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<blockquote data-quote="Guest 6801328" data-source="post: 7697118">Oh, don't get me wrong...I'm certainly not arguing they should have asked the Eagles!&nbsp; I fully agree it's not an optimization problem.&nbsp; In fact, I got into this debate defending Maxperson regarding magic items.&nbsp; Dannyalcatraz was saying &quot;if magic items were available they would have handed them out for&nbsp; this important mission.&quot;&nbsp; My take is that both that question, and the question of using the eagles, misses the point entirely about epic fiction.I'm only arguing that the reason for not using the Eagles is not that sending Hobbits on foot was more likely to succeed. (Apparently, according to some, giant talking Eagles have to follow observed real world aeronautics, but Sauron only needs 30 minutes to create a a hurricane out of a calm day.) Not only is that silly conjecture, but it's just unnecessary: the reasons are the ones you allude to. Whether or not Gandalf &amp; company &quot;knew&quot; that the free peoples had to do it for themselves, the storyteller knew. I mean, if the only reason to not use the Eagles was that they'd get spotted as soon as they entered Mordor, why not at least ask them to fly Frodo and Sam to Ithilien and both save time and avoid a dangerous journey?&nbsp; Story, not ability.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Guest 6801328, post: 7697118"] Oh, don't get me wrong...I'm certainly not arguing they should have asked the Eagles! I fully agree it's not an optimization problem. In fact, I got into this debate [I]defending[/I] Maxperson regarding magic items. Dannyalcatraz was saying "if magic items were available they would have handed them out for this important mission." My take is that both that question, and the question of using the eagles, misses the point entirely about epic fiction. I'm only arguing that the reason for not using the Eagles is not that sending Hobbits on foot was more likely to succeed. (Apparently, according to some, giant talking Eagles have to follow observed real world aeronautics, but Sauron only needs 30 minutes to create a a hurricane out of a calm day.) Not only is that silly conjecture, but it's just unnecessary: the reasons are the ones you allude to. Whether or not Gandalf & company "knew" that the free peoples had to do it for themselves, the storyteller knew. I mean, if the only reason to not use the Eagles was that they'd get spotted as soon as they entered Mordor, why not at least ask them to fly Frodo and Sam to Ithilien and both save time and avoid a dangerous journey? Story, not ability. [/QUOTE]

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