• DaGeek247@fedia.io
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    20 days ago

    Fwiw, the ring had an aura of evil, not just a touch-based curse of evil. Boromir was by all accounts a cool guy until being around the ring made him go temporarily fucky in the head.

    • BigBoyShuanzee@aussie.zone
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      20 days ago

      It also affects Sam when he’s carrying Frodo in his back but Sam is so humble and modest that what the ring offers him he has no interest in.

      • arctanthrope@lemmy.world
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        20 days ago

        it’s not mentioned having any effect while he carries Frodo up the mountain, the part where he’s tempted is when he’s carrying it directly, while Frodo is captured by the orcs in the Tower of Cirith Ungol.

        He had feared that he would have barely the strength to lift his master alone, and beyond that he had expected to share in the dreadful dragging weight of the accursed Ring. But it was not so. Whether because Frodo was so worn by his long pains… or because some gift of final strength was given to him, Sam lifted Frodo with no more difficulty than if he was carrying a hobbit-child pig-a-back in some romp on the lawns or hayfields of the Shire.

        • [object Object]@lemmy.ca
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          20 days ago

          This feels like it calls back to the Hobbit in two ways:

          When Gollum réalises he’s lost the ring he fears he can’t hunt anymore nor escape past the ever-guarded goblin gates, he succumbs to that fear and weeps.

          When Bilbo wears it he is able to jump cleanly over Gollum’s head, finding a strength he never would have had, and so easily he never even questions it.

      • brem@sh.itjust.works
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        20 days ago

        …and so the ring did see Sam’s greed, rosebushes the size of trees…and the ring was so overcome by Sam’s loyalty and pureness of heart; for a moment it too wanted a garden. Against the hatred and greed of Sauron, the impurities within the ring thought (if only for a second)…

        …rosebud ;)

    • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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      20 days ago

      I don’t see it as an “aura”, more as an almost sentient being, that is capable of subtly pulling at people’s desires - Tolkien writes that Sauron transferred his will to dominate and his malice into the ring, along with most of his power, so it makes sense to me that it would be capable of playing an active role in corrupting people, not just as some “blanket AoE curse”.

      For Boromir the ring acted as a psychological amplification of his own noble but desperate intentions. The Ring didnt create evil feelings out of nothing; instead, it acted as a corrupting mirror for his existing burdens.

      It briefly did the same to Gandalf and Galadriel, but thankfully both were able to resist its pull - maybe carrying a ring of power themselves helped them…

    • brem@sh.itjust.works
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      20 days ago

      fucky in the head.

      Pipin…let’s go, smokes

      …btw, what’s the radius of AOE for this ring? We talkin’ maybe some of the faster fish in Golem’s nook might’ve gotten away and become a giant squid monster in a pond outside of a magic door? Or just a radiated warmth for anti-Maiar such as Balrogs?

  • MightyLordJason@lemmy.world
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    20 days ago

    I am not a Tolkien scholar, but my understanding is that the would do its evil-ring best to get away from something as weak as a chicken and onto the finger of a more powerful thrall.

    • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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      20 days ago

      The ring would attract all types to it. Not to mention, Gollum will have a much easier time robbing a chicken than a Hobbit and it isn’t like this hyopthetical somehow solves the Gollum problem.

    • MimicJar@lemmy.world
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      20 days ago

      I mean The Ring chilled with Gollum for a long time. To The Ring I’m sure a chicken and Gollum were about an equal level of weakness. It’s also said that The Ring abandoned Gollum, as in it made a choice.

      Although it didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry, since The Ring stayed with Bilbo for a while.

  • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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    20 days ago

    The reply is damn spot on, the whole of middle earth was terrified of it falling into the hands of almost anyone - if they were powerful enough, they’d become a new Sauron, if weak enough they’d be virtually enslaved by the ring and made to return it to the dark lord.

    A hobbit was literally around the threat level of a chicken, with the added bonus of being thick skulled enough for the ring to have a hard time influencing them…

    Granted, Frodo was much more seriously affected than Bilbo, but Sauron had regained much power by then, they were much closer having travelled into Mordor itself, Frodo was physically and emotionally debilitated during a big part of the trip, and he was fully aware of the burden he was carrying. Finally, the ring actively fought back as they approached Mount Doom, becoming heavier and aggressively trying to corrupt Frodo.

    The boys did good there.

    • FrChazzz@lemmus.org
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      20 days ago

      He also got stabbed by the Witch King, which I’m sure had an effect bonus on the ring’s influence over him.

      • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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        20 days ago

        Well, I didn’t want to go into all the ways Frodo was debilitated during the journey, but most evident ones:

        • the Morgul-blade splinter in his shoulder that never healed, as you mentioned;
        • Shelob’s sting - the extent of the physical and psycological consequences of that ordeal couldn’t have been light and some possibly permanent;
        • Physical deprivation, from the long months of marching, poor sleep, starvation, dehydration, and exhaustion;
        • Psychological/“spiritual” trauma from the One Ring trying to erode his will, the strain of fighting against Sauron’s desire to dominate that is within the ring

        That luxury trip package to the Undying Lands didn’t come cheap.

    • filcuk@feddit.uk
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      20 days ago

      Just to expand on what you’ve written, the ring takes over those who wish for power. It can be power for good too, such as with Gandalf.
      Hobbits care for none of that. They want to drink, smoke and tend to their garden. That’s why the ring struggled to take power over Frodo.

  • ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip
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    20 days ago

    The ring isn’t just inert. It’s constantly trying to return to Sauron. It would be trying to get that chicken to leave, or drop it somewhere. How many times did the group get caught in some chaotic battle or had to run from something.

    Or hide… You can bet that ring is gonna make the chicken start making noise if there’s an army of orcs sniffing around

  • TootSweet@lemmy.world
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    20 days ago

    The moment you put the ring around the chicken’s ankle, there’s a “poof” sound and cloud of smoke. When the smoke clears, there stands Sauron with the ring on his finger screaming “you thought I was just a chicken but it was me all along!”

  • bedwyr@piefed.ca
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    20 days ago

    The hobbits were not chickens though, they were amongst the bravest, just not as capable of violence.

  • _stranger_@lemmy.world
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    20 days ago

    Well, in the Sillmarillion, Lluvatar tells Melkor “Nice try fucking up my song, but I thought of that, watch:” and then middle earth was made.

    It’s my theory that hobbits were Lluvatar’s answer to Melkors machinations.