The side character npc turns out to be better at doing the pc's job than the pc

Not really the same. Frodo is presented with the opportunity to become the hero or not. It's not like they force him to take the Ring. He could've just gone home. For Sam, it's basically take up the mantle or die because they're already deep in enemy territory at that point.

well, he did choose to stick with his chef. and to follow him to doom. he could have walked off at any time, frodo suggested it multiple times

They were barely inside Mordor when Sam picks up the ring. He could quite easily have abandoned the quest -- just as he could have succumbed to the ring's temptation.

Yeah, but he only really becomes the hero once they're already deep in the shit and walking off would mean certain death. Up until then he was still just sticking with the hero, which is already pretty heroic in itself though, given the circumstances.

Back in a third edition game, one of the other players was playing a half-orc Paladin with 5 intelligence. He ended up with a Gryphon mount and it eventually ended up with a higher intelligence than he had.

Sometimes when the Paladin would get ready to do something stupid, the gryphon would put it's talon on his shoulder and shake its head and otherwise try and help its boss not do dumb things. Eventually it turned into a running gag where the Gryphon was our party member, and the Paladin was basically like its pet that it would bring along to help us out in a fight.

Returning back through Ithilien would have been a much easier path. Consider the comparative difficulty of passing back through a habitable, but war-torn region and moving all the way through Mordor alone with the ring.

yup, up until kankra he thought they would go back, when frodo was certain they'd at best destroy the ring and then die. in mordor he accepts they'll probably gonna die and sees it through to the end. that's still pretty fucking heroic by my account

Samwise had the greatest power in all of Middle-Earth. A surplus of good hobbit sense. Temptations of some fallen angel/dark god can't really do much against that.

Downside is that anyone with hobbit sense wouldn't have gone on the quest willingly in the first place, that's why a Baggins was required to get it started.

>gets tempted with world domination
>except in his case it's literally a giant garden maintained by slaves over which he rules with an iron fist
>realizes that such a garden would be pretty pointless
Why was Sam so based?

Guy had common sense and a will of iron. In Middle Earth he was probably the only person in the entire world who had both.

>he was probably the only person in the entire world who had both

Didn't Aragorn refuse to touch it?

A few people did such as gandalf although thats different then you got Tom who didn't give a fuck about the ring.

That was a defining part of his character: he was someone who refused power and status that he was entitled to exercise until it was abundantly clear that it was his duty to fill those shoes, then he took to it like a duck to water. The Ring could never have passed to Aragorn until all others with stalwart hearts had failed.

Also the ring corrupts people depending on what their ambitions are. Boromir was so corruptible because he wanted to save Gondor. Hobbit humility means they're more resistant in the first place, but Frodo still wanted to save the Shire.

Sam just wanted to help his buddy and impregnate Rosie.

>Best friend since childhood that I know is a huge LOTR fan leaving to study on the other side of the world
>We always joke that he's the smarter of the two, leaving to do science while I'm going for law
>Giving me presents in advance because he won't be there for my birthday
>Among them a picture of us with the caption "You'll always be my Sam"

Never felt more proud.

is there some weird sexual tension between you two? just poking fun, mind you

I mean, I'm pretty sure people think we're homos once in awhile when we joke around, but we always say nohomo when we're done swallowing.

They're both heroes who overcome the temptation of the ring, with frodo taking up the first legs of the journey and sam supporting him when frodo cannot bear the ring any longer, they're both intergral to the ring's destruction, and are therefore equally heroic.

>Frodo
>overcame the temptation of the ring

sounds like good christian fun to me

well, yes, he did. his heroism was haulimg that burden for years and still be somewhat sane until the very last second when the ring was most poweful and most corrupting... thank eru for gollum, eh?

had a Sargeant in an only war game that existed solely as a DMPC plot point who was supposed to die in the first 20 minutes to show our green asses just how serious the Guard was.

Turns out the NPC had other plans, and his ability to roll freakishly well at all times has become the stuff of legends in our group, to the point where we don't even question his judgement anymore. The GM pulled every trick he could think of to kill the guy "fairly" but nothing worked, even sicking a chaos space Marine on him only ended with the space marine getting hit by something like 15 crits and dying to dragon's breath shotgun ammo.

The man cannot be killed, I'm certain if it.

obviously.

Its Hobbits all the way down.

Frodo carried the ring. Sam carried Frodo. They really were equal in this in my opinion. Neither of them could have made it on their own.

>sargeant
Drop and beat your face, private.

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