Look, you can’t tell me Jon didn’t read and love The Lord of the Rings as a kid. So the fact that season 5 of TMA has so many parallels with LotR (so. many) is funny.

Jon, our beloved English Lit major, definitely noticed. (Probably from the outset, what with the eyeball tower.)

Jon, mid-apocalypse: …I think Helen is Gollum.

Martin: What?

Jon: This journey we’re having is significantly analogous to LotR. We’re going on a journey through a hellscape to an eyeball tower. We went to a spider-thing’s domain. We had a respite partway through. Also people ship Frodo and Sam—um, anyway. Salesa is Faramir, Annabelle is Shelob, and Helen is Gollum.

Martin: …doesn’t Gollum, like, steal the ring from Frodo in the end and jump into the lava with it?

Jon: Um, yes. Essentially. Shoot, maybe I should smite her.

(this is the real reason Jon smote Helen)