Just think of Shelob as a spider-like creature, and the stinger as a modified spinneret, and everything will be juuuuust fine. I can probably come up with some complete BS rationalization about how wasp and bee stingers are really modified ovipositors, and while arachnids are not really related to them, they are arthropods, and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think that a spider-like arthropod who evolved to be as gigantic and as malevolently intelligent as Shelob might (just might) have evolved a few other bells and whistles as well.
Yeah, and elephants have only two tusks and aren’t nearly that big.
And spirits that lack form shouldn’t be able to wield large metal weapons, let alone suffer injury from getting stabbed in the face.
Hullo! It’s *Middle * Earth. Between Our reality and the realm of the gods. You’re bound to get some unfamiliar mixed in with the common.
There were some prehistoric ancestors of elephants with multiple tusks, IIRC.
And the WKofA wasn’t purely spirit – it’s just that his physical form was “unseen”. So when he got stabbed in the face, it broke the will that knitted his unseen sinews together, yada yada.
Does anyone know what happens to their horses at the battle at the Black Gate? They (Aragorn, Gandalf, Eomer, as I recall) ride up to the gate, and shout “Let the Lord of the Black Lands come forth, and let justice be done upon him”, or something, and then ride back to to troops. When the orcs and things come swarming out, their horses are gone, and they charge on foot.
There was a scene cut, that will be restored in the Extended Edition. When Aragorn shouts “let the Lord of the black lands come forth…” someone does come forth: the Mouth of Sauron. They talk for a while. Then they fight. I can say no more.
I’d just like to say that Shelob is the last of the children of Ungoliant, the great spider-thing that crept into Arda from the Outer Darkness before the awakening of the elves. It was Ungoliant that slew the Two Trees of Valinor and bit off the hand of Morgoth.
Anyway, Shelob came from a monster so fearsome that Morgoth, the very god of evil to whom Sauron was but a servant, cowered from her. Shelob was no ordinary spider, and she was in no way evolved from spiders. Tolkien implys that all our modern-day venomous spiders are descended from Ungoliant, but their bloodline is infinitely diluted (much like my blood is dilute when compared to Hurin Thalion of Dor-Lomin).
By the way, I remember the book having Shelob bite Frodo in the neck. There was no stinger, though the orcs did talk of ‘her sting’ (not to be confused with Sting, which was a whole other subject, and quite beyond the experience of Shelob until Sam introduced her to it). To be honest, I can’t exactly remember the scene from the movie well enough to discuss it.
Well that bloodline didn’t take many generations to deteriorate. First you have Ungoliant, the Spider-God of the Outer Darkness, who spawns Shelob, big ol’ nasty spider-mama who gets whupped by a couple of hobbits with an Elvish shortsword, who at some point spawned the spiders of Mirkwood, who get tricked and whupped up on by a single hobbit with an Elvish shortsword.
Presumably, it goes all the way down to the little brown house spider that my little Porkchop-kitty pounced upon, since all spiders are venomous.
That giant arthropod is much bigger than anything that could POSSIBLY be supported by an exoskeleton, and all that bothers you is the presence of a stinger?
Obviously, this monster has both an additional internal skeleton AND a huge magic stinger.
I’m impressed – Frodo’s “collar wound” does look remarkably like an actual spider bite. The “bullseye” shape looks much like a (much much smaller) bite I once had. Kudos to the LOTR makeup department.
Thanks. I’d figured that the horses left during the scene that we’ll be seeing in December.
Here’s another question–are the horses Aragorn & Legolas ride to the Black Gate the ones they’d ridden in Rohan? The ones that refused to follow the Paths of the Dead?
I thought they may have gotten back to the encampment, then followed the Rohirrim to Minas Tirith. Further thoughts are welcomed.
Well, in the book he did, and Sam meets him once again in Bree.
In the Movie, Jackson wanted to have the Watcher in the Water at the gates of Moria eat the pony :eek: But the producers wouldn’t let him. So we have a short bit of dialog where Aragorn assures Sam that Bill will find his way home, and nothing more.
(this is from Jackson’s commentary on the FotR EE)
I can probably come up with some complete BS rationalization about how wasp and bee stingers are really modified ovipositors, and while arachnids are not really related to them, they are arthropods, and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think that a spider-like arthropod who evolved to be as gigantic and as malevolently intelligent as Shelob might (just might) have evolved a few other bells and whistles as well.
