50 - Extended Edition Discussion - Fellowship of the Ring Part 2

We are on to a general discussion of the second half of the Fellowship of the Rings extended edition! What extra scenes were included? Did they make a difference in the final product? Were there any scenes from the books that didn't make the extended edition? Join us in our general cursory glance!

Transcript

Sean: [00:00:00] We've made it to episode 50 of Elves, Rings, and Nerdy Things. That's a milestone, I think, Sam. 

Sam: That is. Big, big milestone. I'm And we're just about a year from our launch, right? We started with Rings of Power, and that was September 2022, and here we 

Sean: are. So yeah, we've surpassed the year mark, I believe. Yeah.

I think it was early September, 

Sam: if I recall. I think so, because we it premiered around Labor Day, and I think very shortly after that we started recording. 

Sean: Yeah, I think it was like three episodes in we decided to do this, but I'm coming into this a little shorthanded. I, my sciatic nerve, man. Oh no. I like turned 30 and then all of a sudden my body starts falling apart.

Like I move a little bit and I have like a jolt of pain that goes down my left leg. 

Sam: Well, that's very unfortunate. 

Sean: But I'll, I'll pull a, a Jordan flu game and I'll get through [00:01:00] this. This podcast? If Michael Jordan, yeah, if Michael Jordan can do 

Sam: it, I can do it. Listen, I'm not as worried about the podcast as I am about a week in France where we'll be walking around the streets of Paris and walking around the beaches of Normandy and 

Sean: all that stuff.

It'll be a lot of sitting, too, and I'll just bring a bunch of painkillers, we'll be fine. Yeah, there you go, get drugged up. Yeah, the entire time. I'll forget the entire trip, that's the goal. 

Sam: Once in a lifetime, unforgettable, except I was on all those painkillers. 

Sean: That's actually second for me, so I think I can get away with it.

That's true. Likewise. Second in a lifetime. We're in the middle of a little series that we're currently doing. We're doing a cursory glance at the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition films. Kind of talking about... What has been, continued to be left out of the, of the books into the [00:02:00] movie adaptations. And, if there's anything in terms of the extended editions that we really enjoyed, or thought was good to leave out of the theatrical editions, we're kind of talking about the general stuff.

right now. And we are currently on part two of Fellowship of the Ring. Yeah, so we pick 

Sam: up right after the Council of Elrond and the formation of the Fellowship, and our very first scene is with Aragorn at his mother's grave. And this is something that you talked about actually briefly in our last episode.

I guess this, and I Little tease. Yeah, a little, little forecast of what we're doing. So I guess maybe, Sean, you want to take it off there, and then... Go, and then just kind of continue to the movie? Yeah, 

Sean: so for me, this was a good part, or a good, so for me, this was a good scene to include. We get more of [00:03:00] Aragorn's backstory.

Elrond's basically talking to him while he's removing some debris from his mother's headstone. 

Sam: Which, you think, real quick aside, I mean, it's not like the elves have a lot going on. You'd think they would maintain their graveyard a little bit better than that. There was some pretty serious buildup there.

Well, 

Sean: I mean, if you think about it, though, probably not very many Elves have died in the last couple hundred years in Rivendell, so maybe it's not even... 

Sam: Actually, that's a good point. Does anybody die? Like, does Rivendell even have a graveyard where bodies are buried? I'm 

Sean: assuming they probably do. But who's dying?

Well, thinking back to wars and conflicts and things like that, Rivendell's been around for quite a while, so it may have been around long enough to see some, some burials for soldiers and things, or memorials, but you have a human death and she's [00:04:00] buried in Rivendell. We have a scene where Aragorn is removing some Debris from her tomb, from her gravesite, and there's a very important line where she says, Elrond says to Aragorn, she brought you here thinking you'd be safe, taking you away pretty much from your destiny, more or less, and then Aragorn has the line, he doesn't want the power.

And then there's the, the difference, if you will, between our two members of the Fellowship, our two human members of the, members of the Fellowship. You have one who desperately craves the power to defend his home, and then you have one who is trying to hide from the power and has been hiding from power his entire life.

So I thought that was a great scene, not necessary for the movie. It was okay to be in the extended edition, but I thought it added some good gravitas to the 

Sam: film. It does, and you [00:05:00] understand why don't need it in the theatrical version. There's also another scene later between Aragorn and Boromir. that was cut from the theatrical release.

