Elendil’s Heir
If you haven’t read the books several times, there are several huge parts of Return of the King that you will miss.
First of all: going in to the movie I knew there were two scenes, that if left out, would ruin the movie for me. One was a very small flashback (in the books) that was only mentioned in passing but was very key in Aragorn’s character. The other: the last stand outside of Mordor’s gates.
In the movie, those two scenes were masterfully combined into one. The part that most all of you missed was right before Aragorn charged Mordor’s army at the battle of the gates. You heard the eye whispering to Aragorn (Arrrragoorrrn…. sooooomething in ellllllvish….). What you didn’t catch (if you haven’t read the books) was that Aragorn was being given one last chance to surrendur, one last temptation to turn to the dark, and for a split second, he considers it.. then simply turns around, smiles and says “For Frodo.” And charges to certain peril.
In the books Aragorn is at the top of a mountain watching the rising darkness (of Mordor) with Arwen. He turns and says (of the darkness) “I have rejected it utterly”.
This scene speaks to a choice we all have to make at some points in our lives, sometimes we have to make it multiple times. We have this wonderful gift called FREE WILL… and we are able to discern right from wrong. A lot of times the WRONG thing looks a lot better than the RIGHT thing… the ability to choose the right thing (rushing headlong into 10,000 orcs and trolls rather than join with evil) is at the very heart of nobility, and is one of the reasons those two scenes (separate in the book, the same in the movie) are my favorite of the trilogy. Far better than any of Gandalf’s “wisdom” that everyone loves so much.
Agreed. Tolkein was not so superficial as to drop his messages in our laps.