K.I.B.A. Honorary Member, November 2010 - Samwise Gamgee

*info for this profile is gathered from both the books and the films, but where there is conflict the books are considered canon

At first glance, Samwise Gamgee seems like an ordinary hobbit.  A gardener by trade, Sam is a hobbit of simple speech, however, he is set apart from other hobbits by his love of the elves, gift for poetry and belief that there are greater wonders in the world that hobbits are aware of.  It should come as no surprise that all of those qualities were nurtured by another hobbit set apart from the rest – Bilbo Baggins.  Sam, alongside his father Hamfast Gamgee, also known as the Gaffer, tend the gardens at Bag End and are on good terms with Bilbo and Frodo.

It was not until 14 years after the disappearance of Bilbo that Sam really comes into the story.  As Gandalf and Frodo sat inside Bag End discussing the Ring, how it came to Bilbo (and later Frodo), Sam was outside tending the garden, and listening to the conversation inside.  It was not Frodo made the decision to leave the Shire that Sam’s presence (and silence, for he had long since stopped working) was discovered by Gandalf.  To punish Sam for eavesdropping, Gandalf decides to send Sam along with Frodo on his journey.  Sam, however, is overcome with joy rather than despair.  In his own words (from Chapter 2 of FOTR): “Me go and see the Elves and all!  Hooray!”

As part of Frodo’s cover story for leaving the Shire, it was announced that Sam would be moving to Buckland “to do for Mr. Frodo and his bit of garden.” (Ch. 3)  Frodo and Sam, along with their friend Pippin, traveled to Buckland.  It was on this leg of the journey that the group first encountered and hid from a black rider, and also encountered the elf Gildor and two of his companions.  The hobbits stayed briefly with Farmer Maggot and his family, and then continued on.

They did not stay long at Frodo’s home in Crickhollow.  Shunning the main road, the four hobbits (as Merry Brandybuck had now joined the party) made their way through the Old Forest.  It was here they met Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, and got captured by the Barrow-Wights and Old Man Willow (and rescued from both by Tom Bombadil). The hobbits eventually made it out of the Old Forest and came to the village of Bree, where they sought lodging at The Prancing Pony.

Sam’s roles thus far in the story is largely subdued, or at least, unremarkable, save for one part that I believe stands out more than any other: “If you don’t come back, sir, then I shan’t, that’s certain,” said Sam. ‘Don’t you leave him! they said to me.  ‘Leave him! I said.  I never mean to.  I am going with him, if he climbs to the Moon; and if any of those Black Riders try to stop him, they’ll have Sam Gamgee to reckon with, I said.  They laughed.” (Ch. 4)  Already Sam is showing extreme devotion and loyalty to Frodo, even though he is unaware just how dangerous their journey is going to get.

The group’s journey from Bree was marred by the wounding of Frodo by the Witch King of Angmar on Weathertop.  Sam continually worries about Frodo, but is unable to do much more than take part of Frodo’s share of supplies and assist Aragorn when he has need.  They continue to journey to Rivendell and along the way meet Glorfindel the elf.  Danger came upon the group when they were overtaken by Black Riders.  Sam was forced to watch as his master sped away on Glorfindel’s horse, followed closely back the Black Riders.

They made it successfully to Rivendell, and once Frodo had been tended to, Sam hardly left his side – which must have been difficult to do, considering how badly Sam has wanted to see the elves.  Sam accompanied Frodo around the many rooms and halls of Rivendell, even when Frodo found the one individual he desire most to see – his uncle Bilbo.  Sam even accompanies them to the Council of Elrond, though he remains silent throughout the meeting, except at the very end.  When Frodo announces his choice to take the ring to Mordor, Sam jumps up in exclamation:

“But you won’t send him off alone surely, Master?” cried Sam, unable to contain himself any longer, and jumping up from the corner where he had been quietly sitting on the floor.  “No indeed!” said Elrond, turning towards him with a smile.  You at least shall go with him.  It is hardly possible to separate you from him, even when he is summoned to a secret council and you are not.”  Sam sat down, blushing and muttering,  “A fine pickle we have landed ourselves in, Mr. Frodo.” he said, shaking his head. (Book II, Ch. 2)

After this, Sam’s prominence in the story takes a step back.  Only when the Fellowship reaches the gate of Moria do we return our focus to Sam, who is forced to leave his beloved pony Bill behind, as the group prepared to enter the Mines of Moria.  When Frodo is caught by the Watcher in the water, Sam is quick to leap to his master’s aide, slashing at the tentacle that has hold of Frodo.  The Fellowship quickly enters the Mines, and slowly makes their way through the dark depths.

From the halls of Moria to the woods of Lothlorien, Sam begins to show more bravery and courage, as evidenced by the brief battle in Balin’s tomb.  Another example comes when Sam is invited to look in the Mirror of Galadriel.  The things that Sam sees in the mirror provoke a strong desire within him to return to the Shire and right the wrongs he saw being done, but after some words from Galadriel and sitting a moment to collect his thoughts, Sam says that he’ll “go home by the long road with Mr. Frodo or not at all.” (Book 2, Ch. 7)

And a long road it turns out to be.  It is on the slopes of Amon Hen that Sam, guessing his master’s mind after Boromir revealed he tried to take the Ring, caught Frodo as he tried to sneak off and make the rest of the journey alone.  Frodo is at first disappointed in being found out, but is soon glad to have Sam accompany him.

“It would be the death of you to come with me, Sam,” said Frodo, “and I could not have borne that.”“Not as certain as being left behind,” said Sam.“But I am going to Mordor.”“I know that well enough, Mr. Frodo.  Of course you are.  And I’m coming with you,”(Book 2, Chap. 10)

That right there is one of the finest examples of bravery, courage, loyalty and devotion I’ve ever read in any book.  Faced with certain danger, possibly death, and yet Sam is so devoted to being with Frodo that he is willing to put himself into the same danger that Frodo is walking into.

The two hobbits slowly make their way towards Mordor, but without guidance, they quickly find themselves lost among the barren slopes of Emyn Muil.  It’s only after they encounter Gollum, and get him to swear by the Ring that he will obey Frodo, that they are able to make their way out of the rocky maze and closer to Mordor.

Sam is very suspicious of Gollum, only giving way at times on Frodo’s insistence.  He rarely speaks to Gollum, but keeps a close eye on the creature throughout their journey.  Out of Emyn Muil, through the Dead Marshes – all the way to the Black Gate itself.  It is here that we get more insight into Sam’s suspicions and thoughts.  When Gollum speaks of a way into Mordor besides the Black Gate, and begins to describe it, warning bells start going off in Sam’s head.  He begins to think that Gollum may be in communication with Sauron, or fraternizing with Orcs, in order to know so much about how to get in and what sort of things guard the way.

Sam and Frodo get separated from Gollum in the glades of Ithilien, when a group of Rangers from Gondor discover them and take them to Henneth Annuin (The Window of the Sunset).  In the midst of all these trials and dangers on the road, Sam receives an unexpected surprise – along the way, they come across a group of Southrons…and an Oliphaunt, something Sam (to this point) had only dreamed of seeing.

Here the quest comes perilously close to falling into ruin.  Sam lets slip that Boromir tried to take the Ring from Frodo,  and Faramir believes this his chance to show his quality...but does the honorable thing and resists the temptation to claim the Ring.

“Good night Captain, my lord,” he said.  You took the chance, sir.”“Did I so?” said Faramir.“Yes sir, and showed your quality: the very highest.”Faramir smiled.  “A pert servant, Master Samwise.  But nay: the praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards.  Yet there was naught in this to praise.  I had no lure or desire to do other than I had done.”“Ah well, sir,” said Sam, “you said my master had an elvish air; and that was good and true.  But I can say this: you have an air too, sir, that reminds me of, of – well, of Gandalf, of wizards.”

From the time when they leave Ithilien to when they arrive at the foot of the stairs leading to Cirith Ungol, little happens to speak of.  Neither of the hobbits gets much sleep and Gollum frequently wanders off when they do manage to sleep.

It’s at the threshold of Minas Morgul that a rarity occurs – Sam actually agrees with Gollum on something.  Frodo, at some unseen will or bidding, begins to make his way towards the bridge leading to the gate, despite the cries of Gollum.  Sam manages to catch hold of Frodo and pull him back, and the three begin to make their way towards the stairs leading to Cirith Ungol.  Unfortunately, their presence had not gone unnoticed – blue flames spring up from the tower at Minas Morgul into the clouds, accompanied by a long, piercing screech.  The hobbits and Gollum manage to evade further detection; slowly but surely, they make their way up the long, winding staircase.

When the hobbits stop to rest, Sam wonders about their quest and if they’ll ever make it through:

“And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started.  But I suppose it’s often that way.  The brave things in the old songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them.  I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport, as you might say.  But that’s not the way of it with tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind.  Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it.  But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t.  And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten.  We hear about those as just went on – and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end.  You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same – like old Mr. Bilbo.”

“…And then we can have some rest and some sleep,” said Sam.  He laughed grimly.  “And I mean just that, Mr. Frodo.  I mean plain, ordinary rest, and sleep, and waking up to a morning’s work in the garden.  I’m afraid that’s all I’m hoping for all the time.”

Sam goes on to wonder if they’ll ever be put into a story or song, and Frodo reminds him about one of the chief characters – himself.

“…And Frodo wouldn’t have got far without Sam, would he, dad?”“Now, Mr. Frodo,” said Sam, “you shouldn’t make fun.  I was serious.”“So was I,” said Frodo, “and so I am.”

The hobbits reach the entrance to Shelob’s Lair without further incident.  The slowly make they way through the dark passages, but when Sam trips and falls, they are forced to abandon stealth and make their way as quickly as possible.  But things go wrong rather quickly: Frodo is confronted by Shelob, and Sam is attacked by Gollum.  By the time Sam is able to fend off Gollum and get away, both Frodo and Shelob are nowhere to be seen.

When Sam finds Frodo, he is inert on the ground, bound in cords and being dragged away by Shelob.  Without pausing to think about what needed to be done, Sam takes up Frodo’s sword at attacks the giant spider.  After Sam seriously wounds Shelob and she retreats into her lair, Sam returns to Frodo only to see that he was not moving and his face was very pale, as if dead.  And indeed, Sam believes that Frodo is dead.  He begins to fall into despair, and wonder what’s to be done next.  He realizes that there is only one thing left to do: finish the quest alone.  So he removes the Ring from Frodo, and, already having the Phial and Sting in his possession, continues on.

