How "Lord of the Rings" should have ended

I can't believe that I, Lord of the Rings geek that I am, hadn't thought of this before. Here's a How it Should Have Ended cartoon for the movie version Tolkien's saga (though it could be applied to the books just as easily):

Comments

Joe Mc'Lynch said…
Meh, I've tried stereotyping the plots for fantasy films/worlds on my blog, and it seems too easy for words. I wish we got some more inventive stuff going down with writers.
Anonymous said…
You have a point. And have you ever noticed how full of clichés Hamlet is?
grishnash said…
Funny cartoon, but I still have to wonder if even Gandalf could have pulled this stunt off... I mean, I have a hunch that there would have been some Nazgul there to meet a flight of giant eagles inbound to Mordor, and outnumbered 3-to-1, I'm not sure I'd bet on the eagles. Of course, maybe they could valiantly prevail after a sky-rending battle, but whoops, wasn't one of us carrying a hobbit when we flew in?
Zachary Drake said…
Thanks for stopping by, Joe!

Grishnash, remember that at first the Nazgul didn't have their flying mounts. They were on horseback until they lost their horses in the river near Rivendell. Then their spirits went back to Mordor and they got re-outfitted. If they had flown on eagles, directly from Rivendell, the Nazgul would still be flightless by the time they got to Mount Doom.

I always wanted to see the scene where the Nine come back to Mordor having failed in their mission. I'd love to hear old Sauron chewing out his flunkies.
Anonymous said…
Well, was it explicitly stated that the Nazgûl didn't have access to the flying mounts before that incident? They could have just been on horseback for stealth purposes.
grishnash said…
I do remember that the flying mounts came later. Since the cartoon started with the Council of Elrond, I assumed that we are supposed to take it that the action to this point so far is pretty much identical to the movie/books. So that would have already included the Nazgul losing their horses. I'm not sure how long it would have taken them to get back to Mordor, but I assume spirits would travel pretty fast. I still think Sauron would have had time to react, especially considering Frodo's recovery time at Rivendell, unless he was busy reading a book about a hobbit and his goat to some orcs at the time, or something.
Zachary Drake said…
OK, Grishnash, you have a good point, but with a name like Grishnash, of course you'd take Sauron's side and attribute to him all sorts of capabilities.

If Gandalf was riding on one eagle, I think they'd have a pretty good chance of getting through. We know from the time when the Nazgul was coming after Farimir as he rode back towards Gondor that Gandalf can shoot white rays of energy out of his hands that can repel Nazgul. And we know Aragorn has the mojo to drive them off, too, from the encounter at Weathertop. We also know that Legolas can shoot down their steeds. So together, I think they'd have a pretty good chance of breaking through.

Of course you could argue that Gandalf only gained the cool ray power when he "gained a level" and became Gandalf the White, which he would not have had the experience points to do if he hadn't fought the Balor I mean Balrog in Moria. But I still think they would have had a good shot, especially if they got Elrond and Galadriel to provide magical artillery cover.
Anonymous said…
As much as I enjoyed the cartoon, it couldn't really have happened this way. Violates all the rules of the bildungsroman...no journey=no growth.
Zachary Drake said…
Of course you'd make LITERARY arguments of why it couldn't happen that way. Because you think Lord of the Rings is literature. It's not. It's history, man. Middle Earth is REAL.

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