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Seven of the top ten books of all time are by Ayn Rand or L. Ron Hubbard... who knew?
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not really at all, no
the eagles do stuff in the hobbit because
A. gandalf saved the life of their king once, so they repaid him in kind
and B. they fucking hate goblins and acted on their own initiative
in the lord of the rings, the eagles are under no obligation to help out, because
A. they are eagles, they are proud and arrogant as hell and would never stoop to flying some hairy little things a zillion miles
B. they are powerful spirits like gandalf and are likely under the same basic rules to not use their power to overly influence the affairs of mortals one way or another
and C. they are under the authority of the king of the gods, who has taken a decidedly hands-off approach to the whole war of the ring affair.
not only that, use of the eagles to move the ring is a phenomenally stupid idea which gandalf likely didn't even consider because
A. the One Ring has a powerful influence and easily corrupts the proud. wait shit the eagles are really proud and arrogant aren't they
and B. Sauron is a giant fucking eye who has nothing to do but look at things all day, and the sky is notoriously empty of things to hide behind
in short, this criticism is wrong and derives from inadequately rigorous reasoning
And the fear was Tom Bombidil would just forget about it and lose it
flying things
are easy to see
but nolw how can i say something like that to dichotomy with an av/sig setup like that
I thought it had something to do with the Nazguls
You know, flying around, being menacing
He only does that after becoming Gandalf the White, I suspect Gandalf the Grey would have a bit more trouble with them.
basically, gandalf is returned to middle-earth after dying (although he doesn't actually die as such) to complete his mission, which was to be a balance to sauron's power
and because saruman had renounced that mission (the book makes a much bigger deal of this, having him become "saruman of many colors"), he gets brought back as gandalf the white, who is now the head of the wizards
this is also why gandalf leaves at the end of the novel: there's no more sauron for him to balance out
How about to keep evil from swallowing Middle Earth whole
Is that a whim
And so what if Sauron can see them flying
It isn't like the eye shoots lasers or anything
Increase altitude, nobody can shoot you
Yes, the story needed to be about the journey, and I agree that it would have been incredibly dumb to have a book where they fly an eagle to drop a ring into a volcano
It's just that the excuses given are flimsy and contrived so that the journey could occur
Gandalf has been influencing the affairs of mortals pretty much constantly so I don't get why "eagles are like Gandalf and are under the same rules not to influence things" is a reason for anything
Pretty much every action Gandalf takes is interfering in the affairs of mortals!
And he calls the eagles to escape from some goblins, and because he's trapped in Saruman's tower, but the salvation of every good creature doesn't merit their assistance apparently
Sorry, even though Tolkien has word of god on this thing it's still stupid and flimsy as shit! He could have had the eagles subdued somehow in a believable way instead of this whole, "They'll help you do lofty things like run the fuck away from bad guys, but destroying the biggest threat the world has ever known is far beneath them"
But the plot contrivances don't get a pass just because I love it
he is the ghost of a thug employed by the biggest threat the world has ever known
it seemed like he wrote himself into a corner and the needed magic eagles, without considering how they fit into the story at large
wizard
books
The role of the Eagles, I thought, was pretty well communicated. That being to not give a fuck, because they are goddamned giant eagles.
Except when Gandalf, to whom they are indebted, is in mortal danger.
They were on horses prior to that
So there was plenty of time to take a ride on a flying bird before that happened
or is he just an angel that can't actually die anyway and the eagles know this
but then why did they save him in the first place
wizard books!
I have nothing against wizards conceptually
but yeah, I can't really think of any good wizard books.
I admit to only reading the Hobbit and LotR trilogy so if Golbez isn't the bad guy and it's actually Zeromus, well, fuck if I know, I'm just going with the self-contained tale in the books that I have read
Even if it isn't actually a contrivance because JRRT wrote something else later on about how it totally isn't a contrivance, it isn't that way in the story I read, so yeah, to a lot of people it is a deus ex machina that is waved away with very little explanation
but the entire plot point you are fixated on has been answered, and answered by the books. You don't even have to account for their pride or anything.
Sauron has winged bat demons that are ridden by invincible hell ghosts.
The entire magic system of LoTR turns on Will, and when Sauron turns his will upon the ring, he can affect the bearer and those around it. It's just not a good plan. You're banking on not being seen, or it not mattering if you are seen, and that's just not the case. They'd be killed.
I think they had those from the beginning, they just weren't using them initially - so while we the reader/viewer didn't know about them, the eagles certainly would have.
Fuck if I know, man. Wizards do wizard shit, and 99% of the time it works. Then 1% of the time they invoke the giant eagles.
and not any ringwraith either, wasn't it the witch king?
Again, those things didn't appear until way later in the story.
They could have gone KKkooooooooo oooooaahhhhhhh IIIIIII SEEEEEEEE YOOOOOOUUU all they wanted to from the solid ground their horses stood upon while Frodo laughed his ass off on the wings of an eagle
They didn't get their Fellbeasts until after they had been driven away
They didn't have such a scene, did they? I can't recall one.
You cut out 9/10 of your journey right there, and the rest of the way walking into Mordor you can actually eat food and shit