Triumph!!!

[Lady Snickerdoodle]

Recently, I FINALLY got one of my friends to watch all the LOTRs with me. She hadn't seen them before OR read the books. Except for the Hobbit, which is a good start. Anyway, here's what happened during ROTK.
"FRODO YOU JERK I HOPE YOU DIE!!!"

"Wait wait, is this Rondor?" (me) "No... close... Gondor *runs off to get aspirin*"
"aren't they.. elephants?." "No, here they're called Oliphaunts." "THats the stupidest thing i ever..."

"OMG so, Gollum's gone for good right? Hes not gonna sneak around and pop up unexpectedly, right? (this was after the fight on the slopes of Mount Doom) PLEASE tell me! and you have to pinky promise!"

(when gollum suddenly apparates over Sam's shoulder in Mt. Doom) well, we both screamed our heads off, me having forgotten about it and she not having known, obviously. She got REALLY mad at me for breaking our pinky promise, even though I hadn't really said anything, I just silently stuck my pinky out without agreeing to any terms. So really, I hadn't broken anything....

And then the electricity went off in the storm. Right as Gollum had the ring. When it came back somewhere around midnight, we continued watching. anyway, she laughed at all the tearjerkers, got half of the names right, and so on. But now, she's a HUUGE Aragorn fan, and understands the whole plot. So there is hope for her!

I just wanted to hear about your attempts (sucessful or not) to convert people!

[Elennar Starfire]

I managed to convert my friend who was an obsessive Harry Potter fan to LotR...First I had to convince her to at least watch the movies, then I got her to read the books, and next thing I know she's wearing a ring on a chain, taking down her HP posters and putting up LotR ones, and RandomMovieQuoting with me!

[dancing spawn of ungoliant]

I made my big sister to promise to watch all the movies with me (she read FotR a long time ago but said that it sucked and she never even started with tTT). We finnished FotR EE today (she didn't want to watch the both discs on one day) and it was quite a horrible experience. She yawned every now and then, kept sending text messages to her friends and when Sam and Frodo started to walk down Emyn Muil, she asked if the film had ended and when I nodded, she bounced right up and walked away. I'm looking forward tomorrow when we are supposed to watch tTT...

[Lady Snickerdoodle]

ack, Dancing Spawn, i really sympathize for you...

i'm planning to buy lots of aragorn paraphernalia for the above mentioned convertite in hopes that she will turn obsessive. also i've made another friend promise to watch TTT and ROTK with me sometime this week, so I'll let you know how that turns out...

i think that we should write a LOTR for Dummies book. Like, written by fans about fans for future fans. because i seriously hate spending 3 and a half hours explaining everything on the screen.

[dancing spawn of ungoliant]

Thanks and good luck with TTT and RotK for you Lady Snickerdoodle! My sister has "a crush" on Legolas and she calls him ´the cute boy´ so I keep telling her that there'll be more Legolas soon and she remains satisfied for a while.
Personally I'd be happy to clear up the plot to the person I'm watching the film with. If she asks questions it means that she hasn't fallen asleep (like it sometimes seems in my sisters case).

[Lady Snickerdoodle]

well, yes, i love explaining LOTR, but only when they understand. If they don't get it after the fifth time or totally disdain the whole thing and laugh it off, then i start to get impatient. luckily my friend understood it all and (i think) liked it. which is definitely the best reaction i've gotten from any of my friends.

EDIT: I must admit I'm a bit of a Leggybopper myself... Just a little bit though. hehe...

[Morai]

Okay, now I'm sure all of you are dying to hear my dramatic stories of converting non LOTR fans...right? Well...maybe not dying.

Anyway, first let's discuss the depression tale of my Dad. When I was watching FOTR on video for the 1st time, he walked in the middle of the Moria scenes. He watched the movie for a few minutes then left saying "I think this is too deep for me." Even after me and my mother's attempts to convince to try watching it from the beginning, he refuses.

But, I think I was successful with my mom. She drove me and a friend to a movie theatre to watch FOTR months after it came out. At first she didn't understand it (cause of lack of reading the books) but after watching ROTK a few weeks ago. My mom LIKES IT! I'm not expecting her to be diehard, but it's nice. In fact she claims that ROTK makes the most sense out of all 3 of the movies. (Maybe my dad should try watching that one first? Nah...)

Just remember, I started out thinking LOTR was a pointless blood 'n action story. But after all the hype, I began reading the books and fell in love with it. THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE!!

[ElenCala Isil]

Ah, I know how ye feel, Morai. All too well...

My dad comes in to watch FotR with me, ends up saying something about it being demonic-looking, and falls asleep, spilling his coffee all over the couch... he wakes up, finding the coffee everywhere, yells, jumps out of his seat, screams at the TV that if my mum and I weren't watching something so stupid, so boring, it never would have happened...

