The best waffle is better than the best pancake, but the median pancake is better than the median waffle. It’s a complicated world out there.

Fair enough. You seem to be more knowledgeable about this than me. I get that its an inherent physics thing though I just meant that, theoretically at least, you could simply brute force grip strength in a way that you can’t brute force dexterity - at which point it becomes sensible to optimize for dexterity. I guess we’re not as close to that point as I assumed though.

Yes, but also this is about robotics so that kind of all goes out the window to some extent. You can just have more powerful actuators to increase grip strength or whatnot. That said, biologically, I’m totally with you on the four arm thing.

Their point still stands

It’s not a prerequisite, it’s just that it works better.

I mean, the sea is hardly the same colour as the sky either (usually) and yet we still call both those blue so it’s not all that different. Though I agree that it seems like starker difference to me I can acknowledge that’s at least partially my own biases.

Yes, if taking it seriously, then those are reasonable conclusions. However, I think you’re just overthinking it, in this context the scenario exists to service the joke rather than the other way around.

The comedic implication is that the giant eagles are natural predators of goblins and, more importantly, hobbits. And might be inclined to a mid-flight snack.

A bit of both in my non-expert but local understanding.

It’s not a competition, they can both be shit.