In response to another user making a comment on accessibility, I have transcribed the image into a post.
Treebeard:
The Ents cannot hold back this storm. We must weather such things as we have always done.
Merry Brandybuck:
How can that be your decision?!
Treebeard:
This is not our war.
Merry Brandybuck:
But you're part of this world! Aren't you? You must help! Please! You must do something.
Treebeard:
You are young and brave, Master Merry. But your part in this tale is over. Go back to your home.
Pippin Took:
Maybe Treebeard's right. We don't belong here, Merry. It's too big for us. What can we do in the end? We've got the Shire. Maybe we should go home.
Merry Brandybuck:
The fires of Isengard will spread. And the woods of Tuckborough and Buckland will burn. And all that was once green and good in this world will be gone. There won't be a Shire, Pippin.
The Ent stuff is the only thing I really hate everytime I watch the films. They talk for seemingly forever about if they are to go to war or not, then Treebeard walks towards Isengard, sees the burnt forest and immediately amasses an army from the forest. It was written poorly, it would have just been better if Merry convinced them, or if that entire Ent conversation was cut and they just walked to Isengard and had that reaction.
But, yeah, good luck Canada, don't succumb.
If it makes you feel better, and you didn't already know, that didn't really happen in the books. They decided to march to war on their own with no hesitation and no conversation about it with Merry and Pip.
Well they did have the Entmoot, so there was plenty of deliberation. It still seemed like a quick decision on the timescale that Ents live by though.
They also had that forest dance to get pumped up for the war which I still feel was a missed opportunity for the film.
Yeah, I am aware unfortunately, because it just makes it worse. I see what he was trying to do though, with the play on despair and then the "hype" of the Ents joining in. It just feels sloppy every time I watch it though.
Doesn't Pippen convince Treebeard to go that way? I think the intention is to suggest that once Treebeard sees the devastation firsthand (at Pippen's subtle urging), he is convinced.
Yep. Treebeard is taking them to the western edge of the forest. Pippin tells him to turn around and go south. βThe closer we are to danger, the further we are from harm.β
That doesn't make sense to me. But then again, you are very small.
I say this line to my nieces and nephews all the time
Yeah, that bit is fine, but then surely Treebeard would have to go back and discuss this with the other Ents, but instead he screams and within 5s there's an army coming out of the forest, surely they would have noticed the burning right next to them?