Why not? Because aside from time constraints, will the audience really be interested in shots of random battles in places they've never heard of? It takes time and care to establish a relationship with a single character, much less an army. You might say to yourself, "aaah, yes, that's the Mirkwood elves," but everyone else would be saying "who are those people? what have they got to do with anything? Where's Aragorn and Legolas and Gimli?"<P>As for the hug, Haldir's reticience is not supposed to be a comment on emotionless elves. I mean, you've seen both Arwen and Legolas getting pretty emotional. It's a reflection of Haldir himself, as a warrior, a hard man with a hard job to do. This is the guy who refused to let a dwarf into Lorien without a blindfold. This is the guy with some fairly pessimistic comments to make on the state of the world and the darkness spreading over it. I think it was totally in character.
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