I'm pretty sure Tolkien wrote that, after the Fall of Numenor, Sauron could never assume a *fair* form again, but never said that he was non-corporeal that I can recall.

If he thought Aragorn had the Ring, he might. (And why else would he be crazy enough to storm the Gates of Mordor if he didn't have it, hmm?)

That's a pretty ungenerous reading. The book pretty strongly hints that Eowyn's dark mood was due to her internalizing the lies that Wormtongue was feeding Theoden about his House being worthless. She was drawn to Aragorn because he represented escape and nobility and greatness to her, not because she was truly in…

In the book, it wasn't apparent that the rider was Eowyn (or a woman) until she rips her helmet off and gives her badass speech to the Witchking. Blew my mind when I was younger.

Wha…? I'm 99% positive that it was explicitly stayed that the Necromancer was Sauron during the Council of Elrond.

I've read all of the Appendices of LOTR; I've read The Silmarillian and Unfinished Tales; but I never made it through the 12-part History of Middle Earth. I'd like to think I'll get back to it one day, but probably not.

You would know, I guess. I'd try to make some sort of Xenu/Eru pun, but I'm too tired for it.

Oh yeah, I've read all those. I meant, has she been in anything post-Fearless Defenders?

I was going to make a nerdy comment about how it was the SECOND Glorfindel, but apparently the more recent works published by Christopher Tolkien have declared that the Glorfindel from the First Age and the one from the Third Age are actually the same being.

The Elves showing up was a necessary part of Elrond's arc in the movie. (Now, you may argue that Elrond shouldn't have had an arc, but that's a different issue.) Galadrial convinces him that Middle Earth is still worth fighting for, which later leads to him accepting Aragorn and Arwen's love.

Shadowfax?

It's interesting with the Hobbit films — (almost) all of the decisions made can be justified on an individual basis, but the cumulative effect of those decisions just made a mess of things. They really needed to step back and reassess the whole thing, but they just didn't have the time.

I just rewatched Two Towers with my daughters. The whole argument over Theoden's decisions doesn't make much sense. Aragorn is against the decision to go to Helm's Deep. He wants Theoden to fight instead.

Well, it was scientifically impossible to do worse after the first one, so it's not quite as impressive as it sounds.

Val has always been one of my favorites, ever since I read the first Essential Defenders TPB. Sadly underused since the late, great Fearless Defenders book (unless I've missed something…?).

I do love the Jackson version. I know, I know, it's long… but I eat it all up. Watts is excellent throughout, Serkis is outstanding as always, and that their two characters can form such a connection on-screen (even with all the digital wizardry coming between them) really speaks to Jackson's skills.

I mentioned a while back that, at one point Paul Rudd once had a promising dramatic career, and some posters was dumbfounded at the notion.

He remembered there was a pie back on the ship.

What was the time difference between when Enterprise and TOS took place?

I enjoyed it very much, but there was a lot of kvetching about it here back in the day. Usually along the lines of "It's just a procedural."