Ring Resistance

Tom Bombadil. He's a merry fellow.

Have No Clue what the answer is to your Question


Just wanted to Show my love for this Movie and Trilogy

I Avoided these movies at all costs for almost 15 years ....

In 2014 I watched The Lord Of the Rings Trilogy for the 1st time...It was the single greatest movie experience of my life...

I've since Watched The Trilogy 7 Times and I always Love it just as much every time

I have the opinion TLOTR trilogy is by far the greatest Trilogy ever made and also Literally 3 of the greatest individual movies ever made

I truly wish I could go back in Time and experience these movies in The Theaters as They Originally Came Out, I think thats the only thing That could Top my experience I had watching these films in 2014


Its also worth noting, after watching TLOTR Trilogy in 2014 and having such an amazing experience, I of course immediately wanted to watch The Hobbit Trilogy...

and While I'm in no way saying The Hobbit films are even close to the level of The LOTR films, I must admit, I absolutely enjoy the hell out of The Hobbit films as well, I've watched them 5 times and enjoy them every time...

Peter Jackson did something absolutely Legendary and IMO almost Magical with The LOTR Trilogy.

The Battle of Helms Deep, Is one of my favorite Movie Sequences of all time.


I keep hoping ever since The Covid 19 crisis started and some Movies theaters are playing older movies in absence of New Movies, That I'll read somewhere about a movie theater playing The LOTR trilogy in theaters....I would drive HOURS for a chance to see these films in theaters!

The big difference between Bilbo and Frodo is that the first merely viewed it as a magic ring that allowed him to disappear while the second knew from day one that it was the Ring of Power. I think that made it a lot worst for Frodo.

Actually, believe it or not, Hobbits in general have the highest resistance to the Ring. My brother says it's because Hobbits are an inherently good people, and it apparently takes a lot to corrupt them. Like you said, it took decades for Bilbo to start showing signs of corruption, but then again he wasn't actually wearing it most of the time. He either had it in a box on his fireplace mantle, or in his pocket.

Frodo turned evil after a year because he had it on his person almost constantly, rather than just having it in his house and wearing it once in a long while. That, and like you said, the Ring's power to corrupt was much nastier once Sauron came to power.

Sadly, humans have the lowest resistance to the Ring's power. It took probably less than a few weeks, maybe even just a month for Isildur to start using it and then refusing to destroy it in the volcano.

What is bothersome is what happened during the meeting of Elrond, when people started arguing, and Frodo looked into the reflection of the Ring and saw flames consuming everyone in the room. None of them were even touching the Ring, and yet it was causing all of them to feel anger and sow discord between each other.

I have a feeling people such as elves, or Maiar like Gandalf probably would have had almost no resistance at all, which is one reason they feared it so much, and tried very hard not to touch it at all, or stay too close to it.

I would say Sam for sure. I don't understand why he said "I can't carry the ring, but I can carry you", which almost turned out disastrously (Gollum accidentally saved the day). He HAD carried it! He should have just grabbed it, run up the hill, and chucked it into the volcano.

I think Sam would have been like Frodo, able to tolerate the damned thing for a while, but worn down to a shadow of his self over time. He might have been able to stick it out a bit longer, as he was more direct and more stubborn than the sensitive Frodo, but it'd have slowly ruined him, too. Saruman wasn't IMHO corrupted by the Ring itself but by his own desire for power, so that means... Gollum probably tolerated it better than anyone. He had it for 500 years, but that was when the Ring was having a sort of extended nap or was too bored by Gollum's lifestyle to do anything to anyone, and it didn't take the trouble to mess with its host.

That is the enduring theme of Tolkien's masterpiece - not that power corrupts, but that the desire for power corrupts. Those who want power the most, are those least to be trusted with it. And that's how Tolkien lived, like a hobbit, he had a wife, family, and work he loved, and had the sense to be content with what he had and not seek power.

There have been many discussions as to who could resist the One Ring's evil longer. It all has to do with what Middle-Earth race you are, and how much close contact you had with the Ring.

Hobbits had the highest resistance because they are very kind-hearted and good by nature. It's difficult to corrupt most of them, even with magic. Resistance to the Ring also depended on whether you were a good person or not. Evil people fell to its power faster than those who were kind-hearted individuals.

If you take a look, Bilbo was only able to resist the ring as long as he did because he kept it on his fireplace mantle for 60 years, and it wasn't until Sauron's evil began to rise again in Mordor that the Ring's potency was amplified, hence why Bilbo became more obsessed with it in the last few years he had it. Honestly, Bilbo was lucky, because at the time he found, used, and had the Ring, its owner was still very weak.

Frodo was in close contact with the same Ring, and could only resist it for a single year (that's how long it took him and Sam to get to Mordor). His experience in using it was different too, because by that time, Sauron had regained much of his power and could see Frodo very clearly every time he put the Ring on.

Smeagol was an interesting case, as we saw with the flashback where he and his brother found the Ring. It appears he and his brother were not good Hobbits, and he ended up murdering his brother for the ring so he could have his "birthday present." No doubt it took less than six months for him to be totally corrupted by it, but his transformation into Gollum probably took a few years.

Sadly, Humans, Elves, and Wizards had the lowest resistance to the One Ring's evil. Even if any of them had good intentions in using it, they'd always end up having their hearts corrupted by it. Dwarves probably weren't much better. Small wonder people like Gandalf and Galadriel looked at it with great fear, because they knew what it could do, particularly to them. Heck, just watching what it did to a whole room of elves, humans, and dwarves during that gathering was disturbing enough.