And we're on to the second book in The Edge of a Knife series: The Return of the Shadow

Out of all the books in the series, this one if my favorite. 

Why? 

Not sure, the feelings I feel are too feelsy for me to understand. But once I have my thoughts straightened out I should be able to figure out why this one is my favorite. Now enough of me rambling, let's get on to the trivia!

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD

IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK BE WARNED THERE ARE MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

1. The prologue was going to be different.

The prologue opens up with Aragorn and Gimli looking over desolate Middle Earth while thinking of past regrets. It's probably the calmest scene in the whole book. However my original idea was to have an action scene for the opener.

The prologue would have Aragorn and a few other survivors attacking a band of orcs who were traveling with captured slaves, and freeing them. There was going to be some dialogue between Aragorn and Gimli that would have been similar to what we see in the final version, but other than that there isn't much change. I don't know why I switched it, but I did. 

2. The POV was going to switch back and forth from Legolas to Aragorn in the first part of the story.

At first I was going to equally tell the story showing what was going on in Mordor and over at Aragorn's place from the beginning. Although while thinking about how I was going to plan the orders of the chapters out, thought that showing what Aragorn and the others  were doing at the time Legolas and co. were in Mordor would have revealed too much. I wanted to keep everyone in the dark about what was going on in Middle Earth as much as I could. So I decided to tell the whole first part from the Mordor POV, and then fill everyone in later.

3. Amarth was going to attempt to help Legolas and Pippin escape.

This idea was abandoned almost immediately. I wanted Amarth to be as unpredictable as possible, and after seeing people commenting that they thought he would help them escape, I decided to something that would keep readers guessing whether he was good or bad.

4. Neither Boromir nor Faramir were present in the first draft of the story.

I hadn't planned on bringing Faramir back (as you all know from the last trivia) but I completely forgot about Boromir near the end of EOAK. So when I finally remembered the guy who was responsible for the destruction of Middle Earth I was stuck with figuring out what his role in the story would be. Obviously he needed a chance to redeem himself, the question was how? As I started writing I was brainstorming over what to do with Boromir when my most evil, diabolical plot came to me.

Boromir would kill Pippin.

To this day I am still reminded of the terrible crime I committed against the young hobbit. Long story short I can no longer watch LOTR without getting all guilty whenever he shows up.

But hey, #sorrynotsorry

Which leads me to the next topic:

5. Pippin wasn't going to die in Mordor.

Sayeth whaaaaaaaaat?

That's right folks. Originally little Pippin was going to make it out of Mordor with Legolas. But don't start the celebration yet, he was still going to die. 

Yes I had planned from the beginning that he would die and there was no changing what was set in stone.

However his death was very different from what we ended up with in ROTS.

In fact I came up with two separate scenarios in which he died.

The first one was that Pippin would die just as he and Legolas escaped Mordor (Eowyn was not yet present either) which would have been devastating for Legolas. There was a lot of sad dialogue I'd had planned, Legolas would have sang, then to make things sadder Legolas wouldn't leave until he buried little Pippin.

The second scenario would have Legolas and Pippin safe with Aragorn and the others, or so we THOUGHT. Shortly after their rescue, Sauron's orcs would have attacked the survivors, and during the chaos Pippin would have been killed. The sad part would be that Legolas was trying to reach him, but didn't get there in time. Then we'd have not only Legolas' reaction to Pippin's death, but also Merry's because he would have witnessed the whole thing. Then afterwards would be a small funeral and no, in this version Legolas did not sing.

Now before I added Boromir I was leaning towards the first scenario, just because it would have been sadder if Legolas was forced to cope with his grief and guilt alone as he wanders away from Mordor. But once I got the idea that Boromir would kill Pippin, I quickly added in Faramir, and wrote out the scene in my head. And that's how those chapters were born.

6. Arwen was going to live.

At first I had planned that Aragorn would save Arwen from certain death, but when I thought about it: there was absolutely no way Aragorn could get to Rivendell in time to save her. So I decided to have her die and leave Aragorn heartbroken, but then another problem came up. Aragorn was the last heir to the throne of Gondor, if he survives all this chaos, he'll eventually grow old and die, but who would be the next king of Gondor? Obviously it wouldn't be fair to give Gondor the king they'd been waiting for, only to be kingless again right after he dies.

Then I got an idea: What if he married Eowyn?

Now I was extremely nervous about doing this because I know that a lot of people in the LOTR can't stand the thought of those two being together, and I myself don't like the pairing at all. But hey, since this was my Alternate Middle Earth where all the worst things imaginable happen, why doesn't Aragorn marry Eowyn?

Don't get me wrong I love Eowyn, but Arwen and Aragorn were meant to be. However since Aragorn was absolutely crushed by Arwen's death, I needed a way for him to slowly begin to heal. And so I had Eowyn quietly comfort Aragorn (not in the creepy stalkerish way she does in the movies) and obviously he didn't fall for her overnight, it took a long time before Aragorn was ready to love again. Of course he looses Eowyn pretty quick after that but hey, at least I didn't kill Aragorn off.

7. I considered killing Aragorn off.

Remember that bit of dialogue between Aragorn and Legolas near the end where Aragorn makes Legolas promise that if he's killed in the battle, then Legolas will leave and keep Eldarion safe?

Well after writing that I briefly considered having Aragorn be killed when fighting Sauron. Seriously I considered this for a very long time. Eventually I decided that killing him off would be unnecessary at this point. For one thing I already had a bunch of other deaths planned for the battle (mainly Boromir's) and the thought of Aragorn dying then was too much even for me. If I had gone along with this the plot of book three would have been WAY different. Fortunately for you guys, I rejected the idea and instead came up with the scene where Sauron's power is destroyed inside of Legolas after he is defeated.

8. I briefly considered letting Boromir live.

When I say "briefly considered" this is what I mean:

Should Boromir survive book two?

Nope.

Okay, redemption death it is.

True story.

So that's all I have for this one, hope you found all that interesting. And speaking of interesting: I was inspired by you guys to create a separate book in which I will include all the deleted scenes from the EOAK series! Get ready for a Feelz Partay!

So yeah, I'll let you all know when that's coming, until then...

Alright I'm Out