# I've never read LOTR.  Will I like the movie(s)?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-never-read-lotr-will-i-like-the-movie-s/495059>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 2, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-never-read-lotr-will-i-like-the-movie-s/495059 "2009-05-02T03:16:46Z")\
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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-never-read-lotr-will-i-like-the-movie-s/495059/391 "2009-06-24T06:48:20Z")

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> [@John\_DiFool](#):
>
> [cough]Tom Bombadil[/cough]

Exactly my point about Sam maybe being too good hearted to carry the Ring. Bombadil couldn’t carry the ring because it was so unimportant to him that he would lose it, right? The Ring doesn’t like being held by people it can’t manipulate at least somewhat. If the Ring could not have converted Frodo, it would have left him, just like it did Gollum.

> [@Was the death of PC games really nigh? Revisiting an old thread.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-death-of-pc-games-really-nigh-revisiting-an-old-thread/500494/42):
>
> …when Frodo demands the Ring back, Sam hesitates very briefly only because he is reluctant to burden Frodo with it again. Frodo and Bilbo are wealthy and therefore accustomed to some degree of power; at the very least they lack Sam’s humility. But, that said, a lack of ambition for power is supposedly the very reason why a hobbit was able to bear the ring without succumbing entirely to it, when great lords of Men and Elves could not.

Ah. I hadn’t thought about that being the reason Sam hesitated. That’s actually more consistent with his character. And I don’t think it’s a lack of ambition in hobbits, but that the ambition is so small that any manipulations can be easily dismissed, ala Sam.

The way I see it, then, is that, Frodo overcame more than Sam did, but Sam overcame completely, while Frodo failed at the very end. In other words, while Sam got a 7 out of 7, Frodo got a 7 out of 10. (Yeah, I know a C isn’t a failing grade, but it is considered “average”, which is what Frodo’s failure really was. At the end, he succumbed like an average inhabitant of Middle Earth.)

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