brainstatic:

I’ll vote for the first candidate to come right out and say: “no, they couldn’t have just taken the eagles to Mordor from the beginning, for a number of reasons. The mission rested on the fact that Sauron didn’t know anyone was coming to destroy the ring, because evil underestimates the willpower of good. Coming in with eagles would kill that. The eagles are also servants of Manwe, king of the gods, and after the wars of the First Age and ruin of Beleriand they retreated from the affairs of mortals, and the eagles themselves were crushed by the winged demons of Morgoth. They only listen to Gandalf occasionally because he’s one of the Maiar, a lesser god. The role of the gods comes from Tolkien’s Catholicism and the belief that people need to accomplish things on their own without God’s help.” But they won’t say that, because of the corporations.