THE EAGLES DID NOTHING WRONG

#shorts #lordoftherings #theeagles #gandalf #tolkien

[Mr_Mcgee_]

For all the comments confused to where the guy was going, the short cut him off at the explanation. What he was trying to say is that the Eagles would giveaway that the fellowship was trying to make their way into Mordor in order to destroy the ring. The council of Elrond didn’t want Sauron to find out that their plan wasn’t to use the ring against him but instead was to destroy it. Tolkien even clarified in his letters that it was unimaginable to Sauron that anyone would seek to destroy the ring instead of using it against him. If they used the Eagles to fly into Mordor then Sauron would realize the true plan. This is also why Aragorn creates a distraction by looking into the Palantir, tricking Sauron into thinking he had the ring. I hope this clarifies why the Eagles are not a deus ex machina.

[Rob-]

speaker at my schools graduation brought up the eagles as an example of deus ex machina and my friends looked at me expecting me to charge him on the stage for such heresy

[BIueharvest]

Sauron had his own elite flying troops, I imagine they counter each other out and then he'd have the ring when it fell in mordor

[danielbertola]

I loved that Tolkien always had evil characters confused my virtue, sacrifice, true friendship, altruism, and benevolence. Similar to how some psychopaths do not understand facial expressions of dread and horror. So so good.

[Baseball]

This guys didn’t even mention the eagles lol he just went on about what sauron thought people would do with the ring

[FatGouf]

I think even if we ignore the idea that they're this proud creatures who cant be ordered around, the set up of the mission was subterfuge. Both Saruman and Sauron assumed that the Ring would stay in Rivendell, or be sent to Gondor, so they have kept spies of all sorts on guard from borders of Eriador to Gondor, for any major movement. The idea that giant eagles left Rivendell with people on their back flying east would raise red flags before they could go over the Misty Mountains.

[TurinTuramber]

Tolkien answered this.

It wouldn't work as a story.

[LordTelperion]

The Eagles are the chief servants of Manwë, king of the Valar (gods). They have some self-determination, but their activity in the mortal world is ultimately by the command of Manwë, e.g. divine intervention, e.g. proof the Valar still love us and haven't abandoned the world after all.

[Paul-ycdc]

The eagles were sent by Manwe himself and sauron would be able to sense and see them from Miles away

[Buford_T_Justice]

The Eagles aren’t that bad. They did write Hotel California after all.

[jamiemckelvie]

That and the fact that mordor was swarmed with nazgul, they have giant cross bows, air weapons, all sorts of things that could take out Eagles.

The great Eagles aren't immortal

one cannot just run up on mordor like that

[Catherine.Dorian.]

So glad you said this. I’ve always felt that Sauron’s fatal flaw was twofold, it was his ego and his evil nature. his evil nature prevented him from ever imagining that anyone would destroy the ring because he can’t imagine people would be willing to sacrifice themselves to do the right thing. His ego prevented him from guarding his only Achilles heel - mount doom

[Darkaneian]

I thought it was because sauron would see them coming a few thousand miles away and just not let them pass into mordor. Also, supposedly they were proud creatures and somthing like that was beneath them.

[creightonarmstrong]

I think it also worth mentioning that the eagles weren’t Gandalf’s pets that he can call when he feels like it, the movies make it seem so. But they were like a clan of beings that owed Gandalf some favors for saving their leader’s life. So they wouldn’t just go running in to a suicide run for a favor.

[TheYgds]

There was already enough powerful people in the Fellowship around the ring for it to be an existential threat should any one of them succumb to its temptation. Much worse if you place it in close proximity to some of the most powerful creatures in all of Middle-Earth. The Eagles wouldn't necessarily be immune to its influence. If it could coerce Thorondor, then Middle-Earth would have been in very dire straits. Keeping the thing away from most Arda bound divinities was a good idea. It was already a great risk to have Gandalf around it.

[yagamilighto]

Even if the eagle's drop any ring bearers off mount doom. It was already established that the rings influence is too powerful and no one had the will to do so. In the end, frodo failed and it took gollum's obsession with the ring to end it all(of course with the intervention of Eru too).

Also, the war distract most of Saurons army away from mount doom. Without the distraction mount doom will be heavily guarded, even fellbeast would be patrolling around the area.

[hurin_thalion]

"The fact that he would think we would seek to destroy it, has not entered into his darkest dreams"

[lidular]

Well the giant eagles eoumd be fairly easy to spot. Especially as the nazgul were riding their flying fell beasts.
They could also be corrupted by the ring as its power scales with the person being affected.
But even if that weren't a problem they would still have to land in order go inside the cracks of doom, where there is always stationed a large force of orcs. The only reason Sam and Frodo could enter was because Aragorn had lured Saurons forces away.
And even if that still wasn't a problem, no one would have the strength to actually throw it in. It could only happen in the very specific way that it did.

[biganderson]

Omg faithful in the fallen in the background, one of my all time favorite series

[tober]

I thought the reason was that the eagles, being really powerful beings, would be tempted by the ring. Powerful beings are susceptible to corruption, hence why Gandalf won't touch the thing.