And it really, I say, I will say that it, I appreciated having That additional scene in the extended edition because it helps flesh out Boromir's fall. And I think if there's, if there's one critique of the theatrical release, it was the Boromir turn could have used a little bit more Development?

Development, yeah. A little bit more substance there. And I think that was one of my takeaways from my most recent re read of The Lord of the Rings was Tolkien goes, does a lot to show, just through talking about how he's looking And I think that His appearance and his manner of, of illustrating that, that fall.

And so I appreciated the additional [00:06:00] scenes, the contrast with Aragorn, and then also the dialogue and, and opportunity to see Boromir kind of struggling with the ring temptation. 

Sean: Yeah, that scene you're referencing, I wrote in my notes, more development between Aragorn and Boromir, talking about Gondor in particular, and it makes Boromir's death scene way more impactful when you have that development between the two characters.

Sam: And that's in Lothlorien, right, when they're, like, have you seen the white tower? 

Sean: No, I think it's when they're on the riverboat. like halfway through their journey before they get to Argonath or something like that. We have that line where Gondor, where Boromir is talking to Aragorn and he references like a hero's return for the both of them.

Yes. And Boromir says the Lords of Gondor have returned and he's talking about the celebration of the two of them arriving in the White City. That scene to me is pivotal for the [00:07:00] emotion of The death scene, because it's a direct call, Aragorn has a direct callback to it, where he says they will look for his coming from the White Tower, but he will not return.

And, like, I get emotional every time I watch that scene in the theatrical cut, but when you watch it in the extended, there's so much more development that it's way more impactful. 

Sam: There's even, I think there's an extra shot of Aragorn putting on Boromir's bracers. Greaves, yeah, his, yeah. Which you don't... I think it was one of those things where you, at this point, 20 years later, there's so many little clickbaity articles saying, you know, 13 details from the Lord of the Rings that you didn't notice.

And it's one of those that pops up a lot. But the extended edition, they do a good job of showing Boromir with the bracers. And then showing Aragorn very intentionally putting them on at the, after they send Boromir over the, over the Falls of Roros. 

Sean: [00:08:00] Continuing down chronologically, one of the next scenes that I thought was an extended edition scene, was Bill the Pony being set free?

Sam: Yeah, I had a similar thought. I don't think that's in the theatrical 

Sean: version. I think in the theatrical, it's just like all of a sudden Bill's gone. Yes. So, that was a nice reference, except the one thing that I realized that in the books, don't they hear like wolves coming too? Like aren't they attacked by 

Sam: wolves at some point?

They are attacked by wolves in the book. That was the main thing, and Sam is very fearful of Building eaten by the wolves. And I think they hear them howling. And like, like, that's one of the reasons why they go into Moria is that they know, like, you've got the wolves hunting, hunting them, the spies of Saruman with the Cree Bane.

And then obviously the Caradhras. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a little bit more kind of Direct threat to the Fellowship but we don't [00:09:00] really have that in the Extended Edition, and to be quite frank, this is one of those things where we only get one scene with him, and it's when he's leaving, I'm talking about Build A Pony, so why, why have him at all, really?

I mean, there's, there's, in the book, there's some other good stuff with Bill and Sam and demonstrating Sam's kind of humanity and Yeah, and 

Sean: we, we had referenced that one of the things that we may have wished to see from the books was Bill Ferny. I believe we mentioned that in the last episode. We did, yeah.

When we were talking about the first half, but, yeah. Yeah, I mean, if you're not going to have Bill Ferny, the whole Bill the Pony plotline is kind of just unnecessary. 

Sam: Yeah, it's one of those Poochie went back to his home planet type things. Yeah. Or is it Poochie? Poochie. I can't remember. Oh my god. I think it's Poochie.

I The Simpsons, were you? 

Sean: I don't know if we weren't allowed to watch it. 

Sam: Hayley always says that you guys were not allowed to, or she was not allowed to. 

Sean: I mean, I don't remember that. [00:10:00] My parents may have eased up by the time I was understanding what it was, but I think the Briggs household, it was always Seinfeld.

Which is so funny. I think it was like Seinfeld and Friends were on back to back. 

Sam: Must see TV Thursday. 

