[Lily Bracegirdle]

Lalaith, I agree that the fan reaction to the changes in Arwen's character had a nasty edge to it. That was wrong. Some of those people were just rude and immature, in my opinion. I also had misgivings about Liv Tyler when I first heard about her, because I had only seen her in one movie and wasn't sure she could act well enough to be stacked up against the likes of Ian McKellan and Elijah Wood, who I thought were great actors. I was wrong. She did a wonderful job and deserves a lot of credit. I think many people at first thought she was wrong for the part and voiced their opinions loudly. The changes in the plot only aggravated their malcontent and they got mean about it.<P>David Wenham was different. I had never heard of him, so had no preconceived notions about his abilities as an actor. After seeing him, I was extremely displeased with his part and was fairly vocal about it. I still don't like Movie Faramir and I don't know if I ever will. However, I'm not (I hope) immature and rude, and I think most fans who appreciate Faramir tend not to be the type who lash out wildly. We understand that it's not the actor's fault if the screenwriters screw up.<P>Going back to an earlier topic, I think Arwen's role was originally beefed up not to pacify feminists, but as a way to keep Arwen fresh in the moviegoers' minds. In the book she kind of shows up at the end to be the token bride, and it's only after one reads the appendices that one really appreciates her. PJ & co couldn't risk having Arwen out of the Two Towers movie the way she was in the books and at the beginning didn't intend to use the appendices, so they jury-rigged a way for her to appear. Once they realized what a bad idea it was, they went back to Appendix A and made things a bit more canon. That was much better. <P>Two other changes in Arwen's character that I didn't like were the "tied to the Ring" thing and her vision of Eldarion. The first was just random and added nothing to the movie. ("Arwen's life depends on the fate of the Ring? Yeah, hers and everyone else's, moron!") IMO, the "I'm leaving, oh, wait I'll go back if I get to have a baby" implication cheapened the relationship between Arwen and Aragorn. She should never have considered leaving. Having her do what she did made it look like her elvish biological clock had taken over her mind. ("I'm almost 3000! My ovaries are shriveling!") Ugh.<P>-Lily