[artios]

Tobbacco is critical for the return of the king - it explains why and how Sauraman gets his grip on the Shire. Why do we need to PC Tolkien? We don't. Light up and blow rings all you wizards, kings and shire-folk.

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

Peter Jackson's ROTK will not include The Scouring of the Shire, so it does not matter (re: the Saruman/tobacco linkage). However, PJ still has to dispose of the Palantir and deal with Saruman in some fashion, so we may yet get to see Merry and Pippin smoking their pipes and sleeping off their big meal at the ruined gates of Isengaurd when Gandalf, Theoden, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli arrive. I assume PJ is planning to start ROTK with this scene; otherwise it is hard to imagine how he will reunite Merry and Pippen with the others, or how he will dispatch them by three seperate routes to the battlefields of Minas Tirith.