So let’s fight pedantry with pedantry” - I love it. Really enjoyed this piece!
Particularly struck a chord with me because I really abhor the trope of the main characters being saved by some fortunate event or intervention - it sounds like The Silmarillion is guilty of this. It very much undermines the characters and the story.
I think eucatastrophe can be way more powerful than regular, tragic catastrophe — if done right, and it is really easy to mess it up. Not the least because popular fiction has banalized the happy ending. We all know in real life how rare can be a final reversal for good, but in fiction we expect it as default. So a writer has to be very skillfull to set up eucatastrophe: the audience has to believe the downer ending to be extremely probable, while also having at the back of their minds that a happy ending is still possible.
Tolkien himself does this much better with the siege of Gondor.
This, for sure. I can understand why someone who's only seen the movies might ask the ghost question. But even for that person, just the existence of the Fell Beasts should be enought for her to imagine why they can't use the Eagles.
Like with Superman's glasses, I feel the Eagles have become a stock complaint in geek culture.
Love this, BTW
Brilliant essay mon ami, well worded counter to all condemnations of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings' eagle 'problem'.
So let’s fight pedantry with pedantry” - I love it. Really enjoyed this piece!
Particularly struck a chord with me because I really abhor the trope of the main characters being saved by some fortunate event or intervention - it sounds like The Silmarillion is guilty of this. It very much undermines the characters and the story.
I think eucatastrophe can be way more powerful than regular, tragic catastrophe — if done right, and it is really easy to mess it up. Not the least because popular fiction has banalized the happy ending. We all know in real life how rare can be a final reversal for good, but in fiction we expect it as default. So a writer has to be very skillfull to set up eucatastrophe: the audience has to believe the downer ending to be extremely probable, while also having at the back of their minds that a happy ending is still possible.
Tolkien himself does this much better with the siege of Gondor.
What do you think is more annoying -- this complaint, or people asking why movie Aragorn didn't invade Mordor with the ghost army?
This, for sure. I can understand why someone who's only seen the movies might ask the ghost question. But even for that person, just the existence of the Fell Beasts should be enought for her to imagine why they can't use the Eagles.
Like with Superman's glasses, I feel the Eagles have become a stock complaint in geek culture.