Remembered this thread, and looking "The Return of the King" CD audiobook box in my vehicle, I thought that I had a ringer and got ready to scan the cover. I was shocked to see that Rowena Morill's "The Last Steward" was already on the list.
What's up with the blonde women looking as if they'd rather be anywhere else (like the beach, the Mall, etc) than at a weird ceremony where surfer Adonis gives a scepter to King Aragorn?
Boring!
Even the soldier behind the King has better things to look at. But maybe he's just following his King's lead as the new King can't even look at the Apollo wannabee, and so isn't even holding his hand in the right place to receive the gift. Maybe the Steward is just too beautiful to be observed directly, like an anti-Medusa.
Are any of these people in the same scene? You could see if you took a bunch of disparate images, cut them out and glued them to a page, resulting in a picture where everyone is looking somewhere else. But actually creating this image like this?
It must be my lack of appreciation for the arts...