Hmm.. Looks like I'll have to see the movie again.

The only place I cried was Theoden's death.

Oh, and I thought that Denethor's death was handled much better in the book. It's one change that I'm seriously unhappy about.

And they had the same Swordmaster as The Princess Bride. Sweet.

I think he is actually the only swordmaster in the entire world. Or whenever he dies they replace him immediately with a new model. He also did the rapier fights in The Count of Monte Cristo (the recent one), and in that case, one of the fighters really was left-handed. (Jim Caviezel.) I think they made him fight right-handed anyway; I can't remember.

IIRC, you can use an iron and a stamp-type thingy to emboss velvet. Just have to find/make a stamp of the inscription. (no I've never done it, just saw it on a website somewhere)

I do it all the time (embossing velvet). The problem is that fine details don't always turn out well. I still want to try it.

Yes, in the book Frodo did have a massive bruise from the spear in Moria. It makes sense that what we're seeing as a scar is actually the discoloring bruise from the spear, since instead of having the full month in Lothlorien to heal, they only had a couple of days. If you think about it, there's less than three weeks between Gandalf's fall and Shelob's Lair (I'm guesstimating three days between the fall and leaving Lothlorien, another three on the river, three days between Amon Hen and meeting Gollum, about a week before Osgiliath, two days between Osgiliath and Minas Morgul, and another day climbing the stairs and entering the Lair).

It makes sense that what we're seeing as a scar is actually the discoloring bruise from the spear

As a self-declared bruise expert, that still doesn't make sense to me. Bruises don't make scar tissue. And I swear that was 3D. Or at least in as many Ds as the Weathertop scar.

Maybe the mithril vest had been ground into his skin by the spear?

I'm frantically fanwanking scar tissue now, aren't I?

It looked 3-D (raised, uneven) to me, too. And was really far too big to be Shelob's "stinger", unless she stung him 6 inches deep, right into his heart! I can't think of what else it would be, though. I think it was set just high enough to miss the mithril armor, although, hello, they could have just had him get stabbed in the (front of?) the neck and avoided that issue entirely.

Textually, the only scars Frodo carries are Shelob's sting and the Morgul-blade. And he celebrates each anniversary with a day in bed, moaning.

ita's right about the stinger wound having to be below the mithril shirt, or the mithril would have stopped it, too. I can accept massive bruising--how not, from that sort of blow. But it wouldn't have left a scar. So, no cave-troll spear, no spider-sting. What then? Stray fireworks spark?

Oh and Haldir was played by the lovely and talented Craig Parker.

I think in the book Frodo has a bruise at least from where the orc spear hits him. But I don't have it here so I may be wrong.

Yes, in the book, while he is not impaled by the spear, because of the mithril, he's still wounded quite badly by it. (It's rather analgous to being shot while wearing a bulletproof vest. The bullet doesn't go through you, making a bad hole, but it will still give a very deep-tissue bruise, and hurt a LOT.)

On each anniversary of all three wounds (Weathertop, Moria, Shelob's sting), Frodo becomes dark, morose, and almost ill. It's one of the things that drives him to the Grey Havens to take that journey.

On the anniversary of the Ring's destruction each year, he becomes overthrown with despair, and again bed-ridden and sort of feverish, desperate to have the Ring back.

(Whitefonted for non-booky people)

Book stuff doesn't need to be whitefonted, though, right? Just film stuff? Visuals, changes, and the like?

Anyhoo -- Sean -- I'm not sure -- are you saying the bruise would or wouldn't look like a scar?