My mum said she wanted to read it, but I know she'll never be a die-hard fan, and she still thinks LotR is stupid, but says she wouldn't mind reading it... *blink* Although I've successfully got it in her head that baths and Aragorn do NOT go well together.

[THE Ka]

I not long ago finally sat down at my mum's house and watched all three of the movies... in order. My mother got them but, she waited until i came over. she said i was going to be her "guide"... I never knew that this was going to take two more days than expected ... Especially during the first and third movies i had to explain major parts of the movies and what actually happened in the book. After the second day i gave up and just let her watch the movies and then later talk to me... What a trial that was! Some of the questions she asked me were quiet strange from my father's. Actuallly, my father just sat there. And QUIETLY watched the movie. Here's some of what she asked, or asumed.

" Okay, frodo has the ring but, where did he get it from?"

" Why is elrond having a fit with Arwen? Are they related?"

" Why is it called the Two towers? Did the director try to make it in reference to the Twin towers? If he did then he would have to have Both towers fall down..."

" No, no Shawn (shawn's the ka's father) , Aragorn is supposed to be the king but, boromir is the "false king" so that's why they don't like each other..."

" Why doesn't Sam just kill gollum? He isn't very helpful."

Yeah. I know. I'm going to try to get my mother to read the books. VERY, VERY SOON. Besides this, my father understood the whole story quiet wonderfully without saying anything, except a few mirthful comments, like these:

When frodo was standing in Mt.Doom with gollum sneaking up on him. The frodo fighting with him.

" Don't stand there just push him in!"

" Heh. Wrestling in slow motion..."

Okay. That 's all i have to say for now.

Blessed Be, THE Ka

[Hama Of The Riddermark]

I feel so sorry for all of you...I can honestly say I gave up trying to convert people a long time ago...although I am hideously ashamed to say that I fell alseep in TTT, it was late, and despite drinking coffee and red bull the couch got the better of me...oh the shame...

[Lady Snickerdoodle]

" Why is elrond having a fit with Arwen? Are they related?"

that made me giggle a lot. now you've gone and made me all hyper...

I just remembered something else my friend said, which totally obliterated the Arwen/Aragorn reuinion scene. As I was sniffling quietly during their kiss, she goes, "Ew, slow down! So he just kind of charges in there, huh?"

[Sleepy Ranger]

Like I succesfully converted my dad and he like wants to read the books and is waiting for the RoTK:EE. He wants to see it more badly than me. Imagine all this only because of the clean sweep at the Oscars.

[Elennar Starfire]

I had the one amazingly successful conversion, then I had a complete failure.

She rode my bus. She had never read the books, or seen any of the movies except for a bit of TTT, and she thought the whole thing was about talking trees. I managed to explain that the talking trees were NOT the entire plot...But she still wouldn't watch the movies. She said she might, after she'd read The Call of the Wild, but she couldn't find it at the library, so I gave her my copy (I don't particularly like that book). I don't even know if she's read it yet...And since she was a Senior, I won't be able to ask her next year.

[THE Ka]

Originally Posted by Hama Of The Riddermark

I feel so sorry for all of you...I can honestly say I gave up trying to convert people a long time ago...although I am hideously ashamed to say that I fell alseep in TTT, it was late, and despite drinking coffee and red bull the couch got the better of me...oh the shame...

Convert... Hmmm. Now that jusr makes me feel like a religious order...

[Lady Snickerdoodle]

My other friend, who said she'd watch the movies with me this week, is avoiding me now...

responding to an email invite to come over:
"I'm booked for camp counseling all week and I have a karate test on Friday."

does this look deliberate to you?

Also, I sent out an email to the people i know who haven't read LOTR, begging them at their feet (well, virtually) to follow along with that chapter-by-chapter book club in the Books section... None of them have answered either... maybe they're hoping I will soon go away and rave quietly to myself in the corner. which wont happen, d'ya hear me??? IT WONT!!! *calms down and eats a teddy bear*

[Lady Snickerdoodle]

OMG! YAY! i tell a lie, one of my friends has just told me that she will read the books! oh happy day... *springle ring*

[Morai]

" Why is it called the Two towers? Did the director try to make it in reference to the Twin towers? If he did then he would have to have Both towers fall down..."
" No, no Shawn (shawn's the ka's father) , Aragorn is supposed to be the king but, boromir is the "false king" so that's why they don't like each other..."

Ah...you gotta love normal people. That reminds me of when I invited a friend from across the street over. We watched FOTR, and any time Frodo got injured (which seems to happen A LOT!) she would say "poor little guy" Though I don't think I turned her into a diehard either.

Then there's my History teacher. She kept remarking all 9 months of our school year on how LOTR was only a parody of WWII. Oh well....

