Frodo Baggins

Dear nerds!
Is it just me or is Frodo Baggins a kind of lame movie hero?
I mean think about it, how's doing all the hard work, really?
He's just not cool!
I have to give him credit for carrying the ring, all the way from THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING to THE RETURN OF THE KINGS, but come on! He doesn't even have the strength to destroy the ring! He's supposed to be the pure hearted hobbit how can resist the power of the evil ring. But noooo! He is suffering through the whole adventure and everybody have to take care of him. He is just slowing the others down!
I mean, Aragon and Legolas are the true heroes. They wouldn't be anything if it weren't for Gandalf and even Mary and Pippin fights more orcs than Frodo! But the bravest caracter in Lord of the Rings must be our beloved Sam! If anyone deserves more attention, it's Sam!
So please don't hate, but am I wrong? Or is Frodo an overredemaided hero?
Discuss!

Not gonna hate. But I am going to disagree a bit.

This is true, but it's a commentary on the ring, not on Frodo. The fact that he resists as long and as much as he does is remarkable.

This would be true if just anybody could carry the ring, but as the story shows us again and again, half the difficulty is finding someone who won't give into it. So while it may seem slow, the alternative is giving it to Aragorn or Gandalf, and if that happens, the Fellowship certainly dissolves. Which is why the latter asks Frodo not to offer it to him in the first place.

I guess it depends on what you think heroism is. If you think it's just skill, then I suppose this would be true. But my definition of heroism is based on courage. And who needs more courage to fight? An experienced warrior, or a tiny hobbit?

Totally agree with this (and so did Tolkien, by the way).

Frodo isn't supposed to be a hero that swoops in an saves the day. He was written as an everyman: a simple, ordinary person whose ordinary acts of courage and sacrifice are enough to see things through to the end. Although published in the fifties, the novels were predominantly written between world wars, where the fate of the world was left in the hands of ordinary people who wanted nothing more than to stay home. Frodo's designed to be more like the friendly country boy down the way than John McClain.

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Frodo did fail in destroying the Ring, true... but it was his selflessness that made him a Hero.
Nobody stepped up to take the Ring to Mordor. The council were just fighting amongst themselves and it was Frodo that united them by stepping up.


It was also this action by Frodo that inevitably created The Fellowship.


Everyone within the story is a Hero in their own way... but flip this thinking around and you could say Gollum was a Hero too.


His devotion to The One Ring, his love for it, his need for it... he walked through metaphorical fire and brimstone to stay where the Ring was.
His ultimate goal can be frowned upon (to keep the Ring for himself, but isn't that what Frodo did in the end? Keep the RIng?), but his uncontrollable passion to be with the Ring saw him even captured and tortured by the enemy which still didn't stop him.
And... in the end, it was Gollum who actually destroyed it. In an act of stupidity, but nevertheless, it was Gollum.


The film is different from the book, but is still pretty close to what happened.

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Frodo is just a dude struggling with an addiction. If you want to talk about action heroes, yeah legolas is a bigger action hero. He kills elephants and surfs on their trunks.

Frodo's struggle is internal, he was never meant to be an action hero, which is apparently what you are looking for.

I've read all that you've had to say and I kind of agree in a lot of ways, but I still think that Frodo is overresdemaided...
But hey I'm just 17, I'm still learning
It's an interesting thought there with Gollum. He destroyed the ring, but no one never pays attention to that fact.. Hm...

Thanks for great answers! It's good with a little perspective!

Frodo has the skills required todo the task required of him, a task that Gandalf?Aragorn and all the others are too afraid to try themselves.


An unorthodox hero for sure but also a legendary hero in his own way.

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Sam was always my favorite character. Merry and Pippin were a couple of free spirited screw ups who happen to make a significant contribution to the surrounding events by pure chance. Not unlike how Gilligan managed to unwittingly save the day constantly in Gilligans Island.

Frodo was of course bearing the brunt of the rings influence completely solo (till the end when Sam put it on. In the film he didnt, but instead just toted Frodo with ring up that mountain). So anyone that likes their heroes hard spirited, quiet, and strong then Frodo's not for you.

Okay I get it, Frodo is not the typical "action hero". But he is grumpy as well, why would anyone like a grumpy movie hero?
And other interesting question, does Frodo ever kill any orcs in the movies?

Dumb question maybe, his sword glows blue when orcs are nearby? Right? Or was that Bilbos sword?

Dayum. In Star Wars I bet you didn't like Luke Skywalker, did you?

Haha well, he was cute...so it's not really the same thing But no, he wasn't my favorit character...

Yes. They both have same sword, Sting, which Bilbo gave to Frodo when they meet each other in Rivendell in preparation for the journey south. No Frodo does not kill any orcs. One of the key elements/themes of the story and the Fellowship is to keep Frodo safe at all times even though he faces extreme danger many times i.e. the battle atop Weathertop, the fight inside Balin's Tomb, the flight through halls to gates of Moria, his escape atop the Falls of Rauros, he does not kill orcs.

Frodo wishes to Gandalf that Bilbo had slain Gollum when he had the chance, that he deserved death.

"Deserves death," replies Gandalf, "I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death and many are dead that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be so hasty to deal out death. Even the very wise can not see all ends. It may be that the pity of Bilbo will rule the fate of many."

The summoning up of the urge to hate, which is needed to kill, is to allow an entry point for the evil of the ring to enter the soul of the one who wears the ring.

This is Frodo's real battle and his great burden - to fight the evil influence, the evil calling of the one ring to hate all living things. It is this fight, to fight the evil impulses stirring in his own soul that makes Frodo the real hero of this tale from the Third Age of Middle Earth.

Yes, Aragon, Gandalf, Legolas and Gimli the dwarf, and Merry, Pippin and Boromir and especially Sam display courage and bravery and fighting ability, all that would be for naught if it wasn't for the heroic burden of this humble hobbit of the shire.

P.S. I hope you will find some time to read the books, they are much deeper and richer than the movies, which over all do good job of interpreting the books.

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You have to think like a hero merely to behave like a decent human being.

But Frodo's downright adorable! He even has little suspenders like a big person!