Wandering through Middle Earth

I have recently come to the conclusion that the Husband only likes things from the very distant past - long bow, medieval sword fighting and, of course, "Lord of the Rings" - or from the unforeseeable future - "Star Wars," "Star Trek" and "Battlestar Galactica."*

This revelation caused me to [lovingly] yell at him: "Why can't you live in today!?!"

His explanation actually made some good sense (but I'll deny it to his face). He prefers his entertainment to take him out of today, as it were, and transport him somewhere else. Huh.

Anyway, one of the thorns in our relationship has always been the fact that I have not seen all three of the LOTR movies. (Insert gasp of shock here.) While I thoroughly enjoyed the first movie in the theatre, the second movie a whole year later just left me confused and befuddled. Every time they said a proper name, I would turn to my then roommate and ask something along the lines of, "Who are they talking about?" And he would hiss back something approximating, "Mordor is a place, Tammy. Not a person!" And so on, and so forth. I was completely turned around about who was what was where and how.

(Note to writers everywhere: It's OKAY to give characters names that are VERY different, so people don't spend the whole time trying to remember Sauron from Saruman!)**

When the third movie came out, a couple of friends reported back that they were bored through it and so I opted out.

Fast forward to several years later and I am married to a man who not only has the box sets displayed in one of our Ikea Benno towers, but who is also in possession of a Gandelf action figure that screams, "You. Shall Not. Pass!" when you press the button.

So, I got to thinking, "I should probably watch these movies. I enjoyed the first one and might have enjoyed the second one, if I'd watched it right after the first one. The trick is to not wait an entire year between installations!"

Hence, on New Year's Eve and then New Year's Day, while the weather outside raged on, we began watching "The Fellowship of the Ring." And I really enjoyed it! (Especially because I could pause the DVD to ask questions whenever I needed to, including repeatedly trying to recall which one was Sauron and which one was Saruman. I think I've finally got it straight.) We took a break partway and came back to it and when it ended, we had this conversation:

Me: "That was really good. I was totally entertained!"
Husband: "Tammy, that was only the first disc."
Me: "Ya. The first movie. I know there are two more to go."
Husband: "No, the first disc of the first movie."

I think I failed to realize that the Husband owns the super duper extended versions of these three already-long-to-begin-with movies. Sigh. Well, at least it's something we can do together.



*Obviously I am missing a major component in this list - worlds where superpowers exist. That's a very popular one with him.

** This was my exact issue with the book "100 Years of Solitude," which is supposedly a masterpiece, but I could not get through it because everyone had the same name and I had no clue who was doing what.