Still forming your own images of Middle-earth, or stuck with Elijah and co.?

[VanimaEdhel]

Actually I was convinced there were 2 Asfaloths ..... one in close ups one in long shots (again understanderble since Liv Tyler was another novice) seems to have different markings if not different breeds...... and in half the shots he is overbent and int he others he has normal head carriage.....

But, then again, you can make any horse carry his head like that. The stunt double would certainly have been much more comfortable riding, and would have let the head out. Whereas Liv Tyler said that, when she was on the horse, she was pulling back with a lot of force the whole time. A lot of the riding where you just see her pumping her arms was apparently done on a model of a horse as well. I seem to recall that she said that the only scene where she was really doing the riding is where she mounted behind Frodo and urged Asfaloth forward. The rest was the stunt rider or Liv on a model.

Back to the head carriage, that overbent neck, as I said, is typically a result of a rider trying to hold the horse back too much. Technically, it's not really good for the horse's motion, but many people encourage it in the horse because it has taken on the reputation as looking fancy. However, holding a horse back because he is barrelling into turns very quickly is another reason one might force such an angle of the neck. However, on the far shots, they are typically on straight bearing, a reason for the rider to let the horse's neck out and allow it to gallop - provided, of course that they keep the horse from being front-heavy and perhaps tumbling.

Now that we have covered so much else, on the topic of what you imagined, how was the clothing and armor? Some of the detailing - even down to fraying of a sleeve - was great, in my opinion. Aragorn's clothing was especially well-done, in my opinion. Then again, Viggo Mortensen did take extra care that his outfit was typically just thread-bare enough. I, personally, was not a big fan of the dress Arwen wore in Aragorn's memory, not because I did not think the dress was gorgeous, but because I, personally, thought it departed from the general Arwen style a bit too much for my liking. Others will probably disagree, but it was just not my personal preferred style for what Arwen should wear in that scene.

[Mithalwen]

I must admit it occurred to me that the rider might have had to keep the horse much more in hand for the benefit of the camera in the close ups .... and the Liv close ups are about as subtle fakes as the Frodo doll - io haven't had time to look again but I remember thinking sometimes the grey was more of an "iron grey" with darker mane and dappling on his quarters and since I knew there had been more than one Shadowfax I thought it likely that there was more than one Asfaloth..... And while it is a while since I left the horse world...I do recall that being overbent was highly frowned on ... no more than perpendicular ... Personally I think it looks horrible; as if the horse is fighting the bit, much rather the horse was going into the bridle....anyway this is getting far to technical for teh majority I guess!

I loved the elvish armour and weapons........ it was great to be able to see them close up - the only thing was I wondered if they would have used runes rather than script for engraving...? But the attention to detail was more than enough to satisfy this Tolkien pedant .....