August 16, 2002

Timing Problems in TTT and Rotk
Phil V.

I was thinking about this the other day and wondered what the rest of you thought about it. There are serious timing problems in the parallel tales of Frodo and Sam and the rest of the Fellowship. If you look at Appendix B, the day that Two Towers ends for the rest of the Fellowship is March 7, with Gandalf and Pippin on their way to Minas Tirith. At this point, Frodo hasn't even reached the black gate yet. The Two Towers ends for him and Sam on March 13, at which point the rest of the Fellowship is almost to the Battle of the Pelennor. Aragorn is a day away from Pelargir and capturing the black fleet, while Theoden is about to take on the wildmen as his guide. This is also the day Faramir is wounded. This is page 87 in my version of ROTK. So the question is, how is PJ going to resolve this dilemma? Does he drastically alter the timeline, ignore the timeline, or make the movie like the book? (in that it only focuses on the rest of the company for the first half, and then turns to Frodo and Sam). I don't think there is an easy answer, but I was curious is someone had one.