Ok but I really love how the LOTR films use colors/costume design to show Denethorâs power over the other characters
Like: every character in LOTR has their own set of Characteristic Colorsâ˘. Denethorâs Characteristic Colors⢠are desaturated black and grey:
. These arenât necessarily Gondorâs colors (Iâll get to that in a minute) but theyâre definitely his. In The Two Towersâ flashback scene, Gondorâs soldiers are dressed in Denethorâs black/grey, including Boromir:
But when Boromir leaves Gondorâ and is free from needing to carefully Perform in front of his fatherâ he starts wearing his own Characteristic Colors⢠instead. These colors are royal red, gold and blue:
(Literally wearing your true colors)
Meanwhile Faramir, unlike Boromir, doesnât wear Denethorâs colors in the flashback. He wears his own Characteristic Colorsâ˘, which are brown/green, bc Faramir does not do what Denethor wants him to doâŚ
âŚ.until ROTK, when Faramir surrenders to his fatherâs will and exchanges his characteristic brown/green armor for black/grey armor. Itâs like his identity is stripped away
Similarly, Pippinâs Characteristic Colors⢠are blue/green:
But when he enters Denethorâs service:
No individual expression allowed
âBut black and grey with no accents are Gondorâs colorsââ Nahhh I donât buy Denethorâs anti-color propaganda. When Aragorn replaces Denethor, the first thing he brings back is colorful fashion
Aragorn doesnât wear black and grey, like Denethor did. He wears things that merge the black/white of Gondor with the sort of royal red/blue/gold of Boromirâs characteristic colors
And so at last the tyranny of Denethorâs drab fashion sense was ended