The Lord of the Rings Expert Answers More Tolkien Questions From Twitter | Tech Support | WIRED 

Didn't he have like a magic arrow or something? And wasn't dragon ravaging a city at that time, so it was flying REALLY low to reac hthe ground with it's fire breath?

@@GurniHallek And Sauron also has things that are much, much scarier and powerful than orcs and trolls and his hordes of mercenaries. Unsleeping things so old and evil that their names are long forgotten, if they ever had any at all

@@GurniHallek he didn’t have a magic arrow, he was just able to speak to birds like his dad, so a sparrow who could fly close to Smaug told him where a plate of Smaug’s armor was missing.

@@bendover9813 The arrow probably was magic. It was at least a revered antique.

@@TheDanEfranChannel it’s the Black Arrow made by the Dwarf King Thrór, and one gifted to one of Bard’s ancestors. It’s definitely a revered arrow, and while Bard says he’s retrieved it every time he’s shot it, there’s no verifiable magic attributed to the arrow itself.

Lol well the books and movies are gigantic cultural phenomenon so it makes sense

Well... not quite. Not trying to rain on your parade, but he has a bachelor's degree in Astrophysics in addition to his B.A. in English, Masters in Philosophy, and PhD in Medieval literature.

He’s probably an English lecturer .

I only fear what amazon will bring with new "woke" lotr...

lmao same

So true!

95% of the Lore is in the Silmarillion ... which he wrote so that the vast history existed needed for a place to seem real, and for multiple languages to exist and evolve - but most of it is only mentioned in LoTR and THe Hobbit ... In the LoTR Strider sings part of the song of Beren and Lúthien, saying the original is in Sindarin and this is but a rough echo of it ... The story is in The Silmarillion, sorry the story nearly *is* the entire Silmarillion ...

some people will still try tho😆

Except Tom Bombidil. He even says so when asked.

Same. They definitely show the sight being given to Sauron as soon as Frodo puts on the ring. Which makes sense, if it's literally Frodo stepping into his realm.

Someone on the internet framed it really good. Who in the third age is able to enter the Spirit-World? Sauron of cause, Frodo with the ring, the Nazughul, maybe the wearers of the three. So, when Frodo puts it on, he basically teleports himself into a vast plane, where he, the Nazghul and Sauron are the only people hanging out. Of cause they see him there.

I don't know if the line/scene in the movie is in the book the same way but when Frodo is at the end and he says how the Eye is basically locking onto him I think it's easy to surmise that it's because he's becoming so corrupted by the ring at that point that Sauron is almost able to sense/see him without him needing to put the ring on. But again, this requires a ring bearer, Sauron cannot see the Ring itself.

And in the books, when Frodo uses it to escape Boromir he can feel Sauron percieve him, and reach out across the lands to search for him, he knows it is being used just not by who nor where, but a general sense of direction probably based on what the ringbearer is seeing. As soon as Frodo looks southeast and sees Barad-Dur he has to take the Ring off because he can feel Sauron very nearly find him

Yeah. It's like the ring itself has a will to go back to its master, Sauron.

I love Corey he’s great

@@alexdevitry7842 😂😂😂

Wow

Omg

Got dam man

But when the Eagles do show up they make mincemeat out of that airforce...

@@Quartan284 He also has an army with lots of bows and artillery.

@@Quartan284 That's after the Big Boss just lost his horcrux, which also more directly powered the riders of said air force.

@@Quartan284 To be fair, their top general was just killed. Whose to say they wouldn't have faired much better with the Witch King leading them?

"Sauron has an air force, too". If you're going to use quotes, use them properly.

Yeah, that ring be sneaky!

He isnt a man nor elf nor god nor beast. He s Tom Bombadil

In Deep Geek had my favorite theory that Tom is the manifestation of the music and that's why he appears so powerful. His power is rooted into returning things to the state which they should naturally be. And it may even be possible Shelob's mother Ungoliant was the manifestation of Discord. This is why they don't exactly align with the valor or Malkor respectively as they are much more forces of natures but have shared characteristics.

Probably like a good version of what sauron is.

