Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Edena_of_Neith" data-source="post: 341473" data-attributes="member: 2020">I disagree with the opinion that the Ringwraiths were ill served in the film FOTR, concerning the Battle of Weathertop.  - - -  In the book FOTR (and in Tolkien's Letters) it is stated the fear aura of the Ringwraiths is greater at night.  And although they cannot see as mortals see, they can perceive mortals as shadowy shapes.  Quite enough, in the way of perception, for a nice killing sword thrust.  In the book FOTR, Merry and Pippin were overcome completely by the fear aura and flung themselves to the ground, making them instant kills had the Ringwraiths desired to take the time for a quick stab of their blades.  Sam was incapacitated by the fear aura, and unable to effectively fight - not that Sam COULD have effectively fought sword to sword against opponents with thousands of years of battle experience (not to mention that if, by some incredible stroke of luck, he had won, his victory would have killed him as it almost killed Merry and  Eowyn.)  As for Aragorn, he leapt out with a flaming brand in each hand ...  Yes, Aragorn was one of the truly mighty among men.  He was a direct descendent of Luthien herself.  In Aragorn's blood flowed the lineage of the Edain, Kings of Numenor, Lords of Adunaidae (I know that's the wrong spelling of that name ...), Kings of Arnor, and Chieftains of the North.  In his blood flowed the lineage of the House of Finwe and the House of Thingol  In his blood flowed the immortal lineage of Melian the Maia.  So yeah, Aragorn was a frightful, overawing sight for the Ringwraiths.  And yeah, he was of great stature, and could put up a good fight - he was a powerful warrior.  Not so frightful and powerful, however, that the Ringwraiths could not have killed him - especially as Aragorn fought alone and without hope of aid.  Set against Aragorn was the Lord of the Ringwraiths himself, with fully four of his fellows.  It was prophesized by no less than Glorfindel himself that no mortal man would slay the Lord of the Ringwraiths - and Aragorn was a mortal man, even if he was mighty among men by any standard one would care to speak of.  Not to mention five to one odds are not good odds, and the Ringwraiths were no slouches at combat - considering they had been in combats for thousands of years.  In other words, Aragorn and Company were all toast on Weathertop.    A classic TPK scenario.  - - -  UNLESS you TRULY take the above to heart, concerning Aragorn.  Unless you truly DO give to Aragorn credit as among the greatest in stature among mortal men (in D&D terms, an epic level character.)    If you take Aragorn's lineage at face value - Aragorn's stature, as it were, and stature was VERY important in Tolkien's world - then it does make sense that Aragorn, alone, could take on the Lord of the Ringwraiths and four of his comrades, and hope to win the battle.  However, you cannot have it both ways.  Either Aragorn was truly of great stature, and could hope to drive off (not kill!) the Ringwraiths, or ...  Aragorn did not have the stature to drive off the Ringwraiths, in which case he and the whole Company were dead.  Either way, it does not do a discredit to the Ringwraiths.  In the first scenario, they were up against a mortal man who could take on SAURON HIMSELF, in a contest of wills, and win (the Palantir battle noted above by Colonel Hardisson.)  In the second scenario ... well, if Tolkien had killed off the whole party (the realistic thing to do in this scenario), he would have had no story any more, would he?  And if Peter Jackson had not resolved the matter, one way or another, it would have come off as hard to swallow.  It is one thing for Tolkien to write:  Frodo passed out, and when he woke up the Ringwraiths were gone (to paraphrase.)  It is another for a film to gloss over a battle in progress, skipping forward to the aftermath without showing any resolution.  However, that is all my opinion only.  How would YOU have handled this, the Battle of Weathertop?  I can see several ways in which Peter Jackson could have handled the situation differently.  But I ask:  how would you have done it?  Edena_of_Neith</blockquote>

Verification