How to kill the Watcher in the Water

[Earendilyon]

The problem with this 'it died after its master died' is, that the Watcher probably was not in league with Sauron, let alone mastered by him. the Watcher was one of the nameless things from the deeps of the earth, older than Sauron and unknown to him, as Gandalf says somewhere (paraphrased). The Watcher was 'just' attracted to the One Ring, because it was a source of evil and power, just as it itself was. It wanted to have this source of power, it was not ordered by Sauron to take it for him.

At least, this is what I think about it

[gorthaur_cruel]

I have been thinking, presumably Moria was re-taken so Gimli could obtain Mithril to remake the doors of Gondor, so what happened to the Watcher in the Water?

I doubt Moria was retaken. There was still mithril around in Middle Earth, it was just really rare. Tolkien once wrote an epilogue to the Lord of the Rings, which was never published but can be found in HoME. There, it says that Moria was not retaken.

[Findegil]

In the epilog it says only that Moria was not jet taken when the conversation between Sam and his doughter took place. Some HoME volumes later we get the original scripts for the Appendices and there it is clearly statet that Durin VII son of Thorin Stonehelm reestablished the Dwarves in Moria.

On the topic, I think that the watcher was one creature. And if I had to choose I would break the dam and try to kill the watcher when the water is gone.

Respectfullly
Findegil

[Earendilyon]

I just noticed I had not answered the question in my first post in this thread

Maybe it's best indeed to breach the dam and see what that will do. Maybe the Watcher was dead by the time the Dwarves came to that point in reinstating Moria. Or, perhaps, the Watcher had left the water and went back to the bowels of the earth where it came from. Or, would leave the moment the dam was breached by the Dwarves.

[symestreem]

There's another alternative, although it would be almost impossible to accomplish.

Find another aquatic monster, transport it to the gates of Moria, and let them duke it out. Then, you would still have a guard, but not an actively hostile one.
An easier way might be to get large quantities of salt, and put it in the pool. Since the Watcher is apparently a freshwater creature, this would kill it.

Another interesting question is- How did the Watcher get into the Water in the first place?

[obloquy]

Use A Bazooka !!!!!! M I Rite???

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

For a whole world of good guys who had just held off Sauron for some thousands of years, I doubt one little squid would be much of a problem.