May 24, 2002

Cut Arwen Some Slack!
Lady of Rohan

As a self-described LOTR purist, I admit I was a little miffed with a few of the changes Peter Jackson made. (i.e. the cutting of Tom Bombadil, the shortened journey to Bree, the fact that so far not one song has been included).

Undoubtedly, the most controversial issue about FOTR is Arwen's taking the place of Glorfindel. When I first found out about this change, I was really sore, to say the least.

But after seeing FOTR four times I got to thiinking. How else is the audience going to know about the deep feelings of love between Aragorn and Arwen. And, to PJ's credit, I thought the "ford" scene was handled really well. It seemed to me that if Prof. Tolkien HAD written it with Arwen instead of Glorfindel, the scene would have been very similar to how it was in the movie.

In other words, the characters were still in line with how they are in the book, only in a different situation. I mean, it's not like Aragorn and Arwen were all getting freaky in the woods while Frodo slowly withered away...never mind.

Besides, they DID have the waves turn into horses in the river! How cool is that! (Well, I guess Gandalf did it in the book, and Arwen did it in the movie...never mind.)

So that's my little(?) defense of Arwen in FOTR. How she is handled in the next movies remains to be seen. (grumble, grumble, grumble)