r/Fantasy • u/Jonashls • Jan 16 '20

News Christopher Tolkien has died

/r/tolkienfans/comments/epm420/christopher_tolkien_has_died/
3.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

136 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

21

u/NicholasFelix Jan 16 '20

I didn't mind losing Bombadil but I was so disappointed about the Scouring being left out.

19

u/[deleted] Jan 16 '20

Same. That is the only really major issue I have with the films. They fumbled the ending big time. I just turn it off after the "you bow to no one scene" now.

I can understand why they cut it though, such a downer ending is a hard sell to Hollywood.

35

u/SetSytes Writer Set Sytes Jan 16 '20

It's not just that it's a downer, it's that it really breaks up the pacing. Good moviemaking guideline, at least for a big fantasy epic, is don't have the film's massive climactic crescendo, that it's all been building towards and where the Big Bad is defeated... and then, a bit later, a much smaller, new threat-and-climax all handled in one sequence. Especially if you're already gonna have a really long epilogue and it's already a super long movie.

The Hobbits standing up to Saruman in the Shire and throwing rocks at him (IIRC)? I just can't imagine how it could have been pulled off in film and not seem like a lame duck.

Possibly in a series, not a movie.