Denethor's plunge

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Sauron the White

alatar... I wonder if it is not the nature of the beast that those who tend to really know the ins and outs of something are the least satisfied when someone outside of that area attempts to utilize it in a book or film?

And maybe that's why some of those here, when you say that the 'Purists' here at the Downs cannot believe Tolkien ever made an error, find some of your posts 'peevish,' if I use that word correctly.

Anyway, while reading HoME last night (again) I saw that in one of the original versions of RotK, Denethor was to survive the Battle of the Pellenor.

Was Denethor so crazed that he was absolutely sure that his last leap would destroy him utterly, as why else immolate himself if not to avoid capture and humiliation for himself and his subsequent corpse? What if he'd been caught by a Nazgul and dunked in the Anduin, then to be brought before the Eye in Barad Dur, even if semi-charred? Quite a risk.

And another thought: In many, if not all space movies, there's always sound in space, which is physically impossible due to lack of a medium in which the sound can carry. Some persons note this (usually science nuts with little else to do), and yet is has become pretty much part of the 'language' of space movies. To have no sound when something explodes may leave the audience dumbfounded.

Like dancing around in lava fields in movies, many people just accept this physical unreality as it makes sense to us ground/earth-dwelling persons that live in air. Like in the Star Wars movies. Yet, with the exception of a few science nuts, you won't hear much about this in the reviews of these movies (which have no associated canon - at least the first flick didn't). Still, people find flaws within the movies due to the inconsistencies presented by George Lucas.

And if he can get it wrong (internally inconsistent), so can PJ. It's not the sounds in space, it's Jar-Jar Binks.