The invisibility is an effect of being subjugated to Sauron's will and being transformed into a wraith in his service (hence it causes you to enter wraith-world). It's never stated explicitly in the film, but if the Ringwraiths did not wear their black cloaks they would be invisible, having been made permanent servants of Sauron and thus appearing only in wraith world.

Sauron being owner of the Ring, and it being his power infusing it, he is obviously not dominated by the Ring and therefore not forced wholly into wraith-world when he wears it.

That of course is the retconned answer. The real answer is that Tolkien's first notion was an invisibility ring and he was stuck with invisibility as a side effect of the Ring when its significance was further developed.

The Watcher, somewhat uncharacteristically for Tolkien, was never developed or explained. The Balrog is a Maiar spirit like Gandalf which chose to take the form of a demon rather than an old man. Shelob is "the last child of Ungoliant," who was an evil spirit in the form of a spider.

In the larger world outside the story. If you think what's seen in this story represents everything Middle-Earth has to offer, you could not possibly miss the point more.

I think the real hero of the marathon was definitely the fifth microphone encouraging everyone not "on deck" to pitch in contributions to the conversation, challenge our points or add more and keep things moving.

Thanks to everyone for all the virtual and IRL fist-bumps. As the guy who first pitched the idea and subsequently forced everyone's hand, I considered it my responsibility to carry the conversation if necessary -- which, happily, I never felt it was. There wasn't any moment in the entire 12+ hours where I felt us grasping for something to say. But, just in case, in preparation I spent the last several weeks doing all the research I possibly could. So as much fun as it was, I am looking forward to watching/reading/listening to literally anything but Tolkien stuff for a while.

In the film, only Frodo looks in the mirror, and Galadriel prefaces it by saying: "[The Mirror] shows many things -- things that were, things that are, and some things that have not yet come to pass."

In other words, it's a vision of what would happen if they fail. It doubles-down on the stakes by re-establishing that the Shire will be destroyed if the Ring is not. Frodo doesn't give a fuck about the Mark of Rohan or the blood of Numenor, he just wants to save the Shire. It's motivation, perfectly valid in cinema language -- and the "worst case scenario" vision/prophecy is likewise a common fantasy trope -- and only seems like a set-up if you know the books. The pay-off is that he succeeds in his quest and therefore it never happens -- and the twist is that he's so changed by the journey he can no longer be a part of it.

In the theatrical version he's basically just declared to no longer be a threat, trapped in Orthanc. In the EE he dies onscreen, and way more dramatically than the silly dirt road hobo-stabbing in the novel.

Except it takes them all of five minutes to convince the other hobbits -- who didn't go through the war -- to fight back, which makes it seem to me like that's really just how hobbits are if someone gives them the right push.

It undermines the whole point of the quest, as mentioned above: protecting the Shire. If the scouring is necessary, they failed. The story is about destroying the One Ring. Once that's done, wrap it up. There are already too many endings for many people's taste, throwing in an entirely unnecessary mini-movie at the end to boot would be ridiculous.

EDIT: what Trey said.

You mean we're going to miss out on great contributions like this?

Ooh, I like taking a shot for the PJ cameos. We should also include his kids' cameos.

Oh. My god. I am buying that book right now.

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

I will have all the points! All of them I say!

I get a little sore, especially across the upper back/shoulder blades, and somewhat in the shoulders. I pretty much no longer get the debilitating, can't-move soreness the next day, although I keep trying to get there because then I know I got the most out of the workout. (I'm starting to focus more attention on my legs, which are a weak point, so I might start feeling it there for a while.) I think it's somewhat to do with having worked up to it but more that I'm making sure to get a LOT of protein (150g+/day) to help recovery. I get most of it through protein supplements to keep the calories down, since I'm trying to lose fat, plus whatever happens to be in my regular meals through the day.

Remember in THOR where Jeremy Renner was in one scene with a bow and arrow and it was like "lolwut"? Apparently that's a thing called Hawkeye.

I also don't tend to get excited by trailers -- in fact in the last couple years I've just stopped watching trailers at all, except the ones that play in the theater or that everyone is talking about. But some of my friends just go on the Apple site and browse, and I never do.

For my part, I've become jaded toward trailers not because I work in the industry, but because I've been burned too many times by an awesome trailer for a shitty film. If I don't get excited I can't be (as) disappointed. These days I treat trailers as stand-alone pieces. I appreciate the craft of a great trailer but it doesn't make me excited for the movie, though it can make me more interested if it looks better than I expected. There's also the factor that I've already probably decided whether or not I'm going to see it (with possibility to be swayed if the tomatometer goes hard the other way), so the trailer is mostly irrelevant.

Oh, and I'm sorry, but after the prequels, Matrix sequels, half of what Spielberg's been up to the last decade, and The Shyamalan, "from the makers of [thing I loved]" gets me cautiously optimistic at best.

We're going to save and back up the recording at each disc break, and I'm hoping we can figure out a way to record to at least two separate locations, too.

GREEN LANTERN: no social commentary, $220 million worldwide
GHOST RIDER 2: no social commentary, $48 million worldwide (to date)

THE DARK KNIGHT: social commentary, $1 billion worldwide

Not to say correlation is causation, but it doesn't look like a very negative reaction. I think most people who encourage you to "turn your brain off and have fun" for certain movies would be perfectly happy to leave their brains turned on if those movies would give them good reasons to do so.