# Easy Answers for Fictional Dilemmas **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 15, 2025, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080 "2025-04-15T20:26:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2025, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/241 "2025-04-27T17:03:40Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > If Frodo had only had it for a few days, it likely would have been easier for him to give it up. Not-so-minor point. In the movies, it doesn’t look like he’s had the ring long. In the book, he’d had it for roughly 17 _years_ between Bilbo leaving and him leaving Bag End. Plenty of time, even if he barely used it at all (which is the implication). Granted, all the use of it during the quest, as well as the assorted wounds (physical, emotional, and spiritual) gathered over the course of the journey would have made things worse, but 17 years of steady exposure is not just a few days. [back to the sub-discussion on where the movies mislead, though I tend to give them much slack for trying to cut out a lot of moments that slow down the story while keeping it coherent, something that failed horribly in the Hobbit movies] ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2025, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/242 "2025-04-27T19:22:08Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Corruption like that seems like it takes time to really build up. If Frodo had only had it for a few days, it likely would have been easier for him to give it up. Frodo has the Ring from TA 3001 until TA 3018 when Gandalf realizes it is the One Ring. Boromir, who never wore the Ring was corrupted in less than two months. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2025, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/243 "2025-04-27T19:33:36Z")
Also, recall that Isildur _also_ refused to throw the Ring in despite only short exposure to it. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2025, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/244 "2025-04-27T19:39:40Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > Not-so-minor point. In the movies, it doesn’t look like he’s had the ring long. In the book, he’d had it for roughly 17 _years_ between Bilbo leaving and him leaving Bag End Yeah, not a minor point at all. I never read the books, and this did not come across at all in the films. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2025, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/245 "2025-04-27T23:18:20Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > I never read the books, and this did not come across at all in the films. Well, even Jackson isnt gonna have two hours of Frodo having 17 birthday parties until Gandalf comes back with the news. Hobbits do have some resistance to the Ring, but Humans very little. And the Eagles? Well, those are not just big birds, they are supernatural, and notice Gandalf refused to even TOUCH the Ring. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/246 "2025-04-28T01:05:46Z")
Then again, did Frodo have any reason to even think about Uncle Bilbo’s trick ring between Gandalf saying something about how the ring seemed a little skeevy and he might want to look into it and coming back in full panic mode? ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/247 "2025-04-28T05:13:17Z")
The Rebels in Star Wars could have solved both Death Star problems by simply accelerating their starships to light speed and kamikazing into the space station. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/248 "2025-04-28T05:37:20Z")
_Top Gun 2_: how to blow up a heavily-defended nuclear reactor and GPS is jammed? Easy: cruise missiles with terrain contour mapping. D’uh. Want a backup to that in case the radar altimeters could be jammed? Ok, DSMAC (Digital Scene Matching Area Correlator). ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/249 "2025-04-28T06:50:24Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Nothing is canon except Tolkine’s published books and the appendices in them. The Eagles have _already_ carried a ringbearer once, in an actual Tolkein book, yet were uncorrupted. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/250 "2025-04-28T08:34:56Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Should I stay, or should I go now? > > Should I stay, or should I go now? > > If I go, there will be trouble > > And if I stay, it will be double > > I mean, one of those options is literally twice as worse as the other. You should obviously go. That’s just the downside though. The song doesn’t give any actual info about the relative benefits of the upside, but I think it’s fair to assume that the singer considers a continuing relationship with his girlfriend to be a) at least twice as good as being alone somewhere else and b) worth quite a lot of trouble. Hence the dilemma. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/251 "2025-04-28T08:48:16Z")
I forgot where I heard it but an Air Force expert said that if it was actually as critical an operation as they claim it to be they’d just fly a few high altitude B-2s and hit it with bunker busters. ---
**Author:** ![FrenchDunadan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frenchdunadan/32/5449_2.png) [@FrenchDunadan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrenchDunadan)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/252 "2025-04-28T08:49:24Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > > [@DocCathode](#): > > > > Nothing is canon except Tolkine’s published books and the appendices in them. > > The Eagles have _already_ carried a ringbearer once, in an actual Tolkein book, yet were uncorrupted. Except that in _Bilbo_ the ring wasn’t the Ring…Watsonian because Sauron was not in position to exert his powers and Doylian because Tolkien had not yet choose to make bilbo’s magic ring The ONE RING. And it was a short flight, just to get ahead of the goblins, the Eagles didn’t leave the mountains. It’s a longer flight to Mount Doom. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/253 "2025-04-28T10:16:01Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Glinda, 10 minutes in. Grumble, grumble, rant. This is what Hollywood gets for monkeying with the script. In the _book_ Glinda _does not appear until the end_ (albeit, her existence is known to Dorothy); no witch magically gives Dorothy the shoes. They are just left behind; Dorothy notices them; and as Dorothy’s old leather shoes are falling apart, she decides to change into the silver shoes, which seem sturdier for the long walk ahead. Rant, rant…no damn sense grumble, mumble, rant. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/254 "2025-04-28T10:21:40Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > In the original book the Wicked Witch of the West captures Dorothy and keeps her as a slave for some weeks or months; until finally while scrubbing the floors Dorothy perchance flings a bucket of water on tWWotW. It’s not the Witch of the West-- just a witch named Mombi. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/255 "2025-04-28T10:54:36Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > It’s not the Witch of the West-- just a witch named Mombi. Maybe there’s some confusion about who’s being referred to, but the Wicked Witch of the West is indeed the witch melted by Dorothy in _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_. Mombi is the wicth [(or maybe not a witch)](https://newwwoz.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-characters-of-oz-mombi.html) whom we first meet in the second book. > **[Mombi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mombi)** > > Mombi is a fictional character in L. Frank Baum's classic children's series of Oz Books. She is the most significant antagonist in the second Oz book The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904), and is alluded to in other works. Mombi plays a very important role in the fictional history of Oz. > The character was originally presented as a lowly hag who had enchanted Princess Ozma in order to prevent her from ascending to the throne. Later in the series, Baum specified that she had once conquered and ruled th... > **[Wicked Witch of the West](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_Witch_of_the_West)** > > The Wicked Witch of the West, a fictional character in the classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) by the American author L. Frank Baum, is the evil ruler of the Winkie Country, the western region in the Land of Oz. She is inadvertently killed by the child Dorothy Gale. In Baum's subsequent Oz novels, the Wicked Witch of the West is referred to occasionally. > Margaret Hamilton played the role of the witch in the classic 1939 film based on Baum's novel. Hamilton's characterizati... ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/256 "2025-04-28T12:36:40Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > The Eagles have _already_ carried a ringbearer once, in an actual Tolkein book, yet were uncorrupted. The actual explanation for this is that originally, the ring Bilbo finds in Gollum’s lair was just a magical ring and not The One Ring, > [@The One Wiki](#): > > _The Lord of the Rings_ brought about changes to the context of the original story, and led to substantial changes to the character of Gollum. > > In the first edition of _The Hobbit_, Gollum bets his Ring on the riddle game and if Bilbo wins, the Ring will be presented as a present. After losing, Gollum seeks for the Ring, but cannot find it. He begs for Bilbo’s pardon and shows him the way out. > > Tolkien made Gollum more aggressive in the second edition to reflect on the concept of the Ring’s corrupting abilities. > > In _The Lord of the Rings_, the original version of the riddle game is explained as a “lie” made up by Bilbo under the harmful influence of the Ring, whereas the revised version contains the “true” account. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/257 "2025-04-28T14:09:56Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Grumble, grumble, rant. This is what Hollywood gets for monkeying with the script. This is why you should never read the book after seeing the movie, or vice versa. Doesn’t matter which title we’re talking about. They are _always_ two utterly different stories with some small character overlap. The dramatic demands of the two mediums require they be very different stories in order for one (or both) not to suck. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/258 "2025-04-28T14:10:53Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > > [@Sitnam](#): > > > > Glinda, 10 minutes in. > > Grumble, grumble, rant. This is what Hollywood gets for monkeying with the script. In the _book_ Glinda _does not appear until the end_ (albeit, her existence is known to Dorothy); no witch magically gives Dorothy the shoes. They are just left behind; Dorothy notices them; and as Dorothy’s old leather shoes are falling apart, she decides to change into the silver shoes, which seem sturdier for the long walk ahead. Rant, rant…no damn sense grumble, mumble, rant. A memorable college prof I once had spat nothing but sour words for the film. The book was a story telling triumph of early turn of the century American politics, from the idiot farmers who thought there’d be more wealth if you changed from the gold to a silver standard to the industrialists without a soul and one particular cowardly New York politician. I have always wanted to read it. But let us agree the film is a work of it’s own and stands and may be criticized as such. If I bitch about **Aliens** plot holes it will impress no one that an early script someone once saw fixed those. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/259 "2025-04-28T14:12:19Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > _Top Gun 2_: how to blow up a heavily-defended nuclear reactor and GPS is jammed? Easy: cruise missiles with terrain contour mapping. D’uh. Want a backup to that in case the radar altimeters could be jammed? Ok, DSMAC (Digital Scene Matching Area Correlator). Probably not a good enough CEP. Those damned thermal exhaust ports are _always_ too small. And the steep-sided conical valley would provide a very difficult terminal maneuver problem that _probably_ exceeds CM capabilities. > [@Asuka](#): > > I forgot where I heard it but an Air Force expert said that if it was actually as critical an operation as they claim it to be they’d just fly a few high altitude B-2s and hit it with bunker busters. In terms of warhead size and warhead count, yeah for sure. But those weapons are also GPS-guided. And absent GPS will have the same CEP problems as would cruise missiles. IMO / my bottom line: A nuclear ICBM is always the best solution militarily to a hard target with geometrically difficult and/or well-defended approaches. It might not be the best answer politically, but when you want to be absolutely positively sure “nuke it from CONUS” works every time. We hope. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/260 "2025-04-28T14:17:46Z")
But that’s all meta - _in the Lord of the Rings itself_, the Eagles are known to have carried the actual _Lord of the Rings version_ of Bilbo with the actual supposedly all-corrupting _LOTR version_ of the One Ring _without being corrupted_. The key, as far as I am concerned, is that the Eagles don’t have to be told what they’re carrying. The whispering instant-corrupting version of the One Ring is an invention of the movies. The book One Ring needs time or at least awareness of it to work, seemingly (there is no dramatic “throw it in the fire!” scene in the book, for example.) > [@FrenchDunadan](#): > > It’s a longer flight to Mount Doom. They got there quick enough when they needed to, later It’s not going to take them weeks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080.md?page=14)