#he doesn't know much about the world outside the shire yet. he and the readers basically discover it together and the scope is narrow.
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Obligatory and quite pertinent
#but i will be specific (read: essay incoming)#for the purposes of the poll the worst is tauriel/kili (and tauriel's entire existence tbh) which is part of the key offense:#the movies tried to make the story more epic than it is. unlike lotr the hobbit is a very personal narrative.#it follows one small person with a small part to play in a conflict that (in the grand scheme of the world) is also fairly small.#bilbo isn't a great warrior or a legendary hero or the prophesied savior of middle-earth. he's just what the title says: a hobbit.#that's not to say he's uninteresting or unimportant of course#but it does mean that that he is intentionally rather ordinary and his story more closely resembles a fairy tale rather than an epic legend#(which is fitting since the hobbit was originally a bedtime story for tolkien's children)#consider: bilbo doesn't overcome challenges by being the strongest fighter or the darling of fate or even by just enduring (like frodo)#his most important assets are his wits his friends and his spirit (the ring itself is less important than his plans using it)#let's focus on the friends:#bilbo himself is almost never the one to defeat the company's enemies. that honor goes chiefly to gandalf and bard.#thorin and company are more epic characters than bilbo (given the nature of their quest) but still not on the scale of (eg) aragorn.#the cast of secondary characters in the hobbit is correspondingly smaller than in lotr (and they're generally less powerful)#but most importantly we only see them when and how bilbo sees them. the focus never shifts onto them.#in lotr the narrative tracks different members of the fellowship in turn but the hobbit is specifically bilbo's memoir.#adding more (and more powerful) characters and subplots about them pulls the story away from its essence as bilbo's experience.#he doesn't know much about the world outside the shire yet. he and the readers basically discover it together and the scope is narrow.#trying to turn the hobbit into a grand history comprised of many peoples' story arcs completely undermines the intended experience.#bilbo titles his work “there and back again: a hobbit's journey” and that is exactly what it should be#no more no less.#also having an elf/dwarf relationship is stupid and poorly handled given the lore about the fate of the different races after death.#there. i said it. i could expand on that too but it's getting late here. good night.#the hobbit#tolkien#peter jackson
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Since Rings of Power introduced Tom Bombadil in a way that gave me mixed feelings, I want to talk about him. For movie-only people, Tom is a character in The Lord of the Rings who gets ignored in adaptations because he doesn't really move the plot along, a decision I accept, but he's important thematically.
When the four hobbits begin their journey, they need to avoid the ringwraiths by passing through a dangerous old forest. They're lost, the environment is stifling and the trees are trying to trap and kill them. They're in serious trouble, but when all hope seems gone, along comes Tom Bombadil to help! He's a fun-loving guy living out in the woods, having fun, singing songs, loving life. He's also as old as the world, completely immortal, too powerful to be threatened by anything in this spooky forest, and oh yeah he's totally immune to the influence of the Ring. He has many names given by many peoples, and all of them in some way translate as "eldest". Tom Bombadil is just what he's called now, it's not his real name, depending on what a real name even means to the first being in the world. He's a merry fellow. Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow.
People complain about Tom not fitting with the rest of the world or story, but that's deliberate. Tom lives with his wife Goldberry, who is also supernatural but not the same type of being as whatever her husband is, and they are up to some fey shit. The hobbits are happy for the help, but Tom confuses them as much as he confuses readers because who is he? What is he? What the fuck is going on? When Frodo asks Goldberry "Who is Tom Bombadil?" she answers "He is."
Once the hobbits are in the house of Tom Bombadil (which just happens to have four spare beds and four spare seats at the table) they tell him the story of why they're traveling, and he asks to see the Ring. Even at this early stage, the Ring is trying to control Frodo, yet Frodo pulls it out and hands it over easily. When Tom puts the Ring on, nothing happens, then he does a sleight-of-hand trick with the Ring and gives it back to Frodo without any trouble. Not only is Tom unaffected, he can see Frodo when the latter wears the Ring and becomes invisible to everyone else. The reason Frodo could give the Ring to Tom might be because, since Tom cares nothing for it, letting Tom hold it doesn't count as giving it up.
Despite his reputation for obliviousness, there are hints of Tom knowing more than he lets on. Tom mentions being alive "before the Dark Lord came from outside", pays close attention when the ringwraiths are mentioned, and will dispose of local wights if they cause trouble, so he is aware of the evil forces at work even if he isn't actively fighting them. When Frodo puts on the Ring and tries to sneak away, Tom tells him to take the Ring off as his "hand's more fair without it", a comment I find very interesting. He dislikes the Ring, even if only because he considers it a gaudy accessory. Fitting his passive behavior, he didn't go out looking for the hobbits, but he says he expected them to come and waited for them, so he has some kind of interest in their journey.
Tom is the subject of many theories as to his nature, but I don't understand the confusion. To me, Tom is obviously an embodiment of the land. He's as old as the world because he is the world. The Ring can't affect him any more than it affected the river Isildur lost it in. To destroy Tom, Sauron would first need to conquer all other lands, to already rule over the world before snuffing out its personification. Tom is the world without any influence of Sauron: lively, happy, full of song, but a little eerie while possessing powers which are hard to define. That's why he's encountered so close to the Shire, and why the hobbits stay in his household before meeting Aragorn and heading towards Rivendell. Tom is the spirit of what they are trying to save, it makes sense for him to stand at the journey's threshold.
Tom is capable of these feats because he lacks any desire to control. Gandalf opposes Sauron, but that desire would make him susceptible to the Ring's influence, just like all the other characters opposing Sauron. They want to do good, but Sauron can twist any desire into a need to dominate. This is also why Tom can't help carry the Ring; if he began to care about it, he would no longer be immune. Tom's defining characteristic is minding his own damn business to a supernatural degree, something I'm not sure if Rings of Power understands. Tom is not a guy who makes or fits into plans.
I do like his song in RoP, though.
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