This had to have been one of the most difficult choices for Sam to make.  Being so devoted to Frodo, yet having to tear himself away lest the quest fail and the world fall into ruin…one can only imagine the anguish and pain Sam must be feeling at this point.

It isn’t long before Sam hears approaching orcs, and in order to not be discovered, he puts on the Ring.  The orcs pass him by, and he gets ready to go on, but quickly changes his mind when he overhears their discovery of Frodo.  Quickly, Sam pursues the orcs, but is too late to prevent Frodo from being taken into a guard tower; the double doors clang shut just as Sam hurls himself forward at them.

When Sam comes to, he is unaware how much time has passed.  Unable to go further, he retraces his steps to where Frodo had been discovered, and starts to look for the main entrance to the tower.  Sam soon crosses over into Mordor and sees Mount Doom for the first time.  Here, he is tempted to take the Ring for his own, but it is a combination of his love for Frodo and good old hobbit-sense that enables him to resist.  Continuing on, he soon reaches the main gate of the tower where Frodo is held.

Fortunately for Sam, once he gets inside, nearly every single orc inside is dead.  He encounters a live one on the stairs, but it quickly retreats up the stairs, leaving Sam behind.  He follows, and soon hears the voice of a second orc.  The two get into a scuffle, which ends when one runs off into another passage.  Sam keeps making his way upwards, searching for Frodo.

Sam finds Frodo in the topmost chamber, being whipped by the orc he had previously encountered on the stairs.  Sam attacks, and in the struggle, the orc trips and falls through an open trap door in the middle of the floor.  Sam unties Frodo and the two have a somewhat joyful, albeit brief, reunion.  After returning the Ring to Frodo, Sam collects some clothing and other gear for the two of them (to help keep them from being discovered), and after a very brief meal (for Frodo), the two escape the dark emptiness of the tower, setting off an alarm which attracts the attention of a Nazgul.

They manage to get out of sight before the Nazgul arrives, slowly making their way across the wastes of Mordor.  At one point, they are ‘drafted’ into a passing company of orcs, but manage to escape when a company of Uruk-Hai picks a fight with the orcs.  They continue to make slow progress towards Mount Doom, shedding their orc-gear along the way.

Near the foot of Mount Doom, Frodo collapses, unable to continue.  Sam, once again showing strength, courage and resolve, takes Frodo upon his back and begins to climb the rocky slopes, stopping a little more than halfway up.  The two crawl for a short while, and then Sam once again takes up his master upon his back, but it isn’t long before they are set upon by Gollum.  Sam watches as Frodo shakes off his attacker and goes into the mountain.  Sam warns off Gollum and then follows Frodo, finding him standing at the brink of the chasm within; the very Crack of Doom.  Sam has no chance to cry out, as Gollum has followed them both and attacks Sam from behind, causing him to fall and briefly black out.

When he comes to, Sam sees Gollum fighting with the invisible Frodo.  He watches as Gollum bites off Frodos finger and take the Ring.  But almost immediately he falls over the brink and into the fires below.

Sam and Frodo make their way back out onto the rocky slopes, onto a small ashen hill and there they stop, as Mount Doom spews out fire, ash and lava.  Even with the Ring destroyed and the quest fulfilled, Sam continues to be a strong, devoted companion.

“I am glad that you are here with me,” said Frodo.  “Here, at the end of all things, Sam.”“Yes, I am with you master,” said Sam, laying Frodo’s wounded hand gently to his breast.  “And you’re with me.  And the journey’s finished.  But after coming all that way I don’t want to give up yet.  It’s not like me, somehow, if you understand.”

Oh, how I understand.  Sometimes I feel like I understand him all too well.  There are times when I wonder how other people would function in the same role, without any kind of foreknowledge of the events ahead; if any of us would or could find, or even have, the devotion, courage, fortitude and determination to do the things Sam has done throughout the course of his journey.

It’s not until the hobbits return to the Shire that Sam gets irked to the point of action.  Almost immediately upon their return, the hobbits discover that things are drastically different from the way things were before they left.  Once they’ve had enough of the new “rules” (which happens quickly) and decide to raise the Shire (gather everyone who hates the way things are), Sam goes to Cotton’s farm to help get things started (and check on Rosie).  The biggest blow to Sam during this time is when he finds that the Party Tree, the place where Bilbo had made his farewell speech, is lying lopped and dead in the field – it proves to be too much to handle, and he bursts into tears.

After the Shire has been reclaimed, Sam takes on the task of helping restore much of the damage done to Hobbiton, with some focus on special trees that had been cut or torn down.  He visits many spots, and spreads a little bit of earth from Galadriel’s box at each one.  The nut that remains, he plants at the spot where the Party Tree once stood.  He later helps direct the cleaning up and restoration of Bag End.

There is not much more to tell about Sam.  He later marries Rosie Cotton, and they move into Bag End with Frodo.  He accompanies Frodo to the Grey Havens, where the Ring-Bearers depart Middle Earth.  If you have read the appendices after the end of the story, you will know that Sam also departs from the Grey Havens after the death of his wife Rosie.

* * * *

To date, and I know that we’ve not done very many Honorary Member profiles, I would have to say that Sam is one of my favorite characters.  If I had to choose someone to be (go through their experiences as they did, with all the worries and wondering and everything), I would pick Sam.

Sam shows incredible devotion to Frodo, even when he knows the road ahead is extremely dangerous.  He shows all the qualities of a knight in battered armor: strength, courage, bravery, loyalty, devotion…I have all these words at my disposal, yet I feel like I cannot do justice to the intensity of each quality that Sam exhibits.  Imagine caring so much about someone that you were willing to go through absolutely anything to keep being with them.  That’s Sam.  Maybe some of you will be able to describe his qualities better than I, and that’s fine.  Things like that have happened before.

I guess the point I’m trying to make here is that even though Sam hasn’t messed up drastically or done something terrible (i.e. Boromir, and how he tried to take the Ring), he is willing, without question, mind you, or needing to be asked, to go with Frodo through thick and thin, into any amount or kind of yet-unknown danger, and do that which needs to be done and is worth doing – the hard and difficult quest of destroying the One Ring.

I’ve said numerous times, used it as a quote in writing, and I’ll use it again here: wherever you go, whatever you do – return with honor.  Throughout the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I firmly believe that Sam does precisely that.

Welcome to the ranks of KIBA, Sam.

K.I.B.A. Honorary Member, October 2010 - Frodo Baggins

*info for this profile is gathered from both the books and the films, but where there is conflict the books are considered canon


Frodo Baggins, a hobbit of great reputation in his native land as well as ours, had humble beginnings in the colony of Buckland. He was raised there by his parents until they both drowned in an unfortunate boating accident on the nearby Brandywine River. Frodo, only twelve at the time, was adopted by his uncle Bilbo Baggins and brought to his residence at Bag End in Hobbiton. There Frodo and his uncle became very close and Frodo recovered from his tragic loss.

The following years were very peaceful for Frodo as he and his fellow hobbits lived in a world sheltered from the growing evils of the outside. Life was good in the Shire, and the merry old town of Hobbiton was at its heart. Frodo’s good fortune grew when he become the inheritor of Bag End and all the ostensible treasure within its vast tunnels. Bilbo bestowed this magnanimous gift on his nephew on the day of their shared birthday, September 22nd. Bilbo was now one hundred and eleven and Frodo was thirty three. After a grand celebration of the event, Bilbo departed for the Elven town of Rivendell to live in serene retirement. But before he left he also gave Frodo a small trinket; a peculiar ring picked up on faraway travels. Bilbo was originally hesitant about giving Frodo the ring and at one point aggressively declared he would keep it. His wizard friend Gandalf the Grey became worried about Bilbo’s possessiveness and suspected the ring had magical powers which were seducing him. Finally, after a long talk, Gandalf convinced Bilbo to give up the ring. Frodo graciously accepted both gifts of real estate and jewelry, but little did he know how the former would change his life.

Frodo continued to live in Bag End for seventeen years after he inherited the grand hobbit-hole, keeping the ring safely stowed away inside its vast tunnels. This was done upon the advice of Gandalf, who for some time had been suspicious about the insidious ring. Gandalf’s convictions led him to search out the libraries at Minas Tirth to learn more about this mysterious ring. It was there that made a terrifying discovery; Frodo’s ring might be the One Ring forged by the evil lord Sauron years ago. If so, the ring and Frodo himself were no longer safe. Agents of the dark lord would be seeking him. Gandalf rode back in haste to the Shire and was relieved to find that Frodo was well and unharmed. It was then that the wizard and the hobbit had a long talk over tea concerning the history of Middle Earth.

Gandalf told of how the evil lord Sauron had once forged a powerful ring that gave him dominion over all life. With this terrible weapon, Sauraon had mustered an army in the land of Mordor and waged war against the free kingdoms of elves and men. Many fell before his wrath, but they would not surrender. They forged an alliance to counter the might of the dark lord and marched upon the very gates of Mordor. In the bitter fighting, Sauron himself joined the battle. As long as he wore his ring, he prevailed. Then, Prince Isildur cut the ring off Sauron’s finger, vanquishing his body and banishing his evil spirit. Thus ended the reign of Sauron, though his spirit lived on in exile. Soon Isildur lost the ring and it passed out of memory for ages. It was eventually found by a hobbit named Deagol, who was murdered by his friend Smeagol over its ownership. Smeagol was slowly driven to insanity by the dark powers of the evil ring, and he fled to under the mountains where he lived in slime and darkness for hundreds of years. The ring had given him unusually long life. But he would not possess it forever. He too finally lost the ring, which passed to Bilbo and then to Frodo. The ring had now had six owners, but the original one wanted it back. Sauron’s spirit had taken form in the fiery shape of an eye, raised an army of foul Orcs, and was now bent on taking back his ring to complete his dominance over Middle Earth. He knew of the ring’s location after his minions captured Smeagol and forced him to reveal it. Already his chief servants, the Nazgul, were on the hunt.

