The irony is that they can’t, but their greatest weapon is that the people they fight think they can, and flee without even trying. And this post is making the exact same mistake, while also assuming they’re invincible. The answer to the post is the post. That or pointing to the post and laughing.
Pretty sure I saw a bunch of these guys sucking people’s souls out or whatever, during the battle, at least in the movie.
From the book, its ambiguous. Per Legolas to the hobbits, following the battle:
Faint cries I heard, and dim horns blowing, and a murmur as of countless far voices: it was like the echo of some forgotten battle in the Dark Years long ago. Pale swords were drawn; but I know not whether their blades would still bite, for the Dead needed no longer any weapon but fear
A lot of Tolkien’s storytelling involves this kind of Word of Mouth recounting, such that it’s hard to know whether you’re getting real High Magic or just mythology passed down second hand.
However you slice it, I’d describe “literally scares you to death” as physical harm.
I’ve never been a huge LotR fan so I don’t necessarily remember any details, but isn’t that because the sword had special qualities (being the sword of the ghosts’ king IIRC) rather than because the ghosts can interact with physical objects?
For that one scene yes, for the next like 20 minutes of the movie where they jump on top of elephants and stab everybody riding them to death little bit different.
For Iraq War 1, the US wanted to develop the ability to project a giant hologram either into or from the sky… of the prophet Mohammed… who would tell the Iraqi forces to stand down, presumably via spec ops placed speaker arrays… or… something.
… They later realized that no one has any idea what Mohammed looks like.
… Because depictions of him…are widely viewed as heresy by many (most? basically all?) Muslims.
Oh and of course… they did not know how to build a hologram projector in the early 90s, either.
We do apparently know how to do at least something like that now, though.
The irony is that they can’t, but their greatest weapon is that the people they fight think they can, and flee without even trying. And this post is making the exact same mistake, while also assuming they’re invincible. The answer to the post is the post. That or pointing to the post and laughing.
Pretty sure I saw a bunch of these guys sucking people’s souls out or whatever, during the battle, at least in the movie.
From the book, its ambiguous. Per Legolas to the hobbits, following the battle:
A lot of Tolkien’s storytelling involves this kind of Word of Mouth recounting, such that it’s hard to know whether you’re getting real High Magic or just mythology passed down second hand.
However you slice it, I’d describe “literally scares you to death” as physical harm.
Book version. In the movie version they absolutely can cause physical harm. A ghost sword and Aragorn’s even stop each other, iirc.
I’ve never been a huge LotR fan so I don’t necessarily remember any details, but isn’t that because the sword had special qualities (being the sword of the ghosts’ king IIRC) rather than because the ghosts can interact with physical objects?
For that one scene yes, for the next like 20 minutes of the movie where they jump on top of elephants and stab everybody riding them to death little bit different.
Psychological warfare sure is … funny, isn’t it?
You ever hear about this?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/dotmil/arkin020199.htm
For Iraq War 1, the US wanted to develop the ability to project a giant hologram either into or from the sky… of the prophet Mohammed… who would tell the Iraqi forces to stand down, presumably via spec ops placed speaker arrays… or… something.
… They later realized that no one has any idea what Mohammed looks like.
… Because depictions of him…are widely viewed as heresy by many (most? basically all?) Muslims.
Oh and of course… they did not know how to build a hologram projector in the early 90s, either.
We do apparently know how to do at least something like that now, though.
https://idstch.com/technology/photonics/3-d-holograms-will-be-employed-for-battlefield-intelligence-military-planning-and-explosives-disposal/