September 20, 2003

4 Deaths, 3 Weddings, and One Anduril From Arwen
Bob Praz

Here's the way I see it. Four main characters die: Theoden, Gollum, Denethor, and Saruman (Wormtongue is not that big of a main character, I guess). Three characters get married: Aragorn, Arwen, and Sam (seriously, I have many doubts whether we'll actually see Eowyn marry Faramir). Otherwise, let's just remember that this is a casual article, and that the information given can be vague or even inaccurate. I don't think there's too much to worry about yet just because of different interpretations.

Now, thank you, Pip, for pointing out the shot of Arwen grabbing Narsil in Rivendell. I had completely forgotten about it for a while, since so much of what we expected to see of Arwen in TTT has been cut out. Before TTT, a lot of stuff seemed to indicate that Arwen and Elrond left Rivendell with Narsil and travelled to Lorien. Narsil was then reforged either in Imladris or (most likely) Lothlorien. In Lothlorien Arwen would have seen Aragorn perish in the Mirror of Galadriel, and Elrond would have taken counsel with Celeborn to arrange the sending of elven troops to Helm's Deep. As you already know, all of this stuff seems to have been cut out or changed, since Arwen leaves Rivendell seemingly on her own, and Elrond takes counsel instead with Galadriel from afar.
Now whether some of this will manifest itself in one way or another in the Extended Edition or in ROTK, I don't know, and I can't guess. Arwen's storyline seems to have gone through very severe and varied changes throughout the production and even post-production of the movies, so who knows now what part she will play ahead. She was suppose to be at Helm's Deep at first, but they cut her out in the post-production, and so it seems her original role has been completely restructured.

There are yet too many unanswered questions, and unless more evidence is given before December, I guess I'll wait to see the movie for myself (sigh).