Greetings and well met,<P> I've read all of these posts and I can't get over the fact that these films are being vilified before anyone has seen them. I mean to say, you can only get so much out of a web page, a trailer, and magazine articles. In 1939 a critic who reviewed the "Wizard of Oz" called it "silly and unimaginative." And he SAW the damn movie! I first read "The Hobbit," followed immediately by the Trilogy <I>after</I> I had seen the Bakshi version, and I still had a different conception of the characters in my head when I read the books. So, in my eyes, that part of the argument is moot. <P> Tom Bombadil will surely be missed, but for the sake of getting viable interpretations of these wonderful tales onto film and bringing what we dearly love to another level, then I can part with Bombadil for a while. If I really need a Bombadil "fix," I'll just pick up one of my editions of FotR and read it again. <P> The "problem" with the hobbits of the Fellowship aquiring weapons is a non-entity as far as I'm concerned. They could have gotten them anywhere. The "problem" that arises is the fact that the Old Forest and the Barrow-downs are the first cognizant predicaments that the Ringbearer and his companions find themselves in. I know that the Nazgúl are chasing them, but they are not sure who they are and really don't encounter them until Weathertop, whereas Old Man Willow actually captures Meriadoc and Peregrin. Which reminds me: I don't hear anyone getting all bent out of shape over the absence of Old Man Willow. No Bombadil, no Old Man Willow. No Barrow downs, no Barrow-wights. Sad? Yes. The end of the world? Hardly. <P> The era in which these works were conceived, we must remember, was an era in which the "woman" was generally a stay-home person, and not involved with the trials and tribulations of the daily grind, at least on a sociological level. The inclusion of Éowyn in the "Battle of the Pelennor Fields" was somewhat of a departure from the norm. <P> Today, women are just as much a part of the daily grind as men, therefore, the inclusion of Arwen will only serve to attract a larger female audience (as well as the males who dig Liv Tyler!), and possibly add a new dimension to the story itself. The bottom line to the producers of these films, a sad reality, is ticket sales. I, myself, as I grew older, sometimes wondered why the women of Middle-earth didn't play a larger role, but was content, and still am, with LotR as it is. Canon is one thing, artistic license is another, and economics makes the world go round.<P> So, see the movies, or don't see the movies, the choice is yours and no one can say different. However, on December 19th, a large group of my friends and I will be in the audience with our popcorn (and half-a-bag on, with the grace of Ilúvatar) to see our beloved tales come to life. Whether we walk away raving about the cinematic masterpiece we just viewed, or ranting about what a load of tripe we wasted our hard earned cash to see, remains to be seen. I've waited for more than two decades. I'll take my chances.
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