May 24, 2002

Characters, Satisfaction, and Glamdring
Alowyn

This is my first submission, so please bear with my verbal fumblings and childish opinions. I'm 14 years old, I've read The Hobbit (twice), The Lord of the Rings (twice), The Silmarillion (once), and Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord of the Rings (once). I've also listened to the BBC radio drama of The LotR repeatedly and studied The Guide to Middle Earth. I think I know the story by now and can debate a few things.

I'm pretty disappointed with all the changes they've made. Yeah, next someone will respond saying "Well, they had to pack it into three hours so changes were necessary". But why did they make so many character changes? Aragorn for instance. In the movie he's unsure of himself, but that will only lead to disaster! If they had simply left him alone, then they wouldn't have to make so many changes in the story. Obviously in TTT they're going to spend a lot of time getting his sword to him, but originally Aragorn has it reforged in Rivendell and then takes it with him on the quest. Because of that change a lot in the next story will have to be cut out. Considering the trailer for TTT, I think they're going to change the characteristics of: Theoden, Eowyn, Eomer, Faramir, Arwen, Galadriel, Aragorn, Elladan, Elrohir, Gollum, Saruman, The Ents, Gandalf, and hundreds more.

It's funny isn't it? In the movie, Aragorn can easily fend off five Black Riders, but it takes him a much longer and more difficult time to get rid of one insignificant orc. Why did they even have that main orc? I can tell you why in one word. Satisfaction. When Lurtz(is that his name?) was killed did you hear a lot of cheering? The omly reason they had that orc was to give you some satisfaction after his beheading. After all, Gandalf gets presumably killed, Boromir is dead, Merry and Pippin are captured and nothing has been resolved of. But you can go home, slightly content, knowing that that disgusting orc has been slain. By the way, does anyone know if Saruman gets killed in TTT? Because (to me anyway) that would explain their source of satisfaction for the next movie.

This next issue is a small one, but I thought I should mention it anyway. Did anyone notice that Glamdring is supposed to glow blue when orcs are near as well? Or that they do show Sting glowing when the orcs are hacking at the door, but not when the battle is going on in Moria?