| October 23rd 2003: DESPAIR AND THE LONG DEFEAT- REFLECTIONS ON THE TWO TOWERS a Beyond the Shire report by Michelle Laundhardt After the magical introduction to Tolkien’s world in FOTR, though the grim finale tempered it, it appeared that some weren’t ready for the despair of The Two Towers. For I would argue that despair, and “the long defeat,” is what TTT is all about. Everyone faces despair in this movie: Merry and Pippin (“But you’re a part of this world!”).Strangely, it seems only Gimli and Galadriel are immune. Gimli because he refuses to give in, perhaps out of sheer Dwarf stubbornness. He appears to give the other characters, and the audience, a rock to cling to. But perhaps it’s not so strange when we consider Galadriel. Galadriel is different. She recognizes despair, but she becomes the conscience of the Elves, and of the movie, prodding us (and Elrond) to remember that defeat is, in the end, irrelevant. The Elves know that win or lose, they will lose Middle-earth. The fight must continue, regardless. (As Philippa Boyens has noted, Tolkien himself called the Elves’ struggle “The long defeat.”) The work of the enemy, as Tolkien noted several times in the book, takes many guises. We see this in TTT: the direct evil of the Uruk-hai, the indifference of the Ents, and the misguided goodness of Faramir, who only wants to save Gondor from destruction. All appear to work in concert against the forces of good. Is it any wonder that, after the magic and “togetherness” of FOTR, many people find TTT to be a downer? The heroes in this story aren’t possessed of sunny optimism and conventional “heroism.” They stumble. They give in at times to despair. When Sam spoke of the old stories, and how people had plenty of chances to turn back, but didn’t, I thought of Luthien and Beren. Some may argue that Beren was the greatest of Tolkien’s heroes. But even Beren wasn’t strong and heroic ALL the time. In the pit of Sauron, his companions died beside him. “.... King Finrod Felagund, fairest and most beloved of the house of Finwe, redeemed his oath; but Beren mourned beside him in despair.” Imagine that. Even Beren, when faced with the overwhelming power of evil, despaired. I wonder how that would have gone over in a movie? Would we complain that Beren isn’t heroic enough? What I love most about TTT, though, isn’t the gritty realism of its all-too-human (even if they are Elves or Hobbits) characters. What I love is how they manage to overcome despair. In the end, even after all that, hope manages to win out. As Sam said, there’s good in the world, and it’s worth fighting for, even if that fight is ultimately lost. And how do they do it? “Not alone,” as Eomer says, but with help from each other. Sam saves Frodo. Faramir saves Frodo and Sam (and by rejecting the Ring, Middle-earth). Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn all save each other. Eomer and Gandalf save Theoden. The Elves (and the Ents) save the Rohirrim. Pippin and Merry save the Shire (and much more). And on it goes. Ironically, FOTR ended in sadness tinged with hope; TTT ends in hope tinged with sadness. I for one can’t wait for ROTK, even though, as Jackson has said, “There is no happy ending.”. 
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