underrated lotr moment is gandalf’s “let me risk a little more light” so the fellowship can see the ruins of dwarrowdelf.
idk what it is idk how to put it into words but like. such a quick and quiet little moment of, recognizing we’re all in constant mortal peril but while we’re here you should still witness the wonders of the world. while we are here, though it may be on a life-threatening quest, you deserve a little tourist moment. soak it in, the great city that remains long-abandoned and nearly forgotten, the grand pillars that outlived the memories of those who built them. so much of love and life is fleeting in this dark age. but the scraps of it can still be found. the remnants are still here, and even with significant risk they deseve to be beheld.
And Howard Shore went “Do it, Mithrandir, I’ve got your back.”
#and when you consider that this comes after gimli talked at length about the glory of khazad-dum and the place it holds in their history #and then got there to find it abandoned and shattered and filled with goblins and the bodies of his kin #it's this moment of almost like... affirmation? #no you were not wrong to speak of it this way; yes it is as glorious as you have heard and more #countless dwarves fought and died for this place; it is worth the risk to see what they died for; why they believed it *worth* dying for #gimli is the only dwarf on the quest and in that moment the rest of the fellowship get to see that the creations of his people #are EVERY BIT as spectacular and awe-inspiring as those of elves and men #the movies did gimli wrong in a lot of ways but they NAILED this bit @arafinwes