Return of the King!

[tunis5000]

I found a little FAQ answering my own question and more.

SPOLIERS:

ROTK FAQ
For people who haven't read the books and especially for the many here who read them a long time ago and are saying all sorts of crazy stuff they think they remember.

1. What was Gandalf? Is he a better-than-average normal human?

Gandalf is a Maiar. Think of him as an angel. Sauron is also a Maiar, a fallen angel in his case. Millennia ago Morgoth, who is basically equivalent to Satan, rebelled against God and a lot of the angels went with him. Sauron was his chief lieutenant and one of the most powerful. He became even more powerful through the forging of the One Ring.

2. Why does Frodo leave?

Frodo is seriously screwed up by the whole experience. His injuries from the Witch King and Shelob hurt him all the time and basically he just is depressed all the time. Even though theoretically Elves are the only ones allowed to go the Undying Lands an exception is made for the three hobbits (Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam, who leaves when he's very old) who saved Middle Earth by carrying the One Ring. It's not stated explicitly in the book but you get the feeling Frodo feels he failed his quest by claiming the ring at the end. Apparently you were supposed to understand all this in the movie by seeing Frodo kind of wince at one point. Kind of a failure on Jackson's part if you ask me--if you are going to take a long time on the ending at least get your point across.

3. What's this "Undying Lands" they were going to? Some sort of Heaven-analogue? Frodo gets to live forever?

Valinor, the Undying Lands, is sort of like heaven in that it is wonderful and all the angels including the demigod level angels (who do not really affect the LotR story much) live there with lots of Elves. Soon after the Elves were created they were called to come to Valinor and live happily with the angels. Unfortunately some didn't manage to make the long journey (such as Legolas' ancestors). Even worse, a large contingent of Elves got pissed off, rebelled, and left for Middle Earth (Galadriel was one of these). For a while they were kept out but finally they were allowed to return (Galadriel was only let back in after she "passed the test" in Fellowship of the Ring). Since the time of the Elves is over (i.e. they've been around a long time, lots of a bad stuff has happened, and plus they are kind of bored) they are leaving Middle Earth to a happier place.

All this said, just because they are the Undying Lands doesn't mean when a mortal like a hobbit goes there they will live forever. Instead it's just a nice place to relax and heal after exposure to an intense evil like the One Ring. Bilbo and Frodo will still die (sooner than otherwise, in fact).

4. If Gandalf is an angel what's he doing tottering around as an old man instead of blasting the crap out of people? And why does he leave?

When it became apparent Isildor had not destroyed the One Ring and Sauron was down but not out, the demigod-level angels of Valinor decided to send 5 Maiar to rally the forces of good and essentially make it a fair fight. These were Gandalf, Saruman (the leader), Radagast (who does not appear in the movies but makes a cameo in the books), and two others. Saruman turns evil, the unnamed two go MIA, and Radagast doesn't become evil per se but degenerates into, well, a bit too much of a tree-hugging animal lover to be of any use. Only Gandalf stays true to the cause. Since he only came in the first place to fight Sauron (most especially he was sent back after dying fighting the Balrog "briefly" to finish the job) when that is accomplished he's going to pack it off to Valinor where he belongs with the other angels.

Why don't we see more spellcasting if he's such a metaphysical powerhouse? The 5 Maiar were sent act as advisors but not to oppose Sauron strength for strength. The point being men (and Elves and Dwarves, to a lesser extent) had to earn their freedom by winning it themselves. In life victory isn't just handed to you on a silver platter.

5. Why didn't the army of the dead win the whole war for them, being invincible and all?

You'll have to take that one up with Peter Jackson. In the books, part of the reason Gondor is in such bad straights is a lot of its soldiers are defending the women and children on the coasts because they know the corsairs are coming. Aragorn leads the army of the dead to the corsairs and defeats them, but as described the corsairs are mainly just scared away. The dead don't really fight that much, if at all. Aragorn loads the ships up not with dead people but with live soldiers who are no longer needed to defend the coast. He's also got a bunch of the Rangers of the north with him, not to mention Elrond's sons.

6. Why weren't Elves and Dwarves helping out in the fighting?

Unfortunately in the movies (and to be fair, the books mostly as well) we only see Sauron's main attack. However he had more orcs than you could shake a stick at and untold thousands of these were off attacking Lothlorien (without a lot of success--Rivendell and Lothlorien are too strong to be taken without Sauron himself showing up, at least while the Elven rings still work, i.e. while the One Ring is not destroyed but also not in Sauron's hands) and the various Dwarven kingdoms. Gimli's king actually dies in battle far in the north around the same time as the battle of Pelannor Fields.