@@thecrimsonfuckeralucardlor5087 Nope, we know that not to be the case. Sauron is a Maia, basically a lower-level angel. Other Maiar you may know include the Istari, AKA the wizards (like Gandalf and Saruman), the Balrogs, and possibly the giant eagles if some theories are correct. And the reason we know Tom isn’t one of them is because even the Maiar are susceptible to the temptation of the ring, as well as its powers. Tom is immune to both effects. He is not remotely tempted by it, and he remains fully visible while wearing it for the brief moment he does so. So he either IS a Maia or even a Vala (the higher-level counterparts to the Maiar; together they are the Ainur) who just so happens to be more pure than the others or something (unlikely. Ilúvatar-God-works in far less mysterious ways than you’d expect, and having a secret Ainu more powerful than all the rest kinda spoils the whole Morgoth narrative), OR… he’s something else altogether. He’s probably not Ilúvatar, because as fun as that would be, that would make him Middle-Earth Jesus and Tolkien wouldn’t roll that way with his Legendarium. In my opinion, it makes the most sense for Tom to be an almost metaphorical (yet still ultimately sentient) embodiment of the natural world. Tolkien didn’t like allegory, but nevertheless one of the primary themes of the Legendarium is the struggle between nature and artifice. He saw industry, technology, and the making of things as the acquisition of power. Obviously people make things all the time just to sort of get by, but as we make more and more complicated and powerful things, so too does humanity become more and more complicated and powerful. The One Ring is the ultimate culmination of this trend, a horribly powerful, horribly addictive object which tempts and leads people to ruin. EVERYONE is susceptible to the corruption its power presents, even the very small… but not Tom. As the embodiment of nature itself, he is the antithesis to artificial power. So when he holds the Ring, it means nothing to him. When he puts it on, it does nothing-what is there to enhance? He can’t turn invisible, he’s an embodiment of the physical world, he may not exist at all in the Unseen World the way creatures like men and elves and hobbits do. It can’t enhance his power because that goes against his very nature. It’s like trying to cut someone’s hand off with a laser pointer, it just means nothing to him. That was long-winded lmao, sorry

@@mephostopheles3752 tldr. All I got was that you misinterpreted what I said. i said he was *like* what sauron is, not actually what he is, just sort of similar in that he existed for longer than most characters. It's the same thing with Balrog wings, they don't exist. But it's magic shadow power was described as wing like without being wings. He is likely a good counter part immune to the ring. In the sense he is the forces of good and nature manifested like sauron is basically evil manifested. Think like angels and demons but not angels and demons. Similar in concept but different origin and power.

..ha..do the 12 man raid in Lord of the Rings Online called Ost Dunhoth Wound and Fear Wing and you will lose your fear of Balrogs..

but they look so cool!

@@deanlonagan1475 play COD and you'll lose your fear of bullets

Haha, well - its kinda exactly what Balrog did though, just like the mmo players :D To call it "vestigial" is inocorrect ofc, because that points to some remnant of actual wings lost during evolution or something similar... but what a Balrog does have (or does produce at times) are "visual-only" wings :D Just like that cosmetic item in MMO that looks cool, Balrog does the same thing with shadows - to look more cool, which really means - more intimidating. Cosmetic effects like this can be powerful when facing humanoid creatures.

I mean it is also really stupid. why didn’t you fly toward an always watching eye who is surrounded by infinite amounts of war weapons next to an active volcano in a sky filled with ash and has 9 magical nigh unkillable skilled air fighters he is in telepathic communication with? Like really flying there would have just been asking to die and just giving the ring over.

I like the theory that the eagles, being intelligent beings with souls, could have themselves been tempted by the ring, just like Gandalf himself was (the reason Gandalf didn’t take the ring himself in general)

@@ModernEphemera this is also a good point

I dunno, I kinda like that idea, Harry gets real sick of trying all this magic nonsense and just smuggles a Glock into Hogwarts

@@mjk0104 I want at least one scene in the fantastic beast series were a group of muggle soldiers just ambush and gun down a few wizards (I don’t care if they then just instantly die after killing one) I just want to see a magic vs gun fight in that series at least once.

The eagles would have to fight fellbeasts on their way and when they would try to descend, thousands of orcs would start shooting at them. I think Council of Elrond was better in the books, because we got a better look at the situation, we learned why they couldn’t just dump ring into the sea and more importantly, we learned that good guys are doomed to lose, whether Sauron gets ring or not and only suicide covert operation can make a difference, but it’s fool’s errand, because the chances are so slim that one mistake can cost them everything.

The appendices also clarify that the War of the Ring is being fought on multiple fronts, with the elves and dwarves also facing Sauron's minions and allies. Gwaihir was probably pretty busy for the duration of most of the story. But yeah, the whole point of assembling a Fellowship to escort the Ring to its final destination is that invasion would be exponentially more difficult than sneaking in, and it's kind of hard to sneak in when you're flying in the open sky.

could you clarify that "sauron standing there", he said on the video too, but i don't understand what that means, why didn't sauron appeared during LoTR? was it because he didn't know where Frodo and Sam where? he had the power to do that, i thought he lost that skill

@@aaaaaaaaa6417 yes, most readings of the text assume that Sauron no longer has the ability to take corporeal form until he reclaims the Ring. He's definitely "there" in Mordor, waiting, even if he can't physically manifest. I will say this though - even if the Eagles flying over the border and making a beeline for Mount Doom would be really obvious and they would be detected immediately, up until that point I think they would literally fly under the radar. This is because it never occurs to Sauron that someone would willfully try to destroy the Ring. It doesn't make sense to him; not because the quest is hopeless, but because he can't imagine anyone deliberately throwing away that power (or the promise of that power - of course, we know the Ring lies 100% of the time and has no actual intention of helping the Ringbearer defeat and replace Sauron). When Frodo, Sam and Gollum reach the Crack of Doom, it must have taken Sauron utterly by surprise and that is portrayed very effectively in the film adaptation.

