Yeah, the author already made his choice when he wrote it (two of them in point of fact, even if one of them came back), but this is our chance to rewrite things.
Gimli. As much as I prefer dwarves to those poncy hippy elves, killing Gimli would change nothing in the story-he’s disposable.
All of them?
“Rocks fall - everyone dies.”
Fool of a Took!
Sam, he’s ok, but the longing stares he and Frodo shared got old real fast.
Boromir dies anyway. Sure, he saved Merry and Pippin from the orcs, but they wouldn’t have been in that situation if Boromir hadn’t tried to steal the ring.
Frodo. He was completely useless and only made things worse foe everyone. He didn’t even do the one job he had.
I think the story makes clear he is the only one who can carry the ring. Which is kinda a big deal.
Give Frodo a break. He was carrying the most corrupting thing around his neck for months. If Sam, or anyone else, had had the ring for as long he too would be as fucked up in the end or worse.
I don’t think we read the same book or watched the same movie… :dubious:
I’d leave the novel just the way it is.
The film? Frodo, without remorse.
Boromir because he dies anyway
I’m assuming from the poll that we kill Boromir before he dies anyway, which means I have to vote someone else. Boromir needs to be there to show the temptation of the ring and to introduce the Steward/King conflict in Gondor. Since he dies right after he’s tempted by the ring, killing him any earlier would weaken his role too much.
Gimli is the one who gets my vote. Book Gimli is less annoying than movie Gimli… but he’s even less memorable. Either version of him is redundant except that the party needed a dwarf to meet their affirmative action mandate.
Much as I like book Gimli and in full understanding of his role in showing that elves and dwarves, although incredibly different, can still find understanding and friendship with one another, he honestly adds nothing significant to the Fellowship.
Gandalf. He’ll just come back with a different color.
poof Now he’s Gandalf the Yellow!
poof Now he’s Gandalf the Green!
poof Now he’s Gandalf the Chartreusse!
It’s easy enough to pick someone you WANT to die. Actually managing to bump them off would be another thing entirely. A lot of these dudes are tough hombres. So I’d pick Pippin. You could probably take him out with a sausage with a fishing hook inside it.
I get the point of people saying Gimli, but I disagree. It’s important to show that this quest is something that is of vital importance to all the people’s of Middle Earth. Further, consider just how important the dwarves are in The Hobbit, it would be just straight up odd to just leave them out of the sequel trilogy. Plus, let’s not consider just how much the dwarves really don’t care about matters other than their riches.
I think it goes without saying that Gandalf and Aragorn have to be there, and I think a good argument for why Boromir needs to be there was already made. To a certain extent, I could see someone saying Legolas is expendable too, but again, I think he needs to be there to show that this affects the elves too. I don’t think he’s as important or as awesome as clearly a lot of people do. Plus, like the dwarves, it’s made clear that the elves generally don’t concern themselves with matters of men, but that he’s there clearly shows just how important this situation is.
To that end, I think it HAS to be one of the hobbits. I get why they’re there, notably that even small and insignificant people can impact history, but we don’t need FOUR of them. Even if Frodo was annoying, he’s the whole reason the whole reason there is even a fellowship. Sam needed to be there if, for no other reason, to give Frodo a companion for his journey, otherwise Frodo’s journey is just that much more boring. Thus, it has to be either Merry or Pippin. For a couple small parts, they need to play off of eachother, but other than that, they typically have someone else to work with, whether it’s Treebeard or the orcs or whatever. Of those, Pippin not only annoys me more, but seems more superfluous on the whole. I don’t think he needed to be there at all, and what parts he did do could be given to Merry or someone else.
By that token, I’d also be okay with Merry, but Pippin is my first choice.
Merry.
He has to die anyway. I hate to tell him that, however Desmond has tried to save him again and again…but he’s gonna die, bruthah.
If you’d asked me this question thirty years ago, I would have agreed with you.
However, the more I’ve read the books, the more I think Merry and Pippin fit right into the theme Tolkien wanted to push: it’s not about being a great warrior or powerful wizard, but about the little people all deciding to do their part where they are able to. In that sense, I’ve come to see them as pivotal to the theme, even if they’re not pivotal to the plot.
Frodo. Give the damn thing to Sam.