Shadow Host vs. Sauron & Co.?

[Boromir88]

SpM, thanks for the link, but here's why I don't happen to agree with it.

So... why not continuing the victory achieved in the Pelennor Fields with the aid of the Dead Army and go straight directly to Mordor to destroy Sauron's armies?

There are many answers for that, Elladan has already given one, and here's two more. As, I have said, Tolkien wanted to show the strength of men, the rise of men, something PJ did not do well, as he had the elves come in at Helm's Deep, and he had the Green Slime Army save the day. He made it seem without them, Gondor and Rohan would have fallen, I don't think Tolkien was trying to show that, he was trying to show the "time of men," the other races were declining, it was the time of men.

Second, it just kind of seems cheesy. There's this Latin phrase (please bear with my spelling) Deus ex machina, It stands for "god of machines." Basically, it's a term used in movie directing, when the director can't figure out how to solve a plot, so he pulls these supernatural beings that come in and kill everyone, sort of a sloppy way of putting it together. I think it would be cheesy of Tolkien if he just kind of had the AotD come and save the day, so that's why I much support the men that followed Aragorn from Lebennin.