This is made explicit in the GameBoy Advance version of the RotK game. Saruman makes it clear in the scene where he and Grima die. I'm not sure if this is based on some deleted footage or not, but there you are. I always thought along these lines anyway, but the game's use of that idea seemed to solidify it.

o_O REALLY? How come TTT has been out for fifteen years and this is the first I'm hearing of this? Thank you! Do you happen to know/remember what exactly was said in the game? I think I thought Grima may've had something to do with in in the theatrical version, but with the added scenes in the EE (Eowyn's face when she sees the wound), I think I kinda pushed the idea aside.

Theoden: Grima! You need not follow him. You were once a man of Rohan ...
Saruman: You have paid dearly for his devotion, Theoden. Did you not know? He killed your son. Slaked his thirst -- with poison.
Grima: You made me do it.
Saruman: And you do what I say -- always -- don't you worm?
Grima: Nooooo! *stabs Saruman*

In addition to the aforementioned scene (which didn't make it into the EE; well, a variant did, but not the line about him killing Theodred!), I remember there being a couple of things that showed up in a little picture book of RotK I picked up once. I think one or two of them made it into the EE, but there was something big that didn't....OH! I'm about 95% sure it was a picture of Aragorn healing Faramir! MAN! If that's true, I wasn't crazy about being sure that scene existed. I'll have to check this weekend and see if I'm remembering correctly. There's also the infamous Faramir & Eowyn wedding scene that we have never seen hide nor hair of...

There IS a picture of Aragorn healing Faramir!! Along with a caption saying that Aragorn is healing him with Ioreth's help and the quote about the hands of the king being the hands of a healer. o_O On the opposite page is also a picture of Pippin finding Merry on the Pelennor (and NOT the scene in the EE!) during the battle. Also, there's a picture of Eowyn watching the Rohirrim leave Edoras with an accompanying note saying she decides to follow them. So. o_O Those are three (somewhat major?) things they changed in the theatrical/EE releases and/or completely cut.

where Arwen fought at Helm's Deep

Denethor was... interesting. He seemed to think he was so reasonable and composed and able to take on the power of the Ring, and then after Faramir is wounded and seems near death... he decides that the most reasonable course of action is to consign himself and his son to death upon a pyre. Uh. Not exactly the great, invincible, unshakeable leader he seemed to think he was, or even a captain with the fortitude to go down with his ship. Nor so hard-hearted towards his younger son as he would have Faramir believe, either, which is perhaps the most important thing: the crack of a silver lining in his madness is that it was his love for his son that broke him.

I thought that the Pukel-men and the Wild Men that resembled them were interesting. One of the aspects of The Hobbit/LotR that is most intriguing is the idea that there are many stories that are still untold... it's the sort of thing that makes one keen to delve into the rest of Tolkien's published writings.

It is surprising to me because there are so many excellent parts and I am not usually good at ranking anything anyway, but I think my favorite passage in the entire series must be Eowyn defending fallen Theoden before the Witch-king. I had to immediately go back and re-read that part; it was so spine-chillingly good. I knew that Eowyn was Dernhelm (I think I picked that up years ago, thanks to our Dernhelm_of_Rohan here on the forum), but I didn't realize she was so awesome. And to any theoretical personage who might try to diminish the gleam of her bravery by suggesting she was already suicidal anyway: there were cheaper deaths to buy on that battlefield! There was plenty of honor for anyone who wanted it. She didn't have to face down the chief of the Nazgul, for heaven's sake, but that's exactly what she did. Wow.

It's honestly an amazing exchange because all through the series prior to it, we have been learning about the type of effect that the Ringwraiths have on mortals. Their unseen cries alone were an incredible terror... "at length even the stout-hearted would fling themselves to the ground as the hidden menace passed over them, or they would stand, letting their weapons fall from nerveless hands while into their minds a blackness came, and they thought no more of war, but only of hiding and of crawling, and of death." How was Eowyn able to string coherent sentences together, much less slay the adversary? She out of all the characters we have met seems most consumed with despair, and yet perhaps that's it: she had already been living with something akin to the effects of a Ringwraith for a long time, it would seem, and that is why the Witch-king had less power over her. (Think of the icy feeling that passed over Merry when he looked into Dernhelm's hopeless eyes.) It reminds me of a Tolkien quote that I had encountered before I ever read any of his books:

A divine 'punishment’ is also a divine 'gift’, if accepted, since its object is ultimate blessing, and the supreme inventiveness of the Creator will make 'punishments’ (that is changes of design) produce a good not otherwise to be attained.

I rather doubt that Eowyn would have been able to slay the Witch-king had she not already been consumed by despair and had long ago steeled herself to it.

(And let's not forget Merry!! Merry was wonderful, and indispensable. "At least she should not die alone, unaided"... bless him! )

In a way, the unhappy parts of Eowyn's story culminating in a necessary, heroic act reminds me a little of Gollum's wretched road ending in a necessary, selfish act. Gandalf was right about him; it seems Gandalf is the only thing close to an all-seeing eye in Middle Earth, however much Sauron would beg to differ. Gollum's demise did surprise me, but it was a fitting end for him. I was having a hard time coming up with a way for Tolkien to conclude his story because he seemed so far gone and much beyond the abilities of anyone on Middle-Earth to redeem. His choice at Cirith Ungol was a new low, to say the least. At the same time, however, he is like an addict, and it is hard to hate an addict in spite of all that they have done. It has always been difficult to pity him when we know that he became a murderer just to possess the Ring in the first place, but then again, Boromir could have easily done the same if he'd had the chance. A cautionary tale indeed... Boromir was very fortunate that the Ring never came to his possession.

The way that Aragorn was revealed to be king was creative! I was interested to read that Tolkien had originally intended for him to marry Eowyn... she seems to have too much fire to be very compatible with his quiet and grave strength. He does seem better suited with the Lady Arwen, but I was very surprised at how little she was in the books! Especially since she seems to be far and away the more popular of the two characters, as illustrated by Google trends. Clearly, they must have expanded her role in the films. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised that Eowyn and Faramir ended up together in the book... for some reason I had gotten the sense that the filmmakers made a change by pairing them, but I'm guessing it was just an additional scene or something. I was all smiles during that part of RotK. I feel like some people might be disappointed that Eowyn gave up fighting and became a healer, but she had been driven to battle by so much mental and emotional anguish... it seems to me that she had finally found the road to wholeness after her shadow had departed, and that new state meant that her purpose was to make others whole as well.

When Pippin lost consciousness at the end of WotR, my exact thought was, "Tolkien... if you kill him... " Thankfully, all my dear hobbits made it out alive, although some were scarred.

I loved Sam's rescue of Frodo from the tower (I cannot quite believe the rumor that the filmmakers were going to have Arwen do that instead? Surely I misunderstand? ), and his broken singing in that land of evil. And all his dogged support of Frodo, all the way through to the end. Sometimes I wonder if I don't love him better than Frodo—his faithfulness makes it hard! I should very much have liked to live in the Shire with Mr. Gamgee as mayor, to say the least. Frodo's quiet courage, his patience with a creature such as Gollum, and the incredible burden he carried all the way to Mount Doom make it impossible to choose between the two, however. It was an awful moment when he surrendered to the power of the Ring, after all he had been through.

I did enjoy reading about the Scouring of the Shire, despite all of the awful things that Saruman and Grima had done. (I really, really did not expect them to be at the bottom of it all.) It was cheering to see the hobbits ride in and put things to rights and free their people, and even more cheering to see the Lady's gift to Sam restore the Shire to even greater glory than it had known before.

The ending of it all makes one feel rather pensive, though. It makes sense that Frodo wouldn't be able to settle back down to life in the Shire, that he needed to go away to seek more extensive healing from what he had been through. The title of a Thomas Wolfe novel (which I have yet to read) was echoing in my mind during that last chapter—"You can't go home again." It was a sad parting, but the three friends returning to the Shire eased the sorrow, as did homey Bag End—and the hope that Frodo was sailing to where he would find peace. "I will not say: do not weep, for not all tears are an evil" was a helpful thing to hear indeed as the curtain fell on our heroes.

(On the bright side, I had spent a lot of LotR fearing that Bilbo was surely going to die at some point, so it was very nice to watch him sail away with Frodo instead!)