Reminder that Tom Bombadil is a pleb filter

I remember having this picture as my desktop background in high school back when I too was a contrarian jackass.

films require economy. the extended edition of the fellowship is like fifteen hours long even without tom bombadil. i understand the decision to leave him out.

Is this really the thing that most people complain about? Not the fact that Jackson doesn't understand the books at all and made it a violent romp full of peace-shaming?

> made it a violent romp full of peace-shaming
That's not true at all, you're being silly.

His movies had a lot of action, but "peace shaking" goes too far.

Philosophically, Tom Bombadil is incredibly interesting. He is possible the most powerful individual in Middle Earth (he can resist the ring, some even speculate he is a Maia, or perhaps even the manifestation of Arda itself). Even with all this, he is entirely unconcerned with the politics and social order of the world and would rather keep himself occupied in the Old Forest while everything else burns around him. He is a combination of the all-powerful and apolitical. I think he only helped Frodo because he found him interesting.

tfw you realize that Ungoliant is Primeval Night and Bombadil is Primeval Day

he doesn't resist the ring so much as he has nothing but a passing interest in the ring. gandalf even says that if it were given to tom, he'd forget about it soon enough.

plus, he's not even the only person in the books who "resists" the ring. faramir tells frodo that he doesn't want it and would never want it because he knows how dangerous it is.

I guess we're forgetting that noble Aragorn decapitated the Mouth of Sauron, no? That's only one example. Remember how that went in the book? Did you even read it?

I really couldn't care less if he understood the books or not. I enjoy the movies for what they are. I try to keep adaptations and source material separated in my head anyway.

Isn't that a deleted scene, though?

You look fucking retarded trying to look like Christopher Tolkien. The movies were fine and they had nothing to do with some glorification of violence that you want to shove in it.

>violent romp full of peace-shaming?
I'm reminded of the scene at Helm's Deep where they're arming the children to fight. I don't see how something like that can be viewed as pro-war.

If he fucks off how is he supposed to suck your dick?

Anonymous asks the tough questions.

According to The History of Middle Earth, Tolkien was still somewhat aimless when writing Fellowship, and his early drafts included characters and ideas from his earlier writings unrelated to Middle Earth, Tom Bombadil is most likely a holdover that the sentimental Tolkien kept in for his own humor.

Do you remember the scene before that where Gimli is calling Theoden a coward for wanting to retreat to a highly defencible position instead of facing superior numbers in open battle?

That's nice.

Is it not still a part of the movie?

Yes, they did.

imagine being this autistic.

Democracy is the glorification of violence. Imagine people knowing what you voted for...

There was really no time or place for it, nor was there a place for Merry and Pippin's arch, nor Saruman's death and the tainting of the Shire, nor Gildor, nor the Grey Company, nor Prince Imrahil, nor the characterization of Denethor, and so on and so forth

Seems like he's something more than a Mai, consider Saruman and Gandalf could not resist the ring

Maia*

This makes me honestly sad. There will never be a faithful adaptation of the book into films.

I don't have to imagine.

It's hard if not impossible to translate the entirety of the books faithfully into such a different medium. Just imagine a movie adaptation of the Silmarillion.

>peace shaming
What is this meme? I dont like it

doesn't everyone in the fellowship (bar boromir) resist the ring?

It was never possible

>or perhaps even the manifestation of Arda itself

Get that pantheistic Gaia talk out of my LotR. Tom Bombadil as a Vala or even Iluvatar, sure. But as Arda? That's just gay, son.

>Just imagine a movie adaptation of the Silmarillion.
I'm disgusted by the idea.

Up to a point, which is why Frodo leaves. Boromir was just the first to succumb to the will of the ring.

The novel I like was adapted by studio DEEN. I feel your pain.

you're all hopeless brainlets lacking vision and imagination

Wasn't itTim Benzedrine?

I don't understand. Did I miss something? Is it not a war of annihilation against mankind in the books? Does Saruman have a Dawn For Man planned there?

I'm of the opinion that tom was a maia. The thing with the ring is, it's corrupting power depended heavily upon the victim's character and desires (remember bilbo rejected his influence twice and gandalf once took it and nothing happened, galadriel also resisted it) Boromir succumbed because he wanted the ring for the war. Old tom was above the ring because he was literally above wants.

Even if old Tolkien hated allegory, the ring could be an allegory of sin. Or of spirituality/materialism

i've always thought Ungoliant was more the personification of Lust/Hunger. Devoured herself because she couldn't control her passions.

Bombadil could be a personification of the hobbits, agrarian than rather than industrial, and hence why it was Frodo (a hobbit) that was best able to resist the effects of the Ring in order to destroy it at its source.

