The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[ItsOurTimeNow]

What are your thoughts on this Trent Lott thing?

I find it amusing how the media refuses to report that both Lott and Thurmond were DEMOCRATS when they supported segregation. And yet, somehow this issue has painted Republicans as 'racist'...go figure. Revisionist, media-influenced history strikes again.

I'm disgusted by the whole ordeal. Lott is being raked over the coals for an ambiguous statement, yet Byrd got a free pass for his nationally broadcast "White N--ger" comments. Jackson gets a pass for "hymietown". Hillary got a pass for "F---ing Jew B---ard".

The double-standard is sickening.

[Overtaxed]

Was PJ telling us that Arwen actually sent the kiss and the horse to Aragorn? or was it all a vision of Aragorn's, and the horse came for his own reasons? What do you think?

I think the horse wanted dinner. :)

[RMDupree]

Oh, I am certain that a saddle was used. I was just wondering how they didn't notice Ian grabbed it while entering Edoras. :)

I saw the white line too. I suspect it was a rope halter of some sort and I saw it during the scene when Gandalf and the others were stopping at the crest that overlooks Edoras. The angle covers Shadowfax with the bodies of the other two horses and their riders. I am certain that it was done to cover the obvious saddle lines and necessary bridle at that point (since Ian was atop him).

With all that said - what a horse! Very handsome indeed. He certainly had the attitude of a King, didn't he? Talk about perfect casting! :)

[HairOfTheDog]

Brother and I talked about the fact that there may be something there... but I have not paid my dues yet. Someone has ripped a bootleg already, to be sure, but no, I haven't checked. There were be a lot of fakes, and a lot of crummy audience bootlegs out there to sort through.

A guy in line said "My brother has all three DVD's already - downloaded them off the internet" I called him on pure BS. I said, "Tell us he has a bootleg TTT and you would have a good story I might believe... But RoTK isn't even cut yet. There may be a rough cut done, but no effects. Your brother does not have all three". He stuck by his story, but didn't talk to me any more. Hopefully the next time he tells tales, he will not take it too far ;~D

[Valin]

It just seem to me that the whole thing was pasted on to the story. It struck me as artificial. It amost seems like they were thinking, well we've got all this guy stuff (battles etc) we really need to put some romance in for our female audience.

[2Jedismom]

Here they are, discussing it again in ROTK:

"In truth Faramir did not go by his own choosing. But the Lord of the City was master of his Council, and he was in no mood that day to bow to others. Early in the morning the Council had been summoned. There all the captains judged that because of the threat in the South their force was too weak to make any stroke of war on their own part, unless perchance the Riders of Rohan yet should come. Meanwhile they must man the walls and wait.

‘Yet,’ said Denethor, ‘we should not lightly abandon the outer defences, the Rammas made with so great a labour. And the Enemy must pay dearly for the crossing of the River. That he cannot do, in force to assail the City, either north of Cair Andros because of the marshes, or southwards towards Lebennin because of the breadth of the River, that needs many boats. It is at Osgiliath that he will put his weight, as before when Boromir denied him the passage.’

‘That was but a trial,’ said Faramir. ‘Today we may make the Enemy pay ten times our loss at the passage and yet rue the exchange. For he can afford to lose a host better than we to lose a company. And the retreat of those that we put out far afield will be perilous, if he wins across in force.’[ROTK JRR Tolkien, Chap.4 The Siege of Gondor]

[ksen]

The double-standard is sickening.

I agree with you. BTW, I had completely forgotten about Hillary's FJB comment.

[Valin]

Boy! And I thought I didn't have a life! :-)
Still and all good job.

[My back yard]

Well, I still have trouble with the map...

Yeah, I agree with what you said.

My daughter brought me a 2003 calendar for Christmas of the Tolkien illustrations of Ted Nasmith. What a wonderful gift. She's so cool. And all I had for her was a LOTR trading card game (but, the Aragorn starter edition!) 8^)

[ksen]

If his brother had all three DVD's then what was he doing standing in line with all the other commoners?

[Overtaxed]

A life? What's that? :)

[HairOfTheDog]

I saw the strategic placement of Legolas's horse riding up to the gate at Edoras... ;~D As for the neck rope, you can control a willing horse with a neck rope... I have done it. Did it a lot as a reckless teenager! A rope around the base of the neck can be used to turn and stop a horse that wants to cooperate. They probably used it in training and rehearsal, and removed it whenever they could for scenes where the horse could do the work without it. One thing about horses is, once you have repeated something a few times... they will anticipate cues and do the same thing again. Patterns are very easy to teach a horse. So some of the liberty shots were undoubtedly Shadowfax actually knowing the part.

[HairOfTheDog]

If his brother had all three DVD's then what was he doing standing in line with all the other commoners?

BSing the commoners!

[John Farson]

Gimli was humorous but in a detrimental way.

You never liked Gimli to begin with. :-P IMO, his scenes were humorous but not humiliating. We get to see him kick plenty of ass.

(their women are mistaken for men?? how sad is that?

That is directly from Tolkien. Why do you think Galadriel looked so attractive in comparison?

At least Dwarvish men aren't androgynous or almost feminine in appearance like their elvish counterparts.

[HairOfTheDog]

As a female, I would argue that there is not one female who went to the movie to see Arwen. The men in the audience were the ones who liked the pretty babe, not the wimmin. PJ may have put it in because HE likes romance, you know ;~D

[RMDupree]

Wasn't he just gorgeous when he first appeared over the ridge? (I loved his dark nose!)

A rope around the neck sounds about right. I doubt they would want anything visible around the face and a neck rope could be hidden under Gandalf's robes!

[HairOfTheDog]

At least Dwarvish men aren't androgynous or almost feminine in appearance like their elvish counterparts.

But if dwarf men and dwarf women look the same, then the dwarf men are indeed androgynous! From a dwarf-perspective!

That was a fun moment... Aragorn got to make a joke.

[RMDupree]

I thought Gimli was great! My biggest laugh was the "You couldn't have picked a better spot?" line from atop Helm's Deep. He was making a joke, but still had the irritation in his voice to stay true to character. For someone who likes to get his hands dirty, being "out of the loop" must have been frustrating and could easily spur such a remark.

My problem was not with the jokes. Actually, the one thing that stuck out wrong to me was when he called Aragorn "laddie". I do not recall Dwarves using that expression at all.

[HairOfTheDog]

He is pretty. On a black skinned horse, a little baby oil will bring out the black points!

[John Farson]

True. It was sloppy word usage on my part.