May 23, 2002

Re: The Twin Towers, To Be Or Not To Be
Richard P.

In response to Sarah. Firstly, you say that Aragorn shouts Earendil... well, you see, this just doesn't make sence to me, as in the book, whenever Aragorn is about to go into a battle, or when he draws his sword he shouts Elendil. This is because Elendil is his direct Numenorean ancestor. Now, IMHO, Jackson would have had Aragorn shout this, because that is what it says in the book, and what Jackson was trying to do with direct quotes like these in the film was to placate the real "hardcore" Tolkien fans. Why then would Jackson decide to change it to Earendil, surely that is just going to wind us up more. Perhaps its possible that as Aragorn was jumping off something big and killing Orcs at the same time his words got a bit muffled. All the same I like to think that what he did shout was Elendil... because in the BOOK (and thats whats most important to me) Aragorn never ONCE shouts Earendil as he goes into battle or draws his sword.

Now, onto the levitation thing.....

When you say that the Balrog was an intelligent creature, I have to disagree with you. The Balrogs are creatures of destruction on an almost instinctive level. They are not particularly intelligent, their delight is in destruction, and that only. You are right to say that the Balrogs are Maiar, but remember they are corrupt Maiar. They have given over their free will in order to destroy, and that is all they know or do. Tolkien himself said it.
I prefer to think that Gandalf knew that the Balrog needed to be killed, so that Sauron could not find it and use it, or so that it could not get out and do damage on its own, or so that it was not still there when Sauron was defeated. You say that both of them knew that one of them had to die. I disagree. The Balrog fled from Gandalf, because it was afraid of him. Gandalf knew the Balrog had to die, the Balrog just knew that it didn't want to die, and it ran. Then when it had nowhere else to go it turned like an animal at bay and fought for its life and lost.
I think this also answers the Balrog wing question, if the Balrog could have flown off of Zirak Zigil I think it would have... it knew Gandalf for what he was and knew that once Gandalf was bent on its destruction it wasn't going to get away.

Finaly on the whole, "should it be called the Two Towers" thing.... I completly agree with you.