The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King EE

[Special K 0]

Or a regular fantasy reader.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

The movies turned out good, so Sauron not being physical was fine. The big armies and ringwraiths managed to sell the threat well enough.

[cabbageboy 0]

I certainly agree that the movies are awesome, but that little Sauron thing has just always bothered me a little bit.

 

I assume the "Not a Christian?" comment is referring to the devil as an unseen heel. At least in movies the devil is THERE however (Pacino in Devil's Advocate, Claude Rains in Angel on My Shoulder, etc.).

[Guest SP-1]

Yes, but Tolkein's view of Satan is biblical, not cinematic.

 

The biblical devil is rarely actually seen, preferring instead of operate as low key as possible to create the biggest disturbances he can amongst people to distract them from God. More or less. He's not a god himself, he commands hordes of fallen angels to do most of the work since he isn't omnipresent or omiscient. That would have been the worldview of a figurehead of evil for Tolkein (who was actually Catholic . . . but I'd wager not a good Catholic and more middleground in the end, but that's just my speculation).

 

That's another interesting parallel to me. That Orcs were more or less fallen elves (demons are just fallen and rebellious angels). I can't remember if that's in the books, or whether Tolkein/Jackson included it intentionally.

[Kaertos 0]

In the books, Sauron cannot take physical form without the ring. His body was destroyed in the sinking of Numenor and he put so much of his power into the ring that he was no longer able to take physical form after that, he was simply a spirit of evil.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

How far have all you got in the extras? I just watched the 'Bigatures' feature yesterday. The quality on those miniature buildings is outstanding (how cool would it be to have the whole Minas Tirith set, just sitting in a room in your house, the ultimate model), and its just a great idea in general. Lucas would have just made all of them CG and it wouldn't have looked as real.

[cabbageboy 0]

I actually don't think that is accurate...I remember we discussed this stuff before the movie came out, the Sauron stuff. I'm not 100% but I think he did have a form in the book, but just doesn't technically APPEAR in the book.

 

Ah well I'm sick of arguing it.