Peter: Yeah, what was the point? And so we kept focusing entirely on what the heroes were doing.

Philippa: [Old Entish] This is, of course, a slight departure from the book. We had an understanding that, of course, the Ents come to a decision in the book themselves that they need to fight, but it actually left Merry and Pippin as a piece of luggage being dragged along – which is ironic, because that’s what they see themselves as: in the book, they see themselves as ‘bits of luggage’ being carted around by various forces – and so it was nice, we had an understanding that if we were going to see this conflict from the eyes of the two Hobbits, they had to be more proactive, so that is why we went for this strategy. (beat) This was an effort to build the tension here. You want these huge, extraordinary creatures to join forces with our heroes: this becomes this desperate need of Merry to make them understand, and then, of course, you bring them to the point where you think they’re going to do that, and you don’t, which just adds to the tension, adds to the tension, and works really well, I think, as a device. The other thing is: this is part of Pippin’s journey, part of his story, and part of, of course, Merry’s story: that Merry immediately has an understanding of what’s at stake; Pippin doesn’t, and this is about Pippin beginning to finally get it, as we will see when we come to Merry’s speech about what is at stake. In the end, the very existence of the Shire is at stake here: not just those people in Helm’s Deep, but the Shire.