{"id":15193,"date":"2009-07-13T10:00:55","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T16:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=15193"},"modified":"2014-06-13T17:18:30","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T23:18:30","slug":"the-two-towers-via-a-9-year-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/13\/the-two-towers-via-a-9-year-old.html","title":{"rendered":"The Two Towers<\/i>, via a 9-year-old"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n

Margie told me this morning that Katherine is still going on about TTT to her day care person, explaining the movie to someone who had never seen the movies or read the books. Lots of quotes, lots of bouncing all over the story (which story bounces around a lot as it is)<\/p>\n

I had to help her during the movie with a map of Middle Earth — she hadn’t quite figured out that the two threads (Frodo\/Sam\/Gollum vs the rest) were actually headed in different directions. Explaining the whole geography of Minas Ithil\/Morgul vs Osgiliath vs. Minas Anor\/Tirith was also necessary (okay, teaching the old names for the two Minas castles wasn’t necessary, but it was fun). When I explained (on the map) about the Dead Marshes and all, she was tickled when she understood about the battle plains when we got there.<\/p>\n

She also got a bit confused about some of the geopolitics — understanding the relationship between Theoden as King of Rohan vs. Aragorn as heir to the Kingdoms of Men (or at least of Gondor). Well, it is a bit muddled, at least in the movie. <\/p>\n

She did pick up that Eowyn was mooning over Aragorn something fierce. She also spotted the similarities (physical) between Faramir and Boromir.<\/p>\n

The battle was pretty fierce for her. She was okay with the “fantasy violence” of 10,000 Uruk-hai (or “Super Orcs” as she calls them) vs. 300 men, but as noted, she got very upset when Haldir fell, in part because she thought it was Legolas. She was also talking about how her 9-year-old friends would have been some of the boys recruited to fight.<\/p>\n

(Some friends and I had a Battle of Helms Deep wargame when I was in high school; I was reminded of how deeply that ingrained the overall setting of the battle for me.)<\/p>\n

Her only other too-spooky moment was when Frodo gets sucked into the Dead Marshes.<\/p>\n

Gandalf the White was very popular (she asked me several times before we watched to confirm that Gandalf would be back … but she still got totally faked out by the “White Wizard” bit). Even more popular, not surprisingly, were the Ents (esp. their destruction of Isengard).<\/p>\n

She had no problems following along what was going on with Smeagol\/Gollum, and seemed very sympathetic to the character, even while having a sort of Samwise practicality about the danger.<\/p>\n

Favorite quote from her: “Whoa! That’s a lot <\/em>of orcs!” Followed by, “Why is the Nazgul on a dragon?!”<\/em> <\/p>\n

We have an appointment next weekend to watch The Return of the King<\/em> …<\/p>\n

\n

I went looking for my old TTT<\/a> reviews<\/a> to find a picture of the poster already loaded. Reading my comments, a few things come to mind.<\/p>\n

1. I’ve actually grown more fond of Faramir’s actions in the film (at least in the Extended version). I don’t think they are executed as well as I’d like (“You have the war-ending weapon around your neck. But I’m going to leave you unguarded in this corner while I deal with the Orcs and the Nazgul”), but the motivation is clear (Denethor is a jerk), and what gets him to change his mind (seeing the danger of the Ring and its ties to the Dark Side) plays out reasonably well.<\/p>\n

2. The confusion over the inclusion of elves at Helms Deep is explained when you discover that earlier scripting and shooting had Arwen <\/em>along with them. This apparently tested poorly, or someone figured out that it would further complicate things down the road, so the whole “Arwen bugs out to the Uttermost West” bits were substituted. But the elves were already all over the big Helms Deep battle shots, so they had to be repurposed.<\/p>\n

3. Gimli as comic relief still <\/em>bugs the hell out of me. We see a few bits of Gimli as hero to be reckoned with, but they’re all overwhelmed by short jokes. Feh.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Margie told me this morning that Katherine is still going on about TTT to her day care person, explaining the movie to someone who had never seen the movies or read the books. Lots of quotes, lots of bouncing all over the story (which story bounces around a lot as it is) I had to … Continue reading “The Two Towers<\/i>, via a 9-year-old”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[382,41,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lord-of-the-rings","category-media-movies","category-parenting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4823,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/12\/29\/return_of_retur.html","url_meta":{"origin":15193,"position":0},"title":"Return of Return of the King","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 29-Dec-03 10:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"Mary and I (Margie is stricken with an absessed tooth, alas) went for another showing Sunday afternoon (quoth she, \"If nothing else, it sure completely kills your day\"). After dinner,...","rel":"","context":"In "Lord of the Rings \/ Hobbit"","block_context":{"text":"Lord of the Rings \/ Hobbit","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/lord-of-the-rings"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131901,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/30\/cities-of-the-ring.html","url_meta":{"origin":15193,"position":1},"title":"Cities of the Ring","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 30-Oct-16 11:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A nice analysis of the major structures (Edoras, Minas Tirith, the Hornburg) of the Lord of the Rings movies, and how they work as realistic urban\/defensive structures.The biggest take-away is that you don't have massive cities sitting in the middle of nowhere without massive amounts of supporting agricultural lands. Derp.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135276,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/04\/lord-rings-tv-series-tell.html","url_meta":{"origin":15193,"position":2},"title":"A “Lord of the Rings” … TV series? Tell me more!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 4-Nov-17 12:33am","format":false,"excerpt":"This is all way preliminary, but word has it that Warner Bros. is negotiating with the Tolkien Estate over an actual TV series (likely on Amazon) set in Middle Earth. There are a lot of interesting ways this could go. A series that focused on the LotR could pull in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Frodo-and-the-Ring.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4845,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/12\/22\/return_of_the_k.html","url_meta":{"origin":15193,"position":3},"title":"Return of the King","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 22-Dec-03 9:22am","format":false,"excerpt":"In brief: Wow....","rel":"","context":"In "Lord of the Rings \/ Hobbit"","block_context":{"text":"Lord of the Rings \/ Hobbit","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/lord-of-the-rings"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45011,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/08\/movie-hacking-vs-real-hacking.html","url_meta":{"origin":15193,"position":4},"title":"Movie Hacking vs Real Hacking","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 8-Sep-14 1:16am","format":false,"excerpt":"I'd love to see that in a movie some day.(h\/t +Gerard McGarry) Originally shared by +nixCraft Linux Blog So true: Movie hacking vs. real hacking (social engineering). Credit - http:\/\/www.smbc-comics.com\/index.php?id=2526#comic #hackers #socialengineering #humor #funny #IT #security #laughteristhebestmedicine View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/20120220.gifimgmax%3D660.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":130657,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/14\/warcraft-vs-warcraft.html","url_meta":{"origin":15193,"position":5},"title":"Warcraft vs Warcraft","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 14-May-16 6:01am","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a lovely recreation of the footage from the Warcraft movie, done in \"World of Warcraft\". And, to be honest, I feel like I'd be more likely to watch it in gaming animation than what they're doing for the movie (which feels like a cheap imitation and nothing that works\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42847,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15193\/revisions\/42847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}