Frodo fled Hobbiton and embarked on a journey to reach the town of Bree. There he would wait for Gandalf who in the mean time would go to the wise wizard Saruman for counsel. Sam Gamgee accompanied Frodo on this journey. Sam was the chief gardener at Bag End and good friends with Frodo. The duo soon discovered that they were being trailed by black horsemen. These were actually the Nazgul, servants of Mordor. Frodo was able to glean some information about them from the local Farmer Maggot, but he didn’t find out their true identity until much later.

When Frodo and Sam arrived at Buckland, two fellow hobbits entered their companionship. Pippin Took and Merridoc Brandybuck, close friends to Frodo, had discovered the purpose of his quest and were determined to join him. Frodo agreed and the foursome set out through the bordering Old Forest. Here they were attacked by a malevolent willow whose animosity stemmed from a rotten heart. A magical inhabitant of the forest, an old man named Tom Bombadil, saved them from the animated tree and housed them for the night. The next morning the hobbits ran into more trouble at the Barrow-downs when ancient spirits emerged from the barrows and took them captive. Again, Bombadil’s timely appearance saved them from certain death.

Frodo and his companions were relieved to finally escape from the eerie forest and haunted barrows, but when they arrived at Bree they found more trouble. Gandalf was not there as he promised and they knew the riders were still on the hunt. The band of hobbits decided to lodge at the Inn of the Prancing Pony for the night and wait until morning before making their next move. However, this sage plan ran amiss when Pippin began talking loudly about the Baggins family and their strange tendencies, which would be easily recognizable to Sauron’s agents as being caused by the ring. Alarmed, Frodo began dancing on a table to divert attention away from Pippin’s imprudent babbling. This made things worse when Frodo tripped and jammed his finger into the ring, tapping into its magical power and turning him invisible. This of course caused quite a stir and destroyed the hobbit’s hope of secrecy on their quest.

Frodo’s stupid stunt was witnessed by an undercover friend of Gandalf, a Dunedain Ranger called Strider. After the hobbits retired to their room he introduced himself and convinced them of his good intentions. He furthermore offered to guide the hobbits to Rivendell, and also advised them to be a little more inconspicuous. That night the Nazgul attacked the inn, but Strider was able to hide the hobbits until the intruders left.

The next morning, Strider led the group into the wild, hoping to shake the Nazgul off their trail. The band made for the ancient watchtower of Weathertop in hopes of spotting Gandalf. They found the fresh runes “G III” carved into an ancient rock, but other than that they could find no trace of the wizard. Instead, they were attacked by the Nazgul at night and Frodo was wounded in the shoulder. The situation had now grown desperate, as Frodo’s wound would kill him unless he could be brought to Rivendell for healing. The elven city was still six days away. They headed towards the city as quickly as they could, with the Nazgul in close pursuit. They were aided by the elf lord Glorfindel who was sent by Lord Elrond of Rivendell to find them. In a race against time as Frodo continued to fade, the elf, man and hobbits made it to the border river Asfaloth. There the pursuing Nazgul were destroyed by a surging flood conjured by Elrond. Frodo then fainted from his wound but was promptly brought to Elrond for healing.

After Frodo recovered, he was surprised and overjoyed to find Gandalf at Rivendell. The wizard had been betrayed by the head of his order, Saruman, and held prisoner at the citadel of Orthanc. Thus he was unable to meet Frodo at Bree. The wise and cunning Gandalf was not a prisoner for long though, and escaped the clutches of Saruman after some time. He then made his way to Rivendell where he was reunited with his friend Strider, whose real name was Aragorn, and Frodo the ring-bearer.

Elrond soon called a Council to decide the fate of the ring, and Frodo was invited to attend. After much debate, it was decided that the ring should be taken to the Cracks of Doom deep in the heart of Mordor. This was the only place in Middle Earth where the ring could be destroyed. Elrond raised a call for a volunteer to accomplish the task, and Frodo bravely committed himself to the quest. Gandalf the Grey, Aragorn the Ranger, Boromir of Gondor, Legolas Greenleaf, Gimli son of Gloin, Samwise Gamgee, Pippin Took, and Merridoc Brandybuck all vowed to aid Frodo in this noble quest. Thus was forged the Fellowship of the Ring.

The nine companions set out from Rivendell in the winter of that year. Their destination was Mordor, the land of the enemy himself. The first obstacle on their road was the formidable chain of the Misty Mountains. The Fellowship first attempted to go over the mountains through the Pass of Caradhras, but their efforts were repulsed by the fierce winter storms.

Retreating back down the mountains, they decided to instead travel beneath them through the Mines of Moria. They fended off a vicious attack of Wargs en route to Moria’s gate, and eventually arrived under the cover of nightfall. Entering Moria they saw no signs of the Dwarven inhabitants and assumed the worst; goblins were said to wander the ancient mineshafts. Their fears were soon realized when they discovered the tomb of Balin. The legendary dwarf had been head of the Moria colony and a good friend of both Bilbo and Gimli. By his tomb Gandalf found a manuscript documenting the colony’s progress and recounting its ultimate demise at the hands of goblin hordes. The last passages proved prophetic as the fellowship itself was quickly attacked by a small army of goblins. The assailants were slaughtered, but Frodo took another wound in his side at the hands of a huge orc chieftain. Only a coat of mithril mail saved his life.

The Fellowship fled the orc-infested mines to the Bridge of Khazad-dum, where Gandalf faced off against a Balrog. He held back the ancient demon of the underworld while his companions fled across the bridge and out of the mines. Gandalf gave his life fighting the monster, as the hulking beast pulled Gandalf down into the abyss of Khazad-dum with his blazing whip. Both the ancient warriors tumbled out of sight down into the void.

Grieving the loss of their leader, Frodo and the Fellowship continued on to the forests of Lothlorien where they took shelter with the Elves. The Lady Galadriel showed them great hospitality during their stay while they prepared for the next stage of their journey. While he was there, Frodo was invited by Lady Galadriel to look into her magical mirror of water, where he saw what would come to pass if he failed in his quest. Frodo then almost despaired and in a moment of weakness offered to surrender the ring to Lady Galadriel. The Elven queen was tempted and almost seized the ring for her own, but the goodness in her prevailed and she refused. Frodo too acknowledged that the ring must be taken to Mordor, and soon he embarked with his companions on the next part of his journey.

They left Lothlorien by boat and drifted down the river Anduin southwards to Amon Hen. It was there that Boromir, a member of the fellowship (and KIBA too), attempted to seize the ring from Frodo by force. Boromir was seduced by the treacherous ring and believed he could wield its dark energy against the enemy. The ring was corrupting him. Frodo realized this and fled. He also realized that the ring would continue to corrupt everyone in the fellowship, slowly destroying the good in them and devouring their minds. In a moment of heroic courage, Frodo decided to continue on his journey alone. He would not let his friends be destroyed by the evil power of the ring.

While all this was going through Frodo’s mind, the Fellowship was attacked by an army of Uruk-Hai orcs from Saruman’s lair in Isengard. Saruman had allied himself with Sauron and joined in the hunt for the ring. Frodo fled in the chaos while the other members of the Fellowship battled off the orcs. Boromir repented of his crime and gave his life defending Merry and Pippin. Once he was slain by three arrows, the orcs seized the two hobbits and carried them off as prisoners. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli drove off the remainder of the attackers and then came upon Boromir’s body. They gave it the proper honors and sent it in a boat down the river Anduin. Aragorn realized why Frodo had left, and agreed with his companions that it was best for him to continue on alone.

But Frodo soon found that he was not alone; when he rowed across the Anduin in one of the boats, Sam jumped into the river after him. Sam couldn’t swim, but Frodo rowed over and rescued him before the young hobbit drowned. Frodo then joyfully agreed to let Sam accompany him, and the two set off for Mordor. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli tracked the orcs that had taken Merry and Pippin. Thus, the Fellowship was divided.

Neither Frodo nor Sam were experienced travelers, and they soon found many hardships that awaited them. Their first challenge was navigating the rocky hills of the Emyn Muil beyond the Anduin River. They lost themselves in the maze of jagged rocks and cliffs, until they found the most unlikely of guides. Smeagol himself, having escaped the dungeons of Mordor, had had been tracking Frodo out of his lust for the ring. He finally found Frodo trapped in the Emyn Muil, and attempted to attack the hobbit at night. However, this plan backfired when Frodo and Sam overpowered the gangly creature and held him at sword point. When Frodo saw the miserable creature the ring had turned Smeagol into, he took pity and decided not to slay him. Instead, he forced Smeagol to swear an oath of servitude to the master of the ring, or “precious” as Smeagol called it. Having sworn on the precious itself, the cunning Smeagol led Frodo and Sam out of the Emyn Muil.

Smeagol proved to be an invaluable guide and led the two hobbits through a maze of marshes and on to the black gate of Mordor itself. But when Frodo saw the gate, he realized that it was impenetrable and far too heavily guarded to infiltrate. Smeagol then suggested an alternate route through a secret pass which he had discovered during his time in Mordor. Having no other option, Frodo reluctantly agreed to try this passageway.

The trio was intercepted en route to the pass of Minas Morgul by a guerrilla force of Southern Rangers led by Faramir. Frodo and Sam were taken captive by these men who initially took them for enemy spies, though Smeagol was able to escape. Faramir questioned Frodo extensively concerning his business and subsequently decided that the hobbits were of no immediate threat. However, they were still held at the Ranger’s central base as a precaution until Faramir decided exactly what to do with them. It was here that Faramir revealed he was Boromir’s brother. This caused some sense of mistrust in Frodo, who still remembered Boromir’s lust for the ring and feared that his brother may be of the same mind. His fears became reality when Sam foolishly misspoke and revealed that Frodo was bearing the ring to Mordor. Faramir faced the overwhelming temptation to seize the ring for himself, but unlike his brother he passed the test and guaranteed Frodo his safety.

New complications arose for Frodo when Smeagol entered the Forbidden Pool adjacent to the Ranger hideout of Henneth Annun. The penalty for entering this hidden entrance to Henneth Annun was death. Frodo pleaded for Smeagol’s life, and Faramir agreed to spare the creature. However, Smeagol was still taken prisoner and thoroughly interrogated before his release. The pitiful creature viewed this as an act of betrayal, and began harboring resentment against the Master of the Precious. His capture at the hands of the frightening Rangers undid most of the trust the two had developed in each other, even after Smeagol had saved Frodo from drowning in the Dead Marshes. This rift would continue to grow and ultimately lead to Smeagol’s treachery.

