Tailkinker

Answer: Nicholas Flamel was, indeed, a real person, he did indeed research the Philosopher's Stone and his wife (as mentioned in the Potter story) was indeed called Perenelle. He travelled widely in his research, supposedly seeking the understanding of a mysterious book that he had acquired. On his return, he used his unsurpassed knowledge of alchemy to become very wealthy and became known as a philanthropist, donating large sums to hospitals and churches. As an interesting aside, his tomb in Paris is empty. One theory is that it was ransacked by people in search of his alchemical secrets. Of course, if he did manage to create the Philosopher's Stone, and it was widely believed at the time that he had, then there may be a far more interesting reason why his tomb remains unoccupied.

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Answer: Practically none of them. Arwen appears in about two scenes in the Fellowship of the Ring and is mentioned in a third - she has no dialogue at all. She is never mentioned in The Two Towers. She shows up at the end of the Return of the King to marry Aragorn. She then has one scene (the only one where she says anything), where she tells Frodo that he would be allowed to go in the West if he so desires and also gives him the jewel that, in the film, she gives to Aragorn. When the filmmakers said that they beefed her role up a bit, they really weren't kidding. One of the appendices to the book does contain a section called "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen", which goes into those parts of their relationship that occur both before and after the events of the main storyline. For obvious reasons, she shows up in that rather a lot.

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Answer: Cavalry are most effective in situations where there's plenty of room to manoeuvre - in close combat, where the horses can't move too well, the riders can be pulled off their mounts relatively easily, which would put them at a enormous disadvantage until they could regain their feet (enough so that there would be an extremely high probability that they would be killed before they could manage this). Given the vast numerical superiority of the opposing forces and the fact that they were clearly going to be surrounded, it would make sense to dismount before the battle started. As to where the horses went, obviously the Host wouldn't want a lot of panicked horses getting in the way - they'd be extremely dangerous - so they would simply have designated a couple of riders to lead the riderless horses out of the combat zone before the army was surrounded.

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Answer: In the books, a man, in the films, not particularly obvious, he holds a position of great power and importance in the land of Mordor, being the spokesperson of Sauron himself. Had Sauron defeated the forces of Middle-Earth, the Mouth (also known as the Leftenant of the Tower of Barad-Dur) would have ruled the western lands (in his master's name) from a reconstructed Isengard.

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Answer: This'll be a complex answer - sorry in advance. When Elendil, Isildur and co returned to Middle-Earth after the Fall of Numenor, they set up two kingdoms, Arnor in the north, ruled directly by Elendil (as High King of both kingdoms) and Gondor in the south (ruled jointly by Isildur and his brother Anarion in their father's name). Elendil and Anarion both died in the War of the Last Alliance, and Isildur fell shortly after, leaving Isildur's youngest son Valandil (his other sons died with Isildur) ruling Arnor and Anarion's son Meneldil ruling Gondor. Valandil, as the direct heir of Elendil, should have been proclaimed High King over both kingdoms, but Meneldil refused to recognise his authority over Gondor - the two kingdoms effectively became entirely seperate at this point. Meneldil's line ruled Gondor for two thousand years before the last King, answering a challenge from the Witch-King, entered Minas Morgul, never to be seen again, leaving the Stewards in control of Gondor. Arnor, in the meantime, lasted nine hundred years before splitting into three kingdoms, each ruled by one of the three sons of the last king of Arnor. The land of Arthedain, ruled by the eldest son, lasted slightly more than one thousand years before falling to the forces of Angmar - the people vanished into the wilderness, becoming the Dunedain rangers, with the son of the last king becoming their chieftain, a role that was handed down from father to son until, another thousand years later, Aragorn was given the position. So Aragorn can trace his ancestry directly back to Elendil, the last High King of the two Kingdoms, allowing him to legitimately claim the throne of Gondor. Phew...

