That scene always had me like “damn elf, Frodo and Bilbo, two bumpkin ass hobbits didn’t let the ring fully control them, yet your holier than thou 1000 year old magical elf ass goes full asshole after being around it for 2 seconds? Y’all weak as fuck.”
I never read the books, but it was my understanding that the hobbits were more resilient against the ring precisely because they were bumpkins without ambitions that left them open to corruption
Exactly. Bilbo had the ring for 50+ years and he never used it to get more money fame or power. Because neither interested him. He used it in the end to disappear because he wanted his peace and solitude.
Not to mention Smeagol. Sure, he got screwed up in the head by the ring thoroughly, but he still just sat with it in a cave.
The money and fame that Bilbo acquired through his first journey already attracted unwanted attention. It was one of the biggest drawbacks to adventuring.
It was a marginal increase in both. He was already one of the wealthiest Hobbits on that side of the river and the most famous — being the son of a wealthy Baggins heir and a hot-blooded Took.
I think they could’ve been corrupted with a bit of dark whispers about third and even fourth breakfast. It would be a mostly useless type of corruption, but the idea of having a thanksgiving like spread for every meal, having the best drinks, and napping all the time would have little trouble corrupting my simple mind.
Iirc there’s a part where Sam imagines having that much power but laughs the idea off because he wouldn’t be able to tend to his garden
The Ring went “The whole world could be your garden” and Sam went “Nah, that garden would be way too big for me”
Hobbit minds are too occupied with second breakfast.
