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Maybe don't trust a Palantir
Oct. 29th, 2025 07:37 amSome of you have watched The Lord of The Rings, and you may remember Denethor, Steward of Gondor. Good ol' Denethor, the favoritist father, hasty dumbass, easily falling into despair, telling everyone to abandon their posts and flee for their lives, trying to burn his son with him. That guy.
The movie, as movies tend to do with book characters, does Denethor a disservice. In the book, Denethor is less of an oaf, administers his city with wisdom, knows the hearts of those who come to him, a shrewd and canny fellow all told -- and yet also gives into despair, in the end, seeing his city besieged by Sauron's army and not knowing what help is truly coming.
It is only after the battle that our heroes discover how Denethor was so far-sighted: he had a Palantir, in the highest room of the White Tower, which let him see across the world. Or it did, once; Denethor made the mistake of thinking he could use it to spy on Sauron, and Sauron captured its visions, showing Denethor only the troubles coming to him, never anything that would let him see opportunities. So Denethor was driven to despair, as he focused his vision and thought on a distortion of the wide world about him, instead of upon the resources he had close to hand.
Anyway that's what it's like to watch television news.
The movie, as movies tend to do with book characters, does Denethor a disservice. In the book, Denethor is less of an oaf, administers his city with wisdom, knows the hearts of those who come to him, a shrewd and canny fellow all told -- and yet also gives into despair, in the end, seeing his city besieged by Sauron's army and not knowing what help is truly coming.
It is only after the battle that our heroes discover how Denethor was so far-sighted: he had a Palantir, in the highest room of the White Tower, which let him see across the world. Or it did, once; Denethor made the mistake of thinking he could use it to spy on Sauron, and Sauron captured its visions, showing Denethor only the troubles coming to him, never anything that would let him see opportunities. So Denethor was driven to despair, as he focused his vision and thought on a distortion of the wide world about him, instead of upon the resources he had close to hand.
Anyway that's what it's like to watch television news.