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: They're ordering him to drop them, to put them somewhere where he doesn't have access to them. Obviously he can't do that, however, retracting them isn't going to satisfy them - indeed, if he suddenly retracted them, the shock might actually prompt them to shoot. His best bet is to keep them in view, but make it plain that he's not taking any hostile action with them. Unfortunately, it doesn't work.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: He's not a warrior - he's Sauron's spokesman. The attacks on Gondor and Rohan are intended to wipe those societies out - Sauron's not interesting in accepting any sort of surrender, so there's no point in sending his spokesman in with the troops.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: Yes, there are quite a lot of them, but I wouldn't want to deny you the pleasure of looking for them yourself. I'll give you Dominic Monaghan, Cate Blanchett and Christopher Lee - see how many others you can spot.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: Aragorn believes that he's failed - Elrond told him that he needs the Army of the Dead in order to defeat Sauron's forces, and, at that moment, he thinks that they're not going to join him. The burning towns are Gondorian settlements that the Corsairs have already attacked on their way up the river - probably intended to represent the haven of Pelargir, an important Gondorian port. In the book, the Dead helped Aragorn to defeat the Corsairs at Pelargir and were given their freedom there - they never came to Minas Tirith. The ships were then crewed by a party of Rangers (who did not appear in the films) on their run upriver to relieve the besieged Gondor forces.

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Chosen answer: It's an instrumental version of a track called "Cells" by a group called "The Servant".

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Answer: There's certainly no listing for him on the IMDb, which is generally good with uncredited appearances. Farrell was still working in the UK and Ireland at the time of the film, which was entirely US shot, and didn't become involved in Hollywood productions until about the year 2000, three years after GOTJ came out, which would seem to make it extremely unlikely that he appeared in it.

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Answer: So frustrating that only three of the mercenaries are credited when there are 5 of them! I agree that one looks exactly like Colin Farrell.

Answer: No Collin Farrell was not in the movie.

Answer: There's no version of the film that this appears in, and I've checked the original, the special edition and the DVD release. I believe that it was in the original novelisation, but that the scene was either cut before release, or the author simply added it to flesh things out. In any event, it shouldn't be considered a canonical scene, so the correction in question should probably be considered invalid.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: Yes he did - the cut is visible on the palm of his hand as he drops the last medallions into the chest.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: They're best friends, partners in mischief and so forth. Merry probably started out acting in an older brother-type capacity (being eight years Pippin's senior), and, as we see, still frequently gets exasperated by the younger hobbit's actions, but neither would ever choose to be without the other.

Tailkinker ★

Answer: It seems reasonably clear from the look that Jack gives Will as he says "Wait to lift the curse... until the opportune moment" that he's planning the double-cross at that point, with the aim of getting the majority of the pirates out of the cave and into a place where they'll be left at a massive disadvantage once the curse lifts. Will's not really in on the plan, but he seems to get what Jack's up to and plays along, hence the "you've been planning this from the beginning" stuff.

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Answer: Even experts in a given field occasionally like to consult a text on the subject.

Tailkinker ★

Chosen answer: A vampire probably wouldn't survive for very long without playing it safe - he's probably in the habit of insisting on being invited in (if possible) whereever he goes, just in case.

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Answer: The drinking game scene is in the extended version of the Return of the King. As for Legolas not enjoying wine despite other wood elves doing so, he just doesn't like it; not everyone has the same tastes.

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Chosen answer: Frost is proud of her martial skills and Sun Tzu's Art of War is considered to be one of the classic texts on warfare, but that's about as far as it goes.

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Chosen answer: No, no really. Denethor's wife, Finduilas died early, and the grief turned him into a grim and humourless man - one suggestion is that Faramir takes heavily after his mother, and Denethor dislikes him for that reminder; another suggestion is that it's actually Boromir who takes after the mother, and that Denethor favours him for that reason. Whatever the issue is, it seems likely that it started early on - Boromir translates to "Faithful Jewel", whereas Faramir seems to translate to something like "Adequate Jewel". As even their names appear to reflect the prejudice against Faramir, whatever the problem is, it goes back a long way. Maybe, once Boromir was born, giving Denethor an heir, he really wanted a daughter and was disappointed by the arrival of another son. Compounded by the death of his beloved wife (making a daughter impossible), that disappointment could easily grow into the dislike that he shows in the film. There's also the point that, although unseen in the film (unless the Extended Cut touches on it), Denethor has been using a palantir, which has allowed Sauron to affect his mind - it's not unreasonable to think that Sauron could have determined that Faramir was actually the stronger-willed of the brothers, and had deliberately influenced Denethor's mind against him to hamper the younger man's efforts against Mordor.

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