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posted by
LaminatorX
on Monday March 10 2014, @10:27AM
from the And-on-the-org-chart-bind-them dept.
from the And-on-the-org-chart-bind-them dept.
nobbis writes:
"From 'A Tolkienist's Perspective Blog' : a two part article part 1 part 2 about the military structure in Mordor. There is a hierarchy chart if you want a summary.
Was the rapid collapse of the military following the destruction of the ring indicative of the fragility of this structure , and its susceptibility to a decapitation strike ? Would a flatter hierarchy or something similar to the Imperial Military or Starfleet have been more resilient?"
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(Score: 3, Informative) by monster on Monday March 10 2014, @05:54PM
Maybe, but you have to keep an eye to the fact that this is "old style" or hand-on-hand warfare. Even if the orcs were to know that their master had been destroyed at that same moment, they were fighting at arm's length. In those battles soldiers were able to see or hear from their nearby fellows at most, that is why trumpets and horns were so used to signal. In a situation like that, turning your back to the enemy gets you little more than a quick death, unless the enemy is unable/unwilling to pursue (the difference meaning an orderly retreat, a rout or a slaughter). And the book presents the battle as somewhat big (the human army being clearly outnumbered in a suicide mission to buy time for Frodo) so we are talking to several thousand orcs at least. For reference, many battles of ancient history or even middle ages were between armies of those size.
It is the most "jumping the shark" moment in the movies, when the ground collapses below the whole orc army, even doing a semicircle around the heroes to avoid them.