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Be warned:
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
Can cause physical harm
The irony is that they can't, but their greatest weapon is that the people they fight think they can, and flee without even trying. And this post is making the exact same mistake, while also assuming they're invincible. The answer to the post is the post. That or pointing to the post and laughing.
Book version. In the movie version they absolutely can cause physical harm. A ghost sword and Aragorn's even stop each other, iirc.
I've never been a huge LotR fan so I don't necessarily remember any details, but isn't that because the sword had special qualities (being the sword of the ghosts' king IIRC) rather than because the ghosts can interact with physical objects?
For that one scene yes, for the next like 20 minutes of the movie where they jump on top of elephants and stab everybody riding them to death little bit different.
The irony is that they can’t
Pretty sure I saw a bunch of these guys sucking people's souls out or whatever, during the battle, at least in the movie.
From the book, its ambiguous. Per Legolas to the hobbits, following the battle:
Faint cries I heard, and dim horns blowing, and a murmur as of countless far voices: it was like the echo of some forgotten battle in the Dark Years long ago. Pale swords were drawn; but I know not whether their blades would still bite, for the Dead needed no longer any weapon but fear
A lot of Tolkien's storytelling involves this kind of Word of Mouth recounting, such that it's hard to know whether you're getting real High Magic or just mythology passed down second hand.
However you slice it, I'd describe "literally scares you to death" as physical harm.
Psychological warfare sure is ... funny, isn't it?
You ever hear about this?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/dotmil/arkin020199.htm
For Iraq War 1, the US wanted to develop the ability to project a giant hologram either into or from the sky... of the prophet Mohammed... who would tell the Iraqi forces to stand down, presumably via spec ops placed speaker arrays.... or... something.
... They later realized that no one has any idea what Mohammed looks like.
... Because depictions of him....are widely viewed as heresy by many (most? basically all?) Muslims.
Oh and of course... they did not know how to build a hologram projector in the early 90s, either.
We do apparently know how to do at least something like that now, though.
Superior diplomacy, intelligence, and/or subterfuge and intrigue.
... and/or superior magic.
The Dead Men of Dunharrow only respond to and follow Aragorn because they believe he is the heir to Isildur.
Make them doubt that.
... Or just kill Aragon, specifically, with extreme prejudice.
Or, generate a pretender heir to Isildur, mislead them.
Or... and I am... admittedly not sure if this is possible within LotR canon...
Basically, get Sauron or Saurumon to directly intervene with some kind of magic that is at least as, or more powerful than that of Isildur, such thst they can be paralyzed or rendered combat ineffective in some way.
(Possibly also could help with the first plan of generating some kind of doubt, confusion or deception)
In more modern military lingo: Re evaluate your enemy threat profiles and re allocate resources and attention accordingly.
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.
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.
Their only weapon is fear
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.
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?
"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.
wololo
Aiyoyoyu
They're a limited-use item - once they do enough to fulfill their oath, they won't keep fighting. In the books, they didn't even get as far as Minas Tirith - they were done once they defeated the corsairs. Also, it wasn't clear that they could actually cause physical harm.
We need a bigger trap!
Opportunity for LotR x Ghostbusters brainrot
Well, it's not like the enemy army has one if the two most ancient and most powerful magicians on their side. They'll figure something out.
Two actually. Sauron and Sarumon are the same class of being. Balrogs are too, but iirc they're more on Morgoth's side
If i remember correctly, Saruman had already fled at that point. Correct?
Saruman was dead by this time though
Uh....
Not really, at least in the books; the movies cut out quite a bit of what was happening after the One Ring was destroyed
In the movies extended version you can see saruman clearly dying after the ENT counter-attack. So in the movies, only sauron is left at this point.
Its funny how this scene implies that Aragorn came up with this flashy theatrical entrance idea, explained it to the ghosts, and they were all like "hell yea thats sounds bad-ass lets do it"
Call the Ghostbusters, duh. They ain't afraid of no ghost.
Counter-countermeasure - Aragorn deploys Huey Lewis’s copyright lawyers.
