Reviews with content warning for War - The Return of the King

I love this story. Lord of the Rings in it's entirety obvs, but the Return of the King was always one of my fav movies in the trilogy. I'm a sucker for big conclusions when the story warrants them. Also, I had never read this trilogy until this last year or so, having only known the movies as the main means of intaking the story. That being said...
Andy Serkis is a god amongst men. The range and control of his performances is actually a marvel to me. However, that wasn't enough to ease my surprise at how incredibly slow this book felt with it's pacing. The Siege of Gondor was the first 8.5 hours of the book and yet it felt like there was so much of nothing happening? At least it felt that way. You would think that with this amount of time there would be great detail in the war itself? Nope. Most of it was all dialogue with generalizations of the action sequences, which I was a bit let down with throughout the trilogy actually. The plot points that happen within the battles are iconic and so well thought-out, but because of how good they were, it begged for more attention to be in the details about how people reacted (or lack of reaction) when massive moments happened (Ie Gandalf sprinting out on Shadowfax to meet the Nazgul on the plains).
To the point about the dialogue, some of it just went on and on and on and I kept zoning out.

And The Scourge of the Shire? I really like how it gave Saruman a more full circle arc and storyline. It's actually probably my favourite difference from the book compared to the movie. But to get to that part where we find out he's Sharkey and caused the Shire to erupt in chaos from the inside? Way too drawn out and unneccesary in my opinion. After coming home from this COLOSSAL quest that was so massive it had to take 3 books to tell the story of, the characters didn't even get a proper ending it felt like? This felt like an overindulgence of a cool idea that should have stayed within the earlier drafts. Once I realized that the remaining 2 hours dealt with yet another mini storyline/quest within the main story, at the conclusion, I started to feel mentally drained with it. This is where I appreciate PJ and the creatives behind the movie franchise.

The movie team dealt with the pacing issue perfectly by crosscutting between the Siege of Gondor, Frodo's final ascent to Mount Doom, and the battle at the Black Gate. It kept things always interesting and was able to create tension within itself, just by giving characters and plot points room to breathe. Plus removing the Scourge was probably the BEST larger decision they made across the entire trilogy's adaptation.
This was a great read. It's a treasured story that I will re-experience over and over again. Mostly though, it will be through the extended cut of the movies. I will however want to reread the Fellowship of the Ring again as I wholeheartedly thought that that entry had the most excess details and scenes that elevated the story overall, rather make it feel like a drag. I truly enjoyed that one the most.

Content Warnings