this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2025
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This may come as a shock to anons who filter their entire existence through video games but literature does not need to operate according to rules of game balance.
Cinema, not literature. In the books the undead army is way less OP than in the movie adaptation. Their only weapon is fear, and they do not liberate minas tirith, but only scare the mercenaries off their black sail ships. Aragon uses the boats to quick travel to minas tirith with his elf and half elven friends and fresh troops from the south.
Fear and surprise
Fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency.
Our three weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope....
...
I'll come in again.
What about the limitless coffers of Rome?
Ye I don't blame Jackson for changing it, there was less time to explain in the movie and the payoff was bigger. What works in books does not always work in films and vice versa
Jackson's changes are generally improvements to the story or at worst understandable compromises for a different medium.
Yes! The answer is “you can't, and that's the point.”
It just makes other threars in the world feel a bit meaningless
No necessarily. Sauron was taken by surprise, so he may have countermeasures at his disposal if there would be other encounters.
Even if not, it makes the refusal of Aragorn to use them again even more noble, which is the literary goal of their existence.
Maybe, but given that they were trapped in undeath for thousands of years because they didn't hold up their side of the oath, finding out what would happen if Aragorn didn't hold up his side of the same oath seems like a bad idea.
Man, even games don't need to operate according to the rules of game balance. Just look at [current hot live service game's most recent update]!
Man, [current hot live service game] has really gone down hill since [game's most recent update] released. It's like the Devs don't even care anymore, y'know?
It's been shit for over 10 years now, but I just keep paying them every month, and I don't know what I'm doing with my life.
"A story is not a machine that does what you tell it. A story is a beast with a life of its own. You can create it, shape it, but as the story grows, it starts wanting things of its own. Change one thing, and you set off a chain reaction of events that spreads through the whole thing. The characters have to be true to themselves. The events need to follow a logic that fits the story. A single flaw and the magic is gone. The story dies. - Alan Wake" - Sam Lake
Established rules and constraints must be consistent throughout the story, otherwise nerds on the internet with nothing better to do will call you a hack. See: the new Star Wars. Force healing, my ass.
I agree, David Lynch is objectively a bad writer.
/s
It's not just Internet nerds. That's a basic rule of literary analysis asa whole.
I think there's a whole webcomic DM of the Rings that makes fun of this idea at great length.