Despite being widely lauded as perhaps the greatest achievement of the fantasy genre, there are still people—fans, even—who insist on finding weaknesses and plot holes in The Lord of the Rings. Perhaps one of the most popular of these is the idea that the eagles should have flown Frodo to Mordor to dispose of the ring, instead of he and Sam struggling their way up the mountain all by themselves.

Honestly, it is possible that supporting this idea exposes somebody as a fake fan, because the Lord of the Great Eagles, Gwaihir, actually addresses this in the books directly. Long story short, they didn’t want to risk the danger of being attacked. Anyway, that is not to say that the worldbuilding of Middle-earth can’t withstand any criticism, just that you should know what you’re talking about when you do it. You also don’t have to be an expert to enjoy the silly memes that it inspires.