Discussion of The Two Towers, Book Three, Chapter Five

Join Cam and Maggie for – shut up, GANDALF IS BACK! Or is he? Cam doesn't think the Old Man / Gandalf the White is really the wizard we once knew and lovingly resented. He works through his whole strange theory, which involves lots of Dante. Maggie argues that Gandalf was able to return because he never really died. It's a fun episode with lots of disagreement and even more dumb jokes! Yay, it's almost one year into this and we're finally being our real selves. We also discuss the evolution of Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli's new fellowship and the implications of Tolkien's ever-changing classification of them as "pursuers," "hunters," or "companions". There's also even more delicious villain hype, because Two Towers is all about the bad guys – and Tolkien throws us a curveball regarding Saruman. Hype! Intrigue!

In our Second Breakfast, we continue our long journey through Christopher Tolkien's History of Lord of the Rings. This time, we consider a fascinating early outline of Gandalf's death where he wasn't killed by the Balrog! Ooh, who was it then? You'll have to listen, dork. It's fascinating, and we can only make sense of it by doing a deep dive on Saw III, because we should have just been a horror podcast, I guess. But it's too late now!

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