XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: consul@dolphinsTAKEAWAY-cove.com   
      
   'tis on this 1/1/2013 7:38 AM, wrote Sandman thus to say:   
   >   Steuard Jensen  wrote:   
   > Spoiler space removed!   
   >   
   >> I'm moderately confused by the changes to the backstory. Why make   
   >> Thror corrupted by gold and Thrain a maddened coward?   
   > Corrupted by gold... well, that was odd.. But in what way did you   
   > percieve Thrain to be a maddened coward? I missed that.   
      
   I don't know about the coward part, but in later half of the book, there is   
   much text of the gold lust. Bilbo, with true hobbit willpower, brushes it off,   
   while Thorin mouths off at Bard and the Elven King reps.   
      
   >> More seriously, I'm not sure why exactly Saruman thinks that he can   
   >> dictate what a random group of Dwarves can or cannot do, nor why   
   >> the news that they had just left town (along a known, very   
   >> specific, very narrow trail) suddenly convinced him that he was no   
   >> longer able to do so.   
   > When Gandalf learns that Saruman is there, he is almost disappointed,   
   > which in line with our knowledge about Saruman. But Gandalf doesn't   
   > know any of this at the time. At the time, Saruman is the head of the   
   > Istari and deserves Gandalfs respect. In Fellowship, he specifically   
   > goes to Saruman for advice, yet in Hobbit, he seems to rather want him   
   > to not be there.   
      
   Was he disappointed or surprised? I thought that in the move, Elrond called   
   him for consultation? Gandalf probably thought he was just going to have a   
   pleasant conversation amongst two.   
   --   
   "... respect, all good works are not done by only good folk. For here, at the   
   end of all things, we shall do what needs to be done."   
      --till next time, consul -x- <>   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)