I loved seeing the White Council, since it's not something we see even in the books, either. But you can never go wrong with more snarky interaction with Elrond, Galadriel, and the Wizards -- and generally Saruman's portrayal here was so great! It was totally in line with what we know happens in LotR, even though he's still a good guy here. Such an unexpected moment there :D
To be honest I haven't actually sat down and reread anything in years myself, I'm working off memory and extensive fanfic-reading (the lowest common denominator of what's included among stories generally tends to be canon!) The biggest possible holdup to the Arkenstone-Silmaril theory might be Thranduil, who was there at the handover and would be likely to recognize the Silmaril? (obviously Gandalf wouldn't say anything to stir up trouble there). And pfft, I wonder how possessive Gollum would have been over the Silmaril if hypothetically that had been his Precious? (How he got hold of it would be a different story though. No, bad brain, stop thinking about an AU where the Big MacGuffin is the Silmaril and not the Ring...)
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To be honest I haven't actually sat down and reread anything in years myself, I'm working off memory and extensive fanfic-reading (the lowest common denominator of what's included among stories generally tends to be canon!) The biggest possible holdup to the Arkenstone-Silmaril theory might be Thranduil, who was there at the handover and would be likely to recognize the Silmaril? (obviously Gandalf wouldn't say anything to stir up trouble there). And pfft, I wonder how possessive Gollum would have been over the Silmaril if hypothetically that had been his Precious? (How he got hold of it would be a different story though. No, bad brain, stop thinking about an AU where the Big MacGuffin is the Silmaril and not the Ring...)