@@maciejmarciej5982 i was just gonna drop in and mention the fellbeasts. Nobody brings that up.

I think the use of the ring exposes the user to Sauron and the Nazgûl also in the book. I might be projecting the film on the the book, but so I remember

In Middle Earth running water indeed has great power. One of the mightiest gods there is Ulmo - a god of water. And implacable enemy of Morgot, Sauron and all of their creations. In the books and in the movie you can see water is being used for magic too. And Nasgul are afraid of the water.

@@sergeandou9853 I would say, running water symbolizes the untamed nature, in opposite to the tamed civilisation. Sauron was a servant od Aule, the God of Craftsmenship, before he turned to the dark side. I think, there is a strong sentiment in Tolkiens Works, that manmade culture is able to produce the highest of good but is also the closest to the Shadow, while the rough nature may be passive but will not turn to evil so easy.

that’s a really cool thought.

I was teaching The Hobbit recently, and one of my students had this to say: "If it looks like chicken, smells like chicken, and tastes like chicken, but Gandalf says it is beef... IT'S BEEF!" One of my favourite observations about that book.

@@alexanderloncar9556 Gandalf's love of the Halfling's leaf has clearly slowed his mind.

@@jbrisby Lmao

I love his answer, as if Gandalf really existed and has a mind of his own.

@@Daniel_Alves1993 Right like he didnt create Gandalf lmao.

The fact this had no replies and yet one thousand likes displays this perfectly. Utter enthusiasm and joy for such a rich fantasy

Indeed, I will always love Lord of the Rings.

I'd pay a fair amount of money to see a 1 hour talk between him and Steven Colbert

Imagine someone loving Christ and God like this fantasy

Fully-grown man becomes an expert on another fully-grown man's pretend world? Cool, I guess?

I agree, Tolkien often said that hobbits where inspired in (partly british people) but also how he would have liked to live. Tom, lives like a hobbit (exept for the part where his house is underground), but he is (phisically) a man. He goes around writing songs (which Tolkien loved to do, you just have to read the books, they are full of songs), meeting characters but letting the story develp itself, just like the author would do.

I still think Tom is an avatar of God. He is not THE Avatar. Jesus is an Announcement, a claim that God is walking the Earth. Tom is a watcher. And God would claim to be exactly as Tom does, He just is. How could he interact with the Beings of Earth as Tom does if he claimed openly to be God? it would change the dynamic, he would have to change how he exists in the world or break it. He never lies, but does conceal his nature. He is an Anachronism. He existed Before. He cannot be anything else.

Tolkien did insert himself & his wife into the storys. Berin & Luthien is based upon them & the names engraved upon their tombstones. Pretty touching once you know the story of Berin & Luthien.

Laughs in Stephen King.

Treebeard isn't CS Lewis.

What if he is the world like Gia

@@TrueBladeSoul There is in fact such a theory. But it is important to note that his (huge) power is limited to a small area, the lands around his house. I think if he would be the earth itself in some sort of way, his power would be everywhere.

the Chad Bombadil vs the little hobbit Frodo

that part is just bad.

@@only1cookieman I would have liked to have put him down as "just" middle-earth instead of the whole world but I guess this is also possible.

"Maybe... maybe that means the ring was inside me all along? No, no, that'd be dumb."

@@grungeknuckle5577 "Maybe I never even wore it to the battle and left it on the night stand?.. No that's silly, I don't even have one of those.."

"Nazgul! Check out mount Doom, it keeps saying the ring is there. Hm, now it disappeared... OH SHI-"

"wow, the ring was actually the friends we made along the way" ;)

Basically the same as Find my iPhone but without the Play Sound button.

I get the feeling that he literally is a university professor specialised in Tolkien litterature actually. I could of course google that ... Ah well he actually is

He´s a genuine expert. This is what genuine experts are like.

This is actually his second video on the channel

i have such low hopes for this show it’s not funny

they have really good and trusted expert on board

Just like in Pacific Rim, there was no sequel (haha)

@Cassie Doerksen isn’t it a prequel series taking place in an earlier age?