After leaving Henneth Annun with food and provisions, Frodo and his companions continued on their way to the pass of Minas Morgul. Their journey lead them over the mountains of Mordor by way of a mountainside staircase, and then through a dark tunnel at the top. Here Smeagol deserted Frodo and Sam. His bitterness over the Henneth Annun incident had reached its climax, and he sought revenge by alerting the guardian of Minas Morgul to the presence of the hobbit intruders. This lurker of the tunnel was a giant spider called Shelob. She was accustomed to a diet of foul orcs and very eager for some variety in her prey.

Being abandoned by their guide and wholly unfamiliar with the terrain, Frodo and Sam walked cautiously through the tunnel. They found that the exit was barred by thick entanglements of webs, but Frodo cut through them all with his powerful elven sword. They were almost free of the ghastly corridor when Shelob attacked. Frodo was able to repulse the hideous arachnid before retreating from the tunnel. Thinking they were free, the duo of hobbits let down their guard and ran. But the cunning Shelob outmaneuvered them by coming out of a side-tunnel and attacking from above. Frodo was paralyzed by the spider’s sting and fell to the ground. Sam refused to yield the body of his master and engaged Shelob in single combat. Using swordsmanship and the Phial of Galadriel which Frodo had been given at Lothlorien, Sam wounded Shelob and drove her back into the mountain.

Sam grieved the apparent death of his friend but was unable to stay for long. He heard orc voices nearby and, taking the ring itself, fled to a nearby spot to hide. Soon afterwards the orc patrol came across Frodo’s paralyzed body. Sam overheard the orcs saying that Frodo was not actually dead, but only paralyzed by the spider’s toxic sting. Curious as to the presence of a hobbit in Mordor, the orcs bore him away to Cirith Ungol for interrogation. Sam followed at a distance.

The orcs brought their prisoner to the top of the citadel of Cirith Ungol. There he was searched, and his valuable mithril mail shirt was discovered. The orcs fought over the priceless armor and succeeded in killing themselves off until only a few remained. Sam then made his move and stormed the citadel itself. He slew the handful of orcs who remained and freed Frodo. The duo then escaped the dark tower and made their way to Mount Doom, to throw the ring back into the fiery chasm where it was forged.

Incredible hardships faced the two companions on the last part of their journey. Food and water were scarce, though thankfully most of the orcs were on the other side of Mordor to counter a mustering of Gondor and Rohan. This allowed the two hobbits to move through the open plains nearly undetected. Once they were mistaken for orcs by a company on the march and pressed into service, but they were soon able to escape and continue on their way. Frodo was now growing weak both from fatigue and the power of the ring battering his very mind. On the last stage of the journey up the very slopes of Mount Doom, Sam had to carry the ring-bearer on his back. Here Smeagol reappeared and attacked the two, but Sam delivered a slash to the creature’s stomach and temporarily refuted the assault.

Frodo and Sam then came to the Cracks of Doom, overlooking the blazing volcanic chasm where the ring was forged centuries ago. Frodo now had the chance to fulfill his quest and destroy the ring. But here, where the power of the ring was strongest, it drove Frodo to madness. He succumbed to the constant battering of his will. Abandoning his quest, he proclaimed the rings to be his own and slipped it on his finger. He immediately turned invisible, much to the bewilderment and distress of Sam. But before he could intervene Sam was rendered unconscious by another attack from Smeagol. The creature then attacked Frodo and bit off his ring finger. Frodo screamed in pain and dropped to the ground. Smeagol, now in possession of the ring for the first time in years, danced for joy. But that was his undoing. Taking one wrong step, he tripped and fell into the volcano below. He and the ring together were instantly incinerated. Thus the ring was destroyed, Sauron’s spirit was finally killed, and the orc armies were thrown into terror and confusion. Frodo and Sam staggered down the volcano and were there rescued by a resurrected Gandalf, who bore them away on a great eagle he rode. Thus ended the reign of Sauron in Middle Earth.

Frodo and Sam were brought to the city of Minas Tirth where they were both given a hero’s welcome. The Fellowship was again reunited, and Aragorn was crowned King of Gondor. The four hobbits who had first set out on the quest, Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry, now recovered from their many adventures in the great city.

Now it was time for Frodo to return to his native land. He departed from Minas Tirth with Gandalf and his three friends from the Shire. They travelled across Middle Earth and had several other wonderful adventures, but eventually arrived on the borders of the Shire. Here Gandalf went his separate way to visit his old friend Tom Bombadil, while the hobbits continued onward to their home. They found the place overrun by tyrannical men who had enslaved the defenseless inhabitants. The hardened hobbits incited a revolt among their kinsmen and led an army to defeat the overlords and their minions. The hobbits emerged victorious in the Battle of Bywater, thus freeing their homeland and restoring peace to the Shire. Hobbiton and its colonies were rebuilt to their former splendor.

As much as he loved the Shire, Frodo found he could not stay there. The wounds from his quest were still deep and unhealed. He could not find peace even in the green valleys of the Shire. Thus, on his 52nd birthday, he joined a voyage to the Undying Lands in the Grey Havens across the majestic sea. He fondly said good bye to his friends, especially to Sam who had always been there for him. Sam would later voyage to the Undying Lands himself. And so Frodo departed from Middle Earth.

Frodo is an exemplary of the Knight in Battered Armor. He took many wounds with bravery and courage upon a quest that in itself would be a challenge to even the greatest of warriors. And Frodo was far from great or perfect. He blundered at Bree with his foolish display of the ring, was willing to surrender the ring to Galadriel at Lothlorien, nearly killed himself by stupidly attempting to enter Mordor’s black gate, and even claimed the ring for himself on the slopes of Mount Doom. And yet, despite his many failings, Frodo never gave up. He admitted to his faults, accepted help from his friends, and ever strove on towards the end of his quest. No one can ask more than that. Frodo Baggins, welcome to KIBA.

**this profile was written by my co-writer Andrew Lamansky...

Knight In Battered Armor - Honorary Member Profile, September 2010 - Anakin Skywalker

*info for this profile is gathered from the films only

When I first got the idea for featuring honorary members each month for the Knights In Battered Armor, one of the first ones I came up with was Anakin Skywalker.  He may not be an ideal model, but for some reason I’ve looked forward to writing his profile.  I’ve talked some with other people about this profile, and already gotten differing views on his ‘qualifications.’  Chances are that some of you have your own ideas about him, and won’t change them after reading this, and that’s fine.  I’m offering a different viewpoint on a character that’s been around for more than 30 years.

Anakin’s early life is hardly what any of us would call spectacular, or even normal.  Born into slavery and raised by a single parent, Anakin made the best of his situation.  He was able to make friends and have some semblance of a decent childhood.  It wasn’t until he was nine years old that his life changed forever.

In the course of only a few days, Anakin met Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, won a podrace, and was freed from slavery.  He accompanied the Jedi Master to Coruscant and later Naboo.  He went before the Jedi Council to determine if he would be trained as a Jedi.  He participated in the space battle above the planet and struck the blow that crippled the Trade Federation’s battle droid army.  He later became apprentice to Obi-Wan Kenobi.

I can’t imagine the sort of things that went through Anakin’s mind up to this point.  Living one’s entire life knowing nothing but sand and slavery, then going through a whirlwind of experiences that could only be imagined in dreams.  Two low points I believe figure prominently are that Anakin had to leave his mother behind on Tatooine, as her freedom was not obtained, and that the Jedi Council initially denied Qui-Gon’s request that Anakin be trained as a Jedi, despite Qui-Gon’s belief that Anakin was the Chosen One that would bring balance to the Force.

We don’t see Anakin again for ten years.  Taller than his master, Anakin still bears the standard Jedi Padawan braid.  He and Obi-Wan are assigned as extra security for the Naboo senator, Padme Amidala.  After foiling an assassination attempt, Anakin escorts Padme as she goes into hiding, while Obi-Wan conducts an investigation into who was behind the assassination.

This sparks a lot of inner turmoil with Anakin.  On the one hand, he’s got his Jedi duties and responsibilities to follow.  On the other hand, he has harbored a secret love for Padme ever since they met on Tatooine, and having to be in such close proximity to the senator takes its toll on him.  During this time, Anakin has a vision of his mother suffering and goes to Tatooine with Padme.  He learns that she was kidnapped by Tusken Raiders and successfully infiltrates the camp where she is held, but the injuries she’s sustained are too serious, and she dies shortly after Anakin arrives.  Anakin, completely overcome by grief and anger, slaughters every Tusken Raider in the camp.

Have you ever been so angry you feel like you might just lose it and go berserk?  Well, Anakin did.  He suffered a terrible loss, and in his anger, he killed an entire camp of men, women and children.  Anakin would carry feelings of loss, grief and anger with him for a long, long time, and those feelings are influential in his eventual fall to the dark side.  This also caused him to lose confidence in himself, and when he learned of Obi-Wan’s capture on the planet Geonosis, he chose to respect Jedi Master Mace Windu’s order for him to remain on Tatooine with Padme, even though he knew Obi-Wan needed him.

Despite the restrictions placed on them by their respective duties, Anakin and Padme begin a secret relationship.  They do their best to keep it hidden from the people around them, but there are times when things come dangerously close to revealing the truth.

One such time is during the battle on Geonosis, when Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme are in pursuit of Count Dooku.  Their ship is attacked from behind and Padme falls to the ground below.  Anakin is adamant about going back to help her, but reluctantly backs down after an impassioned plea (as well as threat of expulsion from the Jedi Order) from Obi-Wan.

I can only imagine how Anakin must have felt at this point in time – being torn between his duty and commitment to the Jedi, and wanting to go save the person who means most to him.  And then later, when he and Obi-Wan catch up to Count Dooku, Anakin is overcome by anger and charges in, heedless of Obi-Wan’s warning.  As a result, he is incapacitated by Dooku’s force lightning attack.

I will admit that Anakin is still very much headstrong here.  Despite getting up and saving Obi-Wan’s life, he is outmatched against Count Dooku by himself, and ends up losing his right arm above the elbow after a short duel.  Yoda arrives and is able to hold off Dooku, who distracts the small Jedi Master by causing a large metal column to fall towards Obi-Wan and Anakin and then escapes.

