June 2, 2002

Moria and One More Thing on Offended People
Kailam

I have a feeling they've stopped posting my messages, as this is the 3rd I've written in 4 days and none have yet been posted, but oh well! I still keep stubbornly a-typing anyway!

Firstly, about Moria - I got the impression from the movie that Gandalf, as well as Saruman, don't actually know what EXACTLY happened in Moria. It seems that they both know (somehow) that there is a Balrog down there somewhere, but they don't necessarily know that orcs occupy the mines and have killed off all the dwarves. That would explain why Gandalf is hesitant to go in, but decides it may be worth the risk, and that NO ONE else in the fellowship has a clue that there's even a problem. Gandalf could be privvy to the Balrog info, but no one else may even be aware of it's existence. Then, they get there, find out there's a whole lot more going on than just a sleepy Balrog roaming around, and Gandalf thinks to himself "yeah, this was a bad idea." What do you think?

Also, of course, because I can't leave well enough alone, I have to mention one more thing about this ongoing "offensive" argument. I just got finished writing a hippy-like "can't we all get along" article, but I wanted to follow up on that. Everyone here seems to have taken Tavra and Co's side in this "debate", with good reason as Diana did say some things that were way out of line. However Please keep in mind that this whole thing started with Tavra asking everyone to stop posting "complaints" about the movie. This is a forum for expressing our thoughts and opinions about the movie, and, as Tavra and others have mentioned, there should be no restrictions on what opinions we express or how we express them, so long as we do not attack others. Yes, Diana's reaction was inappropriate, but Tavra's original request is also WAY out of line. If you want to advocate free speech, free complaining comes with it. If you don't like the articles, you must find it within yourself to NOT ask everyone to stop submitting their opinions, but instead skip over them, as I have done so with MANY of these argument articles. Again, thank you for your time.