• JaggedRobotPubes
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    123 days ago

    Why do people ever ask this stupid question? They didn’t ride the eagles because they aren’t stupid and didn’t want to get shot out of the sky and immediately captured.

    The actual weakness in the story is this vague “can’t actually use my magic except sometimes lol no further questions” stuff with Gandalf.

    • AwesomeLowlander
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      11 day ago

      Birds can fly over 10km above ground level. Presumably mythical magical eagles could go even higher. Nobody’s shooting them down with a bow or possibly even seeing them till they reach their destination and divebomb the volcano.

    • @RedditWanderer
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      3 days ago

      Last time the Valar intervened it almost destoyed the world, and from then on they said they wouldn’t intervene. The people of middle earth would have to do it.

      Once Sauron was defeated they weren’t intervening in a conflict anymore. Same for Gandalf using just a bit of magic, the Istari were sent to guide, not to use their powers and do it themselves. Gandalf is the only one to cheat and use his magic to help.

  • @[email protected]
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    53 days ago

    My eagle take is that stories are supposed to be about what actually (fictionally) happened rather than the most optimally efficient way they could have. The eagles simply didn’t deign to get involved until they did.

    • @Blue_Morpho
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      113 days ago

      The problem is that it wasn’t addressed. Had someone suggested it at the council and Gandalf gave a reason it wouldn’t have become an endless meme.

      Everyone there knew about the eagles. The eagles had even helped in the petty squabbles between dwarves and men a few years earlier at LakeTown / Dale.

      • @[email protected]
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        43 days ago

        I refuse to believe the eagles didn’t know what was going down and could intervene at any time. When they showed up they weren’t like “bruh why didn’t you call us sooner”

        • warm
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          53 days ago

          The point is still that the rings whereabouts was best left unknown to as many people as possible. Just flying into Mordor on an eagle would have essentially just delivered the ring to Sauron for free. The eagles could have been involved elsewhere, sure, but the story is the story.

          • metaStatic
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            63 days ago

            I need you to fly these hobbits to mount doom.

            why … oh.

            no further questions.

            No, fuck this shit, you’re on your own old man.

      • @RedditWanderer
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        23 days ago

        The reason given in the books is that the Valar shouldn’t intervene anymore, last time it almost destroyed everything.

        The Istari weren’t meant to do magic / go after sauron themselves either. Most of them did nothing.

        • @Blue_Morpho
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          22 days ago

          Eagles were messengers, not Valar. If they could meddle in a war over some treasure, then they could certainly meddle to save all of Middle Earth.

          • @RedditWanderer
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            2 days ago

            Manwe is the one who sends them though, and he’s a valar.

            I don’t remember if it’s in the Silmarillion or LOTR but they specifically say they arent going to interfere anymore because last time it sunk a continent

            The dwarves weren’t fighting Valar/Maiar

            • @Blue_Morpho
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              02 days ago

              If Gandalf tells Gimli to pass on a message, that doesn’t make Gimli a Maiar.

              • @RedditWanderer
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                2 days ago

                Thats a dumb comparison. Gandalf didnt make gimli nor does he control him, and how is passing a message the same as literally carrying the ring into the fire?.. fighting off nazgul?

                I guess some people will just never get it and we can keep the meme alive.

                • @Blue_Morpho
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                  12 days ago

                  Eagles fought at the battle of 5 armies!

                  If they got involved for a minor events, they could have gotten involved for an important event. Surely those at the council, having known about the Eagles at the battle a few decades earlier, would have suggested it.

                  Again the problem is that no reason was given despite the Hobbit showing it was a possibility.

                  fighting off nazgul?

                  “The Eagles appeared in great numbers at the Battle of the Morannon, helping to fight against the Nazgûl.”

                  https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Eagles#:~:text=The Great Eagle became known,to fight against the Nazgûl.

  • OpenStars
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    33 days ago

    Wow, this asks so many questions…

    And yes, I am fully aware of what I just said.:-P

      • Otherbarry
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        23 days ago

        Interesting, is there a reason/discussion thread about that? Looked around a bit in the instance and the community but didn’t see anything. Are you talking about migrating the official community, or just splitting it into another instance?