It’s a given that Anakin is in a tremendous amount of pain.  He gets fitted with a mechanical arm, and later on Naboo, he marries Padme even though it means breaking the Jedi Code.  However, the two would struggle to keep their illicit relationship a secret.

Fast-forward three years.  The Clone Wars rage on, Anakin has become a full Jedi Knight, and his marriage to Padme still remains a secret.

Anakin steps closer to the dark side when he executes Count Dooku.  He knows that he shouldn’t kill an unarmed opponent, but at the urging of Chancellor Palpatine, he does it anyway.  He shows remorse at what he did, but for one moment, he slipped up and allowed his anger to come through.  On the flip side of things, when Palpatine tells Anakin to leave Obi-Wan, Anakin shows loyalty to his former master and refuses to leave him to die.

Later, down on Coruscant, Anakin meets with his wife Padme and learns that she is pregnant.  Anakin is overjoyed, but Padme worries that their secret will eventually be found out.  Soon after this, Anakin begins having dreams of Padme dying in childbirth, and vows to not let that happen.

It’s at this point Anakin begins to struggle within himself on multiple fronts: (1) his vow to keep Padme from dying in childbirth; (2) being asked to be Palpatine’s personal representative on the Jedi Council after being told about the Chancellor’s fear and distrust of the Jedi Masters; (3) conversely, Anakin is essentially asked to spy on the Chancellor, reporting on his dealings, etc.

I can only imagine what Anakin is feeling or thinking at this point.  He has to be torn between what he should do; what the right thing to do is.  But there’s also his wife and unborn child to think of, as well as his dream of Padme dying.  A turning point in this struggle comes when Anakin meets with Palpatine at an opera performance.  Palpatine tells Anakin a story about a Sith Lord named Darth Plageuis The Wise, who was so powerful that he could use the Force to create life, as well as keep others from dying.  That last part is what gets Anakin’s attention and when he asks if it’s possible to learn that power, Palpatine remarks “Not from a Jedi.”

When Obi-Wan is later ordered to the Utapau system to confront General Grievous, Anakin accompanies him to his transport.  At the boarding ramp, Anakin apologizes for his attitude and behavior, and for his frustration with the Council.  The two exchange farewells, not knowing this is the final time they will meet as friends.  And for now, things seem to have calmed down for Anakin.

But that’s just the calm before the storm.  Anakin later goes to Chancellor Palpatine, and their conversation quickly turns to Palpatine’s knowledge of the Force.  Here is where Palpatine reveals himself to be Darth Sidious, prompting Anakin to ignite his lightsaber and threaten to kill Palpatine.  However, Anakin decides to expose Palpatine’s identity to the Jedi Council, as he is still concerned with saving his wife and believes that Palpatine’s knowledge (learned from Darth Plageuis) will ensure that he is successful.

Anakin’s inner turmoil only worsens, when, after delivering his information to Mace Windu, he is ordered to remain at the Jedi Temple while Masters Windu, Fisto, Kolar, and Tiin board a gunship at go to arrest the Chancellor/Sith Lord.  Anakin initially obeys the order to stay, and sits in the Council Chamber, but he eventually succumbs to the fear that if Palpatine is killed, he will lose any hope of saving Padme from death.

When Anakin arrives at the Chancellor’s office, his worst fears seem to be realized: Mace Windu is standing over a defenseless Palpatine, with his lightsaber pointed at the Chancellor.  Windu argues that Palpatine is too dangerous to be left alive, but Anakin argues that Palpatine must stand trial.  Windu considers it, but decides to kill Palpatine, and raises his lightsaber to deliver the killing blow.  Finally forced to choose between the Jedi and Padme, Anakin snaps, and in a rush of emotion, he draws his own lightsaber and cuts off Mace Windu’s sword-hand.  Palpatine quickly unleashes a barrage of Force lightning that throws Windu out the window to his death.

You’ve probably heard someone talk about how they’ll just go berserk is just one more thing goes wrong, or if such-and-such happens, they’ll snap.  Well, Anakin did.  He is horrified at what he has just done, but knows there is no turning back.  He pledges allegiance to Palpatine/Sidious in exchange for the power to save Padme from dying.

Every one of us at some point has done something we regret.  Sometimes we feel like we can never be forgiven for whatever it was we did.  Anakin is desperate to save Padme, and I understand that.  That doesn’t excuse the atrocities he later commits.  I’m speaking primarily of Anakin leading a legion of clone troopers to the Jedi Temple and slaughtering everyone inside.  Probably the most heartbreaking of this instance is Anakin finding a group of children hiding in the Council Chamber and killing each one.  Another incident is murdering the Separatist Leaders on the planet Mustafar.

Padme meets Anakin on Mustafar, saying that Obi-Wan had told her that Anakin was responsible for leading the slaughter but didn’t want to believe it.  She pleads with Anakin to come away with her, but when Anakin says he’s brought peace to the Republic, and can overthrow Palpatine so that the two of them can rule the galaxy, she realizes how much he’s changed and begs for him to stop and turn back.

When Anakin sees Obi-Wan emerge from Padme’s ship, he assumes Padme was lying and only brought Obi-Wan here to kill him.  In his anger, he Force chokes Padme, letting go only when she has fallen unconscious.

Anakin/Darth Vader accuses Obi-Wan of turning Padme against him, stating that he’s brought “peace, justice, and freedom to my new Empire.”  He offers Obi-Wan a chance to step aside, but Obi-Wan refuses, and the two engage in a fierce duel that takes them through the Separatist stronghold, up and down a river of lava, and comes to its conclusion on a riverbank.  Obi-Wan gains the advantage, but Anakin/Darth Vader at this point is extremely enraged and bloodthirsty, and foolishly attempts to leap over his old master.  Obi-Wan performs a lightning fast maneuver, severing Anakin’s left arm and both legs.

Anakin is later rescued by Palpatine and a squad of clone troopers.  He gets taken to a special medical facility, where he is fitted with that iconic black armor we all are familiar with.  After this, things calm down somewhat, or get less conflicting…call it whatever you want.

We don’t run into Anakin/Darth Vader for almost 20 years (film timeline-wise).  I don’t think many significant events occur that directly involve him until the end of the trilogy.  In “A New Hope,” there’s torturing Leia, and also the duel between him and Obi-Wan on the Death Star.  In “The Empire Strikes Back,” the torture of Han, Leia and Chewbacca, as well as freezing Han in carbonite.  In “Return of the Jedi,” nothing happens until close to the end, when Darth Vader brings Luke to the Emperor on board the incomplete Death Star II.

After bringing Luke before the Emperor, Darth Vader watches as Palpatine attempts to lure Luke to the dark side by tormenting him with thoughts of the death of his friends and the defeat and destruction of the Rebel Alliance.  Luke snaps and attempts to kill the Emperor, but Darth Vader intervenes and the two begin to duel.  During this though, Darth Vader seems to be reluctant to kill his son, as evidenced by his continued efforts to turn Luke to the dark side.  When Darth Vader discovers that Luke has a twin sister and threatens to turn her to the dark side, Luke attacks his father with anger and hatred.  Darth Vader is pushed back, and when he falls against a railing, Luke strikes and cuts off his father’s hand.

Anakin/Darth Vader lays helpless, but Luke resists the Emperor’s goading to strike the killing blow.  Enraged, the Emperor attacks Luke with Force lightning, while Darth Vader struggles to his feet and stands by his master.  As Luke cries out in pain for his father’s help, something inside Darth Vader changes; love for his son and the desire to protect him breaks through, and he turns on the Emperor.  It is in this moment that Anakin Skywalker is reborn and Darth Vader is no more.

In a final act of self-sacrifice, Anakin lifts the Emperor over his head, carries him to the Death Star’s reactor shaft, and throws him to his death.  As he did so, the Emperor’s Force lightning attack focused in on Vader, destroying his suit’s life support system and mortally wounding him.

Luke drags Anakin to a shuttle bay in an attempt to save his life, but Anakin stops him, knowing he is going to die whether or not Luke gets him on a ship.  As he nears death, Anakin asks Luke to remove his mask so that he can see his son with his own eyes.  As father and son gazed at each other, Anakin told Luke that he was right when he said there was still good in him; and to tell his sister the same.  And with those last words, Anakin Skywalker died and became one with the Force.

Luke escaped the Death Star with his father’s armor and artificial remains, which he later cremated on Endor in a traditional Jedi funeral.  Later, at the Rebel’s victory celebration, Anakin’s Force ghost appear to Luke, alongside the Force ghosts of Obi-Wan and Yoda.

* * * * *

When I first thought about making Anakin Skywalker an Honorary Member, I figured I would get a lot of flak and opposition.  Surprisingly, I’ve gotten almost none at all.

To me, when others think of Anakin Skywalker, they immediately think of someone who became Darth Vader and committed terrible crimes.  But he’s so much more than that.  Yes, he did terrible things as Darth Vader, but when I sit down and think about it, I come to the conclusion that Anakin Skywalker is a victim, in a way.  From the beginning of the Star Wars saga in The Phantom Menace to his fall in Revenge of the Sith, Anakin is carefully manipulated and lied to by Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious.  Events in Anakin’s life are caused (directly and indirectly) by the Sith Lord; even some assignments of Anakin’s before and during the Clone Wars are influenced as well.

So when someone talks about Anakin’s fall to the dark side like it was all his fault, I respectfully disagree.  Anakin’s fall was a carefully orchestrated web of lies and deception perpetrated by a man who is evil to his very core.

Then there’s my second point in my case for including Anakin Skywalker in the Honorary Member ranks of KIBA: granted, he fell to the dark side and committed terrible crimes and deeds.  But at the end of it all, when Luke was being tortured by Emperor Palpatine, Anakin was able to throw off the yoke of evil he had embraced, and return to the light, even though it cost him his life to do so.

Think about it in terms of someone coming to Christ.  If someone who has spent 40 years or so not following Christ and living life however they want (like a ‘do what feels right’ mentality), repents of their ways and gives their life to God, would you not be happy for them?  Why then should we not celebrate Anakin’s return to the light?

Anakin’s armor (both hypothetical and physical) is most definitely battered, beaten and scarred.  He fell, as all of us have or will do at some point.  He was able to rise up and stand against what he had become, even though it cost him his life.

Welcome to KIBA, Anakin.

