What time is it?? What if Time!!!

[Redbeard The Pink]

You know what I kind of wonder?


What if Gandalf actually intended to take the Fellowship of the Ring to the Eagles in the first book so they could just fly the ring over that stupid volcano? I know a lot of people criticize him for not doing that in the first place, and other people criticize those people by saying the book/movie wouldn't have happened if he had done that, but what if that's what he was actually trying to do?


If you remember, Gandalf did not want to go through the Mines of Moria. Gimli was all hot to do it, but Gandalf was trying to take them further north without going under the mountain. Most people think this was just a safer path, but if you look at the map of Middle Earth and pay attention to what happened in the Hobbit, it turns out this path would have taken them right past Eagle territory up at the north end of the mountain range. By cutting through the mines, they had to go much further south than he wanted, meaning that they'd have to cut back up toward the Eagles on the other side, and they might get caught up fighting monsters in the mines. He didn't really have an option, though, seeing as how Saruman was actively trolling them with storm magic.


Now, some people say that if that was Gandalf's plan, why didn't he tell anyone? Simple: he wanted to keep it a secret. As I said, Saruman was using magic against Gandalf a lot, meaning he had to keep a near constant bead on where Gandalf was and what he was doing. We see him using various divination spells and devices throughout the story, and it's also mentioned that both Sauron and Saruman have spies all over Middle Earth. Furthermore, the Fellowship itself had some Men in it, and Gandalf didn't trust men and might have sensed some of Boramir's treachery early on, so he may not have wanted the whole group to have the whole plan.


The most interesting piece of evidence, though, is what Gandalf says to the party when it becomes clear that he can't continue with them: "Fly, you fools!" Some say this is merely an instruction to flee, but what if Gandalf was trying to give them a hint about the Eagles, and they just didn't get it? He would have made the hint cryptic, in case Saruman was still watching or Boramir was going to fuck up the plan, but he definitely would have tried to tell them something that would lead them in that direction once he realized he couldn't climb over the cliff.


Now, it's entirely possible that he just meant "Flee from this place" and that Tolkien's rosy and verbose style is seen here, but Wizards in Tolkien stories (Gandalf especially) are known for being very particular about EVERYTHING they do and say, so I think if he'd meant "flee," that's what he would have said.


I admit I didn't come up with this theory on my own (I probably read it on Cracked or something), but I honestly think it makes a lot of sense. Are there any other major holes in it? What do you guys think?


Also, what if they had used a rock crusher to crush the One Ring instead of burning it? Gandalf said that it could only be melted in Mt. Doom, but what if they could have crushed it instead? I don't recall anyone trying. Do you think they would need to use a vertical or horizontal rock crusher to do that, if it's even possible?


Thoughts?