[The Saucepan Man]

I think that it was HC who made the point on another thread that Sauron will take Saruman's place as the main villain in RotK. In the first two films, the focus is on Saruman. It is him that we see confronting Gandalf, amassing and ordering his army and obstructing the Fellowship (Caradhras), and it is his forces that attack Helm's Deep in the climax to TTT. Apart from the opening of FotR, Sauron (although still the primary villain) remains in the background and is represented only through his minions and the infamous burning red eye.<P>Without the Scouring of the Shire, Saruman is likely to be killed off early in TTT, probably following his confrontation by Gandalf at Orthanc. So the focus will have to move to Sauron and it therefore seems almost certain that Jackson will want to establish him as a physical presence in the film. I believe that we are therefore likely to see much more of him in RotK.<P>Whether he will confront Aragorn at the Black Gate I do not known. The rumours that Estel refers to do persuade me that this is a very real possibility. And film convention tends to involve a final confrontation between the main hero and the villain as part of the finale. The main hero (in the 'action' sense) will of course be Aragorn (and a final confrontation between Sauron and the other main hero, Frodo, would, to my mind, be a big mistake). Also, I tend to agree with Lily when she says:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> I mean, after the Hornburg and the Pellenor fields, anything short of Sauron on the battlefield is going to feel anticlimactic. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>The final confrontation outside the Morannon as Frodo and Sam scale Mount Doom has got to surpass all that has gone before in terms of tension building.<P>As to whether a Sauron/Aragorn confrontation will work, I agree with HC that it is best to reserve judgement. It will largely depend upon how feasible it seems in the circumstances prevailing for Sauron to take to the field and how the confrontation itself is handled. If implausible and gratuitous it could fall flat, but if done well I believe that it can provide a great climax. And, whatever Jackson's other faults may be, his film-making skills are certainly impressive. He knows his craft. So, personally, I do have a good deal of faith in his ability to create a truly tremendous finale to these films.