Discussion of The Two Towers, Book Four, Chapter Nine

Join Cam and Maggie as they do their best to talk about a big spider for an hour without actually thinking about them. The concept of "grey magic" comes roaring back in these pages to throw off our understanding of magical hierarchies and the power players of Middle-earth. Galadriel and Shelob emerge as transcendent, mysterious forces that could singularly turn the tide of the battle against Sauron. Maggie and Cam debate the divine intervention of Galadriel's phial of light and the strange elvish voice that speaks through Frodo. Gollum's latest act of treachery throws a monkey wrench into the good and evil binary of Sméagol / Gollum and might have finally made the character irredeemable. Cam plays out a 'what if?' scenario exploring the alternate reality where Shelob kills Frodo and Sam and the rest of the fellowship has to complete their quest. It's very Game of Thrones and more satisfying than we expected it to be.

In our Second Breakfast, Maggie shocks the world by enjoying a superhero movie. She leads us through a discussion of James Gunn's The Suicide Squad that celebrates the film's reverence for comics, non-ironic humor, brutal dramatic stakes, and restless plotting. Cam tries to dilute some of Maggie's hotter takes about Marvel with lots of compliments about Daniel Warren Johnson's Beta Ray Bill comic run (the one about sad horse Thor, look it up).

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