Yessss making this tag do work! I'm just wondering if Frodo and Sam got the message when Mt. DOOM collaborated on Madvillainy to drop the song "Eye." It was a pretty direct warning to not fuck with DOOM and MadLib did an excellent job producing it.
Damn good question. Perhaps one of the largest plot holes of all time, aside from the Little Mermaid plot hole that my aunt just posted to her Facebook page. -But seriously, I can recall thinking "hey, why didn't they just do this earlier," when reading tLoTR as a kid. But, there's definitely a "this has to be the right confluence of events" type of scenario happening. The Eye of Sauron has to be distracted by the battle at the gate etc..... I don't think it's so simple as flying a bunch of eagles in to mordor with Frodo and Sam atop them. How fucking hilarious is it that I'm spending my time considering this though....? What a great book.