[The Saucepan Man]

Well, all the additions/changes worked for me, with the exception of Arwen's life being tied to the fate of the Ring (unnecessary and never properly explained or justified) and the Pyre of Denethor scene. As Helen said:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> The combination of Gandalf and Shadowfax knocking palantir-less Denethor into the fire didn't do much for me, nor Denethor's skydiving. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>I thoroughly agree that the whole episode robbed him entirely of the dignity that he deserved, his film portrayal notwithstanding. And it does cast Gandalf and/or Shadowfax in a somewhat dubious light. <P>Although I have no problem with his apparent lack of any Palantir. The dire situation facing Minas Tirith, his loss of Boromir and (to all intents and purposes, in his mind) Faramir, and his guilt over his treatment of Faramir were sufficient to make his actions credible to me.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> I would have liked to see the ring melt instead of sink. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>It did. Just after it sinks, you can see the inscription momentarily etched in the lava surrounded by liquid gold. I thought that whole sequence was great.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> and people were still chuckling when Gollum said, "the fat one" for the tenth time. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Well that just goes to show that it had the desired effect, then. <P>As for Frodo telling Sam to go home, I don't have a problem with that. I have long since become accumsted to, and comfortable with, the fact that many of the film characters are different to their book counterparts, in some cases markedly so. I can still enjoy the films and appreciate their different characteristics. Frodo is one such character, so it does not bother me that he tells Sam to go home, particularly since there are episodes in the book where he acts cruelly towards Sam. In fact, it bothered me more that Sam actually set off home, perhaps because Sean Astin's Sam was, to my mind, one of the film characters that came closest to the character portrayed in the book, and I do not believe that book Sam would ever have done that. I would have preferred it had he just sat down and wept, and then resolved to follow Frodo. Finding the Lembas was unnecessary, since he already knew that it was not him who had eaten it, and he must have suspected Gollum of framing him.<p>[ 7:32 PM January 07, 2004: Message edited by: The Saucepan Man ]