Re: TTT EE is a fantastic improvement

"Aris Katsaris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote

> > Why did Gandalf not just talk to Treebeard himself then?
>
> Gandalf in the book explains that "I did not speak, for I was
> heavy with thought and weary after my struggle with the Eye
> of Mordor"

Also, I don't think he thought it would necessarily do any good, or even
that it was any of his business to meddle with the Ents. Gandalf was not
sent as an emissary to the Ents.

> > Rousing the Ents should have
> > been one of his primary goals,
>
> More primary than healing Theoden?

Agreed. Gandalf's task was not to win the war "by any means necessary".
But healing Theoden *was* part of his task, which was inspiring the
remnants of the free peoples, but primarily Men, to unite and to do
their utmost in the struggle against the Enemy.

> > especially if it could be done
> > so easily.
>
> And how would he know that? By the time that Gandalf *says*
> the Ents will be waking, it is already happening and the forest
> is filled with their anger -- he says that Merry and Pippin are
> the pebble that begins the avalanche, but he speaks about something
> that has pretty much already happened.

Agreed, again. I think it caught even Gandalf by surprise - especially
the full extent of the fury and power of the Ents. When he said that
Saurman's mistake was to forget the Ents, I don't think he meant that
Saruman literally forgot their existence while he, Gandalf, had not
(since Treebeard mentioned having spoken to Saruman before) - I think he
meant that Saruman trifled with them while he, Gandalf, had not. Saruman
had assumed he could do what he wished to their forest and still ignore
them in his calculations, while Gandalf correctly realized that they
weren't going to be pawns in his or anyone else's designs.

-- 
Bruce Tucker
[EMAIL PROTECTED]