Grr. Return of the King makes me angry.

[KenM]

Well, thanks for that. Nice compliment.

So remind me what actually happens at Mount Doom in RotK the book. I always thought it was, "Ha ha, I'm invisible and evil." "Give it back! I grapple you and bite off your finger. Oops, crap, I'm falling to my death. That'll show you what greed gets you."

Instead, they fight, and both of them are consumed with the evil of the ring, and only dumb luck saves the day. That wasn't the way it was in the book, was it?

In the book, once Gollum has the ring he dances around and falls into the lava. In the movie Frodo gets back up and they fight for it, both falling over.

 

[Raven Crowking]

The Steward of Gondor sprinting a quarter mile, while on fire, just so he can plummet from the top of Gondor. It would've been better if he'd just collapsed on the pyre.

And, without the Palantir, we don't get to understand exactly why he despaired, either. Of course, if he had seen the ships coming upriver from Umbar, then we'd also presumably have to see the fight with the Corsairs of Umbar, when the Dead actually fought and were released. And then we'd have had to understand that there were so few forces coming to Gondor's aid because of fighting going on elsewhere.....

LotR was originally envisioned as six books. If only we had had six movies....!

Sam not getting to put on the ring and kick ass while invisible, just because in the first movie they decided that Sauron immediately knows just where you are when you put on the ring. It's just not as interesting to have the Orcs and Goblins killing each other off again.

But Sam doesn't wear the Ring and kick ass in Mordor in the book. In the book, Sam is quite aware that he cannot enter Mordor with the Ring on, or Sauron will know he is there. This is very explicit in the book.

When Sam rescues Frodo, most of the Orcs have already been killed, fighting over Frodo's mithral coat. Remember, it was worth more than the Shire and everything in it....!

Holding the Ring and being determined, so close to the seat of the Ring's power, was enough to make the Orcs see Sam as a great Elf warrior. That, plus what happened to Shelob, which the Orcs saw as a warrior's work.


I agree with your hopes that the extended version will answer my own complaints with this version. Long as it is, the theatrical release of RotK was really a "bare bones" experience. Fifty extra minutes might rectify that.


RC

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

[*]Merry apparently gets flung across the battlefield after stabbing the Witch-King. How do you explain why he's lying under an Orc next to an oliphant when Pippin finds him?

Perhaps the orc and oliphant were slain *after* Merry was flung across the battlefield?

 

[Heretic Apostate]

Great. Just great. I don't get the movie until the end of next month, or early January.

Could we perhaps have a *SPOILER* in the title, eh?



(I know the gist, having read the books years ago, but still...)

 

[Fast Learner]

Great. Just great. I don't get the movie until the end of next month, or early January.

Could we perhaps have a *SPOILER* in the title, eh?



(I know the gist, having read the books years ago, but still...)

So... after the first sentence, "I'm watching the end of Return of the King, and I'm just frustrated at the small mistakes," followed by a bunch of bullet points, you weren't clued-in?

 

[Dragonblade]

Yep, it was. The point was that no one could destroy the ring willingly, ONLY 'dumb luck'(or whatever you call it) could do that.

Not dumb luck. Providence. Remember Tolkien was a devout Catholic and the ending of the book reflects that. No mortal can completely rid themselves of evil on their own.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Not dumb luck. Providence. Remember Tolkien was a devout Catholic and the ending of the book reflects that. No mortal can completely rid themselves of evil on their own.

I only used dumb luck because it was what RW referred to. In the end, it works out to the same thing: Mortals can't rid themselves of evil without some kind of help

 

[Mystery Man]

Well, thanks for that. Nice compliment.

So remind me what actually happens at Mount Doom in RotK the book. I always thought it was, "Ha ha, I'm invisible and evil." "Give it back! I grapple you and bite off your finger. Oops, crap, I'm falling to my death. That'll show you what greed gets you."

Instead, they fight, and both of them are consumed with the evil of the ring, and only dumb luck saves the day. That wasn't the way it was in the book, was it?

Looks like several beat me to the answer already.

 

[KenM]

LotR was originally envisioned as six books. If only we had had six movies....! RC

If you want to get technical, It can be considered six books. FotR had books 1 and 2. TTT books 3 and 4, and RotK books 5 and 6. Look at the table of contents, thats how it is.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I know. And the individual six books all have names, too.

AND if we had six movies, there would have been time to Scour the Shire.


RC