Bombadil was the personification of nature alongside his wife Goldberry. Frodo didn't destroy the ring, it was greed that destroyed it. Gollum coveted the ring, and that led to it's destruction.

My nigga. Most people don't even have the original these days.

Tom Bombadil was a maia, there are a handful of clues that reveal this, though it's not specifically stated anywhere.
The Elves referred to him as Oldest and Fatherless (Iarwain ben-Adar).
There are ONLY two things in all of Arda that are inherently immortal: Elves and Ainur.
Tom wasn't an Elf, which makes him Ainur. He wasn't a Valar, so that makes him Maiar.
Tom himself says in Fellowship of the Ring that he arrived on Arda "before the Great Dark came", referring to Melkor's arrival to Arda. This would place Tom before Elves, Dwarves, or humans were created.
Just because the Ring had no effect on Tom, doesn't mean that Tom was "the most powerful being/Maia" in all of Middle Earth. His power was limited to the Old Forest. It's true that in there his power was supreme, but even then it was possible that eventually he could be ousted, given that originally the Old Forest (and Tom's "kingdom") stretched all throughout Eriador in the First and Second Ages.
Tom simply wasn't concerned with the things that Sauron was concerned with. Where Sauron wanted to control the wills/minds of people, Tom just wanted to take care of the trees and his forest.
Which is why Gandalf and Elrond decided not to give Tom the Ring, since they were worried he would simply lose it.

Those people that try to claim that "Tom is the embodiment of the English countryside", and not a Maia, seem to forget that the Maiar/Ainur themselves are "the embodiment of natural forces and things". For example, Manwe is the embodiment of the air, wind, sky. Ulmo the embodiment of water, the oceans, etc. Yavanna the embodiment of Nature/flora.
So on and so forth.
But to say Tom isn't a Maia, but "some other entity" is to forget that Tolkien specifically stated that before Elves and Dwarves, there was ONLY Ainur. There isn't anything else that Tom could be, except a maiar. Many, MOST, maiar didn't even have names, so it's not outside the realm of possibility that Gandalf and the Elves simply didn't know he was a maia (probably a maia in the service of Yavanna).

Tom isn't a manifestation of Arda, Arda was the collective manifestation of ALL OF THE AINUR. Not just one alone.
He also wasn't a Vala, Tolkien specifically named all the Vala, and Tom didn't make the list, which means he's a maiar.
And he's not Iluvatar since Tolkien also specifically stated that Iluvatar stayed behind in the Timeless Halls.

Why do people have to make Tom's origin so difficult? He's a maiar. It's not that hard to figure out. Maiar are all over the place, even when not specifically stated.
If it's not an Elf, Dwarf, Human, Orc, Dragon, or Troll, it's a maiar.
Examples: the Nazgul's winged monsters were maiar.
the Watchers at Cirith Ungol were maiar.
the Balrogs were maiar.
the giant eagles (at least of the First Age, not quite sure about the Eagles that helped Bilbo and Frodo) were maiar.
the water monster outside the western door to Moria was a maiar.
Vampires and werewolves were maiar.

Not all maiar took humanoid forms, some did. Like Tom.

no, Yavanna, if anyone, was the personification of Nature. That's why she was a Vala and not Tom.
Tom was an aspect of Nature, sure, as some have speculated, maybe he represents "the English countryside". But the English countryside does not embody all of nature, it's just one aspect of it.

>Pippin's arch
It had this scene though
youtu.be/Rag_9J1ZC2g?t=12s

Hard

Tom Bombadil is not a Maia because Tom Bombadil was made to be a mystery. His whole purpose was to provide Middle-Earth with unanswerable questions. Essentially, whatever a reader theorizes him to be, he is not.

>essentially, whatever a reader theorizes him to be, he is not.
>Tom Bombadil is not a Maia, he was made to be a mystery.
Therefore, Tom is not a mystery, and is a Maia.

...

I could imagine a Silmarillion movie but it would have to go through some incredible unwanted changes. Just looking at the bullshit The Hobbit went through pisses me off. What went through Peter Jackson's mind when he decided to pad The Hobbit out to three movies?

But then he isn't a Maia anymore because he's also a mystery.

Now I know what he is, actually. Tom Bombadil is an infinite loop.

In an ideal situation it would be a faithfully adapted miniseries or something.

>Do you remember the scene before that where Gimli is calling Theoden a coward for wanting to retreat to a highly defencible position instead of facing superior numbers in open battle?
The views of a character =/= the views of the director you utter brainlet. He's a fucking dwarf of course he wants to fight.