Girl Genius XIV: A Lightning Arc in All But Speed!

[Lix Lorn]

The thing with Tolkein is that unlike a lot of modern writers, he had the discipline to keep an early character to his part of the tale and not keep shoehorning him in again and again later on. Bombadil is exceedingly relevant to how many things came out. It's simply that all his cameos came very early in the story.

The general complaint is that Bombadil is entirely capable of just smashing the ring and solving the plotline partway through book one.
...but I'm just parroting.

[Landis963]

The general complaint is that Bombadil is entirely capable of just smashing the ring and solving the plotline partway through book one.
...but I'm just parroting.

Technically the Ring could be destroyed in two circumstances: It could be dumped in the fires of Mount Doom, where it was forged, or in any comparable heat source, and it could be destroyed by anyone who was better at forging than Sauron (Which is kind of a tall order, given Sauron's position in the Ardan pantheon). Does Tom Bombadil claim access to either one of these, or is that inference and realization from readers of the Silmarillion?

[Lix Lorn]

oh god you're asking for details

I would assume the latter?

[Landis963]

oh god you're asking for details

I would assume the latter?

OK... You see how that puts me and others who've put down the Silmarillion at a disadvantage.

[Lix Lorn]

As I said, I'm just parroting what I heard from people who know the canon better than I.

[factotum]

It explicitly states in the Lord of the Rings that Bombadil is not capable of destroying the Ring. Gandalf says of Bombadil during the Council of Elrond:

"He cannot alter the Ring itself, nor break the power it has over others."

So, whoever you've been listening to who's telling you that Bombadil could have just destroyed the thing, ask them why Gandalf says that if it's not true!

[Lix Lorn]

I'm probably remembering it wrong.

[Traab]

I'm probably remembering it wrong.

What you are probably remembering is elrond or gandalf saying the ring has no power over him. He could hold it, wear it, and never be harmed by its corruption. Unfortunately, they couldnt trust him to keep and protect it. He doesnt have the temperament to guard something forever.

[Lix Lorn]

I expect you're right.

[memnarch]

What you are probably remembering is elrond or gandalf saying the ring has no power over him. He could hold it, wear it, and never be harmed by its corruption. Unfortunately, they couldnt trust him to keep and protect it. He doesnt have the temperament to guard something forever.

That was part of it. The other part was that nothing would stand in Sauron's way that long.

[eee]

That was part of it. The other part was that nothing would stand in Sauron's way that long.

'Long' is relative. Gandalf said that even if they could get Tom to guard the Ring, Sauron would simply conquer everyone and everything else and then Tom himself would fall, Last as he was First. That much conquest could take decades. But in the end, Sauron's victory was assured unless the Ring was destroyed.

[Rockphed]

True, and while we dont get a 50 page thesis on who or what he is, we DO learn bits and pieces, enough to understand him as more than just some random minstrel that can boss around trees at least. The Entwives however, all we know is they are gone and we dont know what happened to them. I think its implied they are still around, but the ents have forgotten where they were, what they looked like, and have no clue on what they could do to find them. For all we know they could be giant earth golems, trees with boobs, or hobbit chicks. We just dont KNOW!

We also do not know where hobbits come from. Entwives love gardens. So do hobbits. Coincidence?

[Turalisj]

Hobbits are what happens when a dwarf gives an elf a very special hug.

[BannedInSchool]

So Higgs is the Incarnation of Spark?

However, it does seem to me that eventually, in the fullness of time, Higgs' nature will be important enough to the story to reveal.

[The Glyphstone]

Mechanicsburg is transforming into a giant mecha. That's my prediction right here and now.

[Grif]

Mechanicsburg is transforming into a giant mecha. That's my prediction right here and now.

My tower will be the drill that pierces the heavens?

[factotum]

Whatever it is, it's going to have to be something pretty special in order to take down the attacking forces--nothing the Castle has done since its repair would be very useful against the attacking airships, for instance. (Although I wonder what happened to the Torchmen? You'd think they'd be useful right about now, but no sign of them--did they all get destroyed attacking Castle Wulfenbach?).

[Xel]

You have it all wrong. The Empire is just the sideshow. Der Kestle just finished asking Zeetha if she'd like to see Higgs fight.

Now we get the real fight, Higgs v Kestle. My money is on Higgs (despite being a huge fan of Der Kestle).

Edit: Ok, I'll leave a small probability open that Higgs is the official city-Mecha pilot.

[Avilan the Grey]

What you are probably remembering is elrond or gandalf saying the ring has no power over him. He could hold it, wear it, and never be harmed by its corruption. Unfortunately, they couldnt trust him to keep and protect it. He doesnt have the temperament to guard something forever.

Exactly. I like Tom, and I have two theories of what he is. One I have never heard anywhere else, but I standy by it (it's my own) and I have gotten a few "oh yeah!" reactions on Tolkien fansites for it:

1. He is Gaia, basically. This is an old one, and not my own theory.

2. He is Tolkien. And his wife is Goldberry. Seriously:
Tolkien put himself into Beren, and his wife into Luthien. But that was the romantic side of their love.

