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Originally Posted by Sauron the White
But in this case, it seems that many people who see it differently - and that is certainly their right - are basing much of this on a series of assumptions - any one of which can be challenged and doubt cast upon it.
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I think you're misinterpreting some of those assumptions:
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*** Smaug was intending to land on the bridge and walk into Laketown
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No indication of landing
on the bridge. Some have claimed that, but I see no support for it.
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*** he needed a airport sized runway in which to land and only the bridge afforded him that
*** while the bridge was big enough, no other structure in Laketown was including the docks area
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These two are founded on the last one.
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*** while the city was crowded and cramped not allowing him to land, it was big enough for him to manuever around - or perhaps small enough enabling him to walk over the structures
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He might not be able to land in the town because he would crash right through the structures (when he was shot, that is in fact what he ended up doing). It is indeed not clear why he can't. Whether or not he can manoeuver around in the town depends not only on the way it is built, but also on the shape and size of the dragon.
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*** the bridge was built in a special way so that common folk without power tools or explosives could not only down it, but actually destroy it in the brief time it took from the sighting of Smaug to the arrival of Smaug over Laketown
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We have to believe that. The bridges were apparently built in a way that a section of them could be torn down by simply cutting a few ropes, which would certainly not take longer than it would take Smaug to arrive. I don't know enough about bridges to say anything about how simple it is to build such, but it doesn't sound unbelievable to me.
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*** A flying, fire breathing dragon would decide that he was more devestating upon the ground, moving slowly and deliberatly in a crowded town than swooping fast and lithe from above
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Smaug is pretty devastating from the sky, but clearly not devastating enough to his satisfaction. He sets much of the town on fire and takes down some roofs, but he can't directly kill anybody or destroy houses to the ground. He needs to land for that.