Re: Countdown to Release | SPOILER THREAD

[Eldorion]

I'm trying not to keep bashing on Tauriel. I don't have anything against invention characters in order to give a name and a face to the background populations in the film, so in principle I have nothing against her character. It's just that everything we've heard she sounds like something from a bad fanfiction, especially the romance with one of the dwarves. I hope I'm wrong but I'm a little uneasy.

[Mrs Figg]

I am pretty much ok with all the general sillyness but Tauriel is a step too far for me, I liked the look of the female elf in the video blog, but I think she was just an extra and not Evangeline lily, but I think the casting is absurd. Then again I may have to eat my hat.

[Pettytyrant101]

I'm a little uneasy.- Eldo

Is today International Understatement Day and no-one told me?

[Ally]

I'm against violence towards women, Eldorion

[Eldorion]

EDIT: I think I see what you were getting at now.

[halfwise]

I'll repeat my earlier assertion: so long as they show enough skin all the male knuckleheads will be perfectly happy with Tauriel...at least until they exit the theater and get clocked over the head by their S.O.'s.

[Pettytyrant101]

I'd like to clock the coven over the head, prefarably with a large building.

But noone else horrified at the idea Azog will be brought back to life to hunt down Thorin and co?

[Eldorion]

I already complained about Azog on the last page but I'm trying to keep my blood pressure down for the next four months.

[David H]

I'd like to clock the coven over the head, prefarably with a large building.

But noone else horrified at the idea Azog will be brought back to life to hunt down Thorin and co?

I'm glad to see you're already planning your next edit!

To paraphrase:

"One thing is abundantly clear: no one is deterred from his purpose Pettytyrant, Azog destroyed to the last orc companions."

I'm glad the trolls are still called Tom, Bert and William, and the bit about Beorn not liking guests, especially dwarves, gives me hope as well.

they need to bring back a ferocious dragon

I'd like to see them try!

[Ally]

I have a feeling, that if Azog doesn't die under the mountin it is because Bilbo comes upon him and saves his life
Azog used to buy Bilbo bread and once stopped a cat attacking Bilbo and they became friends for life

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, PETER JACKSON, character development

[Mrs Figg]

Petty where is all this new info about the characters coming from? how trustworthy is it?

[Pettytyrant101]

Its from Warner Bros- its the character descriptions they have put out to the companies who are licensed to sell the official TH products.

[Mrs Figg]

so its the products? its not necessarily whats going to happen in the film. The products and games are sometimes way off what happens in the actual films I think. maybe these descriptions are for figurines or a game. You are just making the assumption its a character description for the 3 films.

[Pettytyrant101]

Its the official licensed film line- the action figures that sort of thing- the list for game stuff was the one that was put up a while back, completely different thing- the fact that many of the stuff in it also chimes with stuff on the official product list would seem to add more wieght to these being accurate.

And I cant imagine the official toy line including something as out here as the Azog stuff off their own backs.

[Pettytyrant101]

This was spotted by an eagle-eyed member of TorN (Dark Jackal) from the first v-log at about 01:12.

Not Azog the zombie what exactly? A werewolf of some kind- apparently this is a character called Grinnah.
From the little info there is on Grinnah he is listed as an orc torturer- but an orc shapeshifter?



And if Dol Guldur is crammed to the gills with werewolves, zombie orcs and Eru knows what else it begs the question why his main stronghold of Mordor has no such things- Frodo and Sam only meet varieities of Orc and some maleovent statues- if Sauron could make an army of zombie orcs it would have made the Battle of Pelannor that bit trickier as they all kept getting back up from the dead!

[Mrs Figg]

where exactly is this zombie orc coming from? Is it in the list they are zombies?

[Pettytyrant101]

It doesnt say zombie no. It notes he is killed in the war with the Dwarves and that Sauorn brings him back to hunt down Thorin and co.
And given he is called the Necromancer in TH and he brings back a dead character- zombie would seem to fit the bill for Azog.

[Eldorion]

where exactly is this zombie orc coming from? Is it in the list they are zombies?

I threw out the phrase "zombie orc" with my tongue partially in my cheek since the description Petty posted seemed to suggest that Azog had been raised from the dead somehow. I can't vouch for the list's accuracy or the exact nature of these creatures in the actual films, though.

Also, werewolves are very much associated with Sauron in the books. I'd actually be a little surprised if we didn't see werewolves in the new storyline. If I recall correctly they're more spirits bound to wolves than shapeshifters, but their official appearances are vague enough that PJ has a lot of leeway in his depiction of them.

[Pettytyrant101]

Yes but werent werewolves ect more a 1st age thing? I dont recall any in TH or LotR's.
And this character, the werewolf looking one, is listed as an orc torturer.
Is there any precedent at all for orc werewolves?

[Eldorion]

Gandalf mentions werewolves in Fellowship of the Ring.

Not all his [Sauron's] servants and chattels are wraiths! There are orcs and trolls, there are wargs and werewolves, and there have been and still are many Men, warriors and kings, that walk alive under the Sun, and yet are under his sway.

This distinguishes wargs from werewolves, though werewolves aren't very thoroughly explained. However, Tolkien's werewolves appear to be quite different from typical lycanthropy myths in that they are creatures distinct from men or orcs, rather than people who have been infected in some way. I don't think there would have been any "orc werewolves" in Middle-earth.

[Pettytyrant101]

Wonder where all the werewolves were hiding out at in LotR's?- or was Gandalf just listing the sort of bad guys Sauron used to have back in the day?

[Eldorion]

Presumably in Dol Guldur and Mordor.

Other than the two instances where Hobbits were captured (Merry and Pippin in TTT and Frodo and Sam in ROTK) we don't see very much of Sauron's forces firsthand. The books stick much closer to the main characters' points of view than the movies do so there's a lot that we don't know about the bad guys. There could easily have been werewolves acting as scouts or soldiers and we'd be none the wiser since the Hobbits didn't directly encounter them. Gandalf on the other hand, having been to Dol Guldur repeatedly, would know better.

[Eldorion]

By the way (though I'm about a page late with this), welcome back from your sea-faring excursion, Dave!

[David H]

Thanks Eldo. It was a pretty intense trip, and it's nice to be back on the farm again. Our ship should be appearing in a popular TV fantasy series this next season, but I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to speak of it.

[it's going to take a while to get caught up around here I see.....]

[Eldorion]

If it's the series I think it is I might have to tune back in for whatever episode you show up in.

We've been our usual crazy, spammy selves while you were gone so you have quite a few posts to read, I'm afraid.