Some TTT thoughts

[abigailnus <abigailnus@yahoo.com>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "David <dfrankiswork at n...>" <dfrankiswork at n...> wrote:
> On a more serious note, that Arwen dream/flashback, or whatever it 
> was, as a LOTR reader I could understand that Jackson was trying to 
> get her into the story.  Had I been a non-reader, I think I would 
> have thought that he was *trying* to suggest that Eowyn could 
> supplant Arwen in Aragorn's affections, not tell us that he was 
> already spoken for.  

I would agree with you if we didn't have the scene where 
Aragorn returns to Helm's Deep.  The look on his face when 
Legolas gives him back the Evenstar tells us, and the 
watching Eowyn, everything we needed to know about 
where his affections lie.  Maybe that was the point of his 
fall of the cliff.  The whole thing, however, gets undercut 
by their hug at the end.  At any rate its purely an 
academic exercise for you and I to talk about the books as 
though we haven't read them - any non-readers out there 
who would care to share their impressions of this relationship?

> 
> Have I got the wrong end of the stick, or did the Rivendell scene 
> where Elrond looks pained as she marches off mean that in ROTK there 
> will be a scene where they find a barely-conscious Arwen under a 
> pile of Elf bodies?  

I sincerely doubt this.  As I said eariler, I expect Arwen to get 
all the way to the ship, only to gaze longingly into the East 
and decide to follow her heart.  Frankly, I think I'd be happier 
with her under a pile of Elf bodies.
 
> When Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli meet Gandalf, they have to try to 
> attack him, and this I think is a good example of my issue with the 
> debate about 'drama' a few days ago.  It is clearly more dramatic 
> (in some sense) for them to attack him and to bounce off as they do 
> than to nearly do so and realise just in time, as more or less 
> happens in the book, but is more always better? 

>From The Two Towers, Book III, Chapter 5, The White Rider:  
Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli have met an old man clad in grey 
robes whom they believe to be Saruman.  They have tried 
to attack him, only to find that they are unable to, as the 
old man begins to speak.

----------------------

   The old man turned away and went towards a heap of fallen 
stones and rock at the foot of the cliff behind.  Immediately, 
as if a spell had been removed, the others relaxed and stirred.  
Gimli's hand went at once to his axe-haft.  Aragorn drew his 
sword.  Legolas picked up his bow.
   The old man took no notice, but stooped and sat himself on 
a low flat stone.  Then his grey cloak drew apart, and they 
saw, beyond doubt, that he was clothed beneath all in white.
   'Saruman!' cried Gimli, springing towards him with axe in hand.  
'Speak!  Tell us where you have hidden our friends!  What have 
you done with them?  Speak, or I will make a dint in your hat 
that even a wizard will find it hard to deal with!'
   The old man was too quick for him.  He sprang to his feet 
and leaped to the top of a large rock.  There he stood, grown 
suddenly tall, towering above them.  His hood and his grey 
rags were flung away.  His white garments shone.  He lifted 
up his staff, and Gimli's axe leaped from his grasp and fell 
ringing on the ground.  The sword of Aragorn, stiff in his 
motionless hand, blazed with a sudden fire.  Legolas gave a 
great shout and shot an arrow high into the air: it vanished 
in a flash of flame.
   'Mithrandir!' he cried, "Mithrandir!'

------------------------

In this case, as in many others, Jackson has been truer to 
the book than we give him credit for.  I was certain, for 
example, that the gunpowder in the battle of Helm's Deep 
was his invention until I went back and reread the scene.  
As it turns out, with the exception of the three glaring 
changes that everyone noticed - changing Erkenbrand into 
Eomer, adding Haldir's elves instead of Eomer's riders, 
and removing the trees - the battle goes exactly as it 
does in the book.

> Oh, and here's a Tolkein thought, no doubt completely done to death 
> on the LOTR equivalent of HPFGU.  I am reading LOTR yet again, this 
> time to my youngest child (at his demand over my protests) and this 
> time round it is striking me as the grandfather of all those 
> computer games where you have to reach your goal, wiping out enemies 
> and picking up various objects, weapons, and medkits along the way.  
> You know, arrive at Rivendell, add 40% to your health score, pick up 
> Mithril shirt and Sting; when you get to Pelennor, use Barrow blade 
> on Nazgul's tendon; to get to Level 6 you have to go through the 
> Paths of the Dead.  Congratulations, you have reached Valinor/become 
> King of Middle Earth/been elected mayor of Michel Delving.

Perhaps a more accurate statement would be that those 
computer games - also known as quests - were influenced 
by this kind of literary genre.  

Abigail
Who really enjoyed the Hogwarts Christmas Play.