OrangeRakoon wrote:But outside of prequel twists, in the LOTR you know Frodo isn't going to die in the Fellowship when he gets stabbed by the ringrwraiths, or by the cave troll. They are still suspenseful. If I rewatch a film it doesn't lose all suspense just because I know what is going to happen.
The first time you read/watch LoTR, you have no real idea if Frodo is going to live or die in either of those scenes.
You imagine that he is the hero of the story and so will survive, but you don’t know that until you continue with the story. Re reading/watching it takes away a lot of suspense as you know that he isn’t going to die. It’s like with Gandalf in Moria, the first time you think he is dead, afterwards you know he is coming back.
Sure it can still be a tense scene, but it is never going have the same level of suspense when you already know a characters lives/dies/comes back.