Hi tom.
I do take your point, and it is certainly true in terms of Doctor who and
starwars I've seen a lot of things slide and it is also true I can enjoy a
game as a game just as well as the next person. one intrinsic problem in
lotr however, is that you are dealing with something far more serious when
messing around with the history and plot than you are with most other
series.
tolkien spent literally his entire life working on the languages, history,
cosmology and myths of middle earth, so completely that there is year and
date info for every event in the books, (and many that are not), and much of
the events fall very much into this pattern.
to take one example, there is a scene in the two towers film in which Frodo
and sam are dragged to osgiliath by Faramir where they witness a battle with
the nazgul. Even if we overlook the fact that Faramir's character from a
purely literary perspective got a complete reversal in the film, during this
battle Frodo drops the ring and it's revealed to a Nazgul who then flies
off.
The chief purpose of Frodo's errand in the book and the reason it succeeded
is that Sauron would assume that if anyone found the ring, they would
naturally wish (as he would in their place), to use it against him, and not
to destroy it. Thus, all of Sauron's efforts were based on crushing Gondor
and the west before anyone could find the ring and with it's power challenge
him, which was precisely why two hobbits crawling into Mordor to the very
heart of his own land, seaking not to wield the ring but to destroy it is
something he missed.
yet, in the film we see one of Sauron's chief servants, (which he has mental
communication with), see the one thing he needs to conquer the entire world,
very lightly defended, in the hands of a hobbit on the outskirts of his
land, ---- indeed he already had a huge army massing at Minas morgul which
was perhaps 20 miles from osgilliath. yet, we see Sauron in the film
literally not acknolidging this fact, and carrying on with his attacks
regardless.
this scene in the film Peter jackson obviously put in for visual appeal, and
to have a face off betwene frodo and the Nazgul, however he in no way
considdered the more serious historysurrounding it.
There are some great articals on this (which are very fair), on the
encyclopedia of Arda website.http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/
This is why Tolkien fan's in particular have such a thing about Cannon,
since your not just talking about changes in a universe created for tv, but
changes in a full and complete historical reccord.
As another example, and one related to games, you mentioned including
gandalf in a game. The problem is however, Gandalf is actually a being of
the same order and magnitude as Sauron himself, a Maia. While he chooses not
to exercise his power much of the time, it is really only beings of the same
order as himself that could present a problem, one reason why he tells even
Arragorn, probably one of the finest warriors in middle earth (not to
mention Boromir, Gimly and legolas), "this is a foe beyond any of you" when
he confronts the Balrog.
suppose however you made a game in which Gandalf was the same rank as other
characters, had a standard energy meater and could be ko'd by an orc just as
easily as a mortal. Without knowing Gandalf's background (only hinted at in
Lotr, though fully explained in the Silmarillion), you might assume he is a
fairly standard old wizard of the D&D glass cannon variety, which he is not
by any stretch of the imagination.
As I said, I can accept a game as a game in many fields. I enjoy super
starwars and it's sequals for what it is, but in lotr Cannon is a little
more serious because! of this historical matter.
I'm not saying that I wouldn't enjoy say a side scroller where you could
play as gandalf or the rest of the characters, just that for me, it would
badly lose something, as much as for you a wee wrestling game would be more
interesting than a generic one.
however, just as the wee wrestling situation is soluable by as I suggested,
including info about the wrestlers to make it comprehensive to those who do
not know such things, I do think a cannon lotr game is soluable too,
provided you pick your subject and characters carefully.
for example, Arragorn legolas and gimly, along with the host of the dead
rohirim make their way to the battle of pelenor fields. We don't learn much
about this journey, only that they went through some caves haunted by
ghosts, with Gimly experiencing some quite distinct fear, and that when they
arived out they needed to ride to the mouths of Anduin and attack Sauron's
allies from Unbar along with the host of the dead.
well again, this is a point when a side scroller could be set, first getting
through the caves, perhaps confronting ghosts and undead, then heading to
the river fighting orcs and other soldiers, and in Aragorn, legolas and
gimly you have three very playable characters.
another good place might be the dwarve's exit from the Goblin caves after
being rescued by gandalf, and after bilbo got lost and had his adventure
with Golum. The dwarves quite literally fought their way out of that one, so
lots of chances for goblin fighting in the misty mountains.
It's just a matter of picking your points I'd say, and in keeping at least a
respect for the actual history of middle earth.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
---
Gamers mailing list __ [email protected]
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected].
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected].
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
please send E-mail to [email protected].
