The Battle of the 5+ Armies

[alatar]

Speaking of acrobatics, and knowing that no electrons were harmed during the filming of any of these movies, but why is it that since Helm's Deep elves feel the need to leave their bows slung? Wouldn't it have been nice when, at the same time the elves leap over the dwarven wall that a million arrows accompany them? They were more than ready to shoot arrows at Thorin, who posed much less of a target, and probably was wearing mithril undergarments.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

One entertaining thing, from a wrestling fan's perspective, was seeing Legolas bust out a legit hurricanrana on that one orc.

[Elmo]

As the only major high point in ~10000 square miles, whoever controls the Lonely Mountain is well placed strategically to control a large swathe of the North. I believe that the dwarves used their position there to get hegemony over the Men of the North? Might be mentioned in 'Of Men and Dwarves'? Definitely not flipping Wood Elves though.

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

I think there should also be a related trope called "Law of Diminishing Weapon" that states that the more broken the hero's weapon becomes the more deadly a fighter the hero is and cite Thorin as an example. (note, there may be such and I just didn't search for the right name. That's one of the problems I'm getting to have with tvtropes of late. They have reached the "getting too clever for their own good" stage of development).

Tolkien is guilty of this. Didn't Isildur cut Sauron's ring off his finger with the shards of Narsil?

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Originally Posted by Elmo

Tolkien is guilty of this. Didn't Isildur cut Sauron's ring off his finger with the shards of Narsil?

We have enough stupid, un-Tolkien scenes from TH to go over without bringing up stupid, un-Tolkien scenes from LotR.

[Elmo]

Originally Posted by Eomer of the Rohirrim

We have enough stupid, un-Tolkien scenes from TH to go over without bringing up stupid, un-Tolkien scenes from LotR.

Did Isildur not use the shards? I've care enough about this ive checked three different wikis and they all say he did

[Zigûr]

It's become my impression that Gil-galad and Elendil severely wounded Sauron, perhaps fatally, Sauron burned Gil-galad to death with his hand and struck Elendil down, Elendil fell and Narsil shattered beneath him, and Isildur took the hilt and dealt the final blow to the crippled, unconscious or otherwise incapacitated, possibly dying, Sauron by hewing off his finger.

This is to say, I feel that Isildur didn't wield the broken hilt of his father's sword in some daring act of martial prowess but rather as the best instrument he had to hand for the blunt act of amputating his enemy's digit.

"Was it not I that dealt the Enemy his death-blow?" Unless Isildur is lying, I feel like this explanation is at least one which reconciles the three ideas we hear in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion that:

a) Elendil and Gil-galad killed Sauron
b) Isildur "dealt the Enemy his death-blow"
c) Isildur used the hilt to cut the Ring from Sauron's finger

b) and c) might be separate incidents, however: maybe he stabbed Sauron with the hilt first or something to that effect and then severed his finger. I've found this bit confusing for years.

[IxnaY AintsaY]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

It's become my impression that Gil-galad and Elendil severely wounded Sauron, perhaps fatally, Sauron burned Gil-galad to death with his hand and struck Elendil down, Elendil fell and Narsil shattered beneath him, and Isildur took the hilt and dealt the final blow to the crippled, unconscious or otherwise incapacitated, possibly dying, Sauron by hewing off his finger.

This is to say, I feel that Isildur didn't wield the broken hilt of his father's sword in some daring act of martial prowess but rather as the best instrument he had to hand for the blunt act of amputating his enemy's digit.

"Was it not I that dealt the Enemy his death-blow?" Unless Isildur is lying, I feel like this explanation is at least one which reconciles the three ideas we hear in The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion that:

a) Elendil and Gil-galad killed [sic?] Sauron
b) Isildur "dealt the Enemy his death-blow"
c) Isildur used the hilt to cut the Ring from Sauron's finger

b) and c) might be separate incidents, however: maybe he stabbed Sauron with the hilt first or something to that effect and then severed his finger. I've found this bit confusing for years.

It's pleasing to me to read Isildur's so-called "death-blow", if not as a lie, than at least indulging in some deluded braggodocio--an immediate symptom of the influence of the Ring. Before PJ's Fellowship, I wonder if it was common for serious readers of LotR to think Isildur engaged in personal combat with Sauron. I certainly had a little internal scoff at that scene, and later it surprised me when some said it fit their view of that event, at least in a general way.

The duel on the slopes of Orodruin is one of the most problematic scenes in the books for me though. I'd love to know what Tolkien's close-up view would have looked like, if he had one.