Saruman's fireball

[Lolidir]

Originally Posted by radagastly

Or: Such outbursts require a certain amount of energy and during the Ent attack on Isengard, he was simply low on power and needed until the scene with Gandalf etc. to recharge. Neither of these explanations makes any sense to me. I choose to believe that P.J. messed up for the sake of showing off a really neat special effect.

if Sarumon were to shoot fireballs i am sure it would take a considerable amount of energy. even if it didnt take that much there were a lot of ents to shoot and just one fireball wouldnt stop them. and once the river was unblocked the fire would be basically useless. this is concerning the movie since he didnt do it in the books.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

In what way would shooting a fireball use up energy? Where is the relation? If he skipped breakfast that day would it mean that he can only shoot one fireball?

[Lolidir]

everything takes energy. can you do stuff without eating or sleeping to replenish your energy? i dont think so. like i said it might not take a lot but the number of ents and the number of fireballs it would take to finish each one would take a considerable amount.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

But it's magic.

[The Only Real Estel]

But it's magic

Although in FotR it talks about Gandalf being 'nearly spent' from his attempts to keep the door shut in the Mines of Moria through spells.

But Saruman might feel no such effects or use as much energy/whatever you want to call it; I suppose we will never know because I don't think any of us here knows the nature of magic. That and no one here knows what PJ was thinking .

[Lolidir]

exactly. that is a great point. i guess we just get so wrapped up in what we think that we forget to realize that we have no idea what they were thinking. so really all these are just ideas and thoughts.

[The Saucepan Man]

I doubt that Jackson and co really thought about it that much. They just wanted a nice effect that (non-book reading) viewers would like and, at the same time, would show that Gandalf's powers were now superior to those of Saruman.

Hey, you could come up with any number of theories. Perhaps the restrictions placed on the Istari prevented them using such powerful magic on "lesser" beings.

Although it seems to me that Saruman would have been hard pressed to take all of the Ents out and, Lolidir pointed out, a fireball would have been practically useless once the Ents undammed the river.