Last Rites

This story was inspired by something I observed in The Return of the King (movie): sometime before the Pyre scene, not only has someone removed Faramir's armor and pulled out the arrows, but his face has been washed too. I became oddly fascinated with the question of who did all that, and I eventually came to the conclusion that it must have been Denethor--because wouldn't anyone else have realized that Pippin was right about Faramir being alive, and sent for a doctor? Particularly if it happened while Denethor was out cold?

So I sat down one evening and brainstormed what could be a missing scene for ROTK. This was in June 2004, before the release of the Extended Edition of The Return of the King. At the time, I thought something like this might perhaps be in the EE; now, it's simply a possibility for "what might have been."

I tried to bring movie-Denethor a teeny bit closer to book-Denethor here. I also gave him a couple of book-Denethor's lines, edited to fit the situation and the more conversational tone of the movie script. I simply had to have "I sent my son forth..." in some form during this scene! In my humble opinion, Denethor's remorse is the cornerstone of what keeps him from being simply an evil monster.

I had them take Faramir into the tower because in the movie, when Pippin runs up and sees the procession to Rath Dinen, it looks like they're just leaving a building. (Also, it's hard to believe anyone could concentrate on getting Faramir's armor off while being dive-bombed by nazgul!)

"Gwindor" and "Dagnir" are my own inventions. You can figure they're two of the non-uniformed men who run out of the tower with Denethor when Faramir is brought up, and who accompany him to the tomb. I borrowed their names from characters in The Silmarillion.

Thanks to Athelas63 for the title!