Sean: So yeah, that, that's what we watch. So, 

Sam: well, I, it's, it's funny because one could imagine the reason that you wouldn't show, or you wouldn't allow your child to watch the Simpsons. Oh, it's too irreverent and all that.

But then you're watching Seinfeld where it's just all like sex jokes, not all, but it's a ton of sex jokes. And I remember. Not knowing anything about sex, but think, or understanding that there was a joke here about something that I didn't quite understand, like, saw my parents laughing, and I would ask, like, what are they talking about?

And they're like, oh, don't worry about it. Look, it's Kramer! 

Sean: Nothing, Sammy. 

Sam: Yeah, yeah. Anyway, back to Lord of the Rings. Yeah, back to 

Sean: Lord of the Rings. Moving down [00:11:00] the chronological list, the next scene... That was included in the Extended Editions, is a Mithril scene, where they're looking down into the mine, and Gandalf kind of puts his light on it, and the whole mine shaft starts to glow, and they have a conversation about Mithril, and Gandalf says, Bilbo never knew this, but his Mithril vest is worth more than the entire Shire.

And then it's a nice little cue in on Frodo's face, as he's like, holy shit. Yeah, 

Sam: I, I had a I was really appreciating the... Oh my god, Elijah Wood's portrayal, he does such a good job as being this out of, really out of his element hobbit who is brave, who's dealing with this burden, but there are moments where you can, he just looks like a little kid, kind of.

scared and unsure and you have that great scene with Gandalf. But going back with [00:12:00] when he gets the Mithril shirt from Bilbo,

they're going, picking up a thread from our, our podcast last week about like the time compression that we have in the adaptation from the novels to the books or to the not from the novels to the movies. Bilbo says something like, Oh, it's my, my old ring. You know, it's something, something along those lines when he's Giving the mythical shirt and telling Frodo to try it on and he sees the ring, we have that great jump scare scene.

Which made me think, it hasn't really been that, you can't really call it my old ring. As far as we know, it's been a season, right? He left in, he left on his birthday, and then we don't have any idea how much time passes, and it doesn't seem like a ton of, we don't get a sense of how much time has passed.

So it's really like, oh, that ring I haven't seen in three months. 

Sean: Yeah, and that's the problem. One of the few problems with the movies is that I think we've mentioned multiple times through 50 episodes where [00:13:00] we would have liked to have had like a montage, maybe, scene of time passing, because it's like 17 

Sam: years, right?

It's 17 years in the, in the books, yeah, because he's, Frodo is 33, coming of, his coming of age, when Bilbo leaves, and then he's 50, which was the same age that Bilbo was when Bilbo went on his adventure. And the reason that I guess it ties into the Elijah Wood's portrayal, because Elijah Wood, I can't remember how old he was when they did, when they filmed, but he wasn't, Oh, he was like 19 or 20.

I was going to say it's, it's really young. Like he looks like a kid and granted I, who's to say how hobbits age and whatnot, but I'm really glad that they left it ambiguous about exactly how old Frodo was because it was like, Oh, Frodo's, you know, 50 hobbit years. It would have been a little bit of dissonance, right?

You'd had to spend a little bit too much time explaining the life cycles of hobbits and things like that. They just, it does so much better leaving it ambiguous how [00:14:00] big, how old he is. And then you really get Elijah looking like, you know, at the beginning, kind of a little kid who's out of his, you know, way out of his league.

And by the end you can see the kind of transformation he's gone through. 

Sean: Yeah, just that. Showing us the time. Passing would make the phrase my old ring workable. 

Sam: But yeah, I mean, you could do something like a year, you know, it's been a year and we see Elijah or we see Frodo toasting, Bilbo's Health or something like that, and it's like mm-hmm.

You know, happy 134th birthday or what is it? A hundred and not 12 112. I was, I was combining Jesus, I was combining their ages. One that was disgusting. Excuse me. Anyway, you're, you're we're going through, we are going through Moria. 

Sean: Yeah, next scene. This, I don't think is an extended scene, anything about it, but I was reading an article and I just wanted to talk about it quick, but the scene [00:15:00] right when they, the Balrog is first, like, coming down that huge Entryway, Walkway, with all of the pillars, and you hear the noises and the orcs run away, and Balrog, Gandalf is describing the Balrog, and he says, this foe is beyond any of you, and then it cuts to Legolas.

