Lord of the Rings fans unite!

[TechnoWraith]

Exactly how obsessed are some of you?

You asked for it, so you're getting it!

-$7,000 spent (so far) on LotR Replica weaponry, and memoriabilia (with more on the way).
-A trip to New Zealand for the World Premiere of Return of the King.
-Every DVD edition (both theatrical and Extended Edition) of LotR.
-A comedy-spoof of LotR made with 6 other friends, and lots of plywood and cardboard! (The spoof's like an hour long, recorded on VHS-tape. Haven't found and/or acquired the appropriate hardware to get the the VHS-to digital file format yet).
-A new hobby, thanks to Legolas. (Archery)

[Lee]

You asked for it, so you're getting it!

-$7,000 spent (so far) on LotR Replica weaponry, and memoriabilia (with more on the way).
-A trip to New Zealand for the World Premiere of Return of the King.
-Every DVD edition (both theatrical and Extended Edition) of LotR.
-A comedy-spoof of LotR made with 6 other friends, and lots of plywood and cardboard! (The spoof's like an hour long, recorded on VHS-tape. Haven't found and/or acquired the appropriate hardware to get the the VHS-to digital file format yet).
-A new hobby, thanks to Legolas. (Archery)

Um...yes, you are obsessed! If I had that much money I would have spent it on LOTR by now. I also have all of the DVD versions of the movies. So far I still have you beat in the way of productions though, the play we did was two hours. I own Glamdring and Sting and a couple non-LOTR swords. And (shocker) I also have developed a thing for archery.

[GEWbert]

I like to consider myself a LOTR fan, but i'm not quite as serious as some of the crazy people out there. I don't have $7000 worth of weaponry

[iLemon]

I am fan too, though not crazed
I havent got $7000 to spend on weaponry

[twiggy]

There are quite a number of Lord of the Rings fans around the forum...

Huge fan of Legolas... Orlando did a great job of portraying the character...

Huge fan of Faramir... Love David Wenham but peeved with the writers for changing the Faramir arc in the movie...

Huge fan of Gandalf

Got the trilogy in one volume, Alan Lee's illustrated version of the trilogy, EE boxsets for all three... are we fans?... yup...

Yes... we have also read The Silmarillion...

yes, i'm a HUGE fan of LOTR, i'm not so much a fan of legolas; HECK YES, i'm a fan of DAVID WENHAM! he's really awesome and i didn't like the writers for completely changing him!; gandalf was ok, pretty good for an old guy, but not quite as intimidating as i imagined him; read all three books about 5-6 times each; and YES i've read the silmarillion twice. lol, i'd call myself a little on the obsessed side.

[Easter Lily]

I like to consider myself a LOTR fan, but i'm not quite as serious as some of the crazy people out there. I don't have $7000 worth of weaponry

Even if I had $7000 worth of weaponry I wouldn't have the faintest idea what to do with all of them... I know Orlando looks very cool with that bow and arrow but the only shooting I'd do is... myself... in the foot...

I'm a fan but not to point of death... I don't think...

[Chaka's_Mum]

Talking of weaponry, I always rather fancied a replica of Hadhafang - that was such a beautifully designed sword, all curves and art nouveau. Gorgeous.

I sometimes wish I'd picked one up when I was in Austria a couple of years ago, there was this gift shop in the Getreidegasse in Salzburg which was selling the whole replica collection. They weren't that expensive, either - only a couple of hundred quid. Unfortunately, I would then have had to get on a plane with it to get back to the UK, and that would have meant paying VAT and getting it checked in as baggage and stuff. I fancied the sword - but not that much...

[Ancient 1]

I'm just glad the movies were made. I read the books a long time ago, and I tell you: that was some dry, and at times, boring reading. The overall plot & idea was great, but I find Tolkein a bit long-winded. JMHO, naturally.

[Lee]

Out of curiosity, has anyone noticed any funny bloopers from the films? I've already mentioned Leggie's eye color problems, so that doesn't count.

[Tarrifist]

Im a fan. Also enjoyed the movies but not completely. Some parts of them I think they messed up and becomes more apparant after watching them several times. With that said, I do think they did a fair job.

Some things I think were wrong to change:
1. This anger/hatered that Elrond has for Men. Strange in the novels he wasnt. In fact Elrond used to be a Man.

