[Kalimac]

Lost One - I agree, I was surprised (what with the earlier "Did you think that the eyes of the white tower..." and the references to Denethor having farsight) that the Palantir didn't make an appearance in the end. I'm betting it will be in the EE, it would explain a lot, and make even movie-Denethor easier to understand. Notice how when he rushes out after catching fire you never actually see him in detail - he could be carrying a Palantir for all that we see. (Or else I'm indulging in massive wishful thinking, but I hope not).<P>Gandalf did not give Denethor any help in getting to the hereafter, and whatever the facts in terms of Denethor being inconvenient to Aragorn, it would have been unforgivable if he had. The way I saw it was; Denethor lights the pyre, Pippin jumps up to heave Faramir off of it, Denethor jumps down, already with a fabric-end or two on fire, and starts beating up on Pippin to get Faramir back, Gandalf knocks him off of Pippin with his staff, Shadowfax gives him a kick, Denethor lands on pyre. It's a clumsy way to go about killing anyone, especially if the person involved is so clearly wishing to die that he decides to take a flaming cannonball dive off of the nearest parapet. <P>The thing I really didn't like was that dive - even movie-Denethor wasn't quite as over-the-top as all that; he seemed more like the type who'd stand stoically on the pyre so as to keep face before his enemies. But now that I think about it, they probably had to do that, after the whole Shadowfax-kicking thing, to show that Denethor's death was entirely voluntary and not just the result of an accident. Of course, you could have just had Denethor, once beaten off of Pippin, just jump onto the pyre himself as a final act of defiance, but then...OK, enough with the wishful thinking. Revealing the Palantir is probably as close as the EE will get.