AI Reveals What The Lord Of The Rings Characters Should Look Like Based On The Books

Artificial intelligence may not know everything yet, but it sure can create a good impression of someone. Case in point: a recent pair of videos by YouTube creators Screen AI and AI Overlords that remake characters from "The Lord of the Rings" according to their book descriptions. The three-minute and seven-minute videos, respectively, show several of the main characters from J.R.R. Tolkien's classic trilogy. Each section starts with a picture of the actor from Peter Jackson's trilogy, provides the basic description of the individual from the book, and then shows an AI depiction that viewers are left to presume is superior to the iconic movie trilogy's iteration. 

The list of characters includes the entire Fellowship of the Ring, along with key supporting characters like Théoden, Éowyn, Galadriel, Gollum, and Bilbo. Based on our own research, some of the images are quite impressive, demonstrating a clearly superior adaptation based on the author's descriptions. Others, as we'll see in a minute, are less accurate than they seem at first glance.

The comparison is a fun exercise and a reminder that every visual adaptation of a book is just that — an adaptation. Whether it's a human brain or a computer translating data into a visual medium, there is always plenty of room for creative liberty — and lots of opportunities for outright errors. Let's see where this AI creation falls on the adaptive scale.

The title of Screen AI's video reads, "AI Remade LoTR Characters EXACTLY as described in the books." Conversely, AI Overlord's description is less braggadocious. Nevertheless, both creations beg the question: how accurate are their representations of the source material? Let's look at some examples and see how well that bold claim of precision holds up.

"The Fellowship of the Ring" contains a relatively detailed description of Frodo, saying that he is "A stout little fellow with red cheeks [...] taller than some and fairer than most, and he has a cleft in his chin: perky chap with a bright eye." Both AI descriptions don't give us height, but he is at least fair-skinned with a cleft in his chin.

In that same book, Arwen is described thusly: "The braids of her dark hair were touched by no frost; her white arms and clear face were flawless and smooth, and the light of stars was in her bright eyes, grey as a cloudless night." It adds that she is wearing a cap of silver lace netted with small gems glittering white. AI delivers mostly here again, with dark hair, bright gray eyes, fair skin, and even the headdress.

One video ends with the Eye of Sauron, which is one of the more fun comparisons. That flickering optical individual is described in "The Fellowship of the Ring" book as "rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat's, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing." The AI image has a fiery circular eye, rimmed with fire. But again, the details are slightly off. The pupil, for instance, is perfectly round, and much of the eye is blue.

At some points, the AI interpretation is just plain bad. For instance, Tolkien describes Gandalf as having white hair, which both AI images nail (especially compared to Ian McKellen's grey locks). However, Gandalf's beard hangs below his waist, and in "The Hobbit," J.R.R. Tolkien says, "Gandalf looked at [Bilbo] from under long busy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat." AI's rendition features trimmed eyebrows and a beard — a much too kempt appearance.

Aragorn is barely described by Tolkien, but "The Fellowship of the Ring" notes that he has "A shaggy head of dark hair flecked with grey, and in a pale stern face a pair of keen grey eyes." One depiction deviates from this completely, giving the Ranger clean, brown hair, pointy Elven ears, and some odd eyes that set off uncanny valley alarm bells. Worse of all, he had a beard. Viggo Mortensen also has a beard, and to be fair, he pulls it off (and could do it again in "The Hunt for Gollum"). But Tolkien is quoted in "The Nature of Middle-earth" explicitly stating that Aragorn, Boromir, Faramir, and others of high Númenórean lineage are beardless. 

The most glaring inconsistency of all is Gollum, especially in the Screen AI video. In "The Two Towers," Gollum is described as, "The famished skeleton of some child of Men, its ragged garment still clinging to it, its long arms and legs almost bone-white and bone-thin: no flesh worth a peck." This dramatic description implies an emaciated figure, but Gollum isn't dead. The AI shows him as nothing short of a skeleton. The takeaway with all of this? Even AI can't create an exact depiction of a written character, no matter how good the prompt.