Death of a Salesman- I mean, Maia

[The Perky Ent]

Well...after running through the Crazy Captions thread, I thought about the current picture. It's Movie Sauron after his fingers are cut off, when he's glowing and right about to explode. Movie version checks out with me: Powerful maia, Most powerful in Middle Earth, Source of Evil, almost omnipotent. No wonder he starts glowing and explodes in front of the Last Alliance. I don't doubt his glowing explosion. For further proof, it checks out in the books when Saruman dies. The book describes his death as

Originally Posted by J.R.R Tolkien

...a grey mist gathered, and rising slowly to a great heigh like smoke from a fire, as a pale shrouded figure it loomed over the Hill. For a moment it wavered, looking to the West; but out of the West came a cold wind, and it bent away, and with a sigh dissolved into nothing

If I'm interpreting it correctly (and I'm not that confident that I am) after Saruman dies, his spirit looks to the west as if to return of Valinor, but the Valar deny him passage, and he dissolves and is seen no more. That is a topic for another forum (The topic being do Sauron and Saruman return to Valinor after they die). But, after re-reading the passage from 'The Scouring of the Shire', a light clicked in my head. Why haden't Saruman followed the death pattern that had happened in the books?

Well, for starters we know that Peter Jackson really didn't like The Scouring of the Shire, and didn't include it in the movie. But, for a demand for Christopher Lee, Saruman was included (in the Extended Edition at least :P) . In movie Saruman's death, he insults wormtongue, Wormtongue stabs him, and Legolas fires an arrow at Wormtongue. Well, two outta three ain't bad. Both stories follow the same pattern (granted one is in the Shire, and one is in Isenguard) except for who fires the arrow that kills Wormtongue. In the book version of Saruman's death, it is clear when Saruman dies

Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien

But at that something snapped: suddenly Wormtongue rose up, drawing a hidden knife, and then with a snarl like a dog he sprang on Saruman's back, jerekd his head back, cut his throat, and will a yell ran off down the lane

When Saruman's neck is slit, and the mist starts gathering, it is clear he is dead. However, Movie Saruman has the misfortune of being stabbed at the top of the tower, falling down Isenguard (because after seeing Denethor fall down Minas Tirith, you know they're gonna want to see someone fall down Isenguard) and finally landing on a spiked wheel where his body is impaled. We know for sure he is dead by the time of hear the 'thud!' of his body on the wheel, but unlike the movie, there is no mist. There is no grey fog or fire, or body filled with light. He falls, and is dead.

Now, why is he not glowing? Why does he just fall and die like a human, and not a maia? Where is the power given to him by the valar? I have several explanations. For one, when Gandalf dies fighting the Balrog, he does not glow when he dies. Although we have established the glowing of Sauron, Gandalf is a grey area (get it? Grey ). Since the book does not discribe his death at the hands of the Balrog, there is no way to tell what is accurate or not. Maybe, to keep it simple for the movie viewers who haven't read the books, they don't glow simply because they don't want to get involved in the lore in terms of ranks of power and wether the istari are mightier than Sauron (which I believe is explained in several places). On the other hand, perhaps it's a forgotten detail, or a lack of time and budget. It certainly wouldn't be the first time in the series So...anyone have any thoughts

[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by Perky

Well, for starters we know that Peter Jackson really didn't like The Scouring of the Shire, and didn't include it in the movie.

Jackson is on record as saying that the Scouring is one of his favourite chapters. He did not include it in the films because he did not believe that it would work from a pacing point of view. I tend to agree with him.

[arcticstorm]

My theory is that Jackson was trying to show how the life of Sauron was tied to the ring. He is trying to show that his physical form is only becasue of him having the ring and therefore, as soon as he lost it, his physical form exploded. Even when the balrog, another maiar, dies, he is shown laying there, but with Sauron exploding, it is kind of like a genie being sucked itno a bottle, he had to withdraw into the ring when he no olonger possessed it. They did this in order to make it more dramatic.

[The Perky Ent]

Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man

Jackson is on record as saying that the Scouring is one of his favourite chapters. He did not include it in the films because he did not believe that it would work from a pacing point of view. I tend to agree with him.

...that's what I meant when I said he didn't really like it and didn't include it. He didn't like it in terms of pace And yes Saucepan man, tuche.

Arcticstorm, you bring up good points. There is no doubt that drama was a part of it. As for the genie in a bottle deal, with him being sucked into the ring, his misty aura explodes, rather than implode into the ring. And, although it really isn't a good comparion, when Sauron actually dies in the movie, you can see him dissolving almost in the fashion Tolkien described how Saruman died.

[The Saucepan Man]

I doubt that any of the "Maiar" deaths in the films have anything to do with those dying being Maiar. After all, the concepts of Maia, Vala, Istari and Aman are not explained at all in the films.

[The Perky Ent]

Well...Aman is sort of explained whenever the elves are talking about leaving Middle Earth, or when Gandalf gives his monologue about dying in Return of the King. Still, it's not nerely enough so if you mentioned Aman, anyone would know what it was (assuming their only knowlege of LOTR was of the movies)

[The 1,000 Reader]

The interesting thing is, it was the other way around in the books. When the ring was taken from Sauron, his state of being dead was just laying there, not moving. Saruman, however, had the cloud when he died.

[Essex]

I would have loved to have seen this in the movie

with a snarl like a dog he sprang on Saruman's back, jerekd his head back, cut his throat, and will a yell ran off down the lane

but then ROTK would have been a 15 or 18 rating, and would have cost new line millions of lost revenue. They were lucky orc blood is black too.....