No.

There is an unofficial sequel written on the premise that Mordor was Middle-earth's first progressive, technological civilisation; which was thrown down by effectively a crusade of religious fanatics. I didn't get very far into it (because I was reading it as a pdf on a computer monitor), but Saruman's motivation at least makes substantially more sense in that interpretation.

This video gets somewhat hard to follow when half the time I can't tell if they're saying 'Soren' or mispronouncing 'Sauron'.

Invisibility isn't a power of the One Ring so much as a side-effect. It shifts mortal wearers a little into the spirit world, so they fade from view in the physical. Sauron doesn't disappear when he wears the ring because he already exists in both worlds and he can see other wearers for the same reason. It's not widely discussed, but this should also be true of other maiar; Gandalf, Saruman and Durin's Bane; and 'high' elves who've been to Valinor: Galadriel and Glorfindel would all also be unaffected by ringvisibility. It's this walking the threshold between worlds that's also responsible for the extended lifespan of mortal ringbearers and why Frodo can see the ringwraiths and they can see him.

The elemental character of the Three, I think, shouldn't be overstated. All of the rings, the One, the Three, the Seven and the Nine are very much alike. They were all made by or under the tutelage of the same creator to the same basic recipe, with independent elven flourishes rather than fundamental differences in the case of the Three. The One has to resonate (musical metaphors are always appropriate for Tolkien's magic) with the others in order to work on them, and that's Sauron's mistake: he is ultimately trapped and destroyed by his ring just as the dwarves and men were by theirs.

It's probably a really good idea to open up the endlessly raging Bombadil controversy. Well so what, Tolkienian cosmology is fascinating. To some extent he's a deliberate enigma. Personally I favour the idea, if he's explicable at all, that he's the spirit of Arda itself or at least the foremost of a number of more provincial spirits. There are competing theories, but it's not really possible that he's a Maia.

Certainly there were any number of Maiar still knocking around at the time of the Fellowship: Gandalf, Saruman, et al; Sauron; Durin's Bane; Gwaihir; arguably Shelob (half-Maia at best); and depending on how widely you want to define 'in Middle Earth', Arien & Tilion (the bearers of the sun & moon), presumably Osse & Uinen, etc.

Bombadil calls himself, and the elves agree, 'eldest', and he claims to have been around before Melkor, who was definitively the first of the Ainur to descend into the circles of the world. He's unaffected by, and not really interested in, the Ring, unlike the Maiar who come into contact with it in the course of the story.

Ilúvatar set the Secret Fire, which gives sentient creatures their fëar or souls, burning at the heart of the world. I can't see an origin for Tom that doesn't derive directly from that, given that at the point he appears in the chronology there's very little else in existence.

I don't know what all this makes Goldberry.

"You will taste man-flesh!" -Saruman

I'm wondering what role Saruman will be taking in the Hobbit... he wasn't in the book, but I trust that Christopher Lee wouldn't do the role if it went against the grain of the book.

My only regret is that they can't really have Ian Holm replay Biblo... I suppose they could have CGIed him to death, but it would have been wonderful to have him somehow play it through... It is nice they have him playing Old Bilbo, but I'm just sad he couldn't do the whole thing... He's Bilbo damnit!

Also, Saruman cameo at the end there, win.

>> ^mas8705:

You do realize that when you try to silence a troll, they will only come back stronger than ever before right?


Typically yes, but being shot by an arrow and dropping several hundred feet onto a big spike means that probably ain't happening.
Points for trolling right up till the very end.

Your video, Trolling Saruman, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Saruman was trying to force them to take the more dangerous route.

>> ^razzyl:

>> ^gwiz665:
Sounds like Max von Sydow.

That wasn't Christopher Lee? Had a real Saruman the White vibe to it.
After that spooge fest I think I will invest in a windshield wiper for my monitor.


No. It's not Christopher Lee, vibe or no. It's the original Nord, Max von. Google is your best pal.

And the leveling system will likely be the same as before. Mods will just as likely present a workaround.

>> ^gwiz665:
Sounds like Max von Sydow.


That wasn't Christopher Lee? Had a real Saruman the White vibe to it.

After that spooge fest I think I will invest in a windshield wiper for my monitor.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:

To this day I still record Bob Ross every week on the TIVO and take a nice Sunday nap by falling asleep to his voice. His soothing speech, the tap of the brush on the canvas... Bob Ross is like Saruman - he can say anything and it sounds good.


For me it's when he busts out with the knife.. instant -_- zZ zZ zZ zZ

To this day I still record Bob Ross every week on the TIVO and take a nice Sunday nap by falling asleep to his voice. His soothing speech, the tap of the brush on the canvas... Bob Ross is like Saruman - he can say anything and it sounds good.

Perhaps the first time I've ever heard a AGW advocate admit that C02 isn't the only factor influencing temperature! This is a red letter day.

Let's see - he criticizes others for not spending more time winnowing scientific journals... I guess in all the time that he spent in all those journals he just MISSED the truckloads of reports that solar activity has radically decreased over the past several years, and that 2009 alone has had the lowest amount of solar activity in the past 100 years. Yet he says "solar activity has been more or less constant for 30 years". Yeah, whatever.

And then he goes on and says "C02 levels have been constant for the past thousand years". Oh - REALLY? An AGW proponent says that C02 has been 'constant' for a thousand years? So - there's no problem with human generated C02 then, right? Because clearly all the C02 human have been generating hasn't effected the "constant" nature of our C02. Sun is constant... C02 is constant... AGW proponents blame a global temperature increase of ONE degree in 100 years on human C02. Then they ignore a global temperature decreases of one degree in ONE year.

It reminds me of Saruman in Lord of the Rings. This guy is your Saruman, and you're his hillmen. "It was a delight to hear the voice speaking, all that it said seemed wise and reasonable, and desire woke in them by swift agreement to seem wise themselves." Dance, mice. Dance for your piper.

>> ^ponceleon:
Bush is making Theodin say bad things!
Bush = Saruman!!!
zomg


Saruman wasn't always evil was he?

I was thinking:
Bush Senior = Morgroth

And since he made baby Bush it would be:
Bush Junior = Sauron