And I, the article I read made me really, really appreciate that scene because out of all of the characters in the Fellowship, only one of them would really have any feasible understanding of how dangerous a Balrog is. And when they cut to Legolas, like the fear in his eyes at the understanding of what it is, I thought that was just great.

Yeah. Cinematography. And I don't, I mean, I'm sure Peter Jackson probably did it intentionally, because why wouldn't you cut to anybody else in the Fellowship? I think in the Why 

Sam: would you pick the [00:16:00] elf? But I think in the book, Legolas is the one who calls it a Balrog. 

Sean: Yeah, I mean, it could be right, but I just rewatched that scene when we were watching the second half, and then it made me think of that article and it was impactful.

Sam: I noticed that you do, Legolas is the only one who gets a reaction shot, and it makes sense for the lore reasons that he would know, like it's probably like that's the, that's the the spooky story that elf parents tell their children, right, the Balrog's gonna get you. 

Sean: This demon. Yeah. The next extended scene is Lorien.

We get the scene in the tree stands when they first enter the woods, and, to me, necessary, because we get more of an interaction between Haldir. Any more screen time for Haldir is a good thing, especially once you get to the Two Towers. The theatrical cut, I mean, it's a guy who's barely been in it, and I, they get some emotional resonance.[00:17:00] 

Sam: You get the hug with Aragorn, 

Sean: right? Yeah, the hug, and then just the reference to like... There was once an alliance, we're here to honor that allegiance, and so there's some emotional weight to it, but then having more scenes with Haldir, I think gives them more development that makes more emotion later on.

Question 

Sam: for you. Did you catch a little phrase, a little line of dialogue when I think it was Aragorn or maybe Legolas was talking to Haldir and they said Haldir and I think they called him Haldir Inglorion. Did you hear that? Did they give him, did they give him that last name? I, I should 

look 

Sean: that up.

Yeah, you should. I do not recall a surname for Tal D'Orei. 

Sam: Again, and I think that would tie into, oh, well, we know what the reference is. They're talking about Gildor from earlier in the Fellowship.

Keep going, I'm just gonna look up, look this up real quick. 

Sean: In that same scene, we have a nice line from [00:18:00] Boromir to Frodo, which so, shows I think Boromir not under the influence of the Ring in this moment, where he says to him, to says to Frodo, you carry the weight of us all, don't carry the dead. Then it's a very sincere, heartfelt comment or phrase that he's saying to Frodo.

And, again, all of these Boromir scenes, the theatrical edition does him super dirty. In the books, like you said, we have all of this development, you have phrasing about his... Behavior becoming more erratic and things like that, but having these scenes in the extended editions, where you can see Boromir not being just a dick all the time makes his fall.

And Redemption arc of trying to save the hobbits and dying doing so, just way more 

Sam: impactful. [00:19:00] Yeah, we we get a little bit of that. And I think one of the challenges with the screen adaptation is you've got to do something with everybody in especially like the tomb, the Balan tomb fight scene. And you don't really get to showcase as much Boromir's martial prowess.

Right? Because you have to keep it interesting. So he, you know, he gets knocked to the ground and Aragorn saves him and and then it's kind of just mixed in there with everybody being, everybody fighting orcs. And then you really just get his showing up at the end to save the, the hobbits, which is great, but yeah, you don't get some of that, the buildup to establish him as this heroic figure.

He kind of comes off like a jerk from the beginning. And then that was, was that an extended scene? His line 

Sean: to Frodo? I think so. Cause it's, it's up in the... It's either up in the tree stands. I'm, I'm almost positive it's up in the tree stands and I don't think that's in the... They cut out all the tree stand stuff.

Yeah, because I think it's [00:20:00] them, they meet Haldir, and then they go to Lothlórien. 

Sam: They don't even get the like, establishing shot for Lothlórien and Haldir saying, like, Welcome to Karas Karas Galadon, or whatever, the heart of Lórien, or the heart of Elfdom on Earth, or something like that. I think that's all extended edition, and, 

Sean: I mean, and my problem too is that... It's been so long since I've watched the theatrical editions that, maybe for this we should have watched theatrical and then watched extended to be able to get the differences. Hey, how much time are we spending on this? Because right now we're kind of just like, I think this was an extended 

Sam: scene?