Tom was a character that Tolkien invented for his kids at a young age. He is also very similar to Tolkien in a lot of ways, which would make sense then. He loves nature, stays away from the modern (industrial) world etc etc. My guess is that Tom and Goldberry basically is the other side of the marriage, the down-to-earth every day part. This would also be why he is immune to the ring, and seemingly exists partly outside of Middle Earth...

[Brother Oni]

Since every good transformation scene requires theme music.

[Radar]

We also do not know where hobbits come from. Entwives love gardens. So do hobbits. Coincidence?

It was explained somewhere in Silmarillion, that they are more or less short humans.

[petersohn]

The hobbits or the entwives?

[eee]

I recall the maintenance guy on Moloch's team saying Mechanicsburg could launch buildings like missiles if they had to. And there are all those airships just hanging in the air.

Hmmmm.

Don't see how that would enable Higgs to show off his fighting skills, though.

[Traab]

Since every good transformation scene requires theme music.

Awesome mecha, crappy song. Seriously, I cant figure out what emotion it was trying to create. It didnt feel like awe, it was most certainly not some triumphal song, not a fear response, no despair, no hope, nothing.

[Radar]

The hobbits or the entwives?

Hobbits obviously.

[petersohn]

Awesome mecha, crappy song. Seriously, I cant figure out what emotion it was trying to create. It didnt feel like awe, it was most certainly not some triumphal song, not a fear response, no despair, no hope, nothing.

True. I thought the same. But there is a better one. A bit overused, but Also Sprach Zarathustra would fit to this scene.

[Lix Lorn]

Exactly. I like Tom, and I have two theories of what he is. One I have never heard anywhere else, but I standy by it (it's my own) and I have gotten a few "oh yeah!" reactions on Tolkien fansites for it:

1. He is Gaia, basically. This is an old one, and not my own theory.

2. He is Tolkien. And his wife is Goldberry. Seriously:
Tolkien put himself into Beren, and his wife into Luthien. But that was the romantic side of their love.

Tom was a character that Tolkien invented for his kids at a young age. He is also very similar to Tolkien in a lot of ways, which would make sense then. He loves nature, stays away from the modern (industrial) world etc etc. My guess is that Tom and Goldberry basically is the other side of the marriage, the down-to-earth every day part. This would also be why he is immune to the ring, and seemingly exists partly outside of Middle Earth...

Also explains why he doesn't do much in the story. Author avatars draw criticism when they do things.

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

Exactly. I like Tom, and I have two theories of what he is. One I have never heard anywhere else, but I standy by it (it's my own) and I have gotten a few "oh yeah!" reactions on Tolkien fansites for it:

1. He is Gaia, basically. This is an old one, and not my own theory.

2. He is Tolkien. And his wife is Goldberry. Seriously:
Tolkien put himself into Beren, and his wife into Luthien. But that was the romantic side of their love.

Tom was a character that Tolkien invented for his kids at a young age. He is also very similar to Tolkien in a lot of ways, which would make sense then. He loves nature, stays away from the modern (industrial) world etc etc. My guess is that Tom and Goldberry basically is the other side of the marriage, the down-to-earth every day part. This would also be why he is immune to the ring, and seemingly exists partly outside of Middle Earth...

Oh, that makes a lot more sense. When he put the ring on, it did nothing to him because to him it's an imaginary object from the story he wrote. :D

[Avilan the Grey]

Oh, that makes a lot more sense. When he put the ring on, it did nothing to him because to him it's an imaginary object from the story he wrote. :D

Plus, as I said, Tolkien put him into the story not only in the first chapter(s), where the story was still "Hobbitish" (more childish), but really with no reason other than that he wanted him there; Tom was not connected to the Middle Earth mythos before that, he lived in his own set of stories that Tolkien told his kids.

[Brother Oni]

Awesome mecha, crappy song. Seriously, I cant figure out what emotion it was trying to create. It didnt feel like awe, it was most certainly not some triumphal song, not a fear response, no despair, no hope, nothing.

I feel a bit of context is in order.

Sharon Apple (the singer and the huge projected figure) is the galaxy's first and only virtual idol, who has just achieved sentience. Her first public act is to mesmerise everybody who's tuned into her first concert on Earth (ie, almost everybody on the planet), then takes control of the SDF-1, a space ark that carried humanity earlier in the Macross story and the most powerful war machine created by the Earth Federation.

Explaining it a bit further would involve diving into the (in)famous Macross love triangle, at which point it's just easier to tell you to go watch Macross Plus (which you should do anyway as the anime's excellent).

The overall theme at this point is awe, followed by an 'oh crap' moment for fans of the original series that recognise the SDF-1 and realise that the primary and secondary male leads are going to go up against the pinnacle of military hardware and firepower in prototype AVF interceptors.