[Olorin_TLA]

Lord of Angmar, thank you: fiction is after all a long "what if"; if there was no point, there'd be no fiction. Ever. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

As for symbollic desperation, Findegil, amybe, but don't forget that LotR ain't just symbolism, it's got cahracters who act like they would if real: breaking the staff may not have been symbollic, at least on Gandalf's part, but simply the only thing he could think of doing at the time.