Loved:

Pippin's dirge. FUCK!!!!

Sam's entrance into Shelob's lair. YES!!!!

Yeah, that thing Eowyn does.

Sam and Shelob.

Yes!

Oh, all Jess' favorites and cry-points are mine.

I'm remembering much more this afternoon than I did at 4AM when I posted in that other thread.

This AM I found my ticket stub from the midnight show of TTT and put on the soundtrack cd, which I'd bought ahead of time but purposely hadn't listened to. I was fine till track five.oh.dear. Then I was fine again, even a bit cranky at the disjointedness and soundtrackiness of it all till it got to the last four or five tracks, and the tears just started. I'm always suspicious of facile tears, but this was just beyond strange. Kinda cathartic, but wholly unlike me.

Anyway. Must see it again--first time, too much excitement, too tired after sitting all day, and too much sensory overload to really process it. Will see it soon, soon, with DH, and again soon with or without him. And probably at least once more before I can pin down some definite opinions. A fairly long gap then before rewatching, and then spotting new or forgotten stuff. And several more viewings before it leaves theaters.

And back off Theoden. Mine. As is Pippin.

Oh, the one thing that stuck with me, that I woke up seeing in mind's eye, aside from the stripped Bag End interior--the mirror of Frodo's soul stripped of every non-essential, was how still and pale and tearless Frodo was while saying goodbye to Merry and Pippin, and even Sam. Even when he kissed Sam's forehead and broke me utterly, he shed not one tear. And when he looked back from the deck of the ship... he was no longer pale. There was a youthful blush in cheek and lip that had been missing since Weathertop. And his smile was no wan, pale, drawn thing. It was joyful.

And damn. I'm crying again.

It's not over! We have EE dvds in November! And then the year after, they will do an in-theater trilogy of all three EEs! (Tell me they will).

And by then, PJ may have gotten The Hobbit underway! And there're always the appendices, and, and, and...

My ticket stub (and everyone else's at my screening -- there was a computer glitch) claimed to be for a 1:30 pm showing of Gothika (which was what RotK was replacing in this theatre). It amused me greatly.

I'm wearing my all-day pass on my neck strap thingy. My untorn RotK ticket (#28, if that's of interest to anybody) is tucked into the back, along with my TTT midnight show ticket stub. I'm keeping it forever.

Oh, Beverly, that killed me too.

I'm trying to remember--there was something that my audience laughed at in TTTEE that I thought was totally inappropriate. Not Gollum, though there was some laughing at him as well.

And Jess, wrt to "Well, I'm back" -- word. That was why I asked about it ahead of time, because I knew I wouldn't be able to handle it if that didn't happen!

My crowd was excruciatingly well-behaved. So well-behaved that it was in fact me who started the cheering or clapping at certain points. The one that immediately springs to mind is Gandalf bopping Denethor with his staff and countermanding his order to desert posts. But there were others. I think everyone was too rapt to actually cheer out loud.

edited because close-italics tag is not the same as close whitefont.

A few of the moments my crowd cheered at:

The lighting of the bonfires

Theoden saying "Rohan will answer!"

Gandalf whacking Denethor

Sam showing up with the light of Elendil at Shelob's cave

Eowyn cutting off the head of the winged lamprey of doom

"I am no man!"

The arrival of the army of green ectoplasmic zombie pirate warriors

Legolas taking out the Oliphaunt

Pippin rescuing Faramir

Sam slicing through the Orc at the top of the tower where Frodo is held captive

"I can't carry it for you. But I can carry you!"

Gimli's line that is now my tagline

Aragorn's speech outside the Black Gate

The final destruction of the Ring (of course)

Everyone bowing down to the hobbits

The Arwen/Aragorn kiss

Sam and Rosie's wedding

I bet there was more, too. My audience kicked ass.

The lighting of the beacons was the coolest thing EVER. I'm so in love with that sequence.

As much as I am "enh" about Arwen (I've always maintained that whenever she appears onscreen, the pace immediately goes into imperceptible slo-mo, "Ohhh looook therrrre's Aaaarrrwwennnn", until she's offscreen again) boy did look sort of lonesome all by himself after getting the shiny hat from Gandalf. I was actually glad to see her show up .