The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Question: Was Minas Morgul (originally Minas Ithil by the Gondorians and sister city of Minas Tirith) reclaimed by the Gondorians after the war?

Answer: It's never stated. Assuming that it survived the turmoil of Sauron's destruction, the Gondorians would have taken control. Whether they would allow such a place of evil to continue to stand is an open question.

Tailkinker

Question: After the fall of Sauron, Barad-Dur and Mordor as a whole, what was Mordor used as? Did it serve any purpose after the war? For example, did the survivors build a city/buildings?

Answer: It's never stated. It's certainly unlikely that there were any survivors on the plain of Gorgoroth, the north-west part of Mordor where Mount Doom and the fortress of Barad-dur were located. The remainder of Mordor, the more-fertile lowland area called Nurn, where slave-farms produced food for Sauron's armies, probably fared much better, but precisely what happened after Sauron's fall is never mentioned.

Tailkinker

Question: After King Elessar (Aragorn) dies in 120 FA, what exactly happens to Arwen?

Answer: Arwen leaves Gondor after Aragorn's death, now ruled by Eldarion, their son. She travels north, to the now-deserted remains of Lorien, to Cerin Amroth, a grassy mound at the very heart of the realm where she and Aragorn first pledged their love to each other. She passes away there in 121 FA.

Tailkinker

Question: What happens to Osgiliath after the war? Is the city rebuilt?

Answer: It's not clear what happens. Minas Tirith continues to be the capital of Gondor. It seems likely that Osgiliath would be rebuilt to some extent, but it probably never regained its full glory.

Tailkinker

Question: In the extended version, The Mouth of Sauron tells the heroes that Frodo is dead and the Ring is on it's way to Barad-Dur. The heroes give up hope but continue to fight in honour of what Frodo has tried to do. But when the Great Eye glows brighter at the Rings destruction, the heroes all look up at it before it explodes and Barad-Dur collapses. Do they think Sauron has reclaimed the Ring or he has been defeated?

Answer: You can't really say what a character is thinking, unless there's a voiceover or something, but, given that they believe that the Ring has been captured, it seems likely that most may well believe that Sauron has reclaimed the Ring. Whatever they actually think, it's clear that something must be happening, hence their attention being drawn. If there is an exception to this, it would be Gandalf - given that he's of the same race as Sauron (lesser Ainur, known as Maiar), and both have powerful magical abilities, it seems possible that Gandalf might be able to sense what has really happened before any actual physical signs became apparent.

Tailkinker

Question: I'm kinda unclear on this - why exactly does the ground cave in and swallow the orcs and other evil creatures when Sauron's defeated (when the ring is destroyed)? I did notice that it got most of the bad guys and didn't come too near aragon and the gondor/rohan army.

Answer: Sauron's power affects Mordor - it's his power, for example, that prevents the forging chamber in Mount Doom from filling with lava. With the defeat of Sauron, Mordor is badly affected - the uncontrolled eruption of Mount Doom, the fall of the Black Gate and so forth. Aragorn's forces are outside the Black Gate, so the destruction doesn't quite reach them, but many of the Mordor forces are within that area, between the Gondor/Rohan troops and the Gate itself. The others simply run away when it becomes apparent that their master has fallen.

Tailkinker

Question: As none of the evil armies knew that the Rohirrim were coming for a surprise attack on the Pelennor Fields, why did they have the Mumakil, as they wouldn't really be able to attack Minas Tirith apart from damaging a few walls, they would have just got stuck behind the hordes of orcs (who wouldn't have run away towards Osgiliath) So why have them?

Answer: Sauron's forces are attacking Gondor, their primary foe in that part of Middle-Earth - this is not a time for holding anything back; they're going to throw everything that they've got into the mix. Anyway, they may well have suspected that the Rohirrim were going to get involved - it seems highly likely that Sauron's agents would have noticed the lighting of the beacons calling the Rohirrim to battle.

Tailkinker

Question: Was Legolas at the Battle of the Last Alliance with Elrond and Co? He is old enough, and a good enough fighter.

Answer: No one actually knows how old Legolas is, but if he is as old as Peter Jackson says (2,963 yrs I think) then that would mean Legolas would have been born in the beginning of the Third Age; years after the Last Alliance took place. His father, Thranduil, however, did fight in that battle.

cullothiel

Question: Does anybody know how old Shelob is, is she older than Sauron?

Answer: Shelob's date of birth is not recorded, but is believed to be sometime in the First Age, which would make her at most seven thousand years old. Sauron is much older, having been around since the creation of the world.

Tailkinker

Question: The scene in the movie with everything about Saruman is not true to the book, and even though there will be more scenes in the extended version, all this is not correct. Saruman's palantir and staff are actually taken by Gandalf, and Saruman is let out by Treebeard. Saruman later dies in the Shire, after the fellowship sees him on their way back home. Why is all this info being changed, couldn't they have put all this in the extended version? If all this was not filmed for the movie, why wasn't it?

Answer: The entire Scouring of the Shire sequence was never filmed. This was a deliberate choice by the film-makers to prevent the ending of the film from becoming overlong - the climax to the tale is, really, the destruction of the Ring and the fall of Sauron. The theatrical release of the film goes on for at least half an hour after that - to include all the necessary scenes would lengthen the ending of the film to probably around the hour and a half mark - the Scouring is a complex sequence - which is untenable in cinematic terms, even for an extended version. As such, in their version, Saruman dies at Isengard (apparently still at Wormtongue's hands) - this will be seen in the extended cut.

Tailkinker

Question: When Gandalf is talking Pippin to Minas Tirith, he says it is 'three day's ride, as the Nazgul flies', but how did he know that the Nazgul are now flying using the Fell Beasts to find the ring?