Knight In Battered Armor - Honorary Member Profile, August 2010 - Luke Skywalker

*this profile is based off of information gathered from theStar Wars films only.

We first meet Luke when he is a young man working on his uncle Owen's moisture farm on the desert planet of Tatooine.  He yearns for a life away fromTatooine, dreaming of one day being able to attend the Imperial Academy.  His uncle does his best to keep Luke atthe farm, secretly afraid that Luke would follow in his father's footsteps.

Luke's life takes a dramatic turn when his uncle purchases two droids from passing Jawas.  He discovers a secret message to Obi-Wan Kenobi hidden in the astromech droid R2-D2.  Luke eventually meets Obi-Wan and learns that his father was not a navigator on a freighter as his uncle told him, but was in fact a Jedi Knight.

It's hard to imagine what's going through Luke's mind at this point.  Having spent his entire life believing one thing, only to have it turned upside down and inside out when he least expected it has to be shocking, to say the least. Later, Luke and Obi-Wan come across a group of slaughtered Jawas, which Luke recognizes as the ones that sold Threepio and Artoo to his uncle Owen.  He realizes that the Imperial troops that killed the Jawas would have learned who they sold the droids to and rushes home only to find the homestead burning and his aunt and uncle murdered.

What makes me curious at this point is how long Luke took to return to Obi-Wan and the droids. I also wonder at the incredible amount of turmoil and agony Luke has to be feeling at this point: being told who his father had been after spending his entire life believing that he was something else, and now returning home to find the only family he had ever known was brutally killed.  It makes one wonder what happened between that discovery, and when he finally returned to the others.

However Luke dealt with all that happened is unknown.  After this, Luke, Obi-Wan and the droids traveled to Mos Eisley where they met Han Solo and Chewbacca the Wookiee, and arranged for passage to Alderaan. Despite being attacked by stormtroopers and being pursued by Imperial Star Destroyers, they were able to make the jump to hyperspace and travel to Alderaan.

It was during this leg of the journey that Luke was first instructed in the ways of the Force. Upon reaching the Alderaan system, the group learned of the planet's destruction and were subsequently captured by the Death Star when they attempted to intercept a patrolling TIE fighter.

Here is where I feel Luke begins to show some real courage.  After Ben leaves the group to disable the station's tractor beam, Artoo discovers that Princess Leia Organa is being held in a detention block on the station.  Luke devises a plan to break her out,and things go smoothly getting into the detention block, but before Luke and the others can make it out, a squad of stormtroopers arrive and cut off their only escape.

Despite taking a detour through a garbage masher, and getting separated from Han and Chewbacca while trying to make it back to the Millennium Falcon, Luke keeps his head and he and Leia eventually meet up with Han and Chewbacca at the hangar where the ship is being held.

Now comes a third major blow to Luke.  When the stormtroopers guarding the Millennium Falcon rush towards one end of the hangar, he and the others make a break for the ship, but Luke pulls up short as he sees what attracted the stormtroopers attention: Obi-Wan Kenobi is locked in a lightsaber duel with Darth Vader.  Luke witnesses Obi-Wan sacrifice himself.  He immediately begins firing upon the stormtroopers, and only runs to the ship when he hears Obi-Wan's voice urging him to go.

At this point, Luke has had three life-altering events happen to him: the first is finding out his father was a Jedi Knight that had fought in the Clone Wars; the second was discovering his aunt and uncle were murdered; and the third was witnessing the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi.  To have just one life-changing event like those occur and yet still trudge on shows bravery and courage.  To do so after three takes much more than I could imagine.

And to top it off, Luke later takes part in a battle against the Death Star, flying a small X-Wing fighter.  He demonstrates tremendous courage, as well as strong leadership, when, after the majority of Rebel fighters are destroyed, he leads an attack run on the Death Star's exhaust port.  Despite fellow pilot (and childhood friend) Biggs Darklighter being killed, and fellow pilot Wedge Antilles being hit (not critically, but enough to make him pull out of the attack run), and with the timely arrival of the Millennium Falcon, Luke is able to fire a pair of proton torpedoes directly into the exhaust port, which begins a chain reaction that destroys the Death Star.

Up to this point, Luke has demonstrated an extraordinary amount of courage, bravery and strength. He lost four people that were dear to him; he learned that his father was a Jedi Knight and not a navigator on a freighter as he had been led to believe; he came face to face with many difficult situations and chose to take the hard path – he did that which was worth doing.

Fast forward now approximately three years.  The Rebels have established a hidden base on the ice planet of Hoth. Luke witnesses a meteor strike while out on patrol and is attacked by a wampa before he can investigate it.  He later escapes the creature's lair, but quickly succumbs to the frigid temperatures.  Shortly before losing consciousness, the ghostly form of his former teacher Obi-Wan Kenobi appears before him, urging Luke to seek out Jedi Master Yoda on the planet Dagobah.

Luke is soon rescued and taken back to the base, where he spends time in a bacta tank to heal his injuries, but he has almost no time to recover as the Empire has discovered the Rebels' location and begun their assault.  Luke leads a squad of snowspeeder fighters in a counterattack against the Empire's AT-AT walkers.

Here, Luke shows bravery and courage, when, after his ship is shot down, he single-handedly brings down one of the attacking walkers.  He later escapes the planet on his X-Wing fighter and goes to Dagobah in search of Yoda.

Here, in my opinion, is where one of the toughest parts of his journey/his life takes place. Luke crash lands on the planet, makes camp and meets a small, strange creature that seems to know more about Luke and why he's there than Luke himself does.  Luke eventually learns that the small creature is none other than Yoda, but gets frustrated when Yoda initially refuses to train Luke.  It is only after the voice of Obi-Wan intervenes that Yoda changes his mind, but things don't get any easier from here.

There were many different obstacles for Luke to overcome, and not all of them were external. He had to overcome certain qualities about himself, such as his stubbornness, impatience, impulsiveness and recklessness, and even those were not completely defeated, as evidenced in his test in the cave, where he fought an apparition of Vader, but saw his own face beneath the mask.  Later on, these failings became more evident when Luke had a vision of his friends suffering and he cut his training short to go rescue them, despite the warnings of both Yoda and Obi-Wan.

This turned out to be one of the poorest decisions we see Luke make throughout the entire trilogy. Luke is unable to rescue Leia, Chewbacca and Han, and when he faces Darth Vader in a duel, he ultimately loses his right hand and his lightsaber.  Not only did he have that pain to deal with, but this is also where it is revealed that Darth Vader is really Luke's father Anakin.  The shock Luke feels proves to be too much to deal with, and he allows himself to fall down a large shaft, eventually coming out and landing on a weather vane beneath the city.  Luke, unable to hold on for long, calls out to Leia in the Force.  She, along with Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, and the droids, rescue him in the Millennium Falcon and reunite with the Rebel fleet, where Luke is fitted with a mechanical hand to replace the one he lost.

Fast forward now about one year.  Luke has returned to Tatooine and successfully infiltrates the palace of Jabba the Hutt. After being brought before the crime lord, he uses the Force to call a blaster to his hand and attempts to shoot Jabba, but the Hutt activates a trapdoor beneath Luke that drops him into a pit with a rancor.  Luke manages to kill the rancor by closing a large door on top of its head. Outraged, Jabba orders Luke to be executed, along with Han and Chewbacca.

At the Pit of Carkoon, Luke executes an elaborate escape plan, which culminates in the death of Jabba and the destruction of his sailbarge.  Luke and the others return to their ships: Luke to his X-Wing, and Han, Chewbacca, Leia, and Lando to the Millennium Falcon.  They parts ways for a short while, as Luke intends to follow through on a promise he made to an old friend.

Luke returns to Dagobah and reunites with Yoda.  However, the Jedi Master has become frail and sickly.  Luke professes his desire to complete his training, but Yoda states that Luke doesn't need anymore training.  He adds further that there is still one thing left to do before Luke will truly be a Jedi: Luke must confront Vader one last time. Luke asks Yoda if Darth Vader really is his father, but Yoda turns away, reluctant to answer.  Luke poses the question again, and Yoda admits that Vader is indeed Luke's father and would have eventually revealed it to Luke had he not rushed off before his training was complete.  With his dying breath, Yoda reveals to Luke that there is another Skywalker, but before Luke can find out who it is, Yoda's body disappears into the Force.

Luke has had a long and difficult journey up to this point.  He has shown incredible bravery and courage.  He has also made mistakes that had terrible consequences, most notable of which was rushing off to Cloud City in the middle of his training and losing his hand to Darth Vader.  Through all his experiences since working on his uncle's farm on Tatooine, he has become stronger and more mature.

Obi-Wan's spirit appears to Luke again, outside of Yoda'shut.  He encourages Luke, saying that he (Obi-Wan) and Yoda will always be with him (Luke).  Luke is initially angry, believing Obi-Wan lied when he had said that Vader betrayed and murdered Luke's father.  Obi-Wan explains that when Anakin turned to the dark side of the Force, the good person he had been was destroyed, making what Obi-Wan said years ago true, from a certain point of view.  When Luke asks what Yoda meant by 'there is another', Obi-Wan says the 'other' is Luke's twin sister, and Luke realizes that his twin sister is Leia.

After Luke rejoins the Rebellion in the Sullust system, he accompanies Han, Chewbacca, and Leia to the forest moon of Endor, where they plan to destroy the shield generator that protects the second Death Star.  The group is captured by the indigenous Ewoks, but after a little display of the Force from Luke, they are released.  One evening, Luke questions Leia about memories of her real mother.  He reveals that Darth Vader is his father.  He also reveals that the Force is very strong in his family, saying that his father and he has it, and also his sister.  Leia is taken aback by this news.  Luke tells her of his plan to attempt to bring Vader back from the dark side of the Force, believing that there is still good in him.

Out of all the decisions that Luke has had to make, I feel that this is the hardest one of them all. It would take a lot of guts to willingly face an enemy that had beaten you once before, but in Luke's case, allowing himself to be captured and taken to Vader, then taken to Palpatine himself, he shows an amazing amount of bravery in being willing to come face to face with two of his most powerful foes.

