>
> When the sun comes over the hill, the pikeman
>drop their pikes, or at least take them out of
>the "ready to impale incoming wizard" position,
>to shield their eyes from it.

Ooooh, right. Gandalf loves that trick, doesn't he? That's twice now I can think of that he's used the rising sun to such advantage. But I thought the Uruk-hai weren't afraid of the sun like normal orcs?

And man, Jackson really played up the Gandalf-as-Christ-figure thing, didn't he? Except for the scenes in Edoras, every time we see Gandalf in the movie he's backlit by the white rays of the sun and has an almost holy white aura around him. And his new white robes give him that extra pious look, too, compared to his old grey rumpled duds.

I loved his arrival at Helm's Deep, though. Even thoug I knew it was coming and basically what was going to happen, it was still awe inspiring.

-- Dave