Well, I think part of it is just, you know, the extended versus theatrical, but also just the overall. Like, for me too, it's the interesting stuff, the really interesting stuff is having recently reread the books and having a kind of greater appreciation for the adaptation that the film achieved. What are the, you know, how did the, how are things translated from the book?

So for instance, [00:21:00] one thing that I think would have been cool to see and would not have been that out of the ordinary would have been to see Gollum in Lothlorien. Kind of sniffing at the base of the tree or somehow just give him a scene to establish it. 'cause we see him in Moria, then we see, see him on the river.

We see him on the river. But, In the book, he was tracking the Fellowship, even in Lothlórien. And that would have been cool just to kind of establish the fact that... The danger. Yeah, the danger, and like, the Elves don't, you know, he's slipped by the Elven centuries, right? So this, you know that he's, he's sneaky and he's determined.

And I think there's even a scene that was cut from the extended editions. The film, they shot the scene, but it never made it into anything of showing the Lothlorien Elves, like, slaughter all of the orcs that follow 

Sean: the Fellowship out of Moria. Oh, there's a petition for New Line Cinema to release the super extended editions.

Yes. That include even, like, [00:22:00] I'm just guesstimating, but like 30 minutes to another hour of footage per film, 

Sam: which Apparently, Peter Jackson shot 7 million feet of film. Damn. Which, and granted, some of those are gonna be reshots of the same scene and whatnot, but I think it's something like 1, 300 hours of 

Sean: film.

So there's gotta be stuff that's film worthy that's just on the 

Sam: cutting board. I think there's a ton of prologue stuff. That they ended up cutting, which, I mean, 

Sean: I think Maybe they didn't have the rights to, if it was too Silmarillion y, who knows. Yeah, 

Sam: we'll see. Next extended scene! To be fair, they talk about Morgoth, they name check Morgoth, in the extended edition.

That's, I don't know if his name appears in the Fellowship, or in the Lord of the Rings. It might. Maybe in the appendices. 

Sean: I mean, there's references to Beren and Luthien, so I wouldn't be surprised if That's [00:23:00] true too. 

Sam: Yeah. Well, that's in the that's, that, I think, because Yeah, that's 

Sean: in extended editions, but it's also in the book, so I'm saying Yeah.

It's, it's a direct reference to Silmarillion characters, so I wouldn't be surprised if at some point, name drop Morgoth. 

Sam: I think, well, they could, they could name drop it if it was in the Lord of the Rings, the book itself, and I think maybe they do reference Morgoth, and they reference Beren and Luthien in the, the book Lord of the Rings.

Thank you for repeating what I just said. No, but I said it, I said it differently and better. 

Sean: The next extended scene, we have more of Gandalf's lament of the Elves singing, Legolas saying he cannot translate because for him the pain is still too near, and then we have Sam's attempt at a song. What'd you think of Sam's song, Sam?

I thought 

Sam: he was, it was pretty good. He's a harsh critic, and to be fair, he came up with that rather quickly, so keep working on it, Samwise. 

Sean: Next up, we have Gimli and [00:24:00] Galadriel moment, which is another direct reference to Faenor and the Silmarillion, where when Galadriel's giving out the gifts to all of the members of the Fellowship, Gimli asks her for a strand of her hair, and he says something like, I will never look on anything as fair as you.

And then there's a conversation between Legolas and Gimli. And then Gimli says, I asked for a hair, she gave me three. That is a huge reference, because in the Silmarillion, Fëanor asks Galadriel for her hair. And she says no to one of the most famous lords of elves ever to exist. But to a lowly dwarf, she grants the request.

And then another scene where they cut to Legolas and show his recognition of what had just 

Sam: transpired. Well, I would have liked a little bit of dialogue from Legolas in that moment, or maybe later on, to demonstrate [00:25:00] the significance to Legolas of that interaction. Because in the book, I think, like, that's the turning point, kind of, in their relationship, where once Legolas sees Gimli's feelings and reverence toward Galadriel, he softens to Gimli.

Mm hmm. And from that point forward, they're friends. 

Sean: Yeah, and then we get more of it in the Helm's Deep. Yeah. With the crystal caves and all of that. Here is a scene that was left out of the book, left out of the extended edition that's in the book, that I thought would have been important. But the scene of Legolas shooting down a fel beast on the other side.

Oh, yeah. On the eastern side, we have the reference from Aragorn where he says orcs patrol the eastern shores. We have to wait to cover of nightfall, but you never see any patrol happening. So it seems pretty safe when Frodo and Sam end up going in the middle of the day. 

Sam: There's even another reference to it.

Yeah. Because I think when [00:26:00] they're in, when they're preparing to leave Lorien, I think Celeborn and Aragorn are having a conversation about how orcs are on the eastern shore. But there's also something, they've heard reports of the other orcs bearing the mark of the White Hand, which, how did they hear those, I, whatever, that's fine, it's a movie.

They've got centuries, I don't know. But yeah, it would have been cool to have even a shot of them when they're coming down the river. You know, you've got, show, established, I guess it would have been confusing maybe to have the scenes with the Uruk Hai kind of running through the woods. And then to also have other different orcs on the other side of the bank.

It might've been a little confusing, but yeah, the Felbeast interaction, Legolas shooting it down. That would've been very cool. 

Sean: Well, it would've been a cool night scene. Like one of those nights when they're paddling down the river, just yeah. And it could be like right after they leave Lorien, have like a group of orcs [00:27:00] on one side.

And then have them shoot it down. And then it would just make Frodo and Sam going off on their own a little bit more dire. Yep. Because instead it's like, Aragorn says, oh we can't go in the middle of the day. But then they just easily go in the middle of the day. Yeah. And they're fine. Yeah. But and then my last little note here, I legit tear up every time.

When Boromir dies and you have that interaction, I would have followed you, my brother, my captain, my king. And then Aragorn stands up and says, they will look for us coming from the White Tower, but he will not return. Chokes me up every GD time. The only thing that I would have liked in this moment from the books.

Would have been the song Legolas, Aragorn, and Gimli sing. There's a lot, and I know it's one of my critiques of The Hobbit, is that they include way too many of the silly songs. [00:28:00] But this one isn't a silly song though, this one is like an emotional, deep song. And, I don't know, I would have liked a little bit more than, I mean the one line we get from Aragorn is great, don't get me wrong, but just a little bit more.

Would have done me, done me good. 

Sam: Yeah. Well, and then, there also would have been an interesting resonance with him singing at the end of Return of the King, as 

Sean: well. Yeah. Because they, yeah, because you'd already established that Aragorn's a singer. Yeah. And you don't get it in Rivendell, because we don't get the scenes of Aragorn and Bilbo.

That's something that they left out. Oh, in the Aragorn and Bilbo coming up with poems and singing 

Sam: and... Well, we get the we get the Beren and Luthien song that he kind of sings to himself in the middle of the night, and Frodo wakes up and asks him what it is. Oh yeah, but Aragorn 

Sean: sings so much in the books though, that, a little bit more.

Sam: I think it was something where, I bet during the just pre production, like okay, how much of the songs are we gonna [00:29:00] incorporate into the movie? Because if you, if you don't execute it properly, it would kind of... Throw your audience, I think. I don't know about you, but as a younger person reading The Lord of the Rings, I would skip some of the songs.

Oh, you bastard. I know, and as an adult, I'm like, these are great, like, it's a fantastic part. I always like the songs in The Hobbit, but The Hobbit is, the songs are more goofy, and it's more of like, they're children rhyming songs, basically. In The Lord of the Rings, like, the songs are deep lore, and it Deep cuts.

Yeah, and it As an adult, I can appreciate it. As a mature, as a mature reader who's done it, who's, you know, read the book several times, loves the movies, I would appreciate it, but I think they probably just made a call, like, hey, we can't, we can't put too many songs into this movie, or people aren't going to take it seriously.

You're going to bore your, you know, teenage boy audience, who, you know, came for the orcs and the fighting and the whatnot, 

Sean: but, yeah. I say fuck [00:30:00] them, who cares. 

Sam: Well, I'm glad the movie was successful. So, if we got a weird art house, Lord of the Rings, I, I don't know if it would have been the cultural phenomenon that it was.

Sean: Agreed. Well, that's all my notes for the, for, for the second part of Fellowship of the Ring. 

Sam: Yeah, I think there's maybe just a little less to talk about because of... Just the amount of exposition that they had to get into the Fellowship and somehow the extended scenes kind of facilitated that. One observation I did make was, I think in this half of the Fellowship, some of that 20 year old CG shows a little bit.

Especially when you've got the shots in Moria where you see the Fellowship at a distance, like when they're running down the collapsing stairs. You can see, you can tell that all of those far shots are CGI. And the, the animations look very very obviously like they're [00:31:00] walking awkwardly. Which you can, I mean, 20 years later, watching in HD, looking, paying close attention to everything, it sticks out, but it's not game breaking, right?

It's not going to ruin your experience. 

Sean: No, and that's what I came away with, that it was, there's so much other stuff that they do well. in terms of CGI and practical effects from 20 years ago that, I mean, I didn't even notice that scene in Moria. Like nothing seemed off to me. Well, I guess the action of everything too distracts me from what might be dated CGI, but...

Sam: Well, the thing, it, the, what really works in their favor is that it's dark, right? And if it, if it was, if you had to show it in the full light of day for instance, I think some of the stuff in the Warg fight in Two Towers, it's a little bit harder to hide the CGI because everything has to be [00:32:00] illuminated.

When you're under the mountain in Moria, you can use fire, you can use... darkness to kind of distract somewhat to minimize the effect of the CG. And then where I think they really poured their CG budget was to the into the Balrog, which looks phenomenal and continues. It looked great 20 years ago, and it continues to look great.

Like that looks like a being a flame and a shadow. 

Sean: The Balrog in Rings of Power and the Balrog from Fellowship of the Ring to me look exactly the same in terms of quality. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You know, it's Tuesday, and we're kind of recording late in the, late in the game. So this episode is dropping on Wednesday the 27th.

I don't think we're going to be able to record for an episode next week, 

Sam: Sam. No, I think we will probably,

I hate to say it, but we might have to take it two weeks off if we, because we're, [00:33:00] think, well think about it, we're not, we're, we're going to be traveling, we're going to be in France on Sunday, and then we're traveling back the next Sunday. On Saturday. Okay. But we come back 

Sean: on Saturday? We come back on the 7th.

We can record on Monday the 9th, man. Okay, well then we're Tuesday 

Sam: the 10th. Fuck it. We'll do it live. All right, cool. We'll just skip one week. Yeah, 

Sean: all right everybody. So we're gonna be on a plane for like 20 hours, so we'll just watch these while 

Sam: we're Do you think they have the ex I mean, they probably do.

No, I'll download them. Oh, there, there you go. Alright, well, I'm, I'm not bringing any technology other than my phone, and I don't think Lord of the Rings would look good on my phone. Plus, I'm gonna have a six month old baby who's going to refuse to sleep, probably, and demand to be held, and then want to crawl everywhere.

For an entire flight. Yeah, cause that's, that's what we're doing. Thank God 

Sean: I'm not on your flight. Oh, you're not, are you? No, I'm direct from Seattle, man, so when Alright. When your baby's crying on the plane, I will 

Sam: be... You'll be sleeping soundly. somewhere else. [00:34:00] Yeah, great. Okay, 

Sean: well. Which, karma, I'm probably going to have like a baby right behind me crying this entire flight now.

Sam: You know, when we went out to Idaho over the summer and the baby was great on the flights. So knock on wood, that's what we get. Hopefully the overnight. aspect of it. She'll be tired. She'll be sleeping. Otherwise, it's going to be a long, long eight hours. Anyway, on that note, 

Sean: do our sign off because I don't want 

Sam: to do it.

Okay. Thank you, everybody. This has been Elves, Rings, and Nerdy Things. If you like what you heard, give us a like, scribe, subscribe, share on Facebook. We have a Facebook community page where you can chat, answer some discussion prompts. I think we had some polls up for the Lord of the Rings. Melee, Fantasy Draft that Sean and I did with a friend of the show, Mike Ingram.

You can also subscribe to this podcast, share it with your friends. We [00:35:00] are in the middle of our extended edition Lord of the Rings watch through. We are taking each movie, splitting it in half and discussing one half per week. So, now's your chance. We're taking a little break. Catch up with the movies.

Join us for the Two Towers and Fellowship of the Ring. And we will see you when we see you. Bye. 

Sean: See ya, everybody!