The Return of the King pt 4

The Return of the King ends after the victory over Mordor at the Pelennor Fields and it's here in the Tower Hall that Aragorn and all of the surviving members of the fellowship minus Frodo and Sam come up with an idea and that is to ride out and meet Sauron at the Black Gates to draw his gaze and by Frodo and Sam more time. And this dead marshes area covers probably hundreds if not thousands of square miles. And so Aragorn, the riders of Rohan, the Gondorian forces that he takes with them, they probably travel east across the plains of Gorgoroth, north through Ithilien, up around the northwestern border of Gondor and around the dead marshes to arrive at the Black Gate. That's the route that they took and it probably took them weeks. And during those weeks, Frodo and Sam make their way across the plains of Gorgoroth to Mount Doom where they finally destroy the ring at the very moment that Aragorn and the free peoples of Middle-earth arrive at the Black Gate and have this final battle. Now when the ring is destroyed in Mount Doom, Barad-dûr collapses and explodes, but the tower of Barad-dûr is like 30 miles to the northeast of Mount Doom. So that's the route that they took and it probably took them weeks. And during those weeks, Frodo and Sam make their way across the plains of Gorgoroth to Mount Doom where they finally destroy the ring at the very moment that Aragorn and the free peoples of Middle-earth arrive at the Black Gate and have this final battle. Now when the ring is destroyed in Mount Doom, Barad-dûr collapses and explodes, but the tower of Barad-dûr is like 30 miles to the northeast of Mount Doom. The eagles come and grab Frodo and Sam and fly them to Gondor and Aragorn, Legolas, Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, everyone who's right here, begin the travel back the way they came. This is a multi-week journey to get back to Minas Tirith where a king bows to hobbits and the full fellowship minus Boromir is reunited for the final time. Now, I'm going to cover the final scenes of The Return of the King with the prologue for all these characters and if you love these films as much as I do, you're going to want to follow and come back with a box of tissues because this is my favorite thing to explain using this map as a visual aid and you're gonna learn something cool. So stay tuned. That part's coming probably tomorrow.