Tolkien Thread (The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, etc.)

When Gimli described what happened to Merry, he said the spirits drew weapons, but he wasn't sure if they could actually hurt the living with them.  The terror was the only weapon they needed.

In fact, it was TOO good.  Their affect terrified both sides of the fight.

But yeah, they'd have to explain that the army Aragorn brought to Minas Tirith was actually the forces of Pelegir and Dol Amroth that were under siege from Umbar.

Again, going only by the movies here. In the movie, the ghosts zerg rush the attacking Mordor forces and are basically a giant green wave sweeping over everything and picking it clean.

And I don't buy the "betray his word" thing. The ghosts swore to defend Gondor in time of need (or something of the sort), and the time of need had definitely not passed. One battle did not win the war. Aragorn should've released them only after Sauron was defeated. Even if he wouldn't use them on Mordor itself (because I'm sure someone will pull out some obscure lore about how Sauron could've mind controlled them if they got too close) leaving them behind to defend Minas Tirith pretty much guarantees its safety until the Ring is destroyed or Sauron reclaims it, after which it no longer matters either way.

"an hour of need" to be precise, i.e. siege of MT. And breaking words and bending rules to gain something is highly un-tolkienesque.

2. in the movies, the Dead would probably just scare the shit out of Aragorn's army on the way to Mordor or in Gondor. I remind u, the only people that arrived to MT along with the Dead were Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas--real badasses with balls bigger than Wrex's. No one else was on those ships, no one else had time to get comfy around those creatures.

i personally shit my pants every time i see a ghost IRL.

You mean Amon Amarth, the Sindarin name which translates to "Mountain of Fate"(or "Doom")?
 

Was Turin Turambar the biggest loser in all of middle earth?

He either genuinely was cursed, Or the most unfortunate loser to walk Middle Earth.

But yeah, Smaug. Smaug was magnificent. Smaug was threatening. Smaug was there. Besides the excellent design and performance there are two things that go into my appreciation of Smaug. One the idea of dragons as super-intelligent sentient beings who can fuck with you, in addition to all the other ways they're better than you (and can kill you). I've never been much for dragons in the past, and while I did encounter intelligent dragons in Skyrim, I was still mostly meh on them. Giant flying lizards, woohoo. But Smaug made me a believer, and I want more. The second thing is, he is a magical being that actually does something magical. I once read that Tolkien hated Shakespeare because when the latter wrote "the trees moved" in Macbeth (I believe) but then revealed them to be dudes holding logs and branches, Tolkien went "that's bullshit, trees should move if it's supernatural". And thus we got Ents. I have a similar misgiving about the Tolkienverse- If there's magic shit like wizards and elves and dragons and demons then I want to see some awesome magical shit go down! Yes, yes, the wizards are playing by teh rules and magic is dying, yadda yadda, I know the explanation. Doesn't mean I still don't want to see magical shit hit the fan. So among the other great things he is, Smaug is a (regrettably) rare case where that does happen. 

Eh, I think it's better than Peter Jackson's version. 1977 Smaug doesn't waste time with pleasantries, he is quick to show just how powerful he is when he is provoked. Turn of the century Smaug is very skinny in comparison, plus he's spending the majority of his conversation with Bilbo bobbing his head around like a snake to come across as intimidating. 

Of course, that could be because preadolescent me was terrified of this cartoon growing up; him and G'Mork in The Never Ending Story; but I don't know.