growing up, real and literary. Sara from A Little Princess. Aragorn. Lucy from Narnia. Nancy Drew. Harry Potter. And so many times I would look at myself in the mirror and cry because I knew, I knew if I stood in front of them they would be disappointed in me. I knew I wasn't being the person I could be. / tried, I failed, I tried, I failed, but my God I swear, I tried. As a kid or even a teenager, we still see mainly who we want to be. Our ideal. And I hope that we n

10.

Font - Without Boromir, Aragorn wouldn't know what happened to Merry and Pippin or where they went. Without Boromir, Aragorn would've had no hope in the race of men. Without Boromir, who would have carried the hobbits up the cold mountain, or taught them how to fight, or said give them a moment, for pity's sake! Who would have defended Gondor for so long, or loved his brother with a ferocity that Denethor's abuse couldn't knock loose, and inspired that brother to keep fighting even as the light

11.

Font - The remains of the Fellowship ride to Gondor not just because it's the Right Thing to Do, but because it is the city of their fallen brother, it's Boromir's home, the home that above all he gave everything to defend. Boromir doesn't want the Ring for power, he wants it so his home will be safe, his family will be safe, and God who can't relate to that, as we grow older and we see our families and friends attacked and scarred, as we have children and want them out of harm's way. Who wouldn

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