What is HOME?
Probably this.
I find your lack of faith… disturbing.
I thought it was Bilbo that showed compassion for Gollum, by sparing him when he could have killed him (“Pity stayed his hand…”), and without that, all would have been lost. Are you saying that Gandalf inspired Bilbo to take pity on Gollum and spare him, or are you referring to something else?
I think Eru set the events in motion, sent the Istari to guide people, and then sat back and watched what happened. The books make a big deal about “the age of men” and to me, make it clear that there’s no “divine intervention”. If things went badly and Sauron won, Eru would have eventually erased it all and started over.
Can I ask where you’re getting the information that the One Ring “tapped into what remained of Morgoth’s power”? You seem to be saying that Morgoth built a “back door” into all of creation, and Sauron hacked into it with the Ring. Is it just a conclusion that you reached or is there evidence in any of Tolkien’s writings to support this?
In any case, no, Sauron could not have challenged Morgoth, ring or no ring. He’d have been squashed like a bug. But I don’t remember reading anything suggesting that Morgoth’s banishment was reversible, or that Sauron was working to free him.
Albeit a puny god.
I think it’s a sub-text of many, many movies, although rarely made explicit. The bad guys have overwhelming force, the odds of the good guys plan succeeding is a million-to-one*, and yet the good guys win because of their innate goodness. Every James Bond movie, for instance, although there’s no “god” involved.
*According to Terry Pratchett, if the odds are exactly a million-to-one odds, they pay off nine times out of ten.
Morgoth’s Ring is one of the HOME books. It is not “canon” or otherwise. It is.
I too think that Morgoth would squash Sauron like a bug. It is, after all, Morgoth’s power, and “Morgoth’s Ring”. That is why I don’t think Sauron wants the Door of Night re-opened.
I do think that Gandalf’s compassion and decency influenced Bilbo and then Frodo. I think it influenced Smeagol. Gandalf spent a lot of time listening to Gollum teasing out Smeagol.
I think the last direct breaking the rules intervention of Illuvatar in Middle Earth was the destruction of Numenor and the making of the world round. Even sending Gandalf back was within the rules that he had made for the valar and maiar being changed (reduced/increased) in power after a death, although Gandalf is the first to be increased, rather than greatly reduced.
Droopy always seemed to be getting some assistance from a deity. Either that, or the deity in question hates butch.
War of the Worlds would be the most blatant saved by god story.
The Blues Brothers too, but only until they saved the school. Once that was done the law caught up to them.
He survived by having a loyal audience built over the years thanks to solid comedy writing.
Jimmy Fallon on the other hand, I think he maybe made a deal with the devil.
Wow, no, I gotta disagree with that. It’s a “saved by the enemy’s hubris” story. The Martians invaded without adequate protective measures, and paid the price.
Yeah, it’s more “The Martians screwed up, but we’ll give God the credit.” And IIRC the original HG Wells book goes into more detail, about how their lack of disease resistance was likely something they engineered into themselves or evolved after they destroyed all bacteria on Mars in their pre-history. Martians had a very simplified biology, with anything “unnecessary” removed (like much of a digestive system, which is why they drank blood).
It’s hard to define what is and isn’t canon in JRRT’s world, given his propensity to revising, rethinking, updating, etc. But the writings found in Morgoth’s Ring were from the period of time just after JRRT finished LOTR, when he went on quite the writing binge on his old material, to bring it into better accord with his LOTR writings. That at least gives it some heft as material that should be taken seriously when we talk about ‘canon’. It certainly exemplifies some of JRRT’s favorite themes, such as the inherent corruption of the world, the need for it to be eventually broken and remade aright, and the need for Mankind to seek outside of itself and this world in order to attain success.
And I was worried if I got any heat it would be from Fallon fans.
Sorry, there’s what you want and then there’s what is on the printed page.
God given protection from our hostile neighbors. They could stand our gravity, temperature and air but it was still an environment where no Martian life could survive.
That certainly fits the criteria of the opening post
I think the god angle is played up even more at the end of the movie where they take refuge in a church.
God put the bacteria on Earth, but that doesn’t mean that he put them there just for the purpose of foiling alien invaders. God made cliffs, too, but that doesn’t mean it’s his doing if you jump off of one.
It’s pretty much said as much in the original movie. No clue on the book or remake.
Edit: Now is Wells making some kind of Luddite statement? Or is he saying Man is a backwards animal that sees God in everything? I have no frigging idea. I never gave any thought behind the theme of WotW, but I’ll look into it.
Here’s another example though it’s more thematic than plot-driven:
The Incredible Shrinking Man. In the end he realizes that no matter how small he gets, God can still see him and he takes comfort in that.
Sorry if my last reply came off a bit snippy, Trinopus.
In most discussions about War of the Worlds I would never bother bringing up the god aspect. It’s usually good enough that they all died from microorganisms and leave it at that.
Given the topic though it’s the divine plan that gets the attention.
Maybe God didn’t put the sun there to vaporize vampires either but for vampire movies it does the job.
Many would have been doomed if it weren’t for the sunrise and a vampire without an alarm wrist watch.
It would have been a funnier ending if the Martians all died by jumping off cliffs.
Perhaps on Mars they can jump out the door of the tripods and the weak Martian gravity lands them gently on the ground. Why they go splat when leaving their tripods on Earth is a mystery they never solve, yet a ladder never occurs to them.