Catching up:

Re: Arwen and gender roles, it's not actually the "I want a child!" bit that bothers me. Like JohnSweden said, I see the child more as a reminder to her of the mortal life she's about to give up with Aragorn, and not so much "here's how I will find fulfillment in life." JSw said "the child is symbolic of how mortals achieve immortality" and that works very well for me in the story.

God, that was depressing.

ita, do you really think so? I love "Into the West" and don't find it depressing at all, though it does make me weep copiously. It's uplifting, to me, not depressing. (I'm listening to the soundtrack now, incidentally. I don't love it as a whole like I love FOTR and TTT, but damn that's some beautiful music. Billy Boyd gives me chills every time.)

And Kathy, your tag cracks me up! Which is good, because you made me cry with the quote from Gandalf from one of the History of Middle-Earth books (Endurance Beyond Hope and Hope Unquenchable) .

I have a ticket for Saturday night! I thought for sure they'd all be sold out, but I was happy to be proven wrong.

ita, do you really think so?

Absolutely. I always felt the transition to the Age of Men to be a terrible sadness, and Valinor's just so there and we're so here.

Hmm. I certainly feel the same way about the Age of Men. But "Into the West" makes me feel like I could go to Valinor someday. No, that's not quite right. I don't fit myself into the song at all. I picture it as Sam singing it to Frodo, and that makes me happy, in a strange and weepy way. Because they will meet again someday, dammit. And meanwhile, Frodo can finally be at peace.

And meanwhile, Frodo can finally be at peace.

Over there.

Where I can't see him.

Perhaps I'm a little possessive of the characters of the story.

Maybe in a couple weeks I'll listen to it again. The pain is too new (I wish I were completely joking there, me and my silly allergies, justastory, justastory).

Over there.

Where I can't see him.

Oh, now you've gone and done it. sniff.

But! I have tickets for tomorrow's 11:00AM matinee. It's DH's last chance to see it schoolchildren and jaded dating people theatre-filled-free until after the holidays, since he works second shift, and all. We'll see it and then he'll go into work all red-eyed and weepy and have to explain himself. Heh. But he doesn't want to wait, and I want to be able to talk about it with him.

And Kathy, your tag cracks me up!

I snagged it from one of the posters at C-O-E, who put it in the "Little Things I Liked from RotK" thread, since someone else already snagged my favorite one-liner (Kate, I'm looking at you!!). All my other favorite lines are spoilers, unfortunately (" I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you!" "I know your face--Eowyn..." and "That only counts as one!" ).

The separation of Sam and Frodo at the Grey Havens was so sad, but necessary for both of their sakes. Frodo was never going to truly heal in M-E, and Sam would have never been happy seeing his best friend suffer. I always like imagining their reunion in Valinor, though--both of them old men, but Sam finally seeing a content Frodo at last, and maybe Frodo would help Sam over the loss of Rosie before they both die .

Kathy, I'm about to cry.

I really want very badly to watch the first hour of FotR right now. But it's very late. And I know I couldn't stop the movie before it was over. And then I'd have to watch TTT. And then it would be time to go to the RotK matinee. And I'd be hypersensitive and sleepless again. Um, no.

Finally saw the movie, so now I can read the whitefont!

I only got teary at the end. And I made Pete leave the theatre before the song over the closing credits could get into full verse, because I knew it would make me cry more.

Oh! I managed to watch all of the Shelob scenes without closing my eyes. I scrunched down in my seat and shook a lot, but did indeed watch the giant spider. Pete thinks that the spiders from the 2nd Harry Potter movie were actually creepier than Shelob, because the design made her more monster-like, while the spiders from HP2 were just (just! ha!) wolf spiders the size of cars. I will have to take his word for it, as I still haven't watched those scenes.

I'm in the camp of "didn't mind Liv as Arwen". When I think about all the horrible things that COULD have happened, casting-wise, I can't really get too worked up about the pretty pretty elf princess.

Yay, Jilli! Good for you!

I must to bed, so I can make the matinee tomorrow with DH. He has to go to work after, poor man.

With that I have to acknowledge that the book royally tees me off at the end when Eowyn gives that whole speech about [whitefont]

As my mother likes to say when I get going, "(smonster) took this class in Gender Issues and she's never gotten over it."

t makes out with smonster a LOT

His reason: he didn't want to see things that would make him feel like the events of the War of the Ring didn't actually take place and he felt the exhibit might do that.

Huh. Considering the detail of many of the props, they'd have exactly the opposite effect on me.

Pete thinks that [whitefont]

Jilli, first, I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!!! (It was tough for me, too). Second, I can see what Pete means when I think of Shelob's face, but I thought Shelob moved much more like a spider than the HP2 spiders. Particularly in that overhead shot, just after Frodo has left the cave, and she comes crawling out silently, above him. Her legs slpayed and moved in just the right way. It made me break into cold sweats, it did.