May 18, 2002

Arwen and Boredom
Kailam

Anthony: I think your new topic idea is an interesting one. Some have complained in this forum about Saruman being protrayed in the movies as merely a henchman of Sauron, when in the books he was much more interested in power for himself due to the Ring's corruption. Given the fact that he has seemingly raised his Orcs to serve him alone gives me hope that, as the series develops, we may find that he, in fact, IS after his own glory, but he just hasn't exposed that fact as of yet. Maybe he didn't know the palantir was "on", so to speak, but that small dialogue exchange between him and Lurtz may foreshadow some grander, back-stabbing design that Saruman has in mind.

As for Arwen, I know this little debate has been going on for some time (as I'm sure it will be for some time to come), but I think Brett C. is right on the money with his thoughts. For many readers, Arwen's complete lack of development in the books made for a rather confusing and "out-of-nowhere" ending to ROTK. I found myself thinking "where the hell did this woman come from?" during Aragorn's wedding. I found the scene even more deflating since the text made me feel as though I was supposed to KNOW that this was coming - like it was OBVIOUS that Aragorn and Arwen were going to get married at the end of the book. Well, maybe I'm a moron but it wasn't obvious to me.

I feel like, with Arwen, Jackson took a weak character from the books who was MEANT to have an important role in the story and placed that character in her correct context. In the movie it's very obvious that Arwen is Aragorn's love and inspiration. This serves not only to "straighten" the plot for those who would otherwise be lost about who this character is, but also, by replacing Glorfindel, to streamline the story and reduce the enormous number of names and characters that the viewer needs to become familiar with. Let us not forget that when reading a book, if a new character or place is introduced, we can take all the time we need to get familiar with the new name and the impact this person/place has on the plot. In a movie, you must move forward constantly. It can become overwhelming to have to familiarize yourself with tons of people and places in a short timespan. Jackson's decision for Arwen was right for this movie in a number of ways. So there!