Watch the new trailer for the JRR Tolkien biopic

[reactionabe]

@Dennis_el_Campesino

Jackson’s rationale for skipping “The Scouring of the Shire” was particularly egregious, especially since many consider it to actually be the more important of the “endings” in LOTR.

I was actually kind of disappointed when it got to Saruman ditching the white robes. I had read about the robes being multicolored and shimmering and I wanted to see how Jackson would handle this display of decadence using the VFX budget he had for the film. Instead Saruman’s robes just grew dirty brown… which was so not the message of the fall of Saruman. He wasn’t corrupted by filth, but by vanity and power.

[L0ki]

I was going to say - my understanding is that tobacco grows quite happily in the UK and a fair number of people still grow it for personal use.

[the_borderer]

I didn’t say it wouldn’t grow at all, I said that the UK climate isn’t suitable for commercial growing as there are only about four months where it will survive outside - frost will kill the plant. I expect that grow lights and hydroponics were a bit beyond what the hobbits of the Shire could manage. The successful UK farms that I did find out about grew a hallucinogenic species which was probably a bit more tolerant of cold temperatures.

[L0ki]

@the_borderer

I said that the UK climate isn’t suitable for commercial growing as there are only about four months where it will survive outside - frost will kill the plant.

Agreed. Although I suppose it depends on what you class as commercial growing. Given that the Shire seems to be the only place pipeweed grows in Middle Earth, it’s not as if it has to compete with the vast plantations of the US.

@Brainspore

In the very least Tolkien should have added a line of dialogue in Elrond’s council explaining WHY they couldn’t enlist the eagles for the job, just as Gandalf explained why they couldn’t just toss the thing into the depths of the ocean (another reasonable suggestion).

There’s an argument to be made that he does but it’s certainly not explicit and it relies on having a degree of knowledge about his mythology that a reader really can’t be expected to have.

If I remember correctly Elrond says something about why they can’t just send the Ring off to the Valar in the West beyond the Sea. It’s to the effect that the Valar aren’t going to get involved in this, it’s up to us.

That of course also explains why the Eagles aren’t an option but it relies on knowing that the Eagles are not just big, intelligent animals. As @chigaze pointed out, they are the emissaries of one of the Valar, sent to Middle Earth as his scouts - think Hugin and Munin, only bigger.

Taking us back to the biopic, perhaps we’ll learn that during his war-time experiences, there’s an incident where the RFC decline to provide aerial reconnaisance or air support without providing any explanation.

[jimr1603]

Farmer Giles of Ham, Smith, and Leaf by Niggle are beautiful bits of faerie. You could sneak them into a Grimm collection.