[Azaelia of Willowbottom]

I wasn't here before the movies happened... It took me a while to find the BD's, so I can't say what these boards were like before the movies, but I can comment on the whole Tolkien experience.
I will forever regret that I only became a fan of the books a month before the movies came out. Hence, I have hardly any knowledge of what it was to be a Tolkien fan in the long stretch before the movies happened...And the only world I know is one of drooling fangirls (though I don't deny that some of the actors are goodlooking) whose only reason for watching the movies is their "Orlie". I am enough of a fan of LOTR to be quite annoyed by these people. I know that these people are, for whatever reason, far less numerous here than on other boards I've visited.
I can say that, whatever BD was like before LOTR, it seems to me to be still a place of high standards where I can go to find truly deep and intelligent discussion. I feel that every time I come here, I learn something. Hooray!

On my general Tolkien experience... Before the movies, I never cared much one way or the other for the chapters in the book taking plce in the Old Forest. I had no violent dislike (though I know that some do), but I didn't feel totally amazed by them, either. Now, after the movies, I sort of treasure them because the chapters are hidden away in a corner of Middle-Earth completely untouched by anything PJ did... I'm not saying PJ's movies were bad: I loved them! But now the chapters in the Old Forest are somewhat sacred to me because the way I picture them is wholly my own, not affected by PJ's imaginings. What I picture is something unique to me...and I love that.