[alatar]

Originally Posted by Essex

It's Dagorlad not Dagorland!!!!!!!

Dagorland is the Fourth Age Amusement Park outside Mordor.

but sufice to say, these people are at War, gollum pretty much looks like an Orc to me, he was fighting against these peole tooth and nail, so I don't really mind that much what they're doing - they are softening him up for interrogation.

Even in the real world, softening up an interrogatie is debated. That aside, here's the question: Does not PJ make Gollum's betrayal of Frodo more reasonable, and also make Gollum more pitiable? If Gollum fed Frodo (or better, Faramir) to Shelob, could not one think that, well, Frodo permitted the softening up, and so deserved a bite in the neck in return? Methinks that we made the Frodo/Gollum relationship too muddy.

why do people think that men descendant of numenor have to be so kind and gentle? as Alatar stated, Aragorn himself had to soften up gollum (but we are not told exactly what he did to gollum, and therefore some of us can gloss over this)

Quoting without my books in hand, I think that Aragorn states that "he bit me, and I was not gentle" and that Gollum would never love the Ranger. He also states that he tames Gollum using food and water as a rod. I don't read into this much, and I don't see Aragorn pounding on the creature. And, though I may have mentioned this, book Faramir states that he wouldn't even try to trap an orc with a falsehood (or something). My impression, therefore, is that Faramir is more noble (as are his men) in the books than in the movie. Well, you might say, being all nice is fine, but in the real world you have to soften prisoners up a bit. But, with Balrogs amd elves and wizards, we are NOT in the real world, and so I want my heroes to adhere to fantastic rules of engagement. And, as noted here, "Excessively loose rules of engagement can facilitate the escalation of a conflict which, while being tactically effective, negates the political objectives that the use of force was meant to achieve." PJ, attempting to be tactically effective, lost the war as I felt bad for Gollum, who has, at least as far as we know, murdered one person - and a friend at that.

PJ is bringing us into the real world here showing the beating of Gollum. What was that saying about "Love and War" again......?

Again, this is fantasy.

Glad that you're back.