My kids all watched LotR as kids, but my youngest, who is now 13 (yeah, the baby...) is just finishing reading Return of the King and wants to watch the movies again for the first time in a decade. She remembers very little of the first viewings. We watched the Rankin Bass Hobbit, which she thought was really bad. I'm planning to show her Bakshi's LotR just for the sake of posterity. So, do I then show her the Theatrical or Extended cuts of PJ's LotR?

I always felt that the EE's were far superior and that I would never willingly go back to the TE's, but time has dulled my memories and I'm not sure now. For every "Arwen at Aragorns Grave", there's a Skull Avalanche. So, hive mind... what say you?

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The Vinyamars on Stage! This time at Bag End

Extended, definitely. Wasn't the scene of Boromir sparring with the Hobbits in the extended edition?

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“It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”

- Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

IMO, the Fellowship EE is superior, though the TE works better as a single-sitting film. Towers' is kind of a wash, and King's is (far) worse.

It has been a long time since I have watch them, but I definitely felt that the extended editions were better for all three films (as long as you are willing to fast-forward through the miserable Paths of the Dead scenes).

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I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

I don't do fast forwarding! If we watch a movie, we watch it all. So with that caveat, which is stronger? Do the additions make up for the detractors?

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The Vinyamars on Stage! This time at Bag End

I don't do fast-forwarding either. But I make an exception for Paths of the Dead. Because lord that thing is awful.

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I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

Here's a list of the extra scenes as far as I remember. (And the asterisked ones are the scenes I consider terrible, poorly executed or pointless)

FotR
Concerning Hobbits
The Green Dragon duet
Passing of the Elves
Midgewater Marshes
Gilraen's Grave
The Departure of the Fellowship
Mithril in Moria

TTT:
Elven Rope
Sauron's Orcs vs the Uruk-Hai
Battle at the Fords of Isen
Treebeard's Song*
Gandalf and Aragorn's conversation near Fangorn
Treebeard and Old Man Willow*
Theodred's Funeral
Aragorn tames Brego
Faramir's Monologue
Boromir and Faramir flashback
Huorns' ambush at Helm's Deep
Flotsam and Jetsam at Isengard
Faramir warns Sméagol*

RotK:
The Voice of Saruman
Éowyn's Dream
Decline of Gondor
A crown at the Cross-roads*
Sam warns Sméagol at the stairs
Skull avalanche***!!
The Corsairs of Umbar*
The Witch-King faces off Gandalf**!
Gothmog's death
Éomer's mourning on the fields
The Houses of Healing
Aragorn takes the palantír
The Mouth of Sauron
Sam sees the star of hope


I usually suggest going with the EEs for FotR and TTT and the TE for RotK (because some of the EE scenes are really bad and overall it's too darn long - 4+ hours!)

FotR EE also adds that little conversation between Gandalf and Frodo outside Moria, which is the only scene from that EE I dislike.

The scene where Éowyn offers Aragorn bad soup is from the EEs too, right? I don't know why that little scene always bugs me so much but after PotD, I recall it being my least favorite of the added scenes.

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I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

Because how in Mordor do you make a stew so horrible that someone who traveled through the wilderness for weeks refuses to eat it? I would normally appreciate the characterization of Éowyn as not domestic, but that was just stupid.

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“It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”

- Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

I thought the additions to FOTR enhanced it, and most of the additions to TTT and ROTK made them far, far worse. My ideal viewing sequence would be:
FOTR Extended
TT Theatrical
ROTK Theatrical

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Thanks guys. I feel like everyone agrees on Fotr EE and RotK TE, so its just Two Towers I'm confused about now!

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The Vinyamars on Stage! This time at Bag End

I much prefer the TTT EE over the TE, for what it is worth. Despite the soup and the interrogation of Gollum.

Sent from my LG G6 using Tapatalk

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'But very bright were the stars upon the margin of the world, when at times the clouds about the West were drawn aside.'

For a longer-term project, how about watching all the TE's, taking a break, and then watching all the EE's? That would make for some interesting family discussion. Everybody will have their own opinion!

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Gollum wasn't in TE? I forgot.

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“It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”

- Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens