# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/101 "2025-04-17T00:08:35Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Unlike its sequels, the first Mad Max movie isn’t apocalyptic sci-fi: I thought it was supposed to be just after the nuclear war that ravaged the northern hemisphere and left Australia mostly untouched; only for civilization there to gradually break down as irreplaceable stuff got used up or worn out. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/102 "2025-04-17T00:09:03Z")
An Eagle headed towards Mount Doom would be something Sauron would take to be a prelude to a direct challenge - warranting a military response, with dragon, Nazgul and all. Sauron didn’t understand Frodo’s intention at all until the last minute, believing that the hobbits were some sort of Spies-Like-Us diversion to the real attack (Aragorn, or Gandalf or Elrond must have the Ring). Covert and misunderstood is the way to go. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/103 "2025-04-17T00:29:42Z")
The title “Lukewarm Equations” probably wouldn’t have made for a classic. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/104 "2025-04-17T00:55:27Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I also like this idea because it kind of implies that the Ring spends most of LotR intensely frustrated. I like to imagine the Ring trying to put its whammy on Sam: > > “Seize me, claim my power, and I will make you the Lord of Middle Earth, and you can bend it to your will and turn everything into… gardens? Are you fucking _kidding_ me? All the power in the world, and the best you can give me is _gardens_? Fuck it, give me back to that bougie Hobbit twink, I’m not wasting my time on this _garden_ bullshit.” Excellent! ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/105 "2025-04-17T01:08:48Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > I thought it was supposed to be just after the nuclear war that ravaged the northern hemisphere and left Australia mostly untouched; only for civilization there to gradually break down as irreplaceable stuff got used up or worn out. No, not quite. Certainly, that wasn’t the intent when it was made. There’s no mention at all of any sort of a nuclear war or any sort of global apocalypse. The basic idea was, “What if the '73 oil crisis lasted a decade?” and thematically, it’s just a vigilante crime drama, with some notably extreme violence. The second film, ostensibly set just three years later, is fully post-apocalyptic. Again, there’s no mention of any nuclear war - it’s just "What if the '73 oil crisis lasted forever? Oil has completely run out, and society collapsed as it was no longer possible to maintain industrial-sized populations. The third film, _Beyond Thunderdome_, is the first to mention a nuclear exchange. Again, there aren’t a lot of details of the collapse, but it’s generally reconciled with the first two movies resource-depletion stories as being a limited exchange when the remaining nations got desperate over who controlled that last of the oil. The fourth film introduces water shortages on top of oil shortages, but at this point, they’ve basically abandoned any real continuity (and recast Max). The Mad Max films are now legends about a wasteland hero, told by people in the societies that grew up post-apocalypse, and each film is a different take on the same folk hero, like different film versions of Robin Hood. ---
**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 17, 2025, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/106 "2025-04-17T01:34:28Z")
I love that! Thanks, I needed a good laugh. > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Am I the only one who thinks if Belloq had found something powerful/controllable in the Ark he would’ve kept it for himself and ruled the world after eliminating all the Nazis? It’s been a while since I have seen Raiders. But, that makes sense. I do have clear memories of Last Crusade. The evil archeologist makes a speech “I’ll be toasting my health whne Hitler has gone the way of the dodo.” ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/107 "2025-04-17T03:07:33Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > each film is a different take on the same folk hero, like different film versions of Robin Hood That’s a good way to look at it. Better than the James Bond / Doctor Who approach. ---
**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 17, 2025, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/108 "2025-04-17T04:52:39Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Gandalf, Galadriel, and Faramir all refuse to even touch the cursed thing, strongly implying that even the briefest contact with the Ring is a danger. Also, that being more powerful, willful accomplished and so on not only isn’t a protection, it’s a _vulnerability._ Which is one reason I think the Eagles would be extra vulnerable; the Eagles of Manwë are the quasi-immortal creations of what amounts to an archangel; not a humble hobbit. Part of what protected the hobbits was their lack of pride and ambition, and their basic mundaneness. The Eagles are pretty much the opposite of being humble and mundane. > [@markn\_1](#): > > I don’t believe there is any evidence from the published _Letters_ that anyone ever asked Tolkien why the Ring couldn’t have been carried to Mordor by an eagle. > The Eagles are a dangerous ‘machine’. I have used them sparingly, and that is the absolute limit of their credibility or usefulness.\* > — [J.R.R. Tolkien](https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/J.R.R._Tolkien) on flying the [One Ring](https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/One_Ring) to [Mount Doom](https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Mount_Doom)[[16]](https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Great_Eagles#cite_note-16) Mentioned [here](https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Great_Eagles#Background). ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/109 "2025-04-17T05:31:07Z")
Yes, that’s one of the things I was referring to when I said that “he himself noted the danger they posed of being overused as a deus ex machina device.” But that letter to Ackerman doesn’t refer to eagles flying the Ring to Mordor, as far as I can see. It’s about an element in Zimmerman’s script in which an eagle comes to the Shire: > The Eagles are a dangerous ‘machine’. I have used them sparingly, and that is the absolute limit of their credibility or usefulness. The alighting of a Great Eagle of the Misty Mountains in the Shire is absurd; it also makes the later capture of G[andalf] by Saruman incredible, and spoils the account of his escape. I haven’t read the Zimmerman script, so I don’t know what the context was for an eagle coming to the Shire, but it seems unlikely that it was for the purpose of carrying the Ring all the way to Mordor (which would have ended the story in the second chapter or so). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/110 "2025-04-17T12:00:34Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Later I realized that there’s no way they could even get the Ark inside the sub. The openings are too small. So (even though you can see clearly it isn’t) it must be tied to the deck. So it can’t submerge. Indy is safe from drowning! But all ships, submarines, too, post lookouts while moving. He’s caught! I’m not familiar with what sub that was supposed to be, but I’d like to point out that, in addition to the generally small and man-sized doors and ports in a submarine, they also had one or two larger ones for loading the torpedoes into the sub, and these were substantially larger. I now about this because I’ve just finished writing a book about US submarine S-49, the only US sub to be privately owned. After the civilian owners bought it in 1931 they had the fore and aft torpedo-loading hatches\* removed and installed full-sized staircases in them. This let tourists enter the sub easily at the back, clamber through the intervening passageways as they moved forward with the tour, then exit easily at the front up the other stair There’s a picture of the compartment with the stairs in Motor Room in this brochure: > **[S-49 Submarine U.S. Navy (1940)](https://www.ggarchives.com/Military/NavyArchives/Brochures/Submarine-S49-1940.html)** > > Photographs of S-49 Running on the surface; Motor Room; Engine Room; Control Room; Battery Room; and Torpedo Room. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/111 "2025-04-17T12:32:25Z")
It would be flirting with suicide, but I suppose they could also tie a temporary hitch that will hold under a steady pull but can be shaken loose after the load is removed, possibly slightly secured with a cord that can be snapped with some effort. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/112 "2025-04-17T14:19:42Z")
A hardcore Russian Mob Boss that demands the respect of his men and sees the writing on the wall would kill his son before John Wick got to him. Keyser Söze style. Even Michael Corleone would not have sacrificed his business to protect his family who messed up. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/113 "2025-04-17T16:25:33Z")
I thought I’d read long ago that it used to be s.o.p. at the start of a cruise to _cut a hole in the sub’s hull_ to load the torpedoes and then weld it shut again. I’d be happy to be proven wrong because that always sounded to me like a dangerous point of failure and extremely poor design. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/114 "2025-04-17T16:50:50Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > I’d be happy to be proven wrong because that always sounded to me like a dangerous point of failure and extremely poor design. Torpedoes were/are loaded through a hatch in the top. It opened to a slanted chute about the same diameter as the torpedo and they were slid down into storage. Trying to cram the Ark of the Covenant down there might be possible but probably isn’t recommended. (Actually, judging by the circular interior hatch, I don’t think it would fit anyway). [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Bundesarchiv_Bild_101II-MW-5536-01%2C_Wilhelmshaven%2C_U-Boot%2C_Torpedo-%C3%9Cbernahme.jpg/640px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_101II-MW-5536-01%2C_Wilhelmshaven%2C_U-Boot%2C_Torpedo-%C3%9Cbernahme.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Bundesarchiv_Bild_101II-MW-5536-01%2C_Wilhelmshaven%2C_U-Boot%2C_Torpedo-%C3%9Cbernahme.jpg/640px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_101II-MW-5536-01%2C_Wilhelmshaven%2C_U-Boot%2C_Torpedo-%C3%9Cbernahme.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/115 "2025-04-17T17:20:12Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > I thought I’d read long ago that it used to be s.o.p. at the start of a cruise to _cut a hole in the sub’s hull_ to load the torpedoes and then weld it shut again. I’d be happy to be proven wrong because that always sounded to me like a dangerous point of failure and extremely poor design. Submarines sometimes have to bring in large objects (like engine parts), and they have what are called _soft patches_ to facilitate this. I’m not certain, but I believe these are bolted shut, although some subs might have used welds. By the way, I don’t think all torpedo loading hatches are round. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/116 "2025-04-17T17:53:49Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > By the way, I don’t think all torpedo loading hatches are round Quite possible and I’m no expert. I just went looking for a U-Boat being loaded due to the Raiders of the Lost Ark question. Obviously you make the Ark squeeze in by taking the top off first. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/117 "2025-04-17T18:03:38Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > There are plenty of solutions that are worth trying. The protagonist doesn’t try _anything_. As has been pointed out before, a simple pre flight check would have avoided the situation in the first place. IIRC The emergency ship was dispatched with a vaccine to save the lives of something like ten colonists. So, they will go to all that trouble for a handful of colonists who volunteered to be in danger on the frontier but nobody even tries to save the life of an innocent who is in peril because of the lack of a pre flight check, the lack of proper saftey precuations, and the lack of proper signs? I’ve always wondered about this myself. It’s an interstellar vessel carrying hundreds (I assume) of passengers. Is fuel REALLY in such short supply that they gave the shuttle no extra for emergencies? I once read a retelling - might have been called “the cool equations” in which the stowaway was a younger boy. The pilot solved the issue by cutting off his arms / legs and her own legs and jettisoning them. The boy was able to have his arms/legs replaced somehow (vat-grown or whatever). The pilot, being older, was not, but she basically shrugged and said she didnt need them to fly. My biggest dilemma, likely in over 50% of the books I read of any genre, is “Just TALK about stuff. Don’t be so damn secretive!”. To be fair, if people talked and everyone knew what was going on, the book wouldn’t last very long. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/118 "2025-04-17T18:06:06Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Obviously you make the Ark squeeze in by taking the top off first. Yeah, those angel wings get in the way of everything. I’m basing my answer on the fact that they put a rectangular staircase into the space left by taking the torpedo lading hatch for the S-49, and I’ll bet they didn’t go cutting into the steel with torches at a small shipyard outside Boston. They were able to put an “up” staircase at the bow and a “down” staircase at the stern because the S-49 had torpedo tubes at both ends of the sub. And you can’t get torpedoes from one end to the other through the sub. ---
**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 17, 2025, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/119 "2025-04-17T18:12:07Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > I once read a retelling - might have been called “the cool equations” in which the stowaway was a younger boy. _The Cold Solution,_ I think. I’m not sure because two different retellings came out close together, but that’s the only one I recall the details of. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2025, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080/120 "2025-04-17T18:14:54Z")
Definitely a better name for that situation! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/easy-answers-for-fictional-dilemmas/1017080.md?page=7)