PJ's Sauron

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

That is very true gorthaur. Peter Jackson's now-famous 'Darth Vader' analogy never made any sense to me. He claimed that we needed to see Sauron in the films. However, I always found Sauron to be particularly effective in the book because we never met him first-hand. There was terror enough in our own imagination.

[The Only Real Estel]

That is very true gorthaur. Peter Jackson's now-famous 'Darth Vader' analogy never made any sense to me. He claimed that we needed to see Sauron in the films. However, I always found Sauron to be particularly effective in the book because we never met him first-hand. There was terror enough in our own imagination.

Precisely. What you don't see can easily be equally effective as what you do see. Besides, now that PJ has gone out on a limb & claimed that we 'needed to see the bad guy' (Sauron of course), where is the bad guy that we needed to see so badly? Obviously he didn't mean more shots of the eye atop Barad-dur . I haven't heard any explanations or reasonings for his sudden change in philosophy (though I'm sure certainly grateful for it!).

The limb is cracking...

[Essex]

Estel, in answer to your point

I haven't heard any explanations or reasonings for his sudden change in philosophy

please see my post above. This was only said half in jest. I actually meant what I said in a roundabout way. I believe his main scriptwriters managed to talk him out of having the aragorn / sauron fight. In the end they reasoned with him that such a change to the book would be seen as sacriligeous, and unforgivable. In the end he saw sense.

PS re the eye / spirit / bodily form of Sauron. If we DID see Sauron in a 'bodily' form during ROTK, then we would have no doubt seen the Aragorn / sauron fight. There would have been no way (to the non readers of the book) that he wouldn't have come out for a fight with Aragorn if he had a body. Perhaps there were scenes filmed of Sauron in his physhical form during rotk, but were edited out.

I, it seems for one, am happy with the final version of Sauron in these films. ie as an all seing Eye. Who cares if people say it looks like a light house in one scene. Just accept it and live with it...........

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Jackson could have made Aragorn blonde. Would you, Essex, argue in that case that we should just accept it and live with it?

[The Only Real Estel]

please see my post above. This was only said half in jest. I actually meant what I said in a roundabout way. I believe his main scriptwriters managed to talk him out of having the aragorn / sauron fight. In the end they reasoned with him that such a change to the book would be seen as sacriligeous, and unforgivable. In the end he saw sense.

It is a possibility, Essex. But if it was so important to scare us all by telling us we had to see Sauron & that was all there was to it, is it not so important to explain, at the very least to the non-book audience, why PJ decided to leave him out? Maybe he's going to say a bit about it in the RotK EE, but some of the explanations they give in the EE material leave me cringing & wishing I had the opportunity to ask them just a few questions .

[gorthaur_cruel]

PS re the eye / spirit / bodily form of Sauron. If we DID see Sauron in a 'bodily' form during ROTK, then we would have no doubt seen the Aragorn / sauron fight. There would have been no way (to the non readers of the book) that he wouldn't have come out for a fight with Aragorn if he had a body. Perhaps there were scenes filmed of Sauron in his physhical form during rotk, but were edited out.

If they just didn't show Sauron at all, we wouldn't have that problem. Even if they did show Sauron with a body, I think the non-book-readers would realise that Dark Lords are lords, not knights. And that he'd have learned his lesson from the Second Age.

[Essex]

Eomer. re

Jackson could have made Aragorn blonde. Would you, Essex, argue in that case that we should just accept it and live with it?

Yes I COULD live with Aragorn being blonde. It doesn't really matter. (But I must admit it took a bit of getting used to with Malfoy having blonde hair in the HP films. I always thought of him having black hair, but then going back on the books, I realised it WAS blonde).

But as I said it doesn't matter. Aragorn blonde? Why not! Anyway, as the JRR himself tells us about Aragorn, he had a "....shaggy head of dark hair necked with grey, and in a pale stem face a pair of keen grey eyes."

Was Viggo's hair 'shaggy', necked with grey, and did he have keen grey eyes? Who cares? As long as the character was well written and acted well, that is what counts for. Not his hair colour.

I'm just glad that the main thing people seem to be moaning about re ROTK is Sauron's Eye and lighthouse effect. It goes to show what a marvellous film it is if this is the main thing we can think to argue about!