5 Best (& 5 Worst) Lord Of The Rings Extended Edition Scenes

The decision to have Gandalf and company celebrate their triumph of Helm's Deep in Rohan at the beginning of the extended edition of Return of the King rather than at the end of The Two Towers feels structurally bizarre. This may have been a warning sign regarding Jackson's struggle with structure which came to haunt him later with The Hobbit which saw The Battle of the Five Armies begin with Smaug's desolation rather than act as the climax of the more conveniently titled The Desolation of Smaug.

Even stranger is the actual contents of the scene which include a drinking contest between Legolas and Gimli where Legolas admits to only feeling a tingle in his fingers compared to the belching Gimli who announces the nonsensical line "it's the dwarves who go swimming with little hairy women."

Meanwhile Merry and Pippin begin singing and dancing on the tabletops until Pippin suddenly stops as he notices Gandalf staring at him suspiciously. Perhaps Gandalf suspected the Hobbit was going to be tempted by the Palantír, the orb which Sauron used to communicate, but this strange moment is never explained. Overall, even in the fan-pleasing extended edition this scene feels tonally peculiar and a waste of the talents on screen as we watch some extended drinking banter for far too long.