They could have fitted the whole ring / tape / mouse assembly into a small paper bag Aragorn could have kept it in his jacket and fed it little bits of lembas on the way how lovely x

  • mindbleach@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    31·
    1 year ago

    They say he couldn’t keep it safe. And he couldn’t - because he does not care. He is the personification of Middle Earth itself, and the ring has no effect on him because the plot has no effect on him. Whatever you think of his inclusion, being a cartoon character set firmly askew in a fairly grounded universe, he is a reminder that Sauron threatens the people of this world… not the world. In his wildest egomaniacal fantasies, Sauron still lacks the power to impact the stage for all this drama. His boss, the devil, can’t even do that.

    The executive summary of Tolkien’s whole cosmology is that Melkor declared he would ruin the song that is reality, and the omnipotent creator of all things told him, “You can try.”

    • UnderwaterSwift@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      ‘But in any case,’ said Glorfindel, ‘to send the Ring to him would only postpone the day of evil. He is far away. We could not now take it back to him, unguessed, unmarked by any spy. And even if we could, soon or late the Lord of the Rings would learn of its hiding place and would bend all his power towards it. Could that power be defied by Bombadil alone? I think not. I think that in the end, if all else is conquered, Bombadil will fall, Last as he was First; and then Night will come.’

      ‘I know little of Iarwain save the name,’ said Galdor; ‘but Glorfindel, I think, is right. Power to defy our Enemy is not in him, unless such power is in the earth itself. And yet we see that Sauron can torture and destroy the very hills. What power still remains lies with us, here in Imladris, or with Cirdan at the Havens, or in Lórien. But have they the strength, have we here the strength to withstand the Enemy, the coming of Sauron at the last, when all else is overthrown?’

      It says right there hiding the ring with him, even if he didn’t lose it on accident would still be a failure. Sauron would steamroll middle earth and he would have gone out last as he had also been the first, and the ring would have returned to Sauron in total victory.

      • mindbleach@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        21·
        1 year ago

        Yeah that totally contradicts where I said he could keep it safe, oh wait.

        The text is outright telling you, eventually Sauron would get it. Not by “steamrolling” anything. Tortuously, through the use of all his power, with several hint-hint comparisons to the world itself having no strong opinion. Not because Tom Bombadil is any less capable than some half-pint farmers and a few aristocrats. He’s filled to his feather-topped brim with bullshit magic. But the power to defy the enemy is not within him. Frodo shows him the ring and he barely gives a shit.

        You’re arguing like I think he’s the bestest OC ever, donut steel. Nah. He’s Roger Rabbit. Eddie gets handcuffed to Roger, they barely survive some shenanigans, and when he finally gets a hacksaw to separate them Roger slides his hand out so he can lean in and watch. Eddie understandably throttles him, demanding - “You mean you could’ve done that, at any time?!” Roger tells him: “No! Only when it was funny.”