The War of the Ring - The Scouring of the Shire 

"And on quiet nights you can still hear a disembodied voice calling out "mine! And dearly bought!"

I might include it as a note in the epilogue, but there's simply not enough about it for it to be an entire episode by itself.

@@DarthGandalfYT Fair enough

@@DarthGandalfYT Estimating the forces on each side would be tricky. 😉

Di he really abandon them? They were perfectly capable of managing the situation, and did it with little issue. Being abandoned implies someone you need to do something leaves you prematurely, and since the hobbits didn't really need Gandalf to deal with nothing less than a former maiar, i'd say Gandalf didn't really abandoned them.

Saruman was quite powerless after his defeat at Isengard, and I think he knew it, hence his bluff to try and stop the Hobbits from killing him. I don't think he would've been capable of amassing more strength.

For me is very hard to believe that a such powerful being, with so much knowledge and power was degrated so low after just one defeat. I mean he was still a maiar, just like Sauron. Oh, well.. i have many questions, but at least i believe that Tolkien should have sent him after some artifact from Arnon to regain power or something. Saruman as the third dark lord would have been great. 3 evil maiars, but i dont believe that humans and dwars could have stand a chance against a new peril, if not from a great intervention from Eru. And just the thought of Saruman making a new staff from Treabeard - gold.

His power was broken already by Gandalf and if he still held some great power likely Gandalf would not have left yet till he was dealt with.

Consider the larger theme Tolkien has going: From battles between the Ainur in the Ainulindale to this last skirmish in the Shire, good and evil have clashed over and over again, with Morgoth and Sauron severely and even irreparably damaging their enemies, but wearing themselves out in the process till they are eventually defeated by a combination of valor and divine providence, with the free people capable of healing and happiness while the Valar and Maiar can only make themselves weaker and more miserable. With his fall, Saruman provides a final note to this, with his attempt at sovereignty providing a lesser version of Barad Dur in Isengard even as Barad Dur was a lesser version of Angband. He loses even this and makes one last lesser attempt at exactly what you suggest: fleeing and biting back from somewhere else as Sauron did. But out of pride and spite, he messes with the Hobbits that his rival Gandalf loved, and this ends up getting him killed. In ending it like this, with a tiny skirmish at an unimportant corner of the world followed by Saruman getting killed by the very man he corrupted and abused, Tolkien ends this conflict between good and evil with the last pretender brought pathetically low by his own arrogance and outrage, unable to find healing or satisfaction while those who remained faithful can find peace at the end.

@@morgant.dulaman8733 I always loved the themes of Tolkien, especially the one where evil was always getting weaker with each set back and normally was beaten by it's own folly.

A few things to remember is that the vast majority of Hobbits had never left the Shire, so I doubt they even knew about King Elessar until Frodo and his companions arrived. After they arrived, the Scouring lasted a mere two more days, definitely not long enough for allies to arrive from elsewhere.

@@DarthGandalfYT It contradicts some of major themes of the trilogy (tolerance, teamwork). As a "Knight of Gondor", Pippin should've notified King Elessar that a maiar was sparking conflict within his borders. It's a flaw. Tolkien was just human.

any help from gondor to the shire would have taken months to arrive, by which time the hobits would be dead

@@jorgepascualfuentecilla3746 Nope... 1. Saruman's plan wasn't to kill all of the hobbits, just rule them. 2. Merry and Pippin were basically knights of the West. They neglected to notify their lords of an evil maiar seizing power inside of Gondor.

@@similaritiesendhere you're wrong

I think comparing them to Russian mercenaries is giving them a bit too much credit.

Dude they’re just average joes with shitty swords, homemade clubs, and no armor. They are a far cry from Spetsnaz

@@nevilleslightlylargerbotto1726 compared to the hobbits they are basically navy seals

@@tspoon772 Eh, I don’t buy it. The hobbits, at least our four hobbits, proved that they could kill man sized orcs when need be. And when the hobbits outnumber the men 3-to-1 and have the high ground PLUS archers, I don’t think it’s that inconceivable.

@@tspoon772 Keep in mind, the Hobbits mainly relied on archery to subdue them. That, plus the Hobbits natural ability to be stealthy makes this a more plausible.