Lord Of The Rings: This Gandalf Scene In Return Of The King Makes Zero Sense

Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy is chock-full of good stuff. The adaptive genius paints a compelling picture of J. R. R. Tolkien's timeless tale that speaks to both diehard and fairweather fans alike. However, the Kiwi and his crew weren't flawless in their adaptation. There are plenty of both minor and major errors throughout the "Lord of the Rings" movies. From glowing spotlight Sauron to zero Elvish survivors at Helm's Deep to the fact that the immortal folk shouldn't even be at that battle in the first place, there's plenty to nitpick.

One scene particularly sticks in many a fan's craw: Gandalf's confrontation with the Witch-king in "The Return of the King." The face-off takes place over the ruined rubble of the gate of Gondor. Gandalf (Ian McKellen), riding Shadowfax with Pippin (Billy Boyd) behind him, arrives just in time for their enemy to float down on his fell beast. When Gandalf rebukes him, the dread lord breaks Gandalf's staff into a million shards, sending the Wizard and his compatriots hurtling to the ground.

After that, Gandalf is shown plenty of other times, including a scene at the end of the film, where he meets the Hobbit heroes at the Grey Havens. And what's that in his hand, there? His staff again! How he magically got a second staff, though, is never shown, turning the previous staff-breaking altercation with Sauron's general into a scene that makes zero sense.

The fact that Gandalf would just suddenly have another staff, and without explanation, has led many fans to scratch their heads. One Reddit thread sarcastically attributed the feat to "Wizard Magic!" and many commentators took the opportunity to both poke fun at and bemoan the inconsistency.

Redditor u/NameLips unhelpfully said, "I always assumed he got it the same way he got the original one, however that was." Meanwhile, u/ObviousTroll37 boldly declared, "IT HAS BEEN REMADE," and u/Brostapholes said, "Tom Bombadill whittled Gandalf a new one from a tree during his stay with Tom after the destruction of the One Ring. This was revealed to me in a dream."

All joking aside, u/Mediocre_Scott took the opportunity to soberly note, "That scene is One of my few gripes about PJ's movies. The way Tolkien wrote it was much better and the witch king shouldn't be able to break the staff of a wizard." They make a good point, too. In J. R. R. Tolkien's source material, the power level of Gandalf and the Witch-king is compared a few times. Gandalf shows a healthy respect for the terrorizing abilities of the strongest of the Nazgûl, but it's never doubted that the Wizard is clearly his superior in every way. And his staff? Yeah, the Witch-king never comes close to breaking it.

All of this back and forth about where Gandalf's second staff mysteriously comes from raises a good question: How important is his staff in the source material? The answer is that it isn't easy to find, but J. R. R. Tolkien clearly attaches importance to the overpowered walking stick.

For instance, Gandalf is able to use it to light the way through Moria (although the light is unexplained, and there is no mention of a magic glowing crystal like the one he installs in the film). Gandalf also utilizes his staff to light a fire at one point. When he enters the Golden Hall in Rohan in "The Two Towers" book, he doesn't want to give up his staff and uses it to cloud the sky and cause thunder. This causes Wormtongue to tell Théoden, "Did I not counsel you, lord, to forbid his staff?" indicating that he knew it was an important part of Gandalf's ability to channel his power.

Despite all of that, though, there isn't much solid evidence or explanation of how the staffs work, where their owners get them, or why the angelic beings that are Tolkien's Wizards use staffs in the first place. Still, it's worth pointing out one last thing. The Witch King's Hour is technically a deleted scene added to the extended edition of "The Return of the King" movie. In other words, it wasn't in the theatrical cut. Maybe — and we're just theorizing here — Peter Jackson was smart enough to nix the Gandalf smackdown and avoid the issue of a replaced staff the first time around, only adding the scene after the fact because, well, inconsistent lore aside, it's still pretty awesome.