Smell this, I think it's expired...

[Gurthang]

Well, PJ, being the expert Tolkien scholar that he is, decided that Pippin didn't have a big enough part, and so had him do many more things, like light the beacons. There is definitely reasoning behind it, if very faulty reasoning.


Originally posted by Lathriel

I have to disagree with the people who say that ROTK has less magic. As soon as I read that I had to think of Gandalf on Shadowfax, leaving Minas Tirith to drive away the ringwraiths from the Gondorian army.
I was also thinking of the lighting of the beacons, Galadriel's phial, the charge of the Rohirrim, the Ring's destruction, and the grey havens. Those moments all had a magical feel for me.

I do agree that all those moments were magical. Yet there was so much that broke that magical feeling; it became almost jerky and bumpy. It was like 'OH! that was magical' followed closely by 'What the! Why'd he do that!'. Scenes like Pippin lighting the beacons and Gandalf's illegitimate confrontation with the Witch-King are what takes the magic back a step.

It's not that FotR had more magic, per se, it just didn't have those things that paused the magic and clouded the plot.