I wanna die in bed surrounded by fat grandchildren, but guess that's off the menu.

Jenny ,'Bring On The Night'


LotR - The Return of the King: "We named the *dog* 'Strider'".  

Frodo: Please, what does it always mean, this... this "Aragorn"? Elrond: That's his name. Aragorn, son of Arathorn. Aragorn: I like "Strider." Elrond: We named the *dog* "Strider".

A discussion of Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King. If you're a pervy hobbit fancier, this is the place for you.


Nutty - Mar 30, 2004 4:55:20 pm PST #2409 of 3902
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."

Um, okay, ew.

Also, camping out in the wilderness, without a tent, in winter, not exactly conducive to the tender loving, you know? Also, hello to the Hobbit-audience. I could never get past the logistical problems to even think about the psychological dynamics.


§ ita § - Mar 30, 2004 5:04:32 pm PST #2410 of 3902
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

I could never get past the logistical problems to even think about the psychological dynamics.

Well, there's always the running off. There must have been some running off.

Or perhaps the hobbits are pervy little slash-fancying voyeurs.


esse - Mar 30, 2004 10:45:58 pm PST #2411 of 3902
S to the A -- using they/them pronouns!

'Nother question: in the second movie, how did the trees know to go to Helm's Deep? I mean, I know from the books that there is stuff that happens that leads up to the trees being there, but none of that exposition shows up in the movie. Are the trees and the Ents telepathic with each other? (This might be an unanswerable question.)

Are Denethor and Aragorn the same age?

On an unrelated note, my mum informed me this afternoon that instead of going to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I'm going to the dentist to get cavities filled. In what world is this fair?


Elena - Mar 31, 2004 12:35:16 am PST #2412 of 3902
Thanks for all the fish.

Did the Hurons go to Helm's Deep in the movie? In the book some Ents are herding them, and I think that they went because either Gandalf requested or Treebeard offered.


Frankenbuddha - Mar 31, 2004 4:30:15 am PST #2413 of 3902
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"

So I noticed an announcement this morning that Jack Black was going to be starring as Carl Denham, with Naomi Watts, in PJ's King Kong remake.

Say what?


Beverly - Mar 31, 2004 6:08:17 am PST #2414 of 3902
Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.

No, the Hurons ambushed the British guard and the Monroe women on the march to Fort William Henry.

Sorry. Watched Mohicans this past weekend.


Jeff Mejia - Mar 31, 2004 6:50:56 am PST #2415 of 3902
"Don't think of yourself as an organic pain collector racing towards oblivion." Dogbert to Dilbert

'Nother question: in the second movie, how did the trees know to go to Helm's Deep? I mean, I know from the books that there is stuff that happens that leads up to the trees being there, but none of that exposition shows up in the movie.

In the books, Gandalf met with Treebeard and Treebeard decided that the Huorns would help out at Helm's Deep. We don't see any of this conversation in the movie, but the Exteneded Edition does show the Huorns gobbling up the Orcs as they flee from Helm's Deep.

Are the trees and the Ents telepathic with each other? (This might be an unanswerable question.)
Not exactly. The analogy used in the books is that the Ents are to shepherds as the trees are to sheep. There was a process where Ents became tree-ish to the point where they rarely moved, and trees that grew "Ent-ish", becoming much more active and atagonistic towards moving creatures.

Are Denethor and Aragorn the same age?

Pretty close. Aragorn was 4 years older than Denethor. Which makes Denethor 83 at the time of the War. Hmm. I wouldn't have guessed that Denethor was that old, from either the book or the movie portrayal. I thought that the "Numenorean longevity" for the people of Gondor had diminished more than that by the time of the books. You learn something new every day.


Nutty - Mar 31, 2004 7:42:23 am PST #2416 of 3902
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."

Well, I mean, there is not being a doddering old man at 83, and then there is living 200 years. My granddad is in his early 80s, and far from doddering, although he was a lot more physically hale at 70 (though even then he probably couldn't have run a mile while on fire). Denethor can still be quasi-Numenorean -- after all, he is far-sighted -- without being Strider's true equal.

As for the Huorns, the way the movie sets it up, it looked like the trees just followed the trail of the Uruk army from Isengard. I mean, 10,000 guys at 100 abreast don't exactly fail to leave footprints, and the shot of Treebeard + Hobbits looking at the tree army is right near Isengard.


esse - Mar 31, 2004 9:30:41 am PST #2417 of 3902
S to the A -- using they/them pronouns!

The analogy used in the books is that the Ents are to shepherds as the trees are to sheep. There was a process where Ents became tree-ish to the point where they rarely moved, and trees that grew "Ent-ish", becoming much more active and atagonistic towards moving creatures.

Yeah--I was just trying to figure out how they'd worked that out in the movie, because they didn't show anything of how that happens. There's a bit of exposition about what an Ent is, and Merry says that they're tree-herders, but in the bit of EE they devote to the movement of the Hurons to Helm's Deep, Pippin and Merry point out that the trees are moving, and Treebeard says that they've got business with the orcs of Helm's Deep. I guess it just made me wonder what dialogue they cut out, to explain how the Hurons knew to move to Helm's Deep if the Ents weren't herding them there, if they were destroying Isengard.

it looked like the trees just followed the trail of the Uruk army from Isengard.

Hm. Point. Maybe the movie is crediting them more more conscious intelligence and sentience than I am.

I wouldn't have guessed that Denethor was that old, from either the book or the movie portrayal.

Me either--John certainly didn't look that old.


sumi - Mar 31, 2004 12:12:06 pm PST #2418 of 3902
Art Crawl!!!

There was some tension between Denethor and Thorongil too, wasn't there?

(Plus -- Aragorn/Thorongil was another of Mithrandir's favorites and Denethor never liked him.)

Also, I noticed on TORN that various college campuses are having trilogy showings (UVM, St Olaf).