In Jackson’s Two Towers film, there’s the scene where members of the Fellowship publicly point out how long the odds are at Helm’s Deep after Theoden was acting Large and In Charge in front of his subjects, and Theoden takes Aragorn privately aside and says ‘what would you have me do?’ The scene of course never happened in the books but stayed true to the characters and summed up the prevailing mood at the time. Now if only someone could have convinced Jackson the surfboarding elf with a killer bow wasn’t such a great idea…
Jackson, a great man brought down by conspiracy (of not providing good advice), poor advice, and hubris. 
About the simulation poll…
Does GTA 5 count?
I’m not sure I’ve ever played a computer game that narrowly simulated anything.
Are you a car thief?
I’m a fan of sim games. I have PC Building Simulator. I have Power Wash Simulator. I have Cooking Simulator. I have Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator. I’ve done all of those things in real life.
Although work seemed like Pong some days, this was more of a metaphor than a representation.
I am shocked so many have not read the books are watched the films.
That scene was no big deal.
I’ve watched the films but I couldn’t tell you the names of so many characters. Sam is good. Was that his name? Frodo’s companion? I liked him.
And the lady warrior who announced, “I am no man!” before she killed that one guy.
It’s been a while.
The books are kind of long and somewhat decently written (certainly better than Rowling): if the subject matter fails to hold the reader, there is not much inclination to slog on. The movies are the same thing – if one is not inclined, they are not worth the effort.
I do not remember that scene, but I do well remember the battle for Minas Tirith, which was heavily larded with camera-active CG. It was all so exciting that I started yawning and went to fetch a snack, hoping something interesting would happen soon.
I mean, maybe I am somehow defective, but action sequences get tedious for me very quickly, especially if the camera is a kinetic participant. I really liked a lot of Cloud Atlas, but the longer action scenes mostly had me gone to doing something else.
Here’s the scene:
When I was a kid I used to play Lemonade, a text-only simulation of a children’s lemonade stand over the course of a summer. It was published in 1982 or 1983 by Commodore Educational Software, and seems to have been inspired by (but with different gameplay than) the famous 1973 mainframe game Lemonade Stand. In the Commodore version, every day of gameplay you need to buy lemons and sugar, whose price varies over the summer, and set your asking price on the basis of a weather forecast that includes the temperature and humidity. Set the price too high, and you’ll end up with excess ingredients. Buy too little ingredients, or set the price too low, and you’ll sell out with customers still clamouring for more. You’ll get more customers, and they’ll be willing to pay a higher price, on hotter days. The trick is to find the optimal amount of lemonade ingredients, and the optimal price, that lets you turn the highest profit. After years of playing the game I developed an excellent strategy.
I’m also quite sure that I also set up a lemonade stand in my grandmother’s front yard, probably because I had played that game so much and wanted to try it out in real life.
What they’re leaving out is repeat customers, who are likely to be indignant at finding that they’re expected to pay 1.50 on Thursday for lemonade that cost 1.00 on Tuesday. Being told that the reason is because Tuesday was cool and cloudy while Thursday is scorching hot sun will probably only make their reaction worse.
I think airlines get away with that kind of pricing. I doubt a lemonade stand can. (But if you did set one up, maybe you can tell me different --)
Now I wish I had included an “I plead the fifth” option.
Yes, it was Sam. His full name was Samwise Gamgee.
Eowyn
I once played a computer game that simulated managing a maximum security prison while I was supposed to actually be managing a maximum security prison.
My first thought as well.
I haven’t smoked in over twenty years, so no light, sorry. When I did smoke, I was pretty free with light ups and bumming out cigarettes. I was in it for the Ciggy Karma.
Semi-related anecdote: I was an extra on Patch Adams. (I’m the guy hanging out by the tree when he walks by.) Phillip Seymour Hopkins realized I would give you a smoke if you asked. I don’t think that man bought a single pack of cigarettes the entire time they were on location.
I’ve got plenty of matches. (Wood stove is a sizeable chunk of my winter heat.) But given the ‘what for’ option – if it’s not obvious to me why the person’s asking, I might well want to know that first.
When I read the “actors as heroes” question, I totally forgot about Galaxy Quest, and thought “that would make a fun movie”
Yes, yes it did