Arts
In this episode we start our conversation about the Stewards of Gondor. We discuss why Gondor has stewards instead of a king and how Denethor is kind of a baby about it. We touch on why Denethor seems so annoyed with Gandalf. We talk about the death cults of ol’ Numenor a little and start to get into why Denethor decided it was better to give up than continue fighting Sauron. Background - How the stewards came about Eärnur was the last king of Gondor until Aragorn. He decided to fight the Witch King of Angmar. North and South kingdoms. Eärnur was the last king of the south kingdom, Gondor. The north kingdom of Arnor had been kingless for a while already. Angmar is in the north and that’s where the Witch King started his attack. Kingship through the line of Elendil, who was in charge of the north kingdom Eärnur skipped battle day against the Witch King and was called out as a coward so he went to Mordor to fight him *facepalm*. He had no heirs so the stewards took over when he unsurprisingly didn’t return from Mordor. The whole North/South kingdom thing… Aragorn is heir to the North kingdom as a descendant of Arvedui of Arthedain who was married to Fíriel, an heir to the throne of Gondor. Episode Timeline 1:13 The stewards are there to hold rule of Gondor while there are no kings. 1:20 Eärnur skipped battle day against the Witch King and was called out as a coward so he went to Mordor to fight him *facepalm*. The one that Éowyn killed… The one “no man can kill”... Yeah… that one. 1:50 North and South kingdoms There’s a long line of descendants between Isildur and Aragorn. The last king of the north kingdom (Arvedui) was married to an heir to the throne of the south kingdom (Fíriel) and Arvedui was a descendant of Isildur. Arvedui was a direct ancestor of Aragorn. 2:05 The line of stewards is hereditary from the steward of the last king of Gondor. 2:30 The first steward’s name was Mardil. 2:45 Eärnur, He’s all… “Imma take care of this Witch King guy”. He rolls up his sleeves, heads off to Mordor, and…. Never returns. :/ 3:09 Glorfindel was all.... I can fight a balrog, but nah, I’ll pass on this one. 3:40 BTW, who’s got the throne? What’s the backup plan here? 3:47 There are stewards because Eärnur couldn’t keep his sword to himself. 4:10 The Witch King isn’t even going to deal with this little man. 4:27 Not with 10,000 men could you do this! Who do you think you are? Éowyn? 4:53 Take care of Gondor until the heir to the throne shows up, but then, no more stewards. 5:15 Oath of office 5:33 In RotK movie, Denethor is a big whiny baby 5:46 Denethor reminds Dan of the bad guy in A Knight’s Tale 6:36 Denethor knows what Gandalf is up to… With your left hand use me as a shield against Mordor and with your right hand you would supplant me. This is in the books too p.835 RotK. 6:56 Rule of Gondor is MINE! WAAAAAHHHHHH! 7:02 P.J. Gave us the name of the movie so we could all drink. 7:11 Erica thinks its dumb and eye rolly, Dan likes the line and thinks it makes sense. *shrug emoji* 7:46 Did you JUST?!?! 8:20 Ian McKellan wanted to use only dialog from the book for his character when possible, but to be fair, Gandalf has some of the best lines. 8:38 The dialog isn’t Star Wars bad, but it isn’t always great either. 9:00 Gandalf throwin’ shade at Denethor for being a whiner. 9:34 Is Denethor on the throne? No, that’s the stewards’ chair. 9:56 While it is true that Dan is not terribly observant, the scene in the movie is shot in such a way that you don’t really see the actual throne very well. 10:20 Dan thought Denethor was in the big boy chair! Since he wasn’t, Gandalf could have just pointed at the throne like, Dude… You don’t have the palantíri to sit up there! You wouldn’t dare! 11:00 Isn’t he happy to fulfill his oath? Not really… 11:20 So why isn’t Denethor happy to see Big G? 11:53 Jealousy issues.