LotR1-FotR-Seq13

[Sir Kohran]

Originally Posted by alatar

In the next two movies, PJ starts teasing us by 'killing' off characters who miraculously return (I'm not talking about Gandalf, as his death and return was Tolkien's idea). We also get talk of Treebeard taking the hobbits to see the White Wizard in TTT. It's a tease, I guess.

And so I was wondering why, at least in the EE version, that he couldn't have had the FotR cowering in their boats on side of the Anduin, wrapped in fog, and hearing some screaching call above. The fog could swirl, as if something flew in it overhead. Finally, Legolas could send an arrow and there's a scream, then the sky is again clear of whatever lurked there. Frodo could be doing the stomach-cramp thing, just to add more clues.

Of course I'm referring to the Nazgul on wings, which we will see in TTT. Not sure why PJ didn't tease us with that in this sequence.

Probably because it would make the Fellbeasts seem rather weak - if our first hint of one is when Legolas takes it out with one arrow, it removes a lot of the fear and mystery that surrounds these creatures.

Also, it's something of a continuity error: the Fellbeasts don't appear until at least a third of the way into TTT. Showing them in FOTR so soon after the Nazgul (on hooves?) had been dispatched, just an hour or so before, would lessen the powerful climax to the earlier plot of Frodo being hunted by the Nazgul.
And besides that, we only really see them doing a lot plot-wise in ROTK. Showing them so early before in FOTR would make them seem rather pointless in TTT, as there is none of the shock aspect that we have when we first see them in TTT.

Though I am intrigued to think how PJ would have done this scene, and how people would have reacted.