Book vs. Movie - The Fellowship of the ring

[The Arbiter]

Both versions of The Fellowship square off against one another.

First is 1v1 fights against themselves.

Second is a team battle.

[Siriel]

Movie Aragorn calls for a parley and backstabs book Aragorn under a flag of truce, flawless victory.

[Powerboy]

Movie Aragorn calls for a parley and backstabs book Aragorn under a flag of truce, flawless victory.

I need to watch the movies again. I don't even remember that.

Ah, well. At least Book Tom Bombadil wins by default.

[wjowski]

Movie Aragorn calls for a parley and backstabs book Aragorn under a flag of truce, flawless victory.

Does book Aragorn go into a monologue bragging about how Frodo is being slowly tortured to death and all but daring movie Aragorn to attack him?

[Sol_M]

Ah, well. At least Book Tom Bombadil wins by default.

Or he would, if he was part of the Fellowship.

The team fight basically comes down to book Gandalf vs movie Gandalf, since I can't imagine the rest of them being all that relevant here.

Which, if it comes down to it, movie Gandalf should win on account of magic forcefields, AoE energy blasts, and TK, and all that nonsense.

[seaturkey]

I don't really think there's a way to answer this, due to the lack of actual action in the books. A lot of the action sequences in the books are implied but not really focuses on or discussed in detail. For example, the point where Boromir is slain by the Orcs is not nearly as fleshed out as in the films. In the book, as I recall, it simple says that Boromir was killed by a hail of arrows, and that's it. No courageous last stand fending off one charging orc after another as their captain methodically shoots him over and over, only for Aragorn to rush in and tackle the orc captain a split second before the orc shot a final, point blank arrow into Boromir's face. Not to mention the awesome Aragorn/uruk-hai fight that followed, none of it is described in the books. Tolkien wasn't really interested in depicting the violence itself, he wanted to create languages and distinct cultures/societies, that is the focus of his books, not the action/war in graphic detail.

So, therefore causes the obvious boon to the reader and subsequent problem for a rumble thread. As the action is all implied, the reader is given the freedom to depict the action more or less however they see fit in their minds. Where as the films spend a good amount of time on the action sequences themselves. Moments like Legalas surfing/skateboarding down a flight of stairs on a uruk shield are creations of Peter Jackson and how 'he' as a reader himself imagined the action would unfold, thus the great moments we had in the films.


However, this again causes it to be virtually up the individual reader to impose their own view(s) of how great/skilled a character from the book actually is.

[The Chou Lives]

Yeah Tolkien was a world builder mostly and I have come to guess he did not want to glorify violence, because he was a vet of WW1. And seeing tons of his friends die, well get the point?

Hell the ending of the Hobbit is anti war with Oak Shields apology to Frodo, and the big of Fire Golum helped Frodo and Sam through is another nod to horror of war.

[The Dork Knight]

In the book at least 20 orcs lay slain at Boromirs feet telling us fairly enough about his capabilities

[Sharpandpointies]

In the book at least 20 orcs lay slain at Boromirs feet telling us fairly enough about his capabilities

Truth. And it's actually BETTER than that.

Book Boromir catches up to the orcs carrying the hobbits and then kills the crap out of them. There's a bucketload of them ('dozens' as noted in the book), he keeps killing them and drives them off. He and the Hobbits then take off. It's explicit that a different group of orcs then catch up to them -- 'at least a hundred' -- and loose a rain of arrows at Boromir. Boromir gets feathered, and yet however many orcs out of the hundred that are loosing a rain of arrows at Boromir don't just kill him, no, he's fine blowing his horn and the hundred orcs are crap-scared of him and draw back, presumably because their buddies have told them how much of a killer this dude is. However, they start nailing him with arrows -- they're loosing volleys at one dude -- and Pippen's last memory of him is Boromir leaning against a tree and pulling arrows out of his body before he gets dragged off.

THEN Aragorn shows up to find Boromir almost dead, and twenty or so Orcs in piles all around him (remember, they moved away from where they were when he killed the first group, so this happened AFTER Pippen got dragged away).

Sooo...this means Boromir basically turns into a murder-marchine AFTER getting filled full of arrows.

That beats all heck out of movie Boromir, who doesn't nearly kill twenty orcs after getting a couple of arrows in him.

Edit: More that I think of it, it's actually even better than this, because Book-Aragorn doesn't arrive in time to help, but Book-Boromir is still alive. Which means the orcs ran off with Merry and Pippin, leaving 'at least' twenty behind to kill the lunatic full of arrows, leaning against the tree. Which means Boromir massacred the group left to kill him (possibly some ran off when they realized it wasn't going at all as planned), and quite possibly could have continued despite having so many arrows in him he eventually died.

Books -
Aragorn and Boromir force paths through snow that's chest-deep on them for an extended period.

Aragorn kills his way across a battlefield at the head of an army -- not a magic snot-army that kills everything it faces instantly, no, a human army that actually has to fight, and he's leading from the front -- chats with his buddy, then kills his way back. He doesn't suffer a single injury, and he's fresh enough that he runs around doing errands that night.

Gimli kills about fifty Orcs in a battle, mostly by chopping off their heads with one shot.