WDYM are you not excited for black Elfs and transgender Dwarves?

@@puppieslovies you would be surprised. Tolkien had a sense of humour, so it's possible that he would have end up with an answer like that

Eagles weren’t even a hole in the first place

@@vulpesinculta1919 some people actually think that it's actually a plot hole. I've talked with some and they actually find weird that they didn't "use the eagles"

@@clokie6671 It's mostly due to the movies i think, where Gandalf seems to have access to easy eagle rides.

I still find the idea of Gandalf telling the others to seek the help of the eagles through his line "fly you fools" an interesting idea, even if it's pretty unlikely to be true

I mean, listen. The Balrogs of Morgoth were Maiar, who by their very nature are shapechangers. I think if they wanted to have wings of shadow and smoke as depicted in the Peter Jackson films, they could have.

@@Dedalus94 I think maybe at a certain point the Maiar who turned evil lost their shapechanging skills... like how Sauron could never take a fair form ever again after his deception of Celebrimbor was discovered.... maybe once the Balrogs manifested their full might into the destructive forces that they were, they were stuck? If they could still shape change... I feel like they would've used it... as this guy mentions, maybe grow some wings quickly to not die in a fall...

Right? I literally had this happen yesterday

Seconded! I've heard the argument before, but this is the first time I've run into it backed up by textual evidence.

I really didn't see an explanation in the video except the joke at the start

Yes, but Tolkien was also a professor of old Norse and Anglo-Saxon, and was perfectly well aware of norse mythology and medieval literature/mythology. He primarily based it on Christianity but there are definite elements of ancient British, Viking, Finnish and Greco-Roman beliefs too

My personal favorite explanation for Tom Bombadil is that he is a fragment of The Song that brought Arda into being - hence his connection to the land itself

The movies aren't the book, as so many questioners seem to find out. But yes, even the books explain how the Ring has a mind of its own and changes sizes to slip off of fingers when it feels it has a chance to switch owners.

In the books, it is also Isildur who aludes to this, in the text that Gandalf reads in Gondor.

I though it was mentioned briefly in the Hobbit the Bilbo noticed the ring seemed to alter itself in size.

A lot of the questions do seem to be solved by the answer "read the book" huh?

I can imagine seeing this powerful ring of magic shrink to fit you exactly would play a very powerful mental trick in making you think you should keep it rather than destroy it.

Tolkien was an excellent world builder. There are mysteries in our real world so he wanted to mimic the idea and have mysterious creatures in his ie ungolianth and bombadil

I'm always right.

I have had this happen to me SO many times! Like the saying goes "I don't write stories about my characters, I just follow them around as they do stupid $*it and write up the incident reports". Sometimes characters know more than I do because they live IN the world while I'm busy trying to keep it running!

@@Gandalf-Olorin probably

And imagine having it hijacked for commercial exploitation purposes by a big corporation - intimacy coaches and racial pluralism, the works. Why isn't it cultural appropriation when it happens to pale people?

First time I've seen someone else say my exact opinion on the matter, or very close to it.

Please, just stop putting into a box a character who is obbviously there to enjoy life and not be put into a box.

Sam carried frodo who held the ring so he carried the ring carrier😂

Isnt Sam the real hero at the end?

@@agustin4741 He definetly is!

Sam was a real team player

Chad sam

It’s all very Gnostic. “To know thyself is to know God”. So the wisest question for a gnostic is to ask “who are you?” and realize “I am the I am”. All is one.

Or he's the spirit of the countryside, just as Goldberry's the spirit of the river. But yes, more likely he's the physical representation of that music of creation, save for the disharmony of Melkor

I like to think he is an embodiment of the Middle-Earth itself. The personification of continent.

To me he's just Tolkien's way of saying even with all the war and chaos going on sometimes you just need to sing and dance and have a good time and block out the bad.

Isn't the whole world the embodiment of the music that... embodied the world

Much like Ungoliant could be a creature that is the embodiment of everything that isn't, the very shadow that contrasts with the light. Both Tom Bombadil and Ungoliant have that quirk of being primordial beings with no clear source of origin.

I believe that is the joke.

Well you don’t want annoy old one eye.

I mean, Tolkien is Eru Iluvatar. Literally has the final say on anything within the universe.

@@Auzzie015 Well, Tolkien considered his works on the Middle-Earth more of a description of the events that went by, and himself a humble archaeologist and chronicler. He also said that Arda is actually Earth, and Silmarillion and LOTR simply describe the events of the very ancient past of our Earth. I mean, I don't think he seriously believed that, but it was the narrative for his books at least. It also seems that Eru Iluvatar is the God of Christianity as well (that was one of the points Tolkien made as to why Tom Bombadil couldn't have been Him, the only avatar of God to walk the Earth would be Jesus Christ much later), and Melkor is the Devil, I guess. As a Christian, Tolkien wouldn't dare to literally associate himself with Eru. Also, it is a very common feeling for many authors to simply be, y'know, UNSURE of what the actual truth of something is, and only CONSIDER to believe that some of their characters (who sometimes start to almost live the lives of their own inside authors' heads) may be right about something.

