In the first pass of the script, this scene with the rustlers didn’t exist, but I eventually came to realize that the story was focusing almost exclusively on the Brimia crew. I hadn’t given any face time to the “bad guys,” so they were just there to be ciphers and obstacles for Roka’s crew without ever having their own personalities. I remember hearing some commentary for LOTR: Return of the King, where the writers mentioned that originally, it was just a giant faceless orc army attacking Minas Tirith. But then it felt lopsided since there were such clear leaders and main characters on the Gondorian/human side, but no such characters on the evil side. So they added Gothmog and some other orc lieutenants to the mix giving out orders and rallying the troops so that the bad guys would have a “point of view” as well as the good guys.

With this scene, I wanted to accomplish the same thing by spending just a few moments with the bad guys. I thought it would be nice to get their names out there and also show that they’re actually quite competent and well aware that they are being followed. I think that sort of thing adds suspense since, as a reader, you now know something the protagonists don’t, and it also establishes the bad guys as more formidable adversaries.