After being goaded by the Emperor, Luke attempts to strike Palpatine down, but his lightsaber is blocked by Vader, and the two engage in a heated battle.  Luke's resolve is tested, and reaches its breaking point when Vader learns that Luke has a sister and threatens to turn her to the dark side.  Luke unleashes his fury at this, fighting Darth Vader back and eventually disarms the Sith Lord by cutting off his right hand.  Luke pauses before delivering the killing blow, realizing just how close he is to becoming like his father.  When Palpatine urges Luke on, he refuses and tosses his lightsaber to the ground.  Palpatine then electrocutes Luke with Force lightning, and as Vader watches from Palpatine's side, something inside him changes, and he throws Palpatine down a large shaft to his death.

Luke helps his father to a shuttle, but collapses just short of the boarding ramp.  At his father's request, Luke removes the helmet and looks upon his father for thefirst time.  Anakin asks to be left there, but Luke refuses, saying he (Luke) has to save him (Anakin).  Anakin says that Luke has already done that, and requests that Luke tell his sister that he (Luke) was right about him (Anakin).  Luke watches as his father passes away.

Luke gets his father on board the shuttle and takes off just moments before the Death Star explodes. He returns to Endor and burns his father's armor in a traditional Jedi funeral, then rejoins his friends to celebrate their victory over the Empire.

* * * * *

There are varying degrees of bravery, courage, heroism,etc.  When I think of Luke Skywalker, I think of a person (albeit a fictional one) who has gone through so much, suffered some devastating blows, and yet kept on going, even when the outcome was in doubt.

In 'A New Hope,' Luke lost four people that meant a lot to him: his uncle Owen and aunt Beru (killed by Imperial stormtroopers), Obi-Wan Kenobi (killed by Darth Vader in a duel on the Death Star), and his friend Biggs Darklighter (shot down above the Death Star's surface by Darth Vader).  On the opposite end of the spectrum, there were times when he stepped up above what was expected: choosing to rescue Princess Leia from the detention center on the Death Star, and leading an attack run on the Death Star's exhaust port after nearly all of the Rebellion's fighters were destroyed.

In 'The Empire Strikes Back,' I feel that Luke hits a lower point than the other two movies, referring to his decision to break off from his training on Dagobah in order to rescue Han and Leia.  His impatience and stubbornness ended up doing more harm than good: he was unable to save Han and Leia, fought Darth Vader and lost his hand in the process, and ended up having to be rescued by those he was trying to save.  Now, I'm not saying Luke didn't have his good moments.  He fought bravely during the battle on Hoth, single-handedly bringing down an AT-AT walker.  He went through training with Yoda, even though it wasn't easy.

In 'Return of the Jedi,' Luke has come a long way from the brash young farmboy he was in the first film.  With the help of his friends, he was able to rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt.  He fulfilled his promise to Yoda to return to Dagobah and complete his training, although Yoda tells Luke he doesn't require anymore training, saying he must confront Darth Vader before he becomes a Jedi. The toughest decision (I think) that Luke makes is to surrender to Imperial troops on Endor and allow himself to be taken to Darth Vader and eventually Emperor Palpatine.  Luke came dangerously close to falling to the dark side during his duel with Vader, but was able to resist the urgings of Palpatine to kill Vader as he lay helpless.

Luke Skywalker has exhibited many of the traits of a Knight in Battered Armor.  He chose to stand and fight, and even though he suffered hits and losses,  he chose to get back up and keep going.  He fought for his friends and brothers in arms.  He chose to do what he thought was right; what he believed was necessary in order to bring his father back from the dark side. While I don't know if Luke was willing to sacrifice himself in order to save his father, I'd like to think that he would do so if he believed it was necessary.

Welcome to KIBA, Luke.

Double Poem Post

The Silence Between Us

Sometimes I’ll wish upon a star, I will hope and dream,
That I would stop being afraid, that I would stop pretending everything’s ok.
I’ve been hurt too many times to believe that things could ever be different.
Why shouldn’t I just sit and be silent while things just pass me by?
It’s what I’m good at. I don’t like it but it’s true.
As much as I want things to be different, I can’t bear the guilt and shame
Of knowing I did something that caused you pain and grief.
I’m simply too afraid.
So I will just sit here in my empty silence and quietly hope
That you could see the way I wish things were.
Subtlety has never been my strong point,
So I keep my thoughts to myself.
My past experiences have taught me to expect things to not work out;
That eventually something will happen that causes irreparable damage,
And that it will be my fault.
I’ve been down this rod so many times that it’s all I know.

Here in my empty silence, I hide myself behind a variety of masks.
I hide my face, I hide my pain,
I hide my hopes and I hide my fears.
I hide the truth of what I’m really thinking,
Because how could you understand?
How could you ever feel about me the way I feel about you?
Would I even mean as much to you as you do to me?
It’s too much for me to hope for, sometimes.
I’ve taught myself to believe that I don’t deserve it;
That I’ve made too many mistakes for it to ever happen to me.

It’s the sparkles in your eyes, it’s the smile on your face,
And it’s the sound of your laughter that I just can’t turn away from.
I can’t explain how or why,
But there is something about them that captivates my attention.
I want to be the reason your eyes sparkle,
I want to be the one who puts a smile on your face,
And I want to be the one who makes you laugh.
I want to be the man you deserve to have and be with.
But I sit here and do nothing, and eventually you walk away,
And another opportunity quietly slips away.

I have only myself to blame. And I do.
I blame myself for all the hurt and pain I feel.
I tell myself that it’s my fault; that it’s always been
And always will be my fault.
Because I’m afraid.
Afraid of repeating a past mistake,
Afraid of feeling hurt, broken and alone.
Afraid of doing something to cause you pain.

If I broke my silence, what would I say?
How would I start and what would I do?
What would you say, and what would you do?
Would you be accepting of who I am and what I’ve done,
Or would you throw it all in my face and laugh
While I feel myself shatter into a thousand pieces?
Would you see the kind of person I’m trying to be?
I know I’m not perfect by any means.
I’m beaten, battered and scarred.

And what about you?
I wonder about that too.
Do you catch me stealing glances in your direction?
I don’t mean to stare.
Do you see me making an excuse to ‘run into you’ a lot?
I’m trying to be inconspicuous about it.
Do you look at me when I turn away,
And wish I would talk to you already?
I’m just trying to find the right words to say.
And when you leave, does it hurt you to walk away,
As much as it hurts me to see you go?

There are so many things we leave unsaid,
So many things we’re afraid to voice.
We’re all afraid of being hurt; afraid of being alone;
Afraid of the pain that comes with a broken heart.
We’re afraid of not being loved by someone
Even though they know the worst thing about us,
The thing we’re most ashamed of.
We hide so many things from each other so often,
That soon all we can hear is the sound of the silence between us.

* * * * *

I Want To Let You Know

I’ve spent so much of my time building up my defenses,
protecting and guarding my heart.
I’ve tried to cover up the wounds, from all the times I’ve been hurt.
I’ve tried to conceal the truth, of the mistakes I’ve made.
I’ve avoided speaking out, about the pain I’ve caused.

I’ve spent so much of my time hiding behind a variety of masks,
keeping the truth of my thoughts and emotions deep inside.
I cannot look into your eyes, because I am afraid.
I cannot let my guard down, because I am scared.
I cannot let you know, because I am frightened.

I’ve spent so much of my time trying not to repeat my mistakes,
so that no one would be hurt because of me.
By doing so, I hurt you anyway.
By doing so, I make myself suffer.
By doing so, I cause the very thing I try to avoid.

I spend so much time trying to understand what I feel,
that I miss the opportunities to speak up and tell you.
I want to tell you, but maybe it’s not the right time.
I want to speak up, but maybe I won’t be able to find the words I want to say.
I want to let you know, but maybe you don’t feel the same way.

I want to break down these walls I’ve built, and let you inside.
I want to stop this charade, and show you who I really am.
I want to stop focusing on the past, and not be afraid to take a risk.
I want it to not be too late to speak my mind, even if my voice shakes.
I want to let you know, but I’m just not used to saying what I feel.

Knight In Battered Armor - Honorary Member Profile, July 2010: Bruce Wayne/Batman

We first see Bruce Wayne as a young child living on his parents’ estate in Gotham City. He developed a fear of bats at a young age when one day, while playing on his family’s property with his friend Rachel Dawes, Bruce fell down a dried-up well, breaking his arm. As he waited for help to come, a colony of bats flew out of a nearby tunnel. In the enclosed area, there was little Bruce could do to avoid the creatures, except cover his face with his arms.

Some time after this occurred, Bruce and his parents attended an opera. One scene featured a number of performers dressed as bats. This caused Bruce’s fear to surface and he asked his father if they could leave. Bruce and his parents left the opera and began walking down a dimly lit street. They did not get far before being confronted by bum named Joe Chill. Raising a small pistol, Joe Chill forced Bruce’s father to give up his wallet, and then demanded that the pearls Bruce’s mother was wearing also be given to him. Bruce’s mother refused, and in the ensuing scuffle, Joe Chill shot both of Bruce’s parents, killing them. As his parents’ murderer fled the scene, Bruce stood over his parents’ body, crying.

Years later, Bruce, now an adult, returned to Gotham City from Princeton University to find that his parents’ killer, Joe Chill, was going to receive a suspended sentence in exchange for testifying against crime boss Carmine Falcone. Bruce was intent on murdering Chill after the hearing, however, one of Falcone’s assassins killed Chill before Bruce could do anything. After a brief meeting with Falcone later that evening, Bruce decided to travel around the world and learn the ways of the criminal underworld, eventually becoming a criminal himself and getting arrested.

One day, after a brawl with several inmates, Bruce was taken to a cell where he was met by a man calling himself ‘Ducard.’ Ducard offers Bruce a chance to escape the life of a criminal. If he’s interested, he (Bruce) must find a specific blue flower and bring it to the top of a nearby mountain. The next day, Bruce is released from prison, finds the flower, and makes the long trek up the mountain to where Ducard is waiting. There, he enters into training to join a secret organization called The League of Shadows, led by a man named Ra’s Al Ghul.

Upon completion of his training, Bruce is given a task: to lead the League to Gotham City and destroy it. Ra’s and Ducard believe that Gotham is beyond saving, but Bruce believes otherwise. In the ensuing battle, Ra’s is killed, and Bruce escapes with an unconscious Ducard.

