LotR2-TTT-Seq10

[alatar]

It is not necessarily a loving kindness to build a fence around your master. How then can he observe his servants and see that they minister to him without thought of reward? No, my son, a fence is often a work of fear and a container for dust.
--Sayings of the Abbods (from The Godmakers by Frank Herbert)

The horse Brego is none too happy, and men try to restrain him in these elaborate and ornate stables. Éowyn and then Aragorn take notice. Aragorn starts whispering some words to the mad beast, and slowly it calms down. We learn from Éowyn the horse’s former owner, and Aragorn lets us know the origin of its name.

Éowyn notes that Aragorn speaks fluent elvish, and how she identified the language is interesting. I’m reminded of a story by Edgar Allan Poe in regards to identifying languages. Aragorn gives more personal info. Then King Aragorn sets Brego free.

So the horse gets to walk while the rest of Rohan fights for its very existence. Young children will be conscripted, but horse Brego will run free across the plains until Saruman and/or Sauron devours them too. And we needed to have a few moments of the horse whisperer instead of showing a human, like maybe Erkenbrand, but then again, the horses acting guild is pretty powerful south of the equator.

Then again, those of Númenórean blood are farsighted indeed, and so Aragorn may have realized that if all of the Edorasians are walking along with Théoden and crew that none will remain if help unlooked for is required, say by some cliff diving 87 year old.

We see a horse riding through the decimated Isengard, and me thinks it’s not Brego with a new rider. We see Saruman, recently ‘owned’ by Gandalf, calling the new White Wizard a fool. And what does the walking muttering one mean by, “Does he seek to humble me with his newfound piety?” Huh?

The Worm tries to help his boss with information, but maybe he should have freshened up a bit before entering the worried wizard’s presence. “You stink of horse,” Saruman says, and I guess the Uruks and other orcs smell of roses. Is this the reason for Saruman’s hatred of Rohan - horse smell? “If I wipe out all of the humans and have my minions eat all of the horse flesh, the place will be rid of the equine plague and finally my allergies will be fine.”

But Saruman asks more of the Worm before he goes, specifically about Aragorn. Wasn’t this the same wizard who was looking through Théoden’s eyes? Same guy with a palantir, or does that only call one number now? Grima details the ring on the Ranger's hand, and so we get more Tolkien. Saruman discounts the Ring of Barahir (which, since the movie has been out a while, was also done by the Noble Collection). And Saruman is wrong yet again in regards to the line being broken between Elendil and Aragorn.

The Edoras exodus begins, and King Théoden calls for his horse. “Fetch me my horse, Gamling, and some crispy fries and a salad, pronto!” And it’s nice to see that Gamling, having made the trip all the way from the wall at Helm’s Deep, had time to stop of at Ponce de Leon’s fount for a draught. Then, seeing that Gamling was somewhat despondent (maybe he dreaded going to the royal stables, fearing that King Aragorn sent all of the king’s horses and all of the king’s men…home), King Théoden paraphrases MacArthur.

As everyone continues to pack, Éowyn gets out her sword and swings it around a bit. Luckily no one is close by. Aragorn blocks her blade with a knife, and he is stabbed, but not with steel but by the maiden’s glare. She then continues the attack, and if I were King Aragorn, I’d stay away from Éowyn as obviously she has issues, but after learning why she is so wound up, he whispers soft encouragements and states that she should be set free .

I see Aragorn’s plan. Make it seem that everyone is following the real king to Helm’s Deep, but as King Aragorn has emancipated all of Théoden’s subjects and horses, all will be spared and so be able to fight on the plain like he and Lord Gandalf desire.

Smart that.

Wormtongue tells Saruman what he obviously already knows. Saruman decides that Théoden needs a Candygram delivered by Wargs ("When you truly want to make a special statement to that certain someone, take the time and say it with W.A.R.G.S."). And we're left with the shadows of wolves until next time.

[Essex]

I love the look of surprise on Aragorn's face when he's 'beaten by a girl' as Eowyn whips his blade around and takes the advantage.

I also love this scenes becasue we get good old Tolkien dialogue to listen to.

I like Saruman's anger towards Aragorn in his scenes. But this is no doubt masking a worry then the King is coming back. And Saruman has another great force to fight......

But here we go - the ugly Warg scene is about to arrive. uuurrgghhhhhh (does a Sideshow Bob style sound - you know the one he makes when he steps of a garden fork and gets whacked in the face)

[Lathriel]

I like the Brego scene because of the whole horse thing. With this scene my former horse obsession seems to come back. In fact that happens with most of the Rohan scenes.

[Tuor of Gondolin]

Brego got off rather easy (just having to kiss
a ranger to wake him up).
It could have been much worse for Brego and the
Rohirrim. What if Vito Corleone and Luca Brasi were at
Isengard to send a message to Theoden King
about not accepting Vito's request for a favor?

There are times when PJ does well with improv
on Tolkien. Two examples are the expanding of
Arwen's role in FOTR and another is Eowyn mentioned
above (both of whom have rather sexy sword interaction
with Aragorn). Hmmm.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Tuor of Gondolin

Brego got off rather easy (just having to kiss
a ranger to wake him up). It could have been much worse for Brego and the
Rohirrim. What if Vito Corleone and Luca Brasi were at Isengard to send a message to Theoden King about not accepting Vito's request for a favor?

Would waking up to a horse head even activate any Rohirrim's radar? I'm sure that that's happened more than a few times. Better would have been Saruman waking to a bed of worms that smelled of horse.

There are times when PJ does well with improv on Tolkien. Two examples are the expanding of Arwen's role in FOTR and another is Eowyn mentioned above (both of whom have rather sexy sword interaction with Aragorn). Hmmm.

Easy there. There's just soo much that Freud would say about the whole scene that I fear to get that discussion started .

[Elladan and Elrohir]

Yes please, I have no desire to even hear Freud's name mentioned anywhere in the SbS discussions.

The Ring of Barahir is cool for book fans, but methinks it adds absolutely zero to the story. Why should Saruman care whether or not the Heir of Isildur is with the Rohirrim? It obviously does not affect his battle preparation at all.

I can just see it:
Saruman: Send two detachments of Uruk-Hai to find a man with a ring that looks like this on his finger and kill him immediately.
Lurtz Jr.: Aye aye, Sharkey.