2. At the council Elrond sees Merry and Pippin rush in, yet Elrond is looking to far behind them...bad editing!

3. (not sure on this one) Eleves have blond and silver hair, yet in ROTK near the end we can see some with black hair. Not including Arwen and Elrond here.

4. Gladraeil (sp) seems to be to unfriendly and somewhat evil in some scenes. Thats not how see came across to me in the books. Even when Bor (heh not gonna try to spell it) hinted that see was evil then Legolas puts him right.

5. Legolas never seems to run out of arrows...kinda like some ole B westrerns where the cowboys never run outta bullets.

6. The Elves never came to save Rohan at Helms Deep. Nice touch but uncalled for. Rohan was not that weak. Before the riders were granted land, Rohan, they had thousands of riders. During the years they suffered greatly but when War of Ring began they had recovered their former strength in riders. I believe this is mentioned in Unfinished Tales.

7. The relationship between Aragorn and Arwen was only briefly touched on in the books and to much in the movies. IMO.

8. Theodend seems not to friendly, or unwilling to aid Gondor, which is not how he was in the book. He was a kindly old man who was muched loved by his people and by Merry.

Sure there are more but Im to tired to remember them. Now, dont get me wrong the movies were good but the books are still way better. I hope those who saw the movies but never read the books, will do so.

[Lee]

I agree about everything you said except the Elve's hair color. Lots of Elves had dark hair, including the great Luthien. Did you know some people believe Legolas has black hair and green eyes? Does it even say in the books?

[Easter Lily]

Im a fan. Also enjoyed the movies but not completely. Some parts of them I think they messed up and becomes more apparant after watching them several times. With that said, I do think they did a fair job.

Some things I think were wrong to change:
1. This anger/hatered that Elrond has for Men. Strange in the novels he wasnt. In fact Elrond used to be a Man.

Not strictly true... He is known in the books as Elrond the Half Elven... He is partly human due to the union of Luthien and Beren. His brothe Elros chose mortality and became the first king of the Numenoreans.

4. Gladraeil (sp) seems to be to unfriendly and somewhat evil in some scenes. Thats not how see came across to me in the books. Even when Bor (heh not gonna try to spell it) hinted that see was evil then Legolas puts him right.

I think that they took some artistic liberties with that scene but it is true that she did consider using the ring and that scenario was suppose to show what would happen if she did use the ring. Boromir was fearful of her power to see right through him and hence thought that there was something unnatural about her.

5. Legolas never seems to run out of arrows...kinda like some ole B westrerns where the cowboys never run outta bullets.

That thought also occurred to me... but DH tells me that in battle, arrows are fair game... they are plucked and picked from the dead. That's how the supply gets replenished.

6. The Elves never came to save Rohan at Helms Deep. Nice touch but uncalled for. Rohan was not that weak. Before the riders were granted land, Rohan, they had thousands of riders.

That was one of the more bizarre moments in the film... I must admit... probably a tad overdone...

7. The relationship between Aragorn and Arwen was only briefly touched on in the books and to much in the movies. IMO.

It is a fact... actually... Yeah, one of the low points of the trilogy for me... I would have preferred more emphasis on Faramir and Eowyn myself. That was disappointing.

The biggest problem I had with the movies is the way Faramir was portrayed in TTT... I can live with the rest... but I just hated the way they made Faramir turn into a greedy boy... For that reason and a whole heap of others TTT is my least favourite of the 3. I didn't appreciate the dumbing down of the Ents either.

[Chaka's_Mum]

The biggest problem I had with the movies is the way Faramir was portrayed in TTT... I can live with the rest... but I just hated the way they made Faramir turn into a greedy boy... For that reason and a whole heap of others TTT is my least favourite of the 3.

I think that was primarily to give Faramir a bit more of a 'journey' in the film. Given that he seems in the books not to be touched by any temptation to take the ring (unlike virtually everybody else - except Tom Bombadil), he might well have come across as a bit of a goody two shoes. Making him a bit more 'flawed' gave him a bit more of a dimension. I know that a lot of Faramir fans weren't happy with it, but iirc, that was PJ's explanation for the change.

The relationship between Aragorn and Arwen was only briefly touched on in the books and to much in the movies. IMO.

