August 19, 2004

Wild Theorizing
Eonwe

Bob,

I've always wondered about Cirdan too. I don't remember the last couple pages exactly , but I'm pretty sure he does not go with the Ringbearers. I always imagined he would remain at the Havens as long as there was any use for them, any traffic at all leaving Middle-earth. I suppose Cirdan would eventually have to leave as well, and then that truly would be the 'last ship.'

The staff breaking thing. I have been up to some wild theorizing, which is, after all, what we at tolkien-movies.com are best at. Stick to your strengths, I always say. OK, if the Lord of the Nazgul goes out and in a battle of power vs. power breaks Gandalf's staff, I am going to be severely annoyed. But I can imagine a couple scenarios which would salvage things a bit.

1) What if it's more of an accidental thing, a side effect of their battle? Like when Elendil falls on Narsil and it shatters. I could probably swallow that happening because the Nazgul wouldn't really come off as more powerful than Gandalf.

2) What if it's not a one-on-one fight, and instead several of the Nazgul, led by their leader, gang up on Gandalf? I can imagine the White Wizard's staff being broken in that fight. This idea was first planted in my mind when I noticed that in the trailer for RotK, the Nazgul that confronts Gandalf on the walls of Minas Tirith is NOT the Lord of the Nazgul. I'm fairly certain of that - no skeleton helmet. It doesn't seem like too much of a leap from there to guess that many, or even all nine, of the Nazgul will be involved in the showdown. Maybe?

If these theories come of sounding like wishful thinking, they are. I really don't want the EE to have a scene that makes it look like Gandalf has been bested by the Lord of the Nazgul.

Eonwe