Elijah Wood and Sean Aston have acted in panoply of legendary 80s and 90s films. From Aston’s The Goonies and Rudy to Wood’s Radio Flyer and the Good Son, these two have covered a huge oeuvre of drama, comedy and adventure stories. Of course, there’s only one production that they share a tattoo for. This one production (The Fellowship of the Ring) which yielded another two productions (The Two Towers & Return of the King) have not only indelibly branded them as fantasy actors, but likely has trapped them in a never ending hamster wheel of ComicCon appearances, fantasy book signings and RPG video game launches.
With this as a backdrop, we see a middle-aged Frodo and Sam ready to jump into their (well-paid) roles as Fantasy Sommeliers for the new Baldur’s Gate sequel.
You can only imagine how many thousands of times they’ve each been accosted at 2AM, grabbing doughnuts at an AM/PM by a local suburban wizard wielding a selfie-stick, proclaiming ‘You…. Shall Not… Pass!”
While they were whisked away from Mount Doom by Gandalf’s eagles, in reality, these two have never left Mordor. Much like the One Ring or the Possessed Book of Infernal Knowledge they find in the BG3 mini-quest, they cannot release themselves from the powerful grip of LOTR. They cannot cast it into the fire. It’s too powerful — too lucrative — too strong a pull back to the halcyon days of worldwide appreciation and approbation.
To quote Mr. Tolkein,
“Don’t adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on on the story.”
UPDATE – Asmongold weighs in on Frodo & Sam tackling Baldur’s Gate
Big time streamer and PUBG fan Asmongold just released a commentary on this very video.
A great point made by Asmongold in his coverage is that, historically, RPG players want the ability to do things off the beaten path. While it may not adhere to the storyline or main character quest, we want the ability to create random mayhem in the world, just to prove that it’s an immersive world with possibility. This mini-adventure with Frodo and Sam proves that Baldur’s Gate III is very much up to this challenge. We watch Frodo’s character, maddened by a cursed tome, start mauling main characters, killing innocent wildlife and punting gnomes into the sun. Some fun mayhem, indeed.
