Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

If it was legit, I'd probably have a government agency sweep her home and surrounding area with a Geiger counter.

i would just be relieved that there are things other than comedians doing podcasts on youtube.

Never would've happened. Problem solved on my end.

Saw this while backreading, got me thinking of the people on the FFXIV OF arguing about Garlemald's aerial superiority.

Thing is, in order for the Eagles to transport Frodo and crew to Mt. Doom they have to eventually land. Since they would no doubt be spotted, the question becomes, can the Eagles get them to the volcano and land safely, not just for the Eagles, but for the riders?

We could, of course, go the route of, well they just have to fly over the Volcano rim and drop the ring directly into the lava. Well, they can't, because it has to be thrown into the Crack of Doom, which is a specific fissure within the heart of the volcano that brims with Sauron's dark power.

So, the threat of archers is not immediate and would not impede the Eagles flight to the mountain, but Orcish and Uruk archers may be a threat when they come down to land, assuming they get there in time per the Eye of Sauron noticing them.

The threat is more for the riders, and so we'd need a diversion worthy of all of Sauron's forces, just as in Return of the King, but it'd have to last long enough for the Eagles to fly in and to also fly out, and be a big enough diversion that none of the Nazgul would run intercept effectively.

I don't have a Switch :(
Also, as much as the gameplay looks good, I'm kinda worried about the story. Maybe the trailer isn't doing it justice, but I'm getting serious Brave Exvius vibes from it, and the story in that game feels like it was written in an afternoon.

That said, if it really is good, maybe that'll be the game to finally push me over the fence to buy a Switch lol - maybe I'll do it anyway if they announce Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata are composing for the game.

...How is the music?

Sounds like what I was thinking. I really need a good story and I just don't trust SE to deliver. The art is giving me Octopath vibes tho. Who knows, maybe they'll get Yasunori Nishiki to do the music. I think he'd do a good job on it.

Oh ***, blizzcon is today.

https://www.twitch.tv/blizzard

Yo. Hodor is a DJ, neat.

I play and have played many SE (square) games and I'm at like a 95% thumbs up on their stories. I think they do a better job than any other developer that I've played their games. The only problem that I've had with their stories is that they sometimes go back to the same shtick of weak nice guy bringing everyone together and ending up being the strongest of them all... but that's like 30% of anime too.

I haven't seen much that was worthwhile from SE (not including things they published, like Nier Automata), although I did like a lot of what Shadowbringers did for the 14 story. I'm curious what you thought the best modern SE game story is. If it's something I haven't played, I'll take a look and give it a try. I'd like to have my faith restored. SE has really worn out my loyalty from the Square days with recycled mechanics, plots, infinite time warp plot armor, etc.

Well throwing in modern might change things, as I've only played mobile FF games recently outside of FFXI. Story wise, the ones that I've played have been solid (even mobile), but you're right about all of the recycled crap that they use especially time-sink tactics still being rolled out.

had to break down and bribe my parents to run me out some groceries. i considered getting a truck when i got my car, but i wanted to go vroooom. my car's summer tires wouldn't make it out of the driveway. still wanna get a truck for situations like this and to be able to haul stuff around, but this is like a once every 10-20 year kinda storm for us. honestly haven't seen stuff iced like this since 96.

Nah, man. Mount Doom isn't very far into Mordor. It's hard to tell the exact scale from the maps, but we're talking 50-100 miles from the outer ring of mountains depending on which direction you fly from. An Eagle could clear that distance in no time, and there's nothing to suggest that there is any kind of military contingent near the entrance, which is exactly the kind of force you'd need to stand a chance. If a grizzly bear can take a shotgun to the face and keep going, I don't think a flock of massive, divine eagles would be dissuaded by some random grunt bowmen who happened to be wandering on the mountain that day.

the fastest birds at like max speed not in a dive is like 105 mph, and that's going at full speed in a burst. assuming the eagles can do that, at 50-100 miles you're saying 30min - an hour at the absolute fastest. now consider there is a rider like frodo who would probably have a hard time at those altitudes at that speed. not just holding on, but breathing. so even then if they could maintain that speed you really think sauron wouldn't see that and have a defense or response? so then they have to land, and then deal with getting in/throwing the ring into the fire. the defenses don't even have to take out all the eagles. sauron/nazgul can sense the ring. they just have to impede frodo. madness.

i think it's more plausible to get one of those giant oliphants and plop gandalf on top shooting out those light beams like the wee woo beams of a cop car or ambulance while legoland is on arrow duty. aragon and gimli jump off at mount doom and do their spinning ballet of death thing to clear a path for frodo who has the other hobbits and boromir making a circle around him.


would be much more entertaining to see at least.

No, you need to backread a bit. The original point was that archers were not a deterrent against the Eagles due to range and the time it would take to deploy troops up a friggin' mountain to even be the slightest threat. If you want to talk Nazgul then that's another argument, although Prothescar was noting that Thorondor is too much of a beefy boi to be taken down by some punk fellbeasts.