Legolas downs a Fell Beast by shooting straight up into it, in the dark, when it's at a decent altitude. Lest others bring out comments about Bloom-Legolas killing giant elephants, Legolas in the book also removes an arrow from his quiver, fits it to the string, and draws his bow faster than human eyes can follow. He's plenty quick.

Gandalf pretty much did fine against the Balrog in the book, fighting it for a week or so after the same fall as in the movie. His powers helped wreath a mountaintop in fire and lightning. And he didn't fall down and cower against the Witch-King, who honestly has better feats in the book than in the movies.

Basically, Legolas is the only movie-character I see who is potentially better than his book version, but he's also not better than his book-version when it comes to getting in the first shot (he did not, as I recall, ever draw and loose faster than the human eye could even see). That one seems like a draw, maybe? But the other fights -- setting the Hobbits aside, and really, the Hobbits in the book by the end seem to be above their portrayal in the movies -- for the one-on-one I'd give to the Book Fellowship, as I would the team fight.

Yeah, some bias involved, but the characters in the movies (outside of Bloom-Legolas) simply weren't as exaggerated.

[Sol_M]

Gandalf pretty much did fine against the Balrog in the book, fighting it for a week or so after the same fall as in the movie. His powers helped wreath a mountaintop in fire and lightning. And he didn't fall down and cower against the Witch-King, who honestly has better feats in the book than in the movies.

He also caused Sauron to flee before he was ready to face him, as opposed to getting wrecked by Sauron in the movies.

But for what it's worth, Aragorn drove off the Nazgul all by himself at Weathertop (he did it in the books too, but it was more of a "manage to escape with their lives" thing and not "I wreck them in a fight and drive them off by myself" thing). So eh, the portrayal of characters were all over the place in the movies. Movie Gandalf still has magic aoe blasts and magic shields that takes blows that cause stone to shatter to bits.

[Sharpandpointies]

He also caused Sauron to flee before he was ready to face him, as opposed to getting wrecked by Sauron in the movies.

It was actually the entire White Council that did that. Not really a Gandalf feat. In fact, before that took place Gandalf snuck into the halls of the Necromancer (ie: Sauron's summer cottage) and managed to speak with Thorin's dad, and states that he (Gandalf) barely made it out alive (and it was when he finally figured out it was Sauron, so some kind of confrontation must have occurred). It was on that information that the White Council decided to finally act (also Saruman deciding 'Yeah, it's in my best interest to hoof Sauron out of there for the moment').

But for what it's worth, Aragorn drove off the Nazgul all by himself at Weathertop (he did it in the books too, but it was more of a "manage to escape with their lives" thing and not "I wreck them in a fight and drive them off by myself" thing). So eh, the portrayal of characters were all over the place in the movies. Movie Gandalf still has magic aoe blasts and magic shields that takes blows that cause stone to shatter to bits.

To note, the Nazgûl at the time were explicitly less-potent than they became as Sauron exerted more and more of his power later on. So, a small group of them being driven off by fire after accomplishing their task (shanking Frodo with the Morgul dagger) can be viewed through that scope.

Alternately, it can be viewed as enormous PIS, given the bloody Ring was RIGHT THERE and they decided to book it. ^_^

[Sol_M]

It was actually the entire White Council that did that. Not really a Gandalf feat. In fact, before that took place Gandalf snuck into the halls of the Necromancer (ie: Sauron's summer cottage) and managed to speak with Thorin's dad, and states that he (Gandalf) barely made it out alive (and it was when he finally figured out it was Sauron, so some kind of confrontation must have occurred). It was on that information that the White Council decided to finally act (also Saruman deciding 'Yeah, it's in my best interest to hoof Sauron out of there for the moment').

Ah, I see. The scene probably isn't super inaccurate, story wise.

To note, the Nazgûl at the time were explicitly less-potent than they became as Sauron exerted more and more of his power later on. So, a small group of them being driven off by fire after accomplishing their task (shanking Frodo with the Morgul dagger) can be viewed through that scope.

That's pretty fair, though they would have to be significantly less potent there.

...I like the PIS explanation more, kinda. :P

Alternately, it can be viewed as enormous PIS, given the bloody Ring was RIGHT THERE and they decided to book it. ^_^

It's definitely amazing that they tried to persuade Frodo to give them the ring, then stabbed him, then waited till Aragorn showed up and ran off instead of, y'know, just taking the damn ring. Not sure what people were thinking when they made that scene.

[Beadle]

Legolas downs a Fell Beast by shooting straight up into it, in the dark, when it's at a decent altitude. Lest others bring out comments about Bloom-Legolas killing giant elephants, Legolas in the book also removes an arrow from his quiver, fits it to the string, and draws his bow faster than human eyes can follow. He's plenty quick.

Ah, but can he magically run on crumbling rocks that are supported by nothing just because “JACKSOOOOON!!!”?

[Sharpandpointies]

Ah, but can he magically run on crumbling rocks that are supported by nothing just because “JACKSOOOOON!!!”?

He doesn't have to do so if he puts an arrow between Bloom-Legolas' eyes before that dude can react.

[The Dork Knight]

He doesn't have to do so if he puts an arrow between Bloom-Legolas' eyes before that dude can react.

That's the thing though. Being able to walk on falling rocks as they fall is much faster than anything in the books (this is from the Hobbit)