August 8, 2002

Re: Which Two Towers? and Balrog Flight
Fingolfin

Hey, good change of tunes there, Matthew. I believe that Jackson made Barad-Dur the other tower in parallel to Orthanc because he didn't really want to confuse the general public. If he had said Minas Morgul (which was only mentioned and shown once in the movie when Saruman said to Gandalf that the 9 had ridden from Minas Morgul) people would have been utterly confused, whereas it is repeatedly said that Barad-Dur is the fortress of Sauron. I can imagine one of my best friends (who has only seen FoTR never read any of the books) watching TTT or the trailer and saying 'what in the heck is Minas Morgul?' I'd probably need to do a lot of explaining what Minas Morgul is and its importance etc., whereas since the trailer ane the movie are saying Barad-Dur is the other tower, my friend, and probably every other simple movie-goer, would say 'ohhhhh right Sauron's fortress...' Basically PJ just wants to dumb it down for all of the non-readers out there who are much more numerous than us readers, and I trust him to do a jolly good job as he did with FoTR.

Also, I just wanted to add a little piece of evidence that Balrogs cannot fly. During the Fall of Gondolin, 2 Balrogs fell to their deaths. Gothmog by the hand of Ecthelion, and another Balrog to Glorfindel. If Balrogs could fly, when they fell wouldn't they just soar away laughing at the falling Elves? I certainly would think so, in my opinion the wings of the Balrog (which are certainly there) are just a means of intimidation.

Just a few thoughts,

Fingolfin