7. Why was Faramir's father such a psycho?

He had a palantir, a seeing-stone, and the foolishness to use it. The seeing stones were gifts from the Elves to the people who founded Gondor. There were seven of them. They were placed at Osgiliath, Minas Tirith, Minas Ithil, Isenguard (which was built incidently by the founders of Gondor, as was the Black Gate), Weathertop, a tower near the Gray Havens, and Annuminas, the capital city of the northern kingdom (destroyed by the Witch King long before LotR). By the time of LotR all were thought to be lost, but it turned out three were still around. Saruman had the Isenguard stone. Denethor had one too, presumably Minas Tirith's. Minas Ithil had long ago been sacked by the Witch King and turned into Minas Morgul, the green-glowing city in the movie, so Sauron had that stone taken to Barad-dur for his personal use. The stones allow you to not only see other places but see into the mind of anyone else using one, or vice versa. Gondor originally used them for efficient administration. Saruman and Denethor tried to use them for spying on Mordor, and got snared by the superior will of Sauron. Saruman, already corrupted by his own will for power, became something of an ally with Sauron. Denethor, since he was a man and being much weaker of will, saw only what Sauron wanted him to see. Sauron showed him armies far greater than those Sauron had and Denethor gave in to despair. He kills himself and tries to kill Faramir so that he won't live to see Sauron's seemingly inevitable triumph. He's a tragic figure but not nearly as much of a lunatic as he's portrayed as in the movie.

8. What's this stuff Gandalf tells Pippin about dying?

You'll have to ask Peter Jackson. To someone who is familiar with Tolkien's mythology these lines from Gandalf come off as rather cynical lies to try to make someone feel better, much like his comment about the "halls of his fathers" in Two Towers. Here's the deal with Tolkien and the after life. Elves are immortal. They are "bound to the earth"--they endure so long as it endures. Sure, they can be killed, but even then they don't really leave, their spirit stays on the earth, specifically in a part of the Undying Lands. Since they have to constantly watch evil forces like Morgoth and Sauron ruining the land they love so much, this is kind of a melancholy existence. Men, meanwhile, were given a "gift" by God: they live only a short time, grow old, and depart from this world entirely. Where they go is a secret. The Elves don't know, and apparently even the demigod angels do not know. With all this uncertainty it was not difficult for Morgoth (who you will recall is similar to Satan) to convince Men that death is actually a bad thing and something to be feared. (By the way lest recalling Eowyn's "I am no man" moment you get confused I am using Men in the capital-M Tolkien sense of "humans")

9. So wait, what is all this Arwen nonsense about?

Arwen is Elrond's daughter, and Elrond happens to be Half-Elven. His mother was an Elf and his father was a Man. Since you can't really be half immortal, he got to choose whether to be Elven or mortal. He chose Elven (his brother, incidently, chose mortal, and was the first King about 40 or so generations ahead of Aragorn). Arwen's mother is an Elf but her father is Half-Elven, so she is given the opportunity to choose as well. Given that her father chose to be an Elf and her mother actually was, Elrond must have thought it was a done deal she'd choose Elf and be with her family more or less indefinitely in the Undying Lands, but that was ended when Arwen fell in love with Aragorn and decided to chose to be mortal. So it's all kind of poignant, but it doesn't really matter that much to the story, which is probably why Tolkien relegated it to an appendix. It should be emphasized that pure Elves like Legolas do not have this option, the "gift" of true death was given to Men alone.

10. Why didn't those enormous eagles just carry Frodo from the Shire to Mount Doom?

There are two answers to this. Choose whichever you prefer. The first is that Mount Doom happens to be in the center of Sauron's power. The instant he realizes you are trying to destroy the ring, he can make that utterly impossible by putting a billion orcs around Mount Doom or, even worse, standing there himself. Few things are more conspicuous than cruising through the sky on a gigantic eagle in a world with no airplanes. Sauron is the most powerful being in Middle Earth. It's well within his capacity to enforce a No Fly Zone over Mount Doom for as long as necessary.

The second answer is that if the eagles seemed like a bit of a deus ex machina it's because while there's no machine here (this is Tolkien the luddite we're dealing with, after all) there is a God involved. The huge eagles are closely identified with Manwe, who is the chief of the demigod angels and as such can safely be considered the most powerful incarnate being in Tolkien's universe. He and his Valar buddies could beat Sauron with their bare hands if they wanted to, but they don't go to Middle Earth, they chill out in the Undying Lands. As I said earlier Man has to earn freedom in Tolkien's world. It's the old religious question of the toleration of evil. Anyhow, the eagles will occasionally fortuitously help out but they won't win the game for you any more than Gandalf will.

[Executioner]

I enjoyed all 3, but I wish they would have been released every 6 months instead of 12. Way too long to remember from the first movie.

[blitzcraig464]

nice synopsis Tunis......I have read Tolkien and there is no way that all aspects of the struggle in middle earth could be condensed....even in a three hour trilogy.....