[HCIsland]

At Ain't It Cool News there are a series of articles written a couple of years ago but still have relevance to RotK. Here's the <A HREF="http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=7779" TARGET=_blank>link</A> to the last article. Scroll down to the bottom for links to the others. Some of it is old news, but some of it is pretty neat.<P>Since there's a lot there, here's a <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/hcisland/email.htm" TARGET=_blank>link</A> to a collection of some of the highlights.<P>Like I said, lot's of neat stuff but something I found interesting was the apparent move of Aragorn looking into the palantir from Helm's Deep to Minas Tirith. At first this seems strange but it makes sense. <P>After Pippin looks into the palantir, Gandalf keeps it and we don't see much of it for a while. The story then turns into saving Minas Tirith and all the events involving Aragorn, Gandalf and company are driven by this simple premise. <P>After the battle of Pelenor Fields Aragorn suggests using the palantir to lure Sauron into thinking Aragorn has the Ring and is coming to get him (remember the last place Sauron had a sure sighting of the Ring was in Osgiliath and he has to assume the Ring is on it's way to Minas Tirith). This now connects cause (Aragorn challenging Sauron in through the palantir) very closely with effect (battle at the Black Gates). Much more so than if Aragorn looked into the palantir towards the beginning of the film. I think it also underscores for the audience the risk that Aragorn is taking as they have just seen what happened to Denethor (and Saruman for that matter) because of their use of the palantir.<P>Anyway, lots of other stuff there. Read away.<P>H.C.