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The LOTR Movie Site
March 5, 2000

Arwen and John Keeler's Ruminations
Anonymous

John hits on the key part about Arwen's expanded role. Whether she will ride with the Dunedain or walk with the Fellowship? However, her participation at the Battle of Helm's Deep doesn't completely answer that question. The arrival of the Dunedain and the children of Elrond could easily be moved up a few days, allowing her to join Aragorn in the battle. Or Arwen may simply be filming scenes of the night at Helm's Deep when Aragorn looked into the Palantir of Isengard and wrestled with Sauron. The Dunedain had joined Aragorn by then.

However, since Arwen's expanded role is supposed to increase the female presence in the first movie, I suspect that she may have to be with the Fellowship since the Dunedain and the children of Elrond don't reach Rohan until the 2nd chapter of the Return of the King. Of course, the scenes from the Appendix of Arwen and Aragorn's courtship in Lorien would fit in quite well with the first movie, and that may suffice to fill the female presence in the first movie. To tell the truth, even adding Arwen to the Fellowship would not detract from the story in my opinion. During the 55 years that Tolkien created Middle Earth, the role of Galadriel changed the most. By the end of his life, Tolkien looked upon Galadriel as almost coeval with Feanor in power and had her as very active physically. An active Arwen, the only grandaughter of Galadriel, would only be following in her footsteps. 

Of course, Tolkien's constantly evolving view of his created world is the main reason he never finished the Silmarillion or many other stories about Middle Earth.