#and people saying that sam is the real hero
frodo baggins the iconic reluctant hero who saved the entirety of arda deserves so much better than “sam gamgee is the real hero” i said what i said
#yes!!!!!! its not that sam’s contributions shouldn’t be appreciated#but frodo bore like impossible psychological torment and despair#and yet clowns still act like this because#he does actually crack and struggle under the stress#and he doesn’t have some aragorn style battle scene#but GO OFF i guess
“Frodo deserved all honour because he spent every drop of his power of will and body, and that was just sufficient to bring him to the destined point, and no further. Few others, possibly no others of his time, would have got so far.” –J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter 192
Let’s be real, at least half the reason people refuse to see Frodo as the “real hero” of the story is because he actively chooses non-violence and mercy.
I remember some YouTube commenter writing “Frodo is so overrated, he never even kills anyone” and if that doesn’t win the award for Most Impressive Failure to Get the Point, I’m not sure what does.
#tbh I adore sam gamgee#but he would throw hands if he knew people were praising him by putting frodo down via@the-artifice-of-eternity
some little hobbit child listening to a story: geez did Frodo even do anything
all the adults in the room: no doN’T
samwise gamgee vaulting in through the window: FIRST OF ALL
Hot Take time:
Neither of them is a hero.
They are two halves of a single hero. (No, this is not a joke about being hobbit-sized.)
Frodo is the one who has to bear the mental torture and hardship of the Ring–but without Sam, he couldn’t have. Who is there to offer a joke, a smile, a hug, an unjudging ear, an extra bite of bread when Frodo looks peaky and ill, a doubled-up bedroll when it’s too cold for a small hobbit used to a good hole with a warm fire? Frodo would have failed long before he reached Mount Doom without Sam to cheer him on.
Likewise: Sam could never have made the journey alone. He doesn’t have Frodo’s mental strength. But he’s a gardener: his job is to make things grow, to nurture them and make them flourish. Who is there to give him a purpose as he travels across a land so big, so far, hoping to save his home?
Separate the pair of them, and neither would have made it. Frodo needed the shelter of Sam’s heart in order to find his way–and Sam needed a leader.
It’s literally love and friendship and camaraderie that save Middle Earth. Neither could be the chosen one alone.
It’s literally love and friendship and camaraderie that saved Middle Earth. Neither could be the chosen one alone.And that was, in fact, Tolkien’s entire point.
