NationalOrganizationOfMenAgainstAmazonianMasterhood
135452
1170
21
Aug 17, 2022 12:54 AM
NationalOrganizationOfMenAgainstAmazonianMasterhood
135452
1170
21
KobaandChurchill4eva
Bombadil is shit and will always be shit. It's the DM going: "isn't this character cool and way more powerful than you?"
Awmph
precise
ka1iban
TomBombadil16
As my name indicates, I love this.
Swashbuckler101
This picture implies Tom doesn’t care, but has a slim chance of beating Sauron
FlawedSquad
Looks like a color-blind pimp dressed Leon Russell.
mumbojumbo29
And his boots are yellow
djangojazz
Was he just like a joke that Tolkien made for himself? Like he I can write this incredible shit then smoke some opium and make up this guy.
Ravenseeker
I imagine when TB gets the ring, the ring is all “yes another person for me to corru-wait why do I hear John Denvers? Oh no, not him…”
OverzealousDude
WJLIII3
This is all wrong. Bombadil has no power over Sauron. Gandalf says "if all else should fail, so too will he; last as he was first"
HoneNathan
To go further, he only has great power inside his domain, outside he's around gandalf level.
88wut
He’s not even golfing. The golf course is just on his path to wherever he’s going.
NekoKamiGuru
Dannoboyo
Un corruptible isn't the same as all powerful.
DarklingDux
In Deep Geek on YouTube has a great video or two on Tom, as well as other LotR topics.
domzie
Tom could fart in Mordor's general direction and obliterate everything, if he only gave a shit.
reginaldjohnston
Golf is not a sport.
SteerpikeSteerpike
No one ever mentions Goldberry...
Hashbrown123
If they ever do him in live action he better be played by Jeff Bridges.
BillandTedsUnremarkableTripToCostCo
Michael Cera, looking visibly uncomfortable in full Bombadil garb, forced to awkwardly rhyme and dance little jigs.
alternator43
NiceLegsDaisyDukesMakesAMAAANOUTOFYOOOUUUU
Heck no. Brian Blessed. They even have the same beard and gleaming, sparkling eyes and booming laugh.
biscuitsngravybelly
I always pictured Robin Williams when I read the books as a kid.
Goldensands
Hah that’s a great take. Robin was kind of a primal power in many ways.
epicurusaquinas
Please read The Silmarillion and then get back with me and we'll discuss.
OleSlappyHams
I’m reading it right now! I love it!
epicurusaquinas
I hated it and thought it was a boring attempt by Tolkien to recapture the magic of Hobbit and LOTR. To each his own. Didn't expect upvotes.
OleSlappyHams
That’s fair. LoTR is a very high bar to jump over. I’ve also been told my opinions don’t count for much because I enjoy everything
epicurusaquinas
I certainly enjoyed the intellectually interesting precision of it. After Hobbit/LOTR I was very let down. As you say, hard to top urself.
Glamdring
There's no turning back from Silmarillion
GTimgur
What shall we discuss?! :D
epicurusaquinas
I was talking to OP. XD
ArcaneDryad
Rude much
epicurusaquinas
Holy shit. I joked as evidenced by XD emoji. Didn't expect feedback bