Imaginary Fan Edit of RoP

S

Silvered-glass

Rohan
I've never made a fan edit myself, but I've seen some. So I started purely hypothetically thinking about what a proper RoP fan edit could be like, since no one appears to have made one as far as I know. The idea would be turning RoP into a single movie and removing a lot of the unneeded chaff to make a better story, or at least a story with actual structure. I did not feel it necessary to be faithful to the details of the TV plot and only considered what the available footage would allow.

Major cuts:
- Harfoots cut completely.
- Moria plot cut as irrelevant to the main plot. Celebrimbor has his forge from the start.
- Galadriel's childhood, Galadriel's polar expedition, and Galadriel's swim trip all cut.
- Númenor shortened by a lot by removing plots that go in circles and Galadriel being annoying.
- The Southlands issue is the main focus now, but the Southlands plot still contains much that deserves to be cut on a case-by-case basis.

Rough overview of the movie plot:
- Prologue: Sauron as Halbrand helps Celebrimbor forge the three rings.
- Some bad stuff starts to happen in the Southlands.
- Galadriel with Halbrand gathers an army from Númenor. This is because of her supernatural foresight that Sauron is returning. ~2-3 parts with Southlands stuff in between.
- The Southlanders fight the Orcs.
- Númenor arrives at the break of dawn and joins the battle.
- The fight against Adar not going so well, Sauron uses his magic and summons a pyroclastic flow from Mount Doom to wipe out the battlefield. The pyroclastic flow hits Galadriel in the face.
- In a vision, Sauron/Halbrand asks for Galadriel to be his queen. Galadriel refuses.
- Galadriel wakes up covered in volcanic ash. Everything around her is dead.
- The survivors of Númenor return home. Galadriel reports to Gil-galad. Sauron goes to Mount Doom to be a dark lord.

I fear this version still wouldn't be actually good, but at least it would be better, I think?

If further movies based on the later seasons are desired, Season 1 material can be inserted into them as necessary for the plot to make sense.
 
I loved the outline for your revised Season One. I think your idea is stronger.

However - I thought the Harfoots and their storyline was a huge highlight of the show. It was one of the things that felt most Tolkien. It also set up some great potential for the rest of the seasons, as well as teasing a wizard.

I understand that playing fast and loose with Tolkien like this grinds a lot of gears but IMO the Harfoots were a standout.
 
At least remove all dialog and scenes scripting the bizarre cognitive dissonance of Harfoots who stick together while abandoning anyone who falls behind.
 
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In addition to what DHGCaretager said, the Harfoots are a self-contained plot thread that exists side by side with the rest of Season 1 while remaining separate and uninvolved.

Keeping the Harfoots in the imaginary fan edit would result in the movie having two plots that have nothing to do with each other. The Harfoots is a prime example of Season 1 material that could end up being added to an imaginary Season 2 fan edit movie depending on what actually happens in Season 2. The Harfoots could also be made into their own separate movie with material from multiple seasons even if they remain not having anything to do with the main plot in case anyone cared enough.
 
Wouldn't it depend on how Gandalf, and yes I wrote "Gandalf," is brought into the main story from the Harfeet [personal plural choice]?
 
RoP doesn't like to adhere to normal storytelling conventions, so it's anyone's guess whether Gandalf will end up doing anything of importance in the main plot. Presumably he'll get to meet Galadriel and make friends at least, but that's not the same as affecting the plot, and Gandalf's backstory as Meteor Man could be easily put in the prologue of some later season-edited-into-movie and shortened very greatly unless the nuances of Harfoot culture actually become relevant somehow.
 
Why? The whole volcano scene in ROP is utterly ridiculous and nobody, including an elf, can survive a pyroclastic flow.


"A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud)[1] is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of 100 km/h (30 m/s; 60 mph) but is capable of reaching speeds up to 700 km/h (190 m/s; 430 mph).[2] The gases and tephra can reach temperatures of about 1,000 °C (1,800 °F)."
 
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It might not be accurate to describe the shock wave that struck the village as a pyroclastic flow if only because such a flow should not have been able to travel that far from the volcano. But that is only one of the many problems with the sequence.
 
It always takes me right out of a fantasy show when things like volcanic eruptions are not presented as 100% scientifically accurate.
 
...if we can dismiss the event as a pyroclastic flow then it at least becomes a bit more survivable. However, taking the shock wave full in the face is very different from taking cover!
 
The village was not hit by a pyroclastic flow. If it had been, no one would have survived, and houses wouldn't have been left standing. There is a huge difference between a cloud of volcanic ash and a pyroclastic flow.

There has been one volcanic eruption in the US during the past century that produced a pyroclastic flow- the Mt. St. Helens eruption. When it happened, the falling volcanic ash turned Spokane (200 miles away) dark, but the actual pyroclastic flow reached only five miles from the mountain. Guys from the Athletics West track club went out and ran the next day in the falling volcanic ash. Geologists have determined that during the past 4,000 years, such flows have reached a maximum of perhaps 10-12 miles. This would be far less than the distance between Orodruin and Tir-Harad, judging from the views from the Ostirith tower in episode one. The village appears to have been just far away enough from the mountain to have allowed some people to survive.
 
The village was not hit by a pyroclastic flow. If it had been, no one would have survived, and houses wouldn't have been left standing. There is a huge difference between a cloud of volcanic ash and a pyroclastic flow.

There has been one volcanic eruption in the US during the past century that produced a pyroclastic flow- the Mt. St. Helens eruption. When it happened, the falling volcanic ash turned Spokane (200 miles away) dark, but the actual pyroclastic flow reached only five miles from the mountain. Guys from the Athletics West track club went out and ran the next day in the falling volcanic ash. Geologists have determined that during the past 4,000 years, such flows have reached a maximum of perhaps 10-12 miles. This would be far less than the distance between Orodruin and Tir-Harad, judging from the views from the Ostirith tower in episode one. The village appears to have been just far away enough from the mountain to have allowed some people to survive.
Click to expand...

It's a mistake to justify a work of fiction with reality. For the same reason justifying the cartoonish Goblintown chase with actual physics was a farce. It is whatever the (bad) writing says it is. Otherwise, there'd be no dragons to slay.
 
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This argument seems to be along the lines of "I want to have my cake and eat it". The entire point of doing the physics of "Goblin Town" was to answer the critics who declared without evidence that the scene "violated the laws of physics". You can't on one hand be a harsh critic because you find a scene physically unrealistic and then on the other hand criticize an actual physical analysis because "you can't justify fiction with reality". The same thing happened with "Barrels Out of Bond". People screamed over and over about how the scene was "wrong" because the barrels didn't have lids, and thus would have filled with water and sunk. I had to explain the physics of specific gravity and buoyancy in that instance, not to pass judgment on the scene itself, but rather to point out that the criticism of the scene based on this aspect of physical realism was unfounded.


It's a mistake to justify a work of fiction with reality. For the same reason justifying the cartoonish Goblintown chase with actual physics was a farce. It is whatever the (bad) writing says it is. Otherwise, there'd be no dragons to slay.
Click to expand...
 
The previous post was not made to present a physical analysis or justification of the scene, but rather to point out that this "pyroclastic flow" meme that has been used as a basis for criticism was completely wrong. I would not even try to do a physical analysis, because there are far too many unknowns.

In any event, you can't simply declare "fail" by just looking up the ignition temperature of wood and assuming that this was the temperature of the volcanic ash. Houses can be set on fire in many ways besides the temperature of the air reaching the ignition temperature. In fact, the scene does show how the first house was set on fire: at about 1:03:25, one of the magma fire bombs hits a house and sets it on fire, long before the cloud of volcanic ash reaches the village.
 
The roller coaster scene would have killed every dwarf falling down.
The barrel scene was just goofy and put in for humor. Barrels in those situations don't stay vertical and they were rolled in sideways.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKOg8HJxZy4

if one compares the visuals in the volcano scene to Pompeii you see similar distance...even if the map suggests otherwise....the scene shows a pyroclastic flow 4:12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irsHYrT0sdA ....notice the fire and flame within the cloud of ash. The cloud of flame incinerates the town and would have incinerated everyone.
 
There's no way the bridge of Khazad Dum would have supported the weight of the Balrog either. Total epic fail. As soon as I saw that scene I knew the thickness and width of the concrete wasn't nearly enough. Just more evidence of the filmmakers dragging Professor Tolkien through the mud.

Don't even get me started on how unrealistic it is for Gandalf to be riding on the back of an eagle.
At every turn you have these modern film makers presenting wildly unrealistic scenes and expecting us to just swallow it like sheep!?

Fireworks, for example, can be made to mimic things like birds or dragons with wings - but they can't FLAP their wings, or DIP and DIVE over the heads of hobbits! As a firework safety analyst I pause that movie every time and get my whiteboard out to explain the real physics to my family.

They LOVE it.
 
"Every writer making a secondary world wishes in some measure to be a real maker, or hopes that he is drawing on reality: hopes that the peculiar quality of this secondary world (if not all the details) are derived from Reality, or are flowing into it."
J. R. R. Tolkien

How much does the Balrog weigh? Of course the bridge could have supported it.
Gandalf is a wizard / istari - so his powers are built into the world. Elves have not been portrayed as fireproof. Even Thranduil showed his burned face from dragon fire.
Fireworks imbued with magic may....but that is Peter Jackson....he frequently broke the connection for spectacle. The books are much more grounded.

When fantasy breaks connections to reality with over the top and unexplained events it pulls the viewer out of the movie.

Of course, if one is happy to just let it roll over you without any thought, fine. I find it hard when there are severe logical or world building extremes.
 
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