@@Lernos1 Yes. Tolkien's universe is definitely inspired by Christianity. The Ainur, Valar, and Maiar are all angels and Eru is God. As you pointed out, Melkor would be Lucifer.

"Come on, come on ! THE BEEP BEEP SAYS IT'S RIGHT HERE"

And wraiths flying around on fell beasts with comically large magnets stamped “ACME” on the side

No wonder he never found it in 2000 years...

I need someone to draw this 😂

"I looked everywhere... AND IT IS EVERYWHERE!!!"

*starts blasting Ru Paul’s drag race music*

Ha. I feel like being a diva is something of a job description for any dark lord

I think the ring did not make people invisible to the spiritual world, only the physical world. Remember when Sauron was wearing the ring he was visible without the ring and the part that was magic was part of Sauron himself. That may be too summarized for your liking but limited time.

The ring would also not turn an elf or a dwarf invisible. The invisibility side effect is also a side effect of the Rings of Power.

That's the point, Sauron wants mortals to fear him

Yeah I think Tolkien eventually landed on there being at least 3, but no more than 7 Balrogs.... personally I like the idea of 7... its a good number.

I had read the hobbit when I was in middle school and it was one of the few books that I actually enjoyed studying. It was fun and interesting for me. A lot of the assigned books I had were boring, but the hobbit is a special story that really grabbed my attention. It wasn't a burden at all.

Tolkien wasn't *quite* as opposed to allegory as he let on ("Leaf by Niggle" is quite obviously allegorical), and he certainly welcomed "applicability."

There's an easy way around this, make it one of 5 books you can do a presentation on. That's the better way anyway, in general. Set out a number of books, and give everyone the choice of one. "But what if they already read it?" As someone who took english lit in uni, I can assure you, it doesn't matter how many times you've read a book. You're going to need to at least skim it once more to do a report that earns a passing grade.

This is a misunderstanding of Tolkein's point on allegories, he absolutely meant his books to have meaning that can be applied to the real world. He just thought that writing a 1:1 analogy for a specific thing was uninteresting in writing, and the meaning in his books was broader than that. So it's not an allegory for WW1 or 2 as events, but it intentionally and explicitly speaks to his experience of war, for example.

We studied it as part of a non-compulsory additional literature course in high school, which was a great idea IMHO.

That’s awesome. He seems like a swell guy all in all :)

What's Faerie lit? I need to know more!

@@jamescrossland4608 Faeries and Fantasy, I believe I remember it being called. We studied a lot of the early mythology coming out of the Isle and how it influenced Tolkien, Arthurian legend and modern fantasy. Awesome class. Really fun. Great conversations. His classes were always some of my favs.

@Major Problems Stem majors are usually very bad at this, it’s MUCH harder than you think

@Major Problems I'm in STEM and I couldn't disagree more. The arts are integral.

That's a horrifying thought.

Less of a ring and more of a hula hoop at that point

Or Durin's Bane

Invisible armour plated dragon. Oh... Oh no...

Considering their greed of the dwarven rings of power...

"Frodo wouldn't have gotten far without Sam..."

That's a nice take on it!

Good luck

Dark souls doctorate, first challenge, beat all of the games with no damage taken. Second challenge, know all the lore. Third challenge, survive the other two.

Better take that up with Headmaster Vaati

Doc Souls

Any ideas on the subject of your thesis?

@Austin Litt Moore I've also seen it suggested that the dagger, having been in the barrows of the kings of Arnor, may have been enchanted specifically to combat the Witch-King, and as such it's Merry's blow that breaks any enchantments the Witch-King may have, allowing Eowyn to kill him. I prefer jackoffin1's interpretation, personally.

@@LeChaunce It can definitely be both. He says "no living man" may hinder him, so a hobbit, a woman, and an ancient sword (made by his enemies) all make a perfect storm.

@@gajbooks That's my take on it. It doesn't have to be one single thing that does the job. Maybe all the right elements just happened to gather together at the right time. The prophecy comes to pass regardless, since a living man doesn't kill him no matter how you look at it.

"No man can-- aargh!" **gets killed by weapon**

Exactly

💯 agree. A tragic character he was and a lesson to us all.

That is one good quality Fëanor roast. Thank you, you totally made my day.

