50 reasons Star Wars is better than Lord of The Rings
By Ryan Wrenn
18. Trash Compactor Monster vs. Shelob
What was the Trash Compactor Monster? A squid-like beast residing in the Death Star’s trash compactor
What was Shelob? A gigantic spider that threatened to eat Frodo on his way to Mordor
Verdict: Two wild monsters that just so happen to be in the way of our heroes at particularly pivotal moments.
Neither are directly linked with the stories’ overall antagonists. They’re simple B stories; little obstacles that eat up minutes, establish set pieces and generally keep the story from being too samey for too long.
So if they both serve the same basic narrative structure, how do we settle this? How about asking ourselves which of these beasts you’d like to take on yourself.
Shelob instantly benefits from a lot of pre-existing arachnophobia. Some people are scared of spiders 1 millionth their size, so it’s fair to say that Shelob’s won the battle against that lot well before it even started.
Few can make the claim that they have a similar phobia for trash compactor monsters, mostly because there is no real world analog for such a thing (thankfully).
That disparity leads to a surprising win for Shelob.
Lord of the Rings wins
Next: 17. Famous line vs. Famous line