Are your friends also LOTR geeks?

Huuuuuuuuge ones. Hence our desire to go over there.

Because SA's comments and the lack of Dom and Billy to smack him down ruined the actors' commentary on TTTEE for me.

Eek! I didn't mean to ruin. Sorry!

So happy that it's the DomBilleh commentary for RotK! They were so cute and funny together, and while I loved all four of them together, Elijah and Sean get a bit tiring with their constant talky meat-ness. Billy and Dom know the value of a good funny.

You didn't ruin -- they did -- I've already heard SA (Sean Astin) pontificating.

Ahhhhhhh. I get it now. Heh.

Whew. First post in this thread, having made it to the end, and I want to ask something.

I mean, I really enjoyed ROTK. I was majorly impressed by Gondor, which looked just the way I thought it should, and loved Merry and Pippen, and was very glad Gimli got to be badass, instead of just comic relief. And I was inexpressibly relieved that the ending had 'well, I'm back', and was good, and I wasn't even bored by the battles.

But (you knew that was coming), I couldn't stand the stuff with Sam and Frodo and Gollum that was just made up. Gollum turning Sam against Frodo, and Sam leaving. It was out of character and complelety unneccesary, and just made me furious. So I'd really like to know, am I alone on this? Did it bug people?

So I'd really like to know, am I alone on this? Did it bug people?

Not alone, yes bugged. Ten page screed omitted, but said screed talks about hating addiction as metaphor (again, still), among other things.

I also enjoyed the movie very much, bring on the EEs, but PJ, stay on target. Sheesh.

The additions didn't bug me as much as I'd've thought they might. (I reserved my buggedness mostly for Eowyn. More despair, dammit! Well, Eowyn and wishing they'd drop about twenty minutes of battle footage.) I think what I really missed, though, was the audience bait-and-switch on the Ring. I regret that we didn't get to see Sam's temptation.

IIRC, Faromir was not ever tempted to keep the Ring for Gondor in the book. That bugged me a lot while watching.

It bugged me that he wasn't tempted in the book. So that change didn't bother me -- especially since it seemed a very different sort of temptation.

I guess in the movie, Faromir was tempted to take the Ring to prove himself to his father. And I think it helped further the idea of how powerful the Ring really was, but I didn't think it was necessary.

It bugged me that he wasn't tempted in the book.

It always bugged me as well. I am more than OK with the movie change. Same w/Sam and Frodo - actually I was watching FotR EE day before yesterday and during the scene at the end when he rescues him from drowning I got all sad thinking about Frodo making Sam leave in RotK.

Speaking of FotR - I know Pippin is the one we are supposed to be most worried will not have the courage to fight when the time comes (in the book especially because of Elrond's warning we are supposed to be afraid he is gonna buy it at any moment- but also in the movie there are shades of this) Galadriel tells him that he will "find his courage" and all. But - dude - he is courageous the whole time! He gets on the cave trolls head (w Merry) and attacks it (at that point it's just him) so Legolas can kill it, he comes out of the hiding place first to stop Frodo from leaving, he attacks the Urak-Hai with the same bloodlust/revenge that Merry does.

I'm not saying he missed his calling as a mercenary or anything, but his displays of courage in FotR *almost* make his freaked-outedness not really buyable for me when he attacks the orc during the seige at Minas Tirith in hindsight.