Answer: After Gandalf's resurrection, or whatever the right term is, according to the books, he was rescued from the mountain peak where he fought the Balrog by Gwaihir, the Eagle who helped him escape Isengard (and who subsequently shows up at the battle at Black Gate). Gwaihir is Lord of the Air and is going to be pretty well informed about anything that occurs in his realm. It seems extremely unlikely that he wouldn't know about the Fell Beasts, and, as it's a pretty significant piece of tactical knowledge, he would undoubtedly have informed Gandalf of this new development.

Tailkinker

Question: What happened to Frodo's Mithril vest? After the orcs remove it at the borders of Mordor we never see it again. Surely Frodo would not leave something behind that is 'worth more than all the Shire', as Gandalf said in Fellowship.

Answer: In the Extended cut, we see what happens to it. It is taken by the orcs and paraded in front of Aragorn's forces at the Black Gate by a character known as the Mouth of Sauron (effectively a spokesperson), taunting them that Frodo has failed in his mission. It was retrieved after the battle and returned to Frodo after his rescue from Mordor.

Tailkinker

Question: Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't it take Gandalf and Pippin a three day ride to Minas-Tirith? Because when Gandalf saves Faramir from the winged Nazgul, Faramir says he last saw Frodo and Sam in Ithilien 'not two days ago' (at the end of The Two Towers), so shouldn't he have last seen them at least FOUR days ago?

Answer: Faramir saw Frodo and Sam 2 days before, and yes, it took Gandalf and Pippin 3 days to ride to Minas Tirith. However, the exact timescale of each story line is independent from the others, so the day Faramir last saw Frodo isn't the same day Gandalf and Pippin set off.

angi

Question: Frodo is pricked by Shelob in the torso. However he is at the time wearing a mithril coat which are supposed to impervious. How is he stabbed then?

Answer: The stinger actually comes in quite high, presumably above the rather low neckline of the mithril coat. An injury can be seen high up on his chest later in the film, presumably the stinger wound.

Tailkinker

Question: Do we know who the guy holding the flag is when our main characters ride up to the Black Gates?

Answer: It's more than likely he's just a higher ranked soldier representing Gondor, as Faramir couldn't go.

cullothiel

Question: Why couldn't The Eye Of Sauron move around like a light house as it does in this film, in The Two Towers?

Answer: Who's to say it couldn't? Just because we didn't see it do it doesn't mean it couldn't. In the Two Towers, the eye of Sauron was focusing on events that were days away by horse. At that distance, it didn't need to swivel to see what it wanted to see. As its target drew nearer, however, it became more important to look around and get as much of the picture as possible.

Garlonuss

Question: In the extended version out later this year,will we see The Houses of Healing, The Mouth Of Sauron, Sam wearing the Ring at Cirith Ungol and Faramir and Eowyn falling in love? After reading the book, I really hope I eventually see this added to the film.

Answer: We will see: The Witch King taking Gandalf's staff. Saruman dying at Orthanc. Merry swearing allegiance to Theoden. Gamling dying on the Pelennor Fields. House of Healing, with Aragorn, Merry, Eowyn and Faramir. Frodo and Sam marching with Orcs, while wearing the armour. Mouth of Sauron deceiving Aragorn with the Mithril shirt.

Super Grover

Question: At the end, when Frodo attacks Gollum in the fires of Mount Doom, does he attack him so he can get the ring back or so he can push him over the edge, hence destroying him and the ring? This doesn't actually happen in the book, Gollum just falls, and I was just curious.

Answer: He's just trying to get the ring back, not destroy it. The filmmakers just made this scene a little more intense by adding the struggle.

Jack's Revenge

Question: At some points in the movie there are red dots near the middle of the screen; I know that they are supposed to help with the respect of copyrights, but how are they supposed to help?

Answer: If a copy is made then when it is reported they can match the red dots to the specific movie screen because each theatre gets a different version of the red dots.

shortdanzr

Question: It is something like 3000 years between Isildur's death and Aragorn's coronation. Why didn't someone else of Isildur's heirs (ex. his son) return to Minas Tirith to reclaim the throne?

Answer: After the war of the Ring, Isildur and his family went back to Arnor in the far North where they originated. Arnor was later conquered by the Nazgul and so that was the end of that line. Gondor had been left to be ruled by Anarion - Isildur's brother - but that line of the family simply died out leaving Gondor in the care of the Stewards.

jle

Continuity mistake: As Sam lies sleeping, Gollum sprinkles lembas crumbs on Sam's right side. 1st shot, the grey blanket completely covers Sam as Gollum begins to sprinkle it. 2nd shot, the blanket is at Sam's shoulder with a just a bit of cloak and sleeve showing. 3rd shot, the blanket is completely covering Sam's shoulders as the lembas is shown only on the blanket. Then Sam stands and the blanket is now on the ground (as mentioned in another mistake, there are no crumbs at all when he stands). Later, when Gollum accuses Sam in the 'framing' shot, the lembas crumbs are shown on Sam's cloak even though it was the grey blanket Gollum sprinkled it on earlier. (01:02:05)

Super Grover

More mistakes in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Legolas: So, it's a drinking game?
Gimli: Last one standing wins!
Legolas: [after several drinks.] I...I feel something-a slight tingle in my fingers. I think it's affecting me!
Gimli: Ahh...what'd I say? He can't hold his liquor... [falls over.].
Legolas: Game over.

More quotes from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Trivia: At the end of the film, young Elanor Gamgee is played by none other than Sean Astin's own daughter in a cameo. Not only that, but Frodo Gamgee (the baby) is played by Maisie McLeod-Riera, the daughter of Sarah McLeod, who plays Sam's wife, Rosie.

More trivia for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

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