He's obviously fibbing, if he read it he would know that Gollum destroys The Ring.
this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2025
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Eru.
He doesn't like to intervene, but between a few things like Gandalf being sent back and the oops he gave to the finale, he was like...okay, free will and whatever but the song needs to progress to the next movement. We can't keep repeating this.
Frodo carried it all the way there. Frodo spared Gollum’s life when he wanted sooo bad to kill him instead. He had remembered Gandalf’s words: “it was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand.” It was Frodo’s mercy in sparing Gollum’s life that destroyed the ring. Had he chosen to kill Gollum then the ring would’ve survived and the cycle of violence would’ve continued.
Frodo was a hero not only because he was courageous in the face of overwhelming odds. He was a hero because he was merciful. By sparing Gollum’s life, he never allowed himself to be tainted by the ring’s dark logic: that ends always justify means.
its still probably a mistake to be merciful to those who want to hurt you, on the off chance that the way they hurt you might end up bypassing the defenses of some cosmic horror
That sort of thinking is why we have people like Putin in this world. If you want to build a peaceful society you’re going to have to take risks and trust people without all the information.
Everyone for themselves bunker mentality is the way of the jungle, not civilization.
please don’t mix up fiction and reality
game theory and human nature studies show reality shits on constantly turning the other cheek
Tolkien’s lesson was not “turn the other cheek every time.” By all means, restrain Gollum from hurting you. Drive him away and ostracize him. But to justify killing him is a different matter entirely.
putting golem in solitary isn't a mercy
you just took his most precious possession, he’s not exactly going to stop coming after you and in real life he doesn't instead decide to help you and kill himself
stories like this are important as they inspire better behavior but making decisions like this should be done with a clear understanding you’re gonna fuck yourself
I didn’t say anything about solitary! Don’t put words in my mouth.
We as a society have laws. People who break those laws go to jail. This functions as a method of restraining them from harming us. We could decide to just kill them instead!
But we don’t!
And of course I feel the need to remind you that my original point was in regards to Frodo’s status as a hero. Most people aren’t heroes and never will be. Tolkien believed that society needs heroes to look up to for moral guidance.
At the same time, he was redefining what it means to be a hero. He believed that the old idea of a hero, one who seeks glory and honour, was a bad ideal. In response he created the modern ideal of a reluctant hero who is selfless, not glory-seeking.
sorry the solitary was tongue in cheek
but don’t use the word laws around here, don’t you know they are only threats made by the dominant socioeconomic-ethnic group in a given nation
as to frodo being a hero I agree, heroes in a story also rarely suffer for their poor judgement and stuff just works out
You must not have read LotR too closely if you didn’t think Frodo suffered. He was stabbed by the Morgul-knife which left a wound that pained him for the rest of his life. He was bit by Shelob with a paralyzing bite that left him listless. He lost his finger to Gollum and never got it back.
When he returned to the Shire (and settled down after the scouring of the Shire) he found he could no longer find happiness in daily life. He suffered intensely with PTSD and the pain of his old wounds. When he was offered the opportunity to sail off to the undying lands (home of the Valar and the place to which all elves were leaving Middle Earth for) he took it. This was him admitting he could no longer live a happy, normal life among people who had not felt the trauma of war as deeply as he had.
sounds like a tuesday but real people don’t get the jesus allegory elven wonderland at the end
but yea all his suffering is relatively personal and he won in the end, so kinda minor
still pretty fantastical it resulted the way it did
Came here to mention this.
Why did Jesus not simply ride the giant eagles to Jerusalem?
He was nailed down
All he has to do is whisper to a moth and the eagles would have helped with that
Ikr, absolute skill issue
My favorite part is when Eowyn feeds 5000 people at helms deep with just one bowl of bad fish soup.
Fucken poser pretending it’s not Tom Bombadil’s song about Goldberry.
Depends how good a signer they are when reading... It may also be the worst part of the book 😵
"Have you ever read the Greatest Story Ever Told?"
Not all of the additional ones or all the appendixes, but yes, the main parts.
Reminded me of a post I read long ago talking about the Greatest Story line that is often used for the Bible. "THIS??? THIS is the greatest story ever told? WTF?" It's really not that great overall. Quotable, sure...but the plot and characters suck.
"Have you ever read the Greatest Story Ever Told?"
Yes, and the (old) Bible's authors have too (Gilgamesh and Atrahasis Epics).
"Their taking the Hobbits to Eisengard".....gard gard gard gard.
It's a hymn now
They're*
Isengard*
Thanks. Not sure they would have gotten the joke without the correction. Your a gym.
Gem*
You’re*
Oh wow, an unironic "thanks" for this. I legitimately couldn't work out what "gym" was supposed to mean.
You also have an edit function at your disposal in case you wish to make it easier to recognize for further readers.
Btw, I'm currently reading The Hobbit to my 5yo before bed and she fucking loves it.
Now she want a Smaug teddy... If anyone have this somewhere, I'm interested.
You can get pattern for making a plush smaug yourself of etsy for relative little money. If you don't know how to use it you might have somebody in your social circle who could help you out.
Generic plush dragons should be easy to find in the Internet, I saw at least ons of Amazon (tough there hopefully are better options).
I didn't though about etsy, thanks for the tips !
When I was a child (5ish) my mum and I sewed a little dragon plush together. It was too cute to be smaug and I hadn't read the Hobbit yet but I love it. Making it was fun too, I have no idea how my mum figured it all out. The suggestion I saw with a pattern seems good but I also wanted to add that for me personally being involved in making my cuddly toy was great and if your child is interested in sewing or just generally being creative (which seems likely) that could be a great experience for your child.
I don't remember reading about this in the Toki Pona book.
That's a really weird way of spelling The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
(I should learn toki pona so I could at least translate the holy book's title)
I loved the part where the jan tokied to the soweli
I liked the part where the one jan soweli unpa'd the other jan soweli more
Why the seme would you toki the unpa tawa a jan lili?
I can't decipher the "unpa tawa" part
tawa is being used as a preposition, not as an adjective. Like in "jan soweli li pona tawa mi"
also, the "a" right after is toki Inli, not toki pona
It's in Appendix E.
When Toad says let's eat one VERY last cookie.
🙏