Frodo Baggins is an interesting kind of character. Here is a small guy with hairy feet, who constantly looks panicked, speaks in a high squeaky voice and needs constant back-up from his gardener – who is trusted with a mission to destroy the scariest Ring in the world, made by the scariest Bad Guy in the world, in the scariest place in the world.
Ahum.
Realism never was Tolkien’s strong point, I believe.
Giving a complete profile of Frodo in the trilogy would be an immense work, worthy of much ale and even more reward, but since I’m doing these profiles for free, and since I ran out of Amaretto, we’ll skip the boring parts and get right to the exciting bits.
Exciting bit #1: Frodo Is Brave
Because yes, despite his general appearance and his issues with gravity, Frodo is still braver than your average Barnes & Nobles character: he isn’t totally spooked by panicky Gandalf, he doesn’t run away screaming his head off when encountering a Ringwraith, he survives a deadly stab with a Morgul-blade (though Arwen crying over him was probably a huge incentive), he only faints a little when stabbed by the cave-troll and so on and so forth.
All in all, one could say that in-between fainting and staring blankly into space, Frodo is actually your average action hero!
And then of course there’s the small matter of accepting the scariest Ring in the world, made by the scariest… You know the deal.
Exciting bit #2: Frodo Is Cool
Why is Frodo cool, you might ask? Because he knows all the cool people! He does, too! Look at who this guy can call ‘homie’: there’s Gandalf the Grey, wizard extraordinaire; Strider/Aragorn/Estel/Elessar/Whatnot – the King of Gondor; Lord Elrond (who owns the crib to rule all cribs); Lady Galadriel (eat that, Snoop!); Faramir, prince of Ithilien and hubby to Éowyn and, of course, the ‘true hero’ of the movies… Gollum! The dude who destroys the Ring!
Aside from this ‘coolness through association’, Frodo also has all the right attributes: he has the nerdy sidekick who would make anyone look cool (picking over potatoes, tsssk, Sam, so not done!), he has the bling bling (a fancy Ring and a mithril shirt worth half the Shire, being well-appreciated as a token of his wealth) and Sting, a sword that glows in the dark.
Exciting bit #3: Frodo Is a Buddhist
The fact that Frodo, in the end, does not let the quest fail, is a remarkable one. Because one might be tempted to believe, what with the fainting and the getting captured / needing to be rescued by / from Shelob / Orcs and then the not-throwing-the-Ring-in-the-fire and all, that Frodo failed. That it was chance that made him and Gollum stumble over the edge.
But of course it was not! It was Frodo’s kindness and pity that in the end, created the possibility for the quest to succeed: Frodo believed in Gollum, from the start, and spared his life on many occasions. And however misguided that might have seemed at the time, if not for these decisions there would have been no one to bite off his finger in the end – and Hairy Lord Frodo would have known a very short-lived reign.
Some evil people whisper that this is due to Peter Jackson being a fanatic born-again Christian, but any decent LOTR scholar knows that J.R.R. Tolkien was actually a closet Buddhist, who used his works as a way to express his faith.
Exciting bit #4: Frodo Lives
And yes, if all of this is not enough, Frodo manages to survive his scary quest! Only barely, but he does. He gets to sail into the West! (Where he’ll probably spend eternity listening to Bilbo asking his Ring back…)
But, of course, the true conquest Frodo is known for, is the conquest of our hearts. Because, let’s face it, Frodo is probably the one character that audiences sympathize with most. He’s kind and gentle, he’s cool, he’s loyal, he’s got those huge baby-blue eyes and you just want him to succeed.
That, is the true legacy of the movies: that audiences worldwide have left theatres resolving to be, from that moment on, a little more like Frodo…
Small disclaimer: The observing reader may have discerned some hints of sarcasm here and there. If you want to blame someone, either blame the one who came up with the bloody idea in the first place; the one who made the voices whisper in my head or the one we all blame when things go wrong.
For a slightly more serious take on Frodo, you are free to check out the following articles in the Books vs. Movies Section:
– Frodo in FOTR by Figwit
– Frodo in TTT by AinarielPalantir
– Frodo in ROTK by AinarielPalantir
by Figwit
