[Lalaith]

Lord of Angmar, I can see that you took my comment personally which is fair enough as I quoted you, but I should explain that it was not directed personally to you and so it would have been quite inappropriate of me to PM you with it. And I accept your point about the flashbacks being a good way of bringing in the appendix material. <P>My point was more one about general attitude amongst Tolkien fans. There is far more fuss about Arwen than there has been about anything else - so much so, in fact, that as the subject of this thread indicates, it seems that PJ was forced to change the plotline he had mapped out - something he didn't do with any other character. <BR>So, I think it is pertinent to ask, why particularly Arwen? Taking her to Helm's Deep is no more of a plot change than having Elrond bring Anduril to Aragorn in Rohan. And Elrond is a far more important character than Arwen. Where was the outrage about that?<BR>And why not outrage about, say, Theoden's total change of character, when Theoden is a far more well-developed and important persona in the book than Arwen? I could go on...<BR>And why is there much less fuss about changes to Arwen's storyline that make her more passive and feminine, than there are about ones that make her more proactive?<P>I would reiterate that I am not accusing any specific person here on this board of sexism. But these are points that interest me.