Bruce returns to Gotham City, where he finds that Falcone’s crime syndicate has practically taken over the city. He enlists the help of Lucius Fox, a former board member of Wayne Enterprises, and Sergeant Jim Gordon, one of the few honest police officers in the city, in his effort to fight back. Lucius helps Bruce to acquire a prototype armored car and an armored suit to take on the identity of Batman. Learning of an impending drug shipment that night, Bruce intercepts it and captures crime boss Carmine Falcone. Later, he saves Rachel Dawes, his childhood friend and assistant DA, from an attempted assassination and provides her with evidence capable of indicting Falcone.

While investigating an apartment that had been used as a staging point for processing the smuggled drugs, Batman runs into Crane, who does him with a powerful hallucinogenic toxin. Batman is soon rescued by Alfred, butler at Wayne Manor, who enlists Fox’s help in developing an anti-toxin.

Soon after this, Crane summons Rachel Dawes to Arkham, where he shows her that the fear-inducing toxin (same that he used on Falcone and Batman) has been introduced into Gotham’s water supply for weeks, and then infects her as she tries to escape. Batman rescues her and takes her to the Batcave, where he treats her with the anti-toxin. He gives her two vials of the anti-toxin to take with her: one for Jim Gordon, the other for mass production.

That same night, at Bruce’s birthday celebration, he is confronted by Ducard, who reveals his true identity as the real Ra’s Al Ghul and announces that he has arrived to personally oversee the destruction of Gotham City, conspiring with Crane to infect Gotham’s water supply with the toxin, later vaporizing it with a device stolen from Wayne Enterprises.

Bruce gets his guests to leave by acting drunk and belligerent, then fights Ra’s while the League of Shadows sets fire to Wayne Manor. At the same time, Ra’s men release the inmates of Arkham Asylum and release the toxin into the air.

After escaping the blaze at Wayne Manor with help from Alfred, Bruce makes his way to Arkham Asylum, where the released inmates are causing mayhem and chaos, amplified by the toxin in the air. He rescues Rachel Dawes, who delivered the antidote to Gordon and also managed to ward off Crane, now calling himself the “Scarecrow”, with a taser, and reveals his identity before going after Ra’s.

Batman has Gordon drive the Batmobile to Wayne Tower, the central hub of both the subway and the water supply for the entire city. Ra’s boards the train, has the stolen water vaporizer loaded on, and sends it traveling to Wayne Tower, where it will vaporize the city’s entire water supply and infect every citizen with the deadly toxin. As Batman battles Ra’s on board the train, Gordon reaches Wayne Tower and destroys the subway line. Batman manages to jam the train’s controls and escapes the train, leaving Ra’s to die as the train drives off the track and crash into Wayne Tower.

After this, Batman becomes a public hero. Bruce gains control of his company, fires Mr. Earle, the former CEO, and replaces him with Lucius Fox. Gordon, promoted to Lieutenant, reveals a Bat-signal, and mentions a newly surfaced criminal who leaves Joker playing cards at various crime scenes. Batman promises to look into it, and then disappears into the night.

Fast forward about 6-9 months.

Batman and Lieutenant Gordon are investigating a recent bank robbery committed by the Joker. They discuss including the new district attorney, Harvey Dent, into their plans to eradicate the mob. Wayne is not sure if Dent can be trusted, but when he later runs into Dent and Rachel Dawes at a restaurant, and after talking with Dent, he realizes Dent’s sincerity and offers to throw Dent a fundraiser.

Soon after, local mob bosses Sal Maroni, Gambol, and the Chechen meet with other gangsters to discuss Batman and Harvey Dent, who have been effectively targeting and shutting down the mob’s various operations. Lau, a Chinese mafia accountant, informs the group via videoconference that in an effort to preempt Gordon’s seizure of the mob’s funds and evade Dent’s jurisdiction, he has taken their money and fled to Hong Kong. The Joker crashes the meeting and offers to eliminate Batman in exchange for half of the mob’s money, but is flatly refused. Gambol places a bounty on the Joker’s head, and not long after, the Joker kills Gambol and takes control of his men.

Batman travels to Hong Kong and captures Lau using a skyhook. He returns Lau to the Gotham police, where Lau makes a deal to testify against the mob. Using the information given by Lau, Gordon and Dent arrest the mob. The Joker retaliates by issuing an ultimatum to the citizens of Gotham City: unless Batman reveals his identity, people will die each day.

When Commissioner Loeb and Judge Surillo are murdered, the public blames Batman, leading to Wayne to decide to reveal his identity. At Loeb’s funeral, Gordon is shot and apparently killed when he foils an assassination attempt by the Joker on Mayor Garcia.

Before Bruce can reveal his identity as Batman, Dent holds a press conference in which he unsuccessfully attempts to persuade the public to not sell out Batman just because of a single terrorist. Accepting the public’s decision, Dent announces that he is Batman and is promptly arrested in an elaborate plan to draw the Joker out of hiding. The Joker ambushes the convoy, but Batman and Gordon (in disguise, having faked his own death at Loeb’s funeral) intervene and capture the Joker.

Later that evening, Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes disappear. Batman interrogates the Joker and discovers that Dent’s and Dawes’ police escorts were corrupt and have place the two in separate warehouses on opposite sides of the city(far enough that only one can be saved), each one rigged with explosives. While Batman goes off to save Rachel, and Gordon off to save Dent, the Joker uses a smuggled bomb to escape police custody with Lau.

Batman arrives at his destination and finds not Rachel Dawes, but Harvey Dent. He successfully pulls Dent out of the building before the bomb goes off, but the ensuing explosion severely disfigures Dent’s face. Gordon arrives at Dawes’ location just as the bomb timer reaches zero and detonates.

At the same time, Coleman Reese, a lawyer working as a consultant to Wayne Enterprises, deduces Batman’s identity and, after failing to blackmail the company, chooses to go public with his discovery. The Joker realizes that he defines himself through his struggle with Batman, and changes his mind about revealing Batman’s identity. He issues Gotham and ultimatum: Coleman Reese must die in one hour or a hospital will be blown up. After various attempts on Reese’s life are foiled, the Joker goes to Gotham General Hospital, where Dent is being treated, and convinces him to exact revenge of the people whose corruption led to Rachel’s death. The Joker destroys the building on his way out and escapes on a hijacked bus full of patients.

While Dent, now calling himself Two-Face, confronts Maroni and the corrupt cops one by one, flipping a coin to decide their fates, Batman searches for the Joker. The Joker, now in complete control of the mob in Gotham, announces to Gotham that anyone left within the city at nightfall will be subject to his rule. While roads out of the city are backed up, authorities begin evacuating people out by ferry, unaware that the Joker has placed explosives on two of the ferries: one with civilians, the other with convicts who were evacuated in order to prevent the Joker from releasing them. While the ferries cross the river, the engines suddenly stop and the bombs are discovered. The Joker announces to the people on both ferries that the only way to get themselves out of their predicament is to use trigger the bomb on the other ferry, otherwise both will be detonated at midnight.

Using sonar-based technology and cell phones throughout the city, Batman locates the Joker and the hostages from the hospital. Discovering that the hostages are disguised as the Joker’s men and vice versa, Batman is forced to attack both the Joker’s men and Gordon’s SWAT team in order to keep the real hostages safe.

Batman finds the Joker, and after a short fight, captures him, preventing him from destroying both ferries, whose occupants ultimately chose not to destroy each other. The Joker concedes that Batman is incorruptible, but notes that Dent was not, revealing that he has unleashed Dent upon an unsuspecting Gotham. Batman leaves the Joker for Gordon’s SWAT team and goes off in search of Dent.

At the remains of the building where Rachel was killed, Batman finds Dent holding Gordon and his family at gunpoint. Dent, using his signature coin, decides to judge the innocence of himself, Batman, and Gordon’s son, through three coin flips. First is Batman, who is shot in the stomach. Next is himself – heads up. But before the boy’s fate is determined, Batman, whose armor protected him from the bullet, tackles Dent and knocks them both over the side of the building. Gordon’s son is saved, but Batman and Dent fall to the ground below.

Batman, knowing that the citizens of Gotham will lose hope and morale if Dent’s murderous rampage was made public, convinces Gordon to hold him responsible for the killings that Dent committed, thereby protecting Dent’s “white knight” image and keeping the public’s faith in him intact. Batman flees the scene while Gordon and his son watch. We later see Gordon delivering Dent’s eulogy and smashing the Bat-signal on top of the MCU.

* * * * *

This ended up being much more detailed than I originally planned. I went through and tried to edit it down, but quickly realized that if I took anything out, then some things that Bruce Wayne/Batman did would not be adequately explained, and some people who read this would go “Well, how did such-and-such happen?” or “How did he know so-and-so between these two times?” or something like that.

Bruce Wayne took on the persona of Batman in order to fight the crime and corruption in Gotham City. He kept it up, even when things looked grim and despair threatened to creep in. After the Joker entered the scene things got more dangerous, both for the people in general and also Bruce personally. Case in point for that is when he was forced to choose to save either Harvey Dent or Rachel Dawes from a warehouse rigged with explosives, and went to what he thought was Rachel’s location, but found Dent there instead.

The next difficult choice to make was when Bruce discovered that the Joker’s men and the hostages from the hospital were disguised as each other and was forced to fight both the Joker’s men and Gordon’s SWAT team, the latter of which was unaware of the hostages’ unique situation.

Finally, Bruce’s third difficult decision was the choice to take upon himself the blame for the murder’s committed by Harvey Dent after being released from Gotham General Hospital by the Joker.

I chose Bruce Wayne/Batman for this month’s Honorary Member profile for a number of reasons. Mostly because of all the difficult choices he has been forced to make, most prominent of which is the decision to take the blame for the murders that were committed by Harvey Dent. There were times when the public was inspired by Batman, and there were times when they were scared and wanted him to reveal his identity. Choosing to keep up the fight through all of that had to have taken a great amount of courage. While some may not have completely understood his decisions, Bruce did what he felt was necessary; what he felt was right. Even when that meant being blamed for something that was not his fault.

Welcome to our ranks, Bruce. I salute you.

*AUTHOR'S NOTE: all information in this profile was taken from the films "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight". I chose to do this because I believe that very few of us, if any, have read any significant number of comic books and watched any of the many cartoon shows based on this character. Also, there is just way too much information to go through if I based this profile off of the comics and shows. Finally, most of us have seen the two most recent Batman films, and that is what we are familiar with.