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I know... and losing the scouring as we know it sounds like a big hole in the story to me at this point too... but we don't know enough yet to formally freak out. The movie will have an end. Peter loves the story, and will be doing something that will please the fans. Before FoTR, I was freaking about changes along with everyone else. But after FoTR, he has earned benefit of the doubt from me this time around. I don't think I will be disapointed in what they put out there come 2003.

Okay, here's a question...

Why let the cat out of the bag so early on? PJ surely knew it would be controversial, so did he admit the Scouring was out in order to prepare us for it? Or did he kind of want to know what fan reaction would be to its removal?

losing the scouring as we know it sounds like a big hole in the story to me at this point too.

I will miss the scouring very badly, since in some ways, it shows on a more concrete level a major point of the story, that the result of fighting evil may be the irreperable loss of what we value. But I think that this is a necessary decision due to the requirements of dramatic structure.

If Overtaxed was over here she could comment on this more knowledgeably than I, but we all know that when a drama reaches its climax it is important to finish the story and get everybody off stage as quickly as possible. This is even more important for a story which is highly dramatic in form, like LOTR. The climax of this story is the destruction of the Ring, and the coronation of the King. The scouring fits in literature, but it would be dreadfully anti-climactic in a motion picture.