[One of the Nine]

I've tried many times to convert people, some succesful and others not. I managed to get my little brother to read the Hobbit after telling him some stuff about Lord of the Rings, but the people in my class at school are all about Harry Potter. I finally got one of the people in the grade ahead of me to say Gamgee right. I hate how they say it in the movie It drives me insane. Anyway, that's all the luck I've had, but there's still more to be converted!

[Morai]

but the people in my class at school are all about Harry Potter.

That reminds of a guy that was in my math class a couple of years ago. He really liked Gandalf because he reminded him of a character in Harry Potter. When he saw the part in the movie when Gandalf falls with the Barlog into the abyss, he gave up on LOTR. He said it was because "they killed off the BEST CHARACTER!!!" I just laughed at him. He also mentioned LOTR being to complicated to read. (FOOL!)

[ElentariGreenleaf]

It was my mum who originally got me into LotR when we heard FotR was coming out, because she kept going on about it. We both then decided to force my dad to go with us to see it. He's seen FotR and TTT now (may have seen RotK), and likes the LotR trilogy enough to make me wait an extra 2 or 3months until each of the EE came out, but I'm sure he doesn't appreciate the story behind the films. He just likes the special effects *sigh* I'll get him to read the books one day, just you wait!

I have several people that I plan to convert to our Tolkien-obsessed ways, but I don't know how to go about it. Any tips?

*~Tarser~* [howl]

[Lady Snickerdoodle]

I have several people that I plan to convert to our Tolkien-obsessed ways, but I don't know how to go about it. Any tips?

A rather sucessful method that I only just found out about is playing the soundtracks over and over around them. One day they will absentmindedly start to hum it and then you know it has infiltrated their subconcious. And then you can throw yourself at their feet and start begging...
Demeaning, i know, but I did get one of them to sign up here and the other to actually consider.

other than that, you can bribe them, force them through torture ("my handssss!" jk) or make them watch the movies with you. Chatting on about it nonstop sometimes works but more often than not it makes them wholeheartedly convinced never to go within 10 feet of the books. *sigh* lower life forms... so hard to work with. good luck!

[ElentariGreenleaf]

Thank you Lady Snickerdoodle. I'll keep those tips in mind while harrashing non-Tolkienites. I don't mind listening to the soundtracks repeatedly if it turns them to our ways! Cool name by the way!

*~Tarser~* [what noise do Oliphants make anyway?]

[Lady Snickerdoodle]

[what noise do Oliphants make anyway?]

they oink, of course. *giggles off into oblivion*
that was weird.

[Morai]

I have several people that I plan to convert to our Tolkien-obsessed ways, but I don't know how to go about it. Any tips?

I'm not sure if it works but...:
1) Try making up random inside jokes with some LOTR buddies. Then when you're all together with the non Tolkien freaks, keep repeating them and mentioning them. After a while, it might be tempting to at least try to watch the movies or read the books. Though, this only seems to work with close friends.

2) Convince them that one of the characters/ actors is really hot. They may or may not become dedicated fans, but at least they'll be interested.

3) Then there's the old brainwashing technique....

[ElentariGreenleaf]

1) Try making up random inside jokes with some LOTR buddies. Then when you're all together with the non Tolkien freaks, keep repeating them and mentioning them. After a while, it might be tempting to at least try to watch the movies or read the books. Though, this only seems to work with close friends.

Sounds fun and evil all at the same time. I shall try it for sure!

2) Convince them that one of the characters/ actors is really hot. They may or may not become dedicated fans, but at least they'll be interested.

That should work. It worked on the music teachers in my school (Orli lovers), but 'twas not I who converted them.

3) Then there's the old brainwashing technique....

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! <--enough said

*~Tari~*

[dancing spawn of ungoliant]

I'm glad to announce that my sister was much more susceptible to TTT than FotR. She asked some questions like is Gandalf the White a good guy and why did he fell into the abyss in Moria (yeah, we all know the answers, of course, but I was quite impressed by her attempt to follow the plot!). Next day (she still didn't want to watch the both discs on the same day) she proposed herself if we watched the second disc! Oh, happy day!

[Elennar Starfire]

Ye could try singing the elvish songs around them, absentmindedly. They'll ask ye what ye're singing. It works well to start a conversation about LotR.

[Luthien_ Tinuviel]

" Why doesn't Sam just kill gollum? He isn't very helpful."

That is an incredibly good question.

Well, I usually just make sly Tolkien references in conversation. If the person knows what I'm talking about, they usually acknowledge it or at least seem interested. That helps to detect people who know about Tolkien.. those who don't just stare. Not really helpful in converting them, I'll admit, but at least it's a good method for telling the difference.