I know that a lot of people found Arwen's increased role surprising (me included; and it was pretty dull a lot of the time, too!) - but she appeared in TTT mainly so that people who don't know the books at all wouldn't get to the end of ROTK after three years and think 'who's that, then?'. We were lucky, though. Arwen was originally going to be fighting with the Elves at Helm's Deep. That even got filmed. They then had to cut her out after that plot event went down like a lead balloon at the test screenings...

Still, I enjoyed the moment in the ROTK EE when PJ stopped an arrow on the Corsair ship. That was cool!

[yasureubetcha]

I think that was primarily to give Faramir a bit more of a 'journey' in the film. Given that he seems in the books not to be touched by any temptation to take the ring (unlike virtually everybody else - except Tom Bombadil), he might well have come across as a bit of a goody two shoes. Making him a bit more 'flawed' gave him a bit more of a dimension. I know that a lot of Faramir fans weren't happy with it, but iirc, that was PJ's explanation for the change.

Faramir's a foil for his brother. I think the fact that he wouldn't take the ring added to his character, as a person who is not obsessed with power. His lineage might not be as great as Aragorn's, or his strength as great as Boromir's, but therefore neither is his potential to fall as great. He, who could potentially have fallen into obscurity as a lesser man, proved his greatness in another way.

What I want to know is, why didn't Aragorn leave Rivendell with Anduril? Ah yes, Elrond needed to show up to tell him to take the Paths of the Dead, so bringing the sword was an excuse to do that. But why couldn't he look in the stone and decide for HIMSELF, thereby showing some decision-making ability and some kind of fitness to be king? Ah yes, because they needed to bring in the whole Arwen-is-dying thing, to let down the non-literary fans who took the subtle hints the movie had dropped between him and Eowyn (what IS this looking-back stuff anyway? Argh...) So the moral is, there really was no good reason not to give him the sword that couldn't be solved by sticking to the book in the first place.

The fact that Aragorn didn't do much except follow advice once Gandalf returned rather irked me too. The heir of Elendil he may still have been, but his fitness to rule was not displayed well at all in the movies. And speaking of him and Eowyn...everyone I knew who saw the movies without reading the books thought he reciprocated her feelings or was at least flirting back, while the books leave no doubt that he is courteous and compassionate toward her, but nothing more.

And on the subject...the Houses of Healing. My favorite Eowyn moment is when she heals, gets over her need to die nobly (and Aragorn,) and gives her speech to Farimir ("I stand in Minas Anor, the tower of the sun, and behold! The shadow has departed...No longer do I desire to be a queen.") And none of it's there. In the theatrical version, they show up at Aragorn's coronation giving each other meaningful glances with no explanation. In the extended, there's a tiny bit of a scene...but nothing to explain how Eowyn got over Aragorn and her personal issues sufficiently to fall in love with Faramir.

Another major problem I had was the way elf/dwarf relations were portrayed in FOTR. In the book, the elves were suspicious, bigoted, and self-centered, making them as much at fault as Gimli was in the tiff in Lorien. In the movie, however, they treated him no differently from the rest of the fellowship, while Gimli (wrongly singled out to be picked on by the writers throughout all three films) was the sole instigator of hostility. This left the elves as utterly enlightened, if occasionally indifferent, guardians of sweetness and light in the galaxy, a completely inaccurate portrayal.

Finally, the Scouring of the Shire. There are insufficient symbols on a standard keyboard to express my displeasure with Peter Jackson for completely altering the ending. There is no excuse for changing what could've been thought-provoking, tragic, and heroic all at once into a happily-ever-after-except-Frodo semi-cliche.

[Easter Lily]

I'm with yasurebetcha... I know what PJ and Co. said but I still don't think it was necessary for them to give Faramir that kind of facelift and set him on that "journey". It made him no different to Boromir in the end... which was wrong... Faramir was supposed to be Boromir's opposite... everything Boromir wasn't in personality... Faramir is meant to be wise, farseeing and sensitive. It just didn't make sense to have two sons who are almost the same but only one being the father's favourite. The father favours the son who is unlike him and is antagonistic towards the one who is most like him... that is the root of their rather dyfunctional situation.

I was disappointed with how the Houses of Healing turned out in the EE also... I was really looking forward to seeing much more interaction between Eowyn and Faramir... both finding complete healing by being there for one another. I've always thought that the Faramir/Eowyn thread contained the real ove story of LOTR and it's a shame that it was sidelined in this manner.