Tailkinker

Answer: There are no particularly precise figures anywhere - all that's available would be educated guesses based on watching the films, and you'd be just as qualified to do that as anybody.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: The elves were not supposed to be in Middle-Earth at all. While they awoke there, many thousands of years before the War of the Ring, the Valar (local deity equivalents) summoned them to Valinor, the Undying Lands, and the vast majority went willingly. When Melkor, the first Dark Lord, fled to Middle-Earth, taking the Silmarils (great jewels crafted by the elves) with him, a great host of the Elves returned to Middle-Earth in pursuit, against the wishes of the Valar. After the fall of Melkor, the elves remained in Middle-Earth, considered themselves in exile, although the Valar were content to allow them to return if they so wished. They also remained as a buffer against the return of evil - Sauron, Melkor's chief lieutenant, was still out there, as were many of Melkor's other allies - the Valar ensured that the elven magicks remained strong with this in mind. With the rise of humanity and the fall of Sauron, the elves are finally being called home by the Valar, going back to where they were always supposed to be, and leaving the lands of Middle-Earth to the younger races, as the Valar intended.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: Aragorn is 210 years old when he dies. Some of the early texts give his age at death as 190, but Tolkien eventually confirmed that 210 is the correct age.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: No difference at all - Oliphaunts and Mumakil are simply what the creatures are called in different languages - Oliphaunt being the term used in the western lands of Middle-Earth, while Mumakil is from the language of the Haradrim from the southern reaches. As a note, Mumakil is plural - an individual creature is a Mumak.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: If the rumours are to be believed - and there's never been any official indication that there was the remotest grain of truth in this - they were to play Jedi in the arena battle.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: No. Tolkien was very specific about this - mortals who travel to the Undying Lands remain mortal and will live out their normal lifespan.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: The implication, from the context of the full conversation, is that these are all names for specific types of cons. The Boesky, for example, may refer to Ivan Boesky, a Wall Street trader who served a prison sentence for an insider dealing scam. A Boesky is therefore an inside man claiming to be a wealthy bankroller. A Jim Brown is the confrontation between Linus and Frank, Miss Daisy is the getaway vehicle, two Jethros are the Malloy twins, a Leon Spinks is the disrupted boxing match, and an Ella Fitzgerald refers to the looped tape.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: Due to the overwhelming size of his forces, Sauron was able to fight the War of the Ring on several fronts. In addition to the main attack on Gondor, there were numerous other assaults - Galadriel's realm of Lorien was attacked, for example, as was the kingdom of the Wood-Elves, Legolas' people. The dwarf-kingdom of Erebor also came under attack, so the dwarves ended up fighting to defend their homeland. None of these battles were shown in the film, as it would have taken even more time, and would have taken the focus from the major characters.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: Gandalf is extremely powerful, as are all the five Wizards. They were sent to Middle-Earth to aid the inhabitants in the fight against Sauron, but they were only sent to help - they were placed under a specific instruction that they were only to assist, not to lead - the battle ultimately had to be fought by the races of Middle-Earth. As such, they were forbidden from using the full extents of their magics, lest they become tempted to rule rather than advise. Saruman ultimately fell to this very temptation, and Tolkien felt that two of the other wizards (neither mentioned in the films) did likewise in lands far to the east, with only Gandalf and Radagast staying true to their mission.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: There are only five wizards. Saruman and Gandalf are heavily involved, as we see. Radagast, while not mentioned in the film, has a particular affinity with the birds and animals - it is he who sends the Eagles to the last battle, and to rescue Gandalf from Isengard. The final two, Alatar and Pallando, known as the Blue Wizards, went into the far eastern regions of Middle-Earth and never returned. Tolkien felt that they would ultimately have fallen from grace, much as Saruman did.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: Global warming melts the icecaps, releasing millions of tons of fresh water into the oceans. This upsets the delicate environmental balance of the oceans, leading to the ocean currents stopping. It's these currents that carry warm water up into the Northern Hemisphere, causing our temperate climate. The currents stop, everything cools down, fast.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: You're misinterpreting her statement - when she said "except this", she wasn't saying that something the Oracle had told her was a lie, just that it hadn't come true at that point. The Oracle presumably told her that she and the One would fall in love - by this point, it's clear that she loves him, but, what she doesn't know yet, is whether he loves her. She wants to tell him but, in typically human fashion, is afraid to, for fear of rejection.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: In the cartoons, it's AC-712. The film was probably faithful to this.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: No, they're still the same distance apart - it's a standard film technique to compress time for travelling and so forth. It's intercut with Pippin singing for dramatic effect, not to imply that it only takes the length of the song to travel the distance.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: There is already a boxset available of the three theatrical cuts. There will undoubtedly also be a boxset of the Extended Editions, which will no doubt come out in November, when the final Extended Cut is due for release.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: Your second guess is correct - the Narrator (his name is never stated in the film itself - although promotional material refers to him as "Jack", the closed captioning calls him "Rupert") is framing his boss so that he can leave work and still get paid, get the flight coupons and so on.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: It's not uncommon for one company to supply all the cars for a film - it's simpler for the film company to make one single deal, and it's product placement for the car company in question.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: www.buffyworld.com has screen captures from an awful lot of episodes - I've found some good ones of the puppet there.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: Actors, on occasions, choose not to be credited - generally if they're appearing in a relatively small role, one smaller than you'd generally expect that person to play.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: It could be both. "Federal Housing" could be a description of the style - it might originally have been built as federal housing, but converted into a hotel at a later date.

Tailkinker ★