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What if the orcs had not captured Merry and Pippin, but Boromir had still sacrificed himself for them? How do you suppose Tolkien would have written it if this one plot development had not occurred?
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Well, the orcs were bound and determined to capture the halflings. They saw two halflings and, by golly, they'd get those two halflings. So, if you were to assume that Merry and Pippin were not captured, that would mean the all the orcs had to be killed. I don't know if Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and *laughs* Merry and Pippin could kill such a force. If I were Tolkien and didn't want Merry and Pippin captured, here's what I'd do...
A few orcs find the remaining boats after Sam and Frodo have departed and sink them. Then, all the orcs would start battling Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn who came upon Boromir at his death just in time to rescue the hobbits. *As the author, I would not want them following Frodo and Sam and I would know that all of them going on the same adventure together could get pretty boring and would ignore the rest of Middle Earth. So, I would want the rest of the fellowship to be involved in the defense of Middle Earth. So...* I would have Gandalf come to Eomer, who with his men were patrolling near the area, and have him come to the fellowship's rescue. Since Gandalf is back, he is now in charge. He says they are needed in Rohan he knows Frodo will have to take care of himself. So off they go, and the rest is as the book goes, except that Gandalf has yet to convince the Ents to go to war and Saruman attacks Helm's Deep because he knows the halflings are there and he still wants them.
[ February 18, 2003: Message edited by: aragornreborn ]