Biggs at the Pelennor Fields

Actually, I say Sam would make an even better Wedge!

Underanalysing. That sounds pretty well. Frodo, Sam... but what about Gollum? I say that Gollum is Han. *Gollum bites Frodo´s finger and falls to the abyss yelling: "Yahoo!"*

lol! But Gollum is so unromantic. You know what I mean? A little too much raw fish when he should have been eating his vegetables. So that would make the Ring Leia? *attempts to imagine Han calling Leia, "my precioussssss" *

But that would mean that Leia died, no good

Another LOTR-SW parallel (I thought of this when you mentioned the Ring and how Leia dies)... Can anyone say... pits and chasms? <small>(Or have I been reading too deep into the Ivory Tower thread at the JC?)</small>

The Truth Is, IronParrot, that the IvoryTower thread in the JC is just a hint of what's coming. I suggest everyone bone up on refractive matching of Jungian archtypes and Campbellean myth-making. If anyone so much as peeps that they don't see where Star Wars intersects LOTR, I'll... I'll..

I'll LOOK AT THEM FUNNY!

It doesn't matter where the discussion takes place, but here's the floormap of the Smithsonian exhibit for The Magic of Myth: www.nasm.edu/StarWars/galmap.htm Run through the exhibit, get choked up about the grand scope of Star Wars, and just let the LOTR parallels speak to you. (From the Force! hehe) Anyway - the point is that many characters between the two sagas will overlap qualities of the other. Sauron will have aspects of both Palpatine and Vader, while Vader will have aspects of the Witchking and Mouth of Sauron, while the Witchking will have aspects of Darth Vader AND Darth Maul, while Darth Maul will also have characteristics of the Moria Balrog. So have fun with it! And that's just the bad guys. What I'd be happy to hear about from *Anyone is their impression of *Where it is that Tolkien conveys the principle of Redemption - cause I see pressssious little of it.

Back to Pellenor Fields vs. Battle of Yavin: How about "We're going in full throttle!" vs. the Rhoheran cavalry charge with Eomer crying "Death! Death!" Similarities? Differences?

Here's an interesting way to find parallels which has no relation to the Pelennor fields but just came to my mind so I'm inflicting it upon you:

Everyone in my family has a LotR role. I'm Sam because I'm easygoing, like plants, and always end up carrying my little sister Frodo around. We also have SW roles--I'm Chewbacca because I'm tall and have a lot of hair. But actually Sam and Chewy have a lot in common, if you think about it. We do this a lot, and I never realized it was a type of Campbellian analysis until last year. I guess that not only are story archetypes in our blood, but also a subconscious awareness of them.

There's also the fact that Middle Earth is actually called Endor...

Hernalt´s post got me thinking and so I started thinking about some other parallells. Luke clearly is a lot like Frodo, but also shares many traits with Aragorn. I also think Leia combines aspects of both Arwen and Eowyn.

I remember that I once made a parallell between Yoda ( in ESB and ROTJ ) and Elrond a year ago on the JC. I recall my thinking was something like that both of them had taken on more passive roles, providing wisdom and shelter for some time to the hero/heroes.

There was also something about the similarities between Palpatine and Sauron. Both fooled people, Palpatine the Republic and Sauron tricked the elves so he could make the Ring. That allowed them to gain the power they wanted. In short, they appeared as false Prometheuses, promising freedom but in the end they only brought slavery and suffering.