# Gollu vs Dobby **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 2, 2004, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039 "2004-08-02T23:20:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/1 "2004-08-02T23:20:54Z")
No, this isn’t a ‘who wins?’ thread. I watched CoS the other night and was sort of surprised and maybe a little bit disappointed at the Dobby character - the animation was really very good (perhaps better, or at least more believable than that in LotR), but the character itself is just a little too similar to that of Gollum for my liking (I kept wanting to say _cough_ripoff!_cough_) - the fact that Dobby doesn’t refer to homself in the first person was the final nail in the coffin, I think. Now if someone can just tell me about an interview with Rowling where she says “the film changed the Dobby character a little too much for my liking”, or dammit, even one where she says “when I read LotR, I thought to myself, ‘I must put a Gollum character in one of my books’”, then I’ll be happy. Or am I just imagining it? ---
**Author:** ![jfortun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2acd7d/32.png) [@jfortun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jfortun)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/2 "2004-08-03T00:55:20Z")
Dobby is the least of the LOTR “homages” in the Potter books. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/3 "2004-08-03T00:58:09Z")
Say on, jfortun ---
**Author:** ![jfortun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2acd7d/32.png) [@jfortun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jfortun)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/4 "2004-08-03T01:22:10Z")
The main villian is a evil dark lord that has already been vanquished once. Both adventures start with a birthday. Harry’s 11th and Frodo’s 33rd (and Bilbo’s 111th) Frodo’s Ring makes user invisible. Harry’s cloak does the same. Shelob the giant spider. Aragog the giant spider An old wizard protector. Gandalf/Dumbledore Both Frodo and Harry are taken in by a caring relative who is not parent (Bilbo and Sirius Black) The Mirror of Galadriel and Dumbledore’s pensive. Wormtongue and Wormtail (both traitors) Giant live saving birds (Gwaihir and Buckbeak/Fawkes) the Nazgul and the Dementors (the Black breath and the Kiss) and most important of all: two dogs named Fang. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/5 "2004-08-03T01:43:09Z")
> [@jfortun](#): > > and most important of all: two dogs named Fang. Two dogs named fang? Where the heck is Fang in JRRT’s writing? I recall Huan, Hound of Valinor, and I recall Carcharoth, and I recall Maggot’s dogs, Grip, and Wolf, and… :smack: Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/6 "2004-08-03T04:27:19Z")
Yeah, I read the OP but… Gollum. All the way. It’d be worse than George Foreman vs Pippi Longstocking, and there would be nothing but shattered, marrow-drained Dobby bones littering the canvas. NBC would rake in _billion$_ ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/7 "2004-08-03T06:26:17Z")
Whoah! Thanks jfortun. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/8 "2004-08-03T10:02:52Z")
With respect **jfortun** , some of those similarities are _reaching_ a bit, aren’t they? A cloak of invisibility is a common theme and a convenient device in many magickal writings, whereas The Ring is kind of the main theme in LotR and the invisibility aspect of it seems somewhat incidental. I’ve not read any of the Harry Potter books (or managed to get any considerable way through Tolkien’s writings either, for that matter) - would those of you who have read them like to comment? Is the Dobby/Gollum similarity as striking in writing as it is on screen. ---
**Author:** ![Hamish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Hamish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamish)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/9 "2004-08-03T11:12:18Z")
Their way of speaking is very similar, and they both have large eyes, but beyond that the similarity ends. I don’t think there’s any mention in the books of Dobby’s skin being gollum-grey. Also, their personalities are very different. Dobby is noble enough to suffer extreme punishments to help someone he’s never met. Dobby is also a lot less cunning than Gollum – all of his plans go horribly awry. > [@Inigo Montoya](#): > > Gollum. All the way. It’d be worse than George Foreman vs Pippi Longstocking, and there would be nothing but shattered, marrow-drained Dobby bones littering the canvas. NBC would rake in billion$ I think you’re forgetting one small detail – house-eleves command powerful reserves of magic. They happily teleport in places where teleportation is impossible, and lay curses on objects (like bludgers) that are supposed to be uncursable. Dobby sends Lucius Malfoy running in terror. What’s Gollum fighting with, here? Bare hands? A fish he’s caught? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![jfortun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2acd7d/32.png) [@jfortun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jfortun)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/10 "2004-08-03T13:52:00Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > With respect **jfortun** , some of those similarities are _reaching_ a bit, aren’t they? A cloak of invisibility is a common theme and a convenient device in many magickal writings, whereas The Ring is kind of the main theme in LotR and the invisibility aspect of it seems somewhat incidental. Alone it wouldn’t be much, but taken as a whole there are a lot of similarities- albeit superficial ones. To be fair, it is hard to name any post LOTR fantasy fiction that is not influenced in some way by Tolkien. > [@](#): > > I’ve not read any of the Harry Potter books (or managed to get any considerable way through Tolkien’s writings either, for that matter) - would those of you who have read them like to comment? Is the Dobby/Gollum similarity as striking in writing as it is on screen. The Dobby and Gollum characters do not strike me as similar at all. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/11 "2004-08-03T14:28:01Z")
Gollum’d pull Dobby to bits if he could get the drop on him. If not, Dobby’d teleport him to Mount Doom and beyond. Kind of a one-round wonder fight, you know? Definitely not one where you’d wanna pay $2500 for front row box seats… ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/12 "2004-08-03T14:58:39Z")
> [@Hamish](#): > > What’s Gollum fighting with, here? Bare hands? A fish he’s caught? 😛 I could see Gollum doing this with a wriggling 8 inch brook trout in his teeth–points for style and all. And naturally he’d attack by stealth/deception. Gollum would never square off with an opponent, especially one with powerful magic. I see Dobby standing in the center of the canvas whipping up some mojo and then Gollum surprising him with a 50 foot drop from the stage lights. He would then proceed to wring his “filthy little neck” and entertain the crowd in round two by eating his adversary…after smacking him a few times with the trout and singing a jolly little Dobby-killing song. I don’t mean to hijack, but rather to contrast rather obliquely the two persons in question. If you read _The Black Cauldron_ I believe you’ll find a non-human weakling-hero named Gurgi who also refers to himself in the third person; a nebulous master source of evil; numerous magic baubles; traitors, minions and all the other goodies that go into a good fantasy stew. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/13 "2004-08-03T15:06:18Z")
Maybe in fact the Gollum and Dobby (screen) characters are a tribute to Peter Lorre? ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/14 "2004-08-03T19:42:04Z")
> [@jfortun](#): > > Alone it wouldn’t be much, but taken as a whole there are a lot of similarities- albeit superficial ones. To be fair, it is hard to name any post LOTR fantasy fiction that is not influenced in some way by Tolkien. I have to agree here. I haven’t read much fantasy but I have read all the HP and LOTR books. Tolkien kind of covered all the bases. I imagine that it’d be hard to write a fantasy without seeming to steal at least one of his ideas. And, Gollum would so kick Doby’s ass. He’d sneak up on Doby all stealthily and clobber him with a fish before Doby even knew he was there. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/15 "2004-08-04T19:38:32Z")
I thought the movie Dobby was a disappointment. I had the image in my head of the goofy character as drawn in the GrandPre chapter headings. Eyes the size of tennis balls and all that. ---
**Author:** ![RogueRacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RogueRacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueRacer)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/16 "2004-08-04T20:25:56Z")
Gollum also completely owned Dobby at the MTV music awards. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gollu-vs-dobby/258039/17 "2004-08-04T20:29:22Z")
Sorry for the hijack but, Every time I get an e-mail at work, I hear Gollum say, “My Precioussssss”. My coworkers all think I’m nuts but it’s so cool! End hijack.