# LOTR:ROTK How many of you still don't know the story ending? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 1, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274 "2003-12-01T15:44:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/41 "2003-12-03T01:24:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Soapbox Monkey \* > \*\*Peter Jackson put in the elves because he wanted the wait before Helm’s Deep to be moving for the audience. > \*\* Actually, after watching the commentary on the TTT extended DVD, I think the real reason that the elves are at Helm’s Deep is that originally PJ planned for ARWEN to be fighting beside Aragorn at Helm’s Deep and the elves were there to support her. (Why was Arwen at Helm’s Deep you might ask? Because he thought they needed to keep the love interest in the foreground.) Once they started filming the battle sequences and saw just how wrong Arwen Warrior Elf Princess was, they realized the folly of their ways and switched to the Aragorn-in-the-river dream sequence as a way to keep Liv Tyler in the picture. But the elves remained … . Just be thankful Jackson didn’t stick with his original plan! ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/42 "2003-12-03T02:25:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Obsidian Flutterby \* > … **I was into the book too but then finding out the end… well I haven’t picked it up in over a year… close to two…** … I don’t want to risk spoiling the story even further, but the ending of “The Lord of the Rings” is not a single, climactic event, but a gradual revelation, most of which is not going to make it to the screen. (But I’m not whining!) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/43 "2003-12-03T02:53:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Steelerphan \* > I was one of the nerds into LOTR way before it became fashionable. I don’t look at others who didn’t with disdain, unless they are insulting me. And when exactly was that? I’m probably one of the older guys around here, and I can’t remember a time when LoTR was **not** fashionable. ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/44 "2003-12-03T03:10:33Z")
Oh yeah? How many teenaged girls knew who Legolas was when _you_ were in high school? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/45 "2003-12-03T03:28:38Z")
Is LOTR that hard to read? I have to say that I’m one of the laziest readers I know. I have to be entertained. I’m annoyed when the author’s main goal seems to be to “challenge” me. I love Harlequin romances for Puck’s sake. I read The Hobbit when I was in just a little bit and gobbled up the trilogy in high school. Even read The Silmarillion–which I admit is not the easiest of reading for the uninitiated. It never occured to me that this many people don’t know how it ends. Reminds me of when I went to the premier of that awful movie Star Wars EI: The Phantom Menace. The guy who organized the whole shin-dig didn’t know that Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker was Luke’s father. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/46 "2003-12-03T03:53:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wumpus \* > \*\*Oh yeah? How many teenaged girls knew who Legolas was when _you_ were in high school? 😉 \*\* I don’t think it’s so much Legolas but how Orlando Bloom looks. Well, I’d much rather have the girls swoon over the characters in LotR than for DiCaprio in Titanic, which was what happened when I was in high school. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/47 "2003-12-03T04:07:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wumpus \* > \*\*Oh yeah? How many teenaged girls knew who Legolas was when _you_ were in high school? 😉 \*\* The movie is a totally different experience than the books. The books and the movie are not _exactly_ the same. What you see, what you think, what you feel is different. I really _felt_ Legolas in the movie. Would have liked to have felt him up. And I ain’t no teenager. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/48 "2003-12-03T06:17:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Soapbox Monkey \* > \*\*Boromir part 2 \*\* Anyone who can’t tell the difference between Boromir & Faramir (movie versions) must have slept through one or both of the movies. This is one of the Tolkienista complaints that really comes off sounding pretty dumb. ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/49 "2003-12-04T08:16:17Z")
I hate to interrupt the pissing contest(s), but as for the actual topic: I’ve read the book\* but I’m still excited to see how it makes it into the movie. I tend to socialize with other geeks generally, and I keep forgetting that not all of my friends have read the book, and they keep surprising me. For instance, the friend who was pissed off that Ian McKellan didn’t get the Oscar for _Fellowship of the Ring_, because his character dies in that movie, and that’s the last chance they’ll have to give it to him! **Yookeroo** : “Tolkienista” is my favorite thing I’ve seen all day. To wit: \ ***book** , thank you very much, not **books** , as we are all quite aware that _The Lord of the Rings_ was **not** intended by The Professor to be a trilogy but a single work! Also: Anduril is a sled! ---
**Author:** ![Kayeby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de0a6/32.png) [@Kayeby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kayeby)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/50 "2003-12-04T11:35:59Z")
I love the movie, but haven’t read the books. After FOTR I started reading the book, but literally started falling asleep (granted I was reading it in the middle of the night, but I tried again the next day and still wasn’t enthralled). My sister managed the first two books but hasn’t read ROTK so she doesn’t know how it ends. Thanks to my big-mouthed boyfriend I know a couple of things that happen in the end but most things will be a surprise. ---
**Author:** ![Sparrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Sparrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparrow)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/51 "2003-12-04T14:09:12Z")
I don’t know; don’t want to know. I haven’t seen either of the previous movies. I did try to read the books, got to about page 100 before throwing it across the room with boredom and deciding life was too short. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/52 "2003-12-04T19:07:11Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by SolGrundy \* > \*\* > **Yookeroo** : “Tolkienista” is my favorite thing I’ve seen all day._\* Wish I could say I invented it. I also wish I could say I remember where I first saw it so I could credit whoever did. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/53 "2003-12-04T19:45:04Z")
I actually have a related question for people who don’t know how the story ends: How do you **think** it ends? Spoiler tags as necessary … . ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/54 "2003-12-04T21:31:21Z")
Why would speculation need spoiler tags? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/55 "2003-12-04T22:40:36Z")
Quoth **Soapbox Monkey** : > [@](#): > > “Oh no, there are only 200 soldiers, most of them just old men and young boys. Surely they will all be killed.” I don’t remember the movie saying that there were only 200, just that they weren’t enough. And indeed, in the books, they wouldn’t have been enough without intervention from Gandalf and the Ents, and a tragically large number of them were old men or boys. What’s the problem here? ---
**Author:** ![Zap\_Rowsdower](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3da27b/32.png) [@Zap\_Rowsdower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zap_Rowsdower)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/56 "2003-12-08T04:20:36Z")
I’ve never read any of Tolkien’s works and I must admit I am glad about that. I have no clue as to what is going to happen and don’t see how they are going to have enough to fill out a 3+ hour final movie. After the first movie I did go out and buy the LOTR and the Hobbit. I just started reading the Hobbit and can’t wait to get to the rest of them. I also am avoiding any LOTR threads in case I accidently come accross any spoilers. In fact I have only scanned a handful of posts here so as to avoid any book or film related spoilers. ---
**Author:** ![Tremmie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@Tremmie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tremmie)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/57 "2003-12-08T04:43:16Z")
> [@](#): > > I have no clue as to what is going to happen and don’t see how they are going to have enough to fill out a 3+ hour final movie. Uhhh the biggest problem so far has been cutting out enough stuff to be able to fit a three hour movie. Return of the king is 3 hours and 20 minutes and sadly there is no way they could possible fit everything that happens in that amount of time. ---
**Author:** ![Tremmie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@Tremmie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tremmie)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274/58 "2003-12-08T04:45:07Z")
possiblY ugh, preview is yourfriend! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lotr-rotk-how-many-of-you-still-dont-know-the-story-ending/216274.md?page=2)