To an extent. Clearly they couldn't sense it well enough to stop Frodo from sneaking in.

Thorondor left middle earth like over a thousand years before 'lotr'.

I had to revisit Pro's post. I think his point was more a reference to Tolkien stating that Thorondor could basically 1v1 a dragon, thus putting the eagles in general in a higher class than most beasts. Again, not my argument.

this was way too pretty to resist.

I should prob buy some stick replacements too, my left joycon drifts horribly.


Pretty much yes, though keep in mind there are no written examples of them fighting a creature as strong as a dragon, so musings may as well be musings. There are written examples of even the lesser eagles fighting and defeating things as weak as the Nazgul though. We must keep in mind that, while the Nazgul are more powerful than most mortals, they are still quite weak in the grand scheme of things, weaker even than Balrogs who are full fledged corrupted Maiar who, in different circumstances, would be on a similar level of power to Sauron, who was also just a Maia. If it weren't for the ring amplifying his strength he'd be weaker than the creatures that serve him. I remember there being written evidence of the eagles doing battle with Balrogs during the war with Melkor but I can't cite any sources so I might be imagining things.

There's some contention as to whether the eagles have Faer or not as well, as they are essentially just enlightened beasts and it is argued that being beasts makes them ineligible for having Faer, which could also inhibit their desire to do something as dangerous as flying straight to Mount Doom. That said, it is also argued that the eagles are powerful Maiar chosen by Manwe as his eyes and ears.

Ultimately the entire plot device of "the creations and residents of Arda cannot interfere with the events unfolding in Middle Earth" exists solely to make the story of LotR remain interesting. If the wizards, eagles, etc. could use their power freely things would have ended a lot faster and the story would've been boring. Least he bothered adding in the whole not wanting to sink another continent thing as a in-lore reason though.

There are some fun power fantasy stories in the Silmarillion though,fun to read through. Sadly we'll never know Tolkein's true intentions on these things, if he ever had any to begin with. He was definitely a man who liked leaving open ended threads to capture the reader's imagination. Tom Bombadil is another great example of this.

I know and care too much about this and it makes me sad.

Ordered that joystick replacement part, can't wait to do surgery

We're talking about the same story where a single archer fells a dragon in the prequel by shooting it with a magical black arrow. You really think the corrupted Numenoreans and other ilk that serve Sauron have no similar arrows? I mean, as far as I know, they're not noted to, because this sort of argument never played into the original narrative. I wouldn't put it past them, though.

You have to account for the riders. The Eagles don't have full mobility, and they have to land. Mordor has allies of Sauron on all sides, with the Ringwraiths in the city of Minas Morgul in the west, and then the Men of the East at the border of Rhun. There is no border of Mordor which they can fly over with the encumbrance of passengers, not be spotted, and make it to Mount Doom. Barad-dur is literally right by Mt. Doom, and that's where the Eye of Sauron watches the world. Tolkien himself only describes it as monolithically big, towering topmost above all. In the films, its scale puts it at roughly 5,000 feet high.

So the Eagles not only have to get their riders to Mt. Doom, they have to somehow do it while flying through the darkened, volcanic skies of Mordor while not being seen by the Eye, while also not being assailed by Nazgul on Wyvern-like beasts, and also not catching any long reaching arrows or other missiles from Barad-dur.

Also, bear in mind that the Eagles we see from the Hobbit onwards are the descendants of greater eagles, as already discussed. The powerful Eagles, speculated to be the equal of dragons, are long gone.

On top of all that, remember that Saruman can control the weather. He can also enhance his allies and hinder his foes. You see it in the film when he makes the weather so bad on the mountain, that the Fellowship gives up and goes through Moria. In the story, he's stated to have willed the pursuers of the Uruks that take Merry and Pippin to lose heart and their way, while speeding up the movement of the orcs.


In our example of having the Eagles fly directly for Mount Doom, the events of the story haven't taken place in the same way. We're assuming the Fellowship forms at Rivendell, and then the Eagles are immediately called upon. This changes events greatly. The weather and the skies could be made to make the skies impassable, even. Even should they make it to Mordor, the arrows from the servants of Sauron and other ballistae, may be magical outright or enhanced by Saruman to unerringly strike Eagles, regardless of elevation.

Also note that part of the current Gwaihir the Windlord's backstory is that Gandalf once saved him from death. Death that was bound to happen, from him being hit with a poisonous arrow. He is directly descended from Thorondor.

A single archer felled a very low-flying dragon (who just so happened to have a bare spot right over his friggin' heart) after many attempts with an arrow that had no specifically stated magical properties (in the book). That's more a violation of probability than it is a violation of physics. No arrows are reaching the Eagles, period.

That being said, I'm open to other machinations of Sauron being able to stop the Eagles, but that was never the point I was making. It was simply to do with archers.