Re: Happy Apple

grymalkyn@gmail.com said:
> As I recall, Pippin had only just reached his majority, while Frodo,
> Merry, and Sam were all older.

That's about what I remembered.  While I did get the sense that Sam was
older, I never really got a feel for how old he was supposed to be.

> Mind you, I think making them all the same age in the movies worked
> much better to make people more sympathetic toward the hobbits as a
> group.

I felt the movies made Merry and Pippin fairly interchangeable.

jgoldie247@btinternet.com said:
> Merry and Pippin were both in their "tweens" - not yet reached their
> majority of 33 years of age.

Hm, that's not the impression I got about Merry.  Not that I'm saying
you're wrong, I certainly don't know one way or the other, but I always
thought Merry was a good bit older.

> Shame that part of the story got lost - where Sam
> first meets Elves in the woods of the Shire

Yeah, that would have been a really nice scene to have kept.  Maybe
it'll be in the Mithril Edition of the blu-ray discs that'll be
released eventually.

GreatOakDressage@aol.com said:
> Merry was not an idiot!!!! That was an aspect to the film I didn't
> enjoy...

Yeah, that was one of the poor decisions that was made for the movies.