I'm ALWAYS excited to see people dragging Fëanor online, you just made my night

"Eternal light and happiness if I just give up my shiny rocks? I guess I only have one choice then. And that choice is to murder kin, take boat." Fëanor ladies and gentlemen.

I hate how correct you are...

Also, who says the ring can't corrupt eagles? They'd probably be just as susceptible to the promises of the ring as any other species. Wait, was there an Eagle delegate to the meeting that lead to the Fellowship? Did they just not send anyone? Were they even invited?

@@nickmalachai2227 Tolkien's eagles are basically divine spirits, not entirely unlike angels

@@ESPmrBrough no wonder Gandalf was kinda friends with them

@@nickmalachai2227 the ring:common man think about it, a nest made of gold, and jewel encrusted eggs. All of that can be your if u just drop those fools on the lava and not me. We got a deal

@@headecas jewel encrusted eggs seems dangerous for the eggs health, and gold is a poor material to build a nest.

I dunno, you see the video of the ants stealing some woman's mail?

@@kyleellis1825 Congratulations, you are Gandalf. XD

But what about the ant wives?

@@aussiedudeofthesoutheast789 LMFAOO

Dear Earth. That was the point! The Elves of Ereigon under Celebrimbor were so friendly with the Dwarves of Kazad-dum, that the doors were designed to be opened at a word for "friends" and all literate elves were considered friends! It's like giving your neighbor the key to the house and saying 'me casa, su casa ' and truly meaning it. Day or night the door is open as if you were family. No orc could even speak the Elvish words, so all good.

@@marieroberts5458 Thanks Marie, I do know that, but what I find funny is that the reader/visitor can't finish the sentence. Friend is the second word if I'm not mistaken.

@@vegurion2 "The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter. I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs." are the proper writings on the doors. BTW if you usually read words on a wall you read it your head and not out loud all the time when you see it xD

@@TheBluhbluh I never noticed before that Narvi got an Elvish master artisan (really **the* elvish master artisan, the guy who helped make The Rings) to write the letters on his door, just to make sure the script was perfect. Truly a perfectionist in an age of collaboration.

“How do we open this door” “We’ll let’s read the instructions!” *reading the instructions opens the door

It absolutely can be a reason. He is just being kind of dishonest because he clearly favors his own interpretation.

Check out the channel "Rings and Realms", it's an analysis of RoP by Corey Olsen.

It's the same answer to the age old "why doesn't Sauron have a few guys posted up at the Crack of Doom?" question. Because he never thought they'd try to destroy it. And to be pedantic, he's right. No living create on Arda could have destroyed the ring once they held it, not Sam, not even (despite his protests) Elrond. It took an act of God.

@@ZiggyMandarr No, it was not an act of God. It was the decision by Bilbo & Frodo (and Gandalf, Aragorn, Faramir, the Elves, etc.) to NOT kill Gollum and to be merciful towards him that allowed the ring to reach the Cracks of Doom and ultimately be destroyed. But the reward for this heroic act of mercy was indeed a form of divine intervention -- the arrival of the eagles.

@@EddieFunkowitz I know that, the mercy that stayed Bilbos hand, etc. It was all important, but Gollum didn't simply trip, and there was that sort of gentle nudge as Illuvatar honored Frodo's journey in a moment of karmic mercy.

@@ZiggyMandarr Really? Where does Tolkien ever say that Illuvatar influenced Gollum falling into the Cracks of Doom? I suppose one could always argue it's part of the Divine Plan. But I'm not aware of Tolkien ever suggesting that at this specific moment, Illuvatar reached out and knocked Gollum off the edge, like a fallen chess piece. On the contrary, Tolkien consistently describes Illuvatar as having a hands-off attitude towards Arda. And on the rare occasion that He does intervene, it's never a "gentle nudge" -- unless that's how one describes sinking continents and reshaping the entire world.

@@EddieFunkowitz I wouldn't literally watch it as god intervening, but definitely some kind of act of fate, as Frodo also was not able to destroy the ring when he got to the crack of doom. Nobody was, so what it took was for someone to slip into the pit. In the end, the ring wa snot destryoed by a willful act but by accident.

*fly

@@thefracturedbutwhole5475 no, flew

Tolkien, a professor of linguistics and literature who used to get into debates about Beowulf, would have appreciated the irony.

But to be clear, the first book was published in 1954. Tolkien was purposely archaic in his language, so I can see the confusion.

And yet we still debate Shakespeare.....hmmmm.

Movie writers have a deep resistance to any problem in a story being solved by chance. Even though this occasionally happens in life, it must (apparently) never happen in a movie. Since Tolkien believed in Providence, not to mention stocking his world with layers and layers of sub-deities watching over the world, he was more than OK with something like that happening.

