Fans have potentially found a plot hole in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Released in 2003 as the third and final installment in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, Return of the King concludes the epic saga of the Fellowship’s quest to destroy the One Ring and end Sauron’s reign of terror. Though it was the most critically and commercially successful installment in the trilogy, winning 11 Oscars and grossing over $1 billion at the box office, Return of the King is not without some minor mistakes.
Twenty years after its release, a fan on Reddit, u/Epic_Rain, has potentially found a plot hole in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King involving Gandalf the White’s staff:
Shared to r/lordoftherings, the post points out that Gandalf’s staff was destroyed during his showdown with the Witch-king of Angmar (a scene that appears in the extended edition). However, during the Return of the King ending in the Grey Havens, Gandalf has the staff once again. In the comments, fellow fans shared their reactions to the potential plot hole and provided possible explanations for the apparent inconsistency:
u/Mediocre_Scott says “that scene is one of my few gripes about [Peter Jackson]’s movies. The way [J.R.R] Tolkien wrote it was much better and the Witch-king shouldn’t be able to break the staff of a wizard.”
u/Door__Opener prefers “just to ignore that the witch king destroyed his staff in the movie.”
u/WastedWaffles agrees, saying “the movies aren’t as perfectly consistent as the books.”
u/Shadecujo says they hate the deleted scene because it creates a plot hole.
u/fuzzybad agrees, saying it’s the “one scene that should have stayed deleted.”
u/7evenh3lls provides a simple explanation, saying Gandalf “got his second staff from the Elves in Lorien (he also gets new clothing there). So maybe that’s where the staff at the end came from as well.”
u/Brostapholes jokes, “Tom Bombadill whittled Gandalf a new one from a tree during his stay with Tom after the destruction of the One Ring.”
u/nameisreallydog also took a humorous approach, joking “There’s a new staff with the promotion.”
u/jimfortuno also jokes that Gandalf “used his second collapsible staff.”
Breaking Down Return of the King’s Potential Plot Hole
Though the inconsistency in Return of the King appears to be a plot hole, there could be a few possible explanations for it. First off, the scene in which the Witch-king destroys Gandalf staff’s only appears in the Return of the King extended edition, and thus, the plot hole only exists there. Considering the inconsistency this scene creates with the ending, it’s also easy to see why it was cut. The plot hole doesn’t exist in the theatrical version, which could be considered the definitive version anyway, while the extended editions are novelties for fans interested in seeing extra material.
Another explanation for the plot hole is that it’s simply a different staff. Gandalf has many staffs throughout Lord of the Rings, including the white staff which he receives as a gift from Galadriel and is clearly destroyed by the Witch-king. He has a similar-looking staff during the final scene in the Grey Havens. However, this staff is slightly larger, suggesting it could be a different one. The slight inconsistency does exist in the extended edition of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, though it’s up to audiences to decide how to explain it, or just ignore it.
