Talk:The Hearth's Warming Club/@comment-35597886-20180808183815/@comment-53539-20180921000736

The griffins major problem is that while the idol would bring back their pride, its as Steven says... Its only temporary. The problem isn't the absence of the idol, its the Griffins themselves. The idol was a symbol of pride and without it they gave up their pride and their society became what it is now.

So unless the Griffins change, the idol is just a small fragile item. Not only that but would it fix things at all? Gilda likely is among a generation or so of griffins who don't care for their past and considering how their library is in ruins, the griffins aren't keeping their history and maintaining things, their home is falling apart and their culture is lost among it. How many secrets have been lost via time because their books are in ruin?

The idol may even cause arguments if brought back, or maybe dismissed by the bitterness of the griffins in their current state. Their may be things that occur such as fighting over who owns it, or becomes king. So returning the idol would then do more damage then if it remained lost.

Bare in mind, even the whole "only do stuff for bits" likely was a nod to how in the past they were taught by their first king not to horde and to share the wealth instead, in short pay each other respects and give pride to each other. In other words, its a corruption of the original intention. If one simple small act can be corrupted, the significance of the idol likely has also been corrupted in addition.

So the small random acts of friendship between griffin to griffin help breakdown the bitterness they have over their situation. They would not then need the idol at all. The process is going to happen over night as barriers of bitterness need to break down but given time and several generations, then things would change.