@@PoetryInHats in a way it's still fitting though, as the moth was there by chance. Gandalf didn't summon a moth or called it, it flew by, he caught it and then aske dit to call for help. Same thing in the Hobbit movie, where a moth just happens to be on the pine tree with Gandalf. In the 3rd Hobbit, we see Radagast riding one eagle, implying that he asked them for help andhe has a much stronger bond to nature anyway and Beorn probably helped as well. So the only time where the eagles just showed up by themselves to help is the battle of the Black Gate whick makes totaly sense. As much as I dislike a lot of the Hobbit movies, I think the eagle stuff is pretty consistent in all 4 of their appearances and I still think that the chance encounter of the eagles helping Gandalf during his time on Orthanc and in the pine trees is kept in a way through the moth just being there.

Radagast met Gandalf on the greenway by order of Saruman, Gandalf asked Radagast to let word be spread among birds and beasts who were Radagasts' friends that all news of the enemies movement be sent to Orthanc. There it was that Gwaihir who was bringing the morning newspaper found Gandalf imprisoned atop Orthanc

@@PoetryInHats It wasn't chance in the book either. Gandalf had Radagast send all news to Saruman/Gandalf in Orthanc, and that's why Gwaihir was sent to Isengard and saw Gandalf on the pinnacle.

There are few instances where the Valar actually intervened in the affairs of Middle-earth throughout even the Third-Age.

Winged dragons only appeared at the veeeeery end of the first age during the War of Wrath, as Melkor was saving them as a secret weapon. During almost the entirety of the first age if you saw a balrog riding a dragon in battle you'd be A) crapping your pants while also thinking "this is the most awesome thing ever", and B) seeing two land based creatures.

Balrogs are penguins

@@yrenekurtz5268 basically it'd look like Black Hulk riding a Dune Worm.

didn't Tolkien change his description of balrogs over time though? originally they were only twice human height and rode dragons, but later became much bigger and more powerful, matched in power with dragons

@@yrenekurtz5268 the point is they couldn't fly over the walls themselves and road a monster instead

This is why I'm in the comments. How did he forget to mention that? I guess he was explaining a lot with limited time to answer each question.

Also the fact that the doors were made when the Dwarves and Elves were allies almost certainly is why the password is "friend"

YES. Everything mentioned in the video proves that they couldn't FLY, not that they didn't have wings. In my head they totally have vestigial wings that do not allow flight.

@@smo7089 I mean.... he specifically made a point about why vestigial wings on a being that can choose its own perfect shape to manifest would be stupid, but hey, you do you. Imagine them however you want my guy.

@@KS-xk2so If they could manifest their own perfect shape and that automatically includes manifesting the ability to fly then why wouldn't they? Or simply shapechange to a form that would not die by whatever killed them? The Balrogs were stuck in their form. They didn't have nearly the same ability to change shape as e.g. Sauron, and they certainly couldn't create a form that allowed them to fly. That does not mean they lacked wings.

"Across the bridge, fly"

"Fly, you fools!" "What, you mean like... on a kite?" **Gandalf gives up and sinks into oblivion alongside a cringing Balrog saying 'yikes' with his eyebrows.**

"Wait for the eagles to pick you up, you fools!"

@@latronqui except Gandalf told the fellowship to fly across the bridge even before breaking it. So yeah, wAiT fOr ThE eAgLeS...

People actually thought that’s what that meant? I thought it was pretty obvious he just meant to run away.

Ryan George's Pitch Meeting character sums it up nicely: 'because movie needs to happen' and 'so the movie could happen'..

While that answer should usually be sufficient in most cases, since the most important part should be to have an interesting story to tell, it's always much more satisfying when it's not the only answer. Just like how it's not the only answer to why the Eagles didn't just fly the ring to Mordor.

@@predwin1998 "why don't they just call the police Mr Hitchcock?" "Because that would be boring."

Exactly. These same critiques would not have watched the movie at all if that had been the plot they adopted.

A way better explanation is that they would be intercepted by the Nazgul on their flying creatures and could very easily lose the ring.

Yeah! And the whole point of the secrecy was so sauron would never know that they were planning on destroying it. Almost till the ring was destroyed, he thought that Aragon was wielding the ring and was coming to challenge all of Mordor with this power.

Also, the Eagles were incredibly proud creatures, and would have strenuously objected to the mere mention of being used as a taxi service

@@mr.n0on344 I mean… being used as a “taxi service” to ferry the One Ring of power to a giant volcano in order to be almost single-handedly responsible for destroying the darkness, and therefore biggest threat to the free peoples of Middle Earth since Melkor fell, is a pretty glorious purpose to be fair.

