Watson analyzed 'The Lord of the Rings' and said the characters were cooler in the books

sam frodo the lord of the rings
Warner Bros./Lord of the Rings trailer

IBM's Watson can do everything from assisting doctors in making medical diagnoses to helping guests at Hilton hotels as Connie the robot.

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And one of its more interesting skills is its ability to read humans better than humans themselves. One of the supercomputer's 30 APIs is its ability to analyze written text and assess personality traits based on the popular Big Five test, which rates subjects for extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. It can also identify different tones such as fear, joy, confidence, and openness.

Vinith Misra, a research staff member for IBM Watson, already had Watson analyze the "Harry Potter" and "Star Wars" universes. Here's what it had to say about the "Lord of the Rings" universe:

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J.R.R. Tolkien's characters are more self-confident and powerful than the movie versions of them.

edoras lord of the rings
New Line Cinema

Watson found that the characters in the movies exhibit a lot more self-doubt and anxiety than in the books.

"There are all these regal characteristics that don’t completely disappear, but get more subdued in movies," Misra said.

For example, Gandalf is a lot more extroverted and assertive in the books, but in the movies is more self-conscious and neurotic.

gandolf lord of the rings
Warner Bros
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Aragorn's more regal characteristics from the books are subdued in the movies as he exhibits more self-doubt and anxiety.

aragorn lord of the rings
Warner Bros/Movieclips

As Misra put it, Aragorn is definitely less "alpha" in the movies.

Legolas in the books is very articulate and emotional, but becomes more laconic and unfriendly in the movies. In fact, he's ranked as the most unfriendly character in the movies by Watson.

legolas desolation of smaug
Warner Bros.

Watson also founded Legolas to be the gloomiest character. He also ranked the highest for distrust, stability, and calmness.

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Watson found that Denethor as a character pretty much completely changed between the books and the movies.

Denethor lord of the rings
Warner Bros

This seems to echo what many book loyalists have said: Denethor in the books comes off a lot more kingly than in the movies.

"[In the books] he’s the interim king and he acts like it," Misra said. "In the movies, he gets turned into this crazy man who is full of suspicion, anxiety, and actually depression."

 

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Sam's defining characteristic in the books is his orderliness. But in the movies, his character is more defined by his altruism and friendliness.

sam lord of the rings
Warner Bros/Movieclips

"Sam, in the books, is orderly and thorough. Those are the defining characteristic of Sam — he’s the cook, he’s taking care of things, and he wants things done properly," Misra said.

"In the movies, his character is defined by altruism and friendliness, but in the books there's a lot of other stuff going on," he continued.

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Frodo doesn't change too much between the books and movies, but he exhibits slightly more anxiety and cheerfulness in the books.

lord of the rings frodo
Warner Bros/Movieclips

"It's interesting because, if you think of movies, he’s the definition of anxiety — but apparently in the books it's even more so," Misra said.

To be fair, that could be because Frodo exhibits more of his anxiety through his performance than dialogue during the movies. Since Watson can only parse through the text, it can't see how a character registers emotionally from a pure performance standpoint.

Watson picked up that Bilbo is very self-conscious and neurotic, but surprisingly found that he also exhibited a lot of anger.

Bilbo lord of the rings
Warner Bros

"He is the most angry character just judging based on his dialogue," Misra said, adding that the his dialogue is hostile even if his character isn't portrayed that way in the movies.

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Gollum was unsurprisingly ranked as the most duplicitous character, but he's also ranked as the friendliest.

The Lord of the Rings (Smeagol)
New Line Cinema

"He’s always duplicitous and scheming, but everything he says is only friendly," Misra said. 

Perhaps even more intriguing, Gollum was ranked the most vulnerable character as well.

gollum the hobbit
Warner Bros./The Hobbit trailer

"It’s so on point — he has such a miserable life and is attached to Frodo despite everything that is happening," Misra explained. "I feel bad for the guy and can understand the vulnerability for sure."

IBM
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