A Narrative Investigation of Gollum

Comments · 545

• DU

  @DukeofWhales · 2 years ago · pinned

  Okay so obviously no one wanted this, but I want this channel to cover more than just the big AAA classics, especially because some of the best stories come from smaller titles/studios. Not in this instance, obviously, but I was just curious about Gollum and didn’t think anyone else was going to make a long-form on it.<br> <br>Assassin’s Creed II is up next, then another smaller title (a good one this time, I promise), then probably the Dragonborn DLC. People keep asking about Morrowind, I am planning to make a critique but I’m trying to get a full playthrough or two in first, so that’s happening in the background. Thank you everyone for watching!

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• TE

  @ted_the_kazooman · 2 years ago

  Playing Gollum while watching the 2 hour Gollum essay while wearing my Gollum pyjamas, in my Gollum bed with the Gollum lamp and the Gollum carpet

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• MA

  @madmaster0015 · 2 years ago

  You truly made the game feel like the Gollum of videogames. Something with potential and had some hope at one point, only to fail at every opportunity and become gross, pitiable, and dies a death few will ever mourn or notice as time marches on.

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• GI

  @GirlGuts. · 2 years ago

  I think the worst thing about this game is that by design you have to look at gollum the whole time.

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• WI

  @witchfynder_finder · 2 years ago

  Honestly I genuinely look serious thoughtful analysis of Bad Media. Trying to actually figure out what a work did and was trying to do, the places it might have succeeded and the ways it definitely failed, especially in something extremely messy like this, is one of the best ways to learn how to tell better stories. Bad art is still art and as such it still deserves to be examined in good faith.<br><br>Also, if I&apos;m being honest, I get so tired of just dunking on bad media just for being bad that seeing a video trying to give the game any sort of actual look is very refreshing.

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• CO

  @coreyander286 · 2 years ago (edited)

  The Ancient Romans had sponges. Infamously, sponges on long sticks, <i>xylospongium.</i> So I think more advanced and sea-bordering kingdoms of Middle-earth would have sponges. Gondorians, Mordorians. Or at least the blasphemous high technology of Sauron may have included the sponge among its contraptions and war machines.

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• RY

  @RyanDB · 2 years ago

  In the spirit of being fair to this terrible game: The line about being chained to the orc&apos;s neck is there because &quot;a millstone around my neck&quot; is an expression. The old man was correcting him about the expression, not saying they were literally chained together

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• SP

  @SpaceChase · 2 years ago

  “first of all, this is not a joke”<br>unironically answered my primary question immediately

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• KR

  @kronosgyrosofficial · 2 years ago

  They harvested and traded sea sponges in medieval europe all the way back to ancient greece and rome, so they make sense in middle earth.

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• SI

  @sir-dame-sander · 2 years ago

  to be fair, I don’t think “kill the bird” necessarily implies that gollum views what he’s about to do as a punishment — I think it’s moreso a self-serving act at the expense of the bird’s life. as long as the bird is alive, there is always the chance that it will try to help him but end up turning him back in. despite being bonded with gollum, it is at the end of the day just an animal, and it it doesn’t understand the nuances of political allegiance — to the bird, mordor isn’t a place of betrayal, it’s its home where it was hatched. of <b>course</b> the bird is going to keep reporting back to mordor. the choice to kill it is a bit cruel, yes, but it’s practical, and <b>that’s</b> what makes it gollum’s choice, moreso than any possible implication of “revenge”. sméagol lets the bird go knowing full well that it could “betray” his location again, and gollum does what he has to to avoid being caught. I don’t think he takes any pleasure in it either, honestly. the cutscene is distinctly sad. of course whether or not that sadness is successfully conveyed is debatable but that’s sort of besides the point. I wish everything surrounding this scene wasn’t so muddled because I think it’s one of the few in the game that had the definite potential to be actually very good — it just. didn’t end up that way unfortunately

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• ET

  @EtherBotGames · 2 years ago

  i think &quot;this work is very underwhelming, and not good, but lets analyze it anyway and see whats there to see&quot; is legitimately one of the most exciting pitches for a video

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• OL

  @ollie__reid · 2 years ago

  really fond of how you use clips for the lego lotr games to illustrate moments that gollum doesnt have footage of

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