Not to mention the Nazgul could literally fly. Do we really think the witch king of angmar wouldn’t have killed them

but didnt the eagles fly to mordor anyway at the end not being killed and only as a taxi service?

Gandalf talks about this in Shadow of the Past. Although Sauron cannot "detect" his ring, as he grew in power in the 3rd Age, his Will was able to awaken the Ring to do what it could to leave Gollum, only to be picked up by the most unlikely person in the world, Bilbo of the Shire!

Interesting, never thought about that way before, cool theory and I will keep in mind next time I read the books!

There was another pretty significant reason presented for why Sauron couldn't find the one ring, engraved onto the ring itself. "One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them..." The One Ring is the ring that lets Sauron locate the rings of power in the first place, unless I am mistaken.

In the books it's always mentioned that the ring "wants to be found". It calls for his master but only when someone has it. It seems to absorb the life and soul of its bearer, so it is possible that without a bearer it has no energy to "call" Sauron

I always just assumed that he couldn't detect the ring itself, only when it's put into use, like when Frodo puts it on, and the Nazgul are also drawn to it. He/they are drawn to anyone that gets pulled into that other world. It seems so obvious to me that I was surprised people actually thought he had a ring detector, and questioned it. Um, no. Duh-uh.

you can! if you want to hear more, you should check out his podcast. there's years of him talking at length about all sorts of Tolkein-based stuff.

The Witch-King´s weakness was the sword Merry used. Without it they would not have been able to kill him.

@@kahn9573 They would have been able to destroy his physical form, however his spirit would have still survived and Sauron would have been able to grant him a physical form. The barrow blade that Merry used had an enchantment that broke the Witch King's immortality spell, allowing Eowyn to kill him.

The seer is glorfindel

@@kahn9573 hobbit arent men either, so yeah beorn kinda foreseen that

I agree, except I doubt Glorfindel knew the exact persons who would kill him. Prophetic visions tend NOT to be like watching a movie of a future event. They tend to arrive in dream-like symbols. (I.e. Moses' vision of a 7-day creation; John's vision of the arc of history in Revelation.) Tolkien was not much of a movie-watcher, so he wouldn't have thought of prophecies that way.

@@solara4461 Sam's a simple man. What he loves more than anything is the Shire. Frodo is #2 to the shire.

I think we also saw it tempting Galadriel? For a moment, she imagined herself the Queen of Middle-Earth.

Gandalf in the alternate universe: “a little help, you jerks”

Imagine a golem of the skies..

‘’The Eagles are coming’’ takes a whole new meaning when the Eagles are evil overlords.

@@washada yeah. Just imagine Pippin having the same expression when he said that*

fk ye!

I would bow to evil eagle overlords, personally

Who's stopping you? :P

@@SoopaTroopa probably the fact there is no guarantee you will make a living. But as a hobby, sounds good.

@@CChissel How do you think VaatiVidya does it?

@@tevildo9383 He’s also a professor in medieval literature. The Lord of the Rings is more of a supplement.

Re #2: I'm pretty sure it's at least implied that he did so in order to hunt goblins for food.

@@jeremycraft2445 yep it is, in the hobbit there is a passage describing how he kills goblins(?), it doesn't say that he used it but it does mention he isn't noticed but that could just be gollum being sneaky. However, in the same chapter there is also the line “He caught fish in deep pools with invisible fingers….” which pretty clearly implies he used the ring. If this is this is still not solid proof there also the fact it is mentioned that when smeagol returned after claiming the ring that his family could not see him, so he definitely understood that the ring made him invisible.

I am not sure but I remember he was a bit of jerk in his first video...now trying to be nice

@@hesha3000 lol you must have missed the first video. Watched them back to back and he's just a pleasant dude in both.

@@grabbity okay then sorry my bad

He must be a good teacher to have. I know my best teachers at uni never made anyone feel dumb for asking a question

I'd watch that :)

That would be incredible

I pretty much never buy things on pay per view, but I'd be all in for that.

I'd pay for how the professor humiliates Colbert

@@juanchoteado5046 Colbert has already admitted that he listens to Corey's analysis, it still be very fun and a polite conversation, no humiliation needed.

I would die for Tom Bombadil!

Well wasnt he majar?

@@paradoxalpl5666 watch the video.

He would... if he could die.

Maybe he would die for you, but he probably couldn’t die

I think the lesson is it's silly to ask someone who they are if they walked into your life SINGING THEIR NAME over and over again in their yellow green leotards

Well amazon thinks he is behind of his time and is racist and changing his writing...

Yuck

@@vulcov7430 wdym?

"Not categorizing others and just being who you are as an individual' has been a concept in religion and philosophy for thousands of years. Saying that he is 'ahead of his time' because of that is pretty silly.

New millennia, new me