I think you really have to appeal to them on their level - if they like books, tell them it's a good book or good literature. If they like action films, well there's that, too. If they like being 'in,' LOTR is still pretty much a part of the current popular culture, so they might simply want to know what it's all about, since there's a lingering LOTR ambience in the atmosphere.

[Lhunardawen]

Nilpaurion Felagund and I managed to convince our dad to read LotR, which he had already done. Yipee! But the bad news is, my mom just won't. And I imagine her cringing inside whenever Nil and I will go and rant all about LotR and the Downs. Sometimes our discussions about LotR with her even turn into arguments which, I can say, is not a good way to "convert" anybody. No triumph there.

[Arwen_Evenstar]

A couple of years ago, while in a class at school, my friend saw my studying the maps in ROTK. Upon her enquiring about what I was reading...well, one thing led to another, and I was explaining the history of the war of the ring to her.
'Right, so Freddo-'
'Frodo.'
'Right, frOdo, gets the ring from Dumble-'
'Gandalf.'
'Right, and has to take it to Gonnor-'
'It's 'Gondor' and no, he has to take it to Mordor.'
'Right, Mordor. Then Golm-'
'Gollum.'
'Gollum follows them. Then dumble-'
'Gandalf!'
'Gandalf dies and-'
'He falls.'
'Yeah, he falls and dies.'
'No he just falls.'
'Oh that's right, and he comes back as sauron.'
'It's Sauruman, and NO he comes back as gandalf the white.'
'Cause he used to be gandOlf the brow-'
'GREY!'
'Right. Then Aragon dies-'
'AragoRN, and No, that's boromir.'
'Right, Borimir dies, the Fredo-'
'FRODO!'
'Frodo and Mary-'
'MERRY!'
'And merry run away-'
'Frodo and Sam leave.'
'Right. And...whats-his-face...Orlando bloom...and the short fat guy...'
*through gritted teeth*'Legolas and Gimli.'
'Yeah, they go off with Aragon-'
'AragoRN!'
'Yeah, and meet Awen at Mordor.'
'THEY MEET EOWYN AT ROHAN!'
'Yeah, that's the one. Then her and Legolas get jiggy-'
'It's eowyn and aragorn, and they do NOT GET JIGGY!!!'
'Right. What happened to dumbledore again?'


Woe is me....

[Morai]

'Right. And...whats-his-face...Orlando bloom...and the short fat guy...'

After hearing even part of that conversation, I would have lost my patience. Nice resolve. Perhaps we need to dicuss different ways of not exploding when dealing with those who know nothing of LOTR when they inquire about our obsession?

[Nimrothiel]

Arwen_Evenstar, you have my deepest sympathy; and yet I'm laughing my head off. Fortunately, I don't know anyone who hasn't at least seen the movies or read the Hobbit. Of course, then I don't get the fun of trying to convert someone.

[Elennar Starfire]

If ye explode at someone, ye'll probably just scare 'em off. Ye don't want to be doing that, now do ye?

[wilwarin538]

I got my self afew nicknames cause of my obsession, " LOTR freak, "LOTR lover, "the LOTR obsesser". So now when ever someone has a question about books or movies they imidiatly come to me.

Once I watched The fellowship with some of my friends, all but one had seen it. I ended up pausing after every scene to explane what had just happened. The ones who had seen it asked more questions then the one who hadnt. Maybe she fell asleep. *gets a thinking look on her face*

[One of the Nine]

Well, my little brother is at least further in the Hobbit. *sigh* he's such a slow reader. Anyway, I was actually led to read the Hobbit and eventually LotR by my cousin who'd already read it. We watched all of the movies together, if not she seeing it first and then again with me. We also watched RotK together in theaters, the second time with her brother, who is now reading the trilogy. Slowly, one by one, we will convert them all! Hehehe.

[Lady Snickerdoodle]

yay hello everyone! i'm back after a week visiting a friend in Boston. Though I feel very hurt that this thread carried on very well even without my presence... jk.

Arwen that is INSANELY hilarious and i applaud your amazing patience which i incidentally lack.

how to stop exploding... hm. recite the elvish alphabet backwards. *tries*
*is wheeled off to mental hospital*

[Morai]

how to stop exploding... hm. recite the elvish alphabet backwards. *tries*

If I did that, I think my brain would explode. Hm...maybe I'll wear my "one ring" more often and rub it and hiss "my preciousss" any time I feel the need.

[Lady Snickerdoodle]

rub it and hiss "my preciousss" any time I feel the need.

thats like today in camp my friend and i were walking down the hall and she was bouncing around a bouncy ball when the counselors weren't looking.. and i was trying to get it from her so when it bounced off her foot by accident and i grabbed it we had a little scuffle where there was much shouting of "It came to usss!!!" Yeah and then the counselors took it away. Actually this is so totally off topic. I should go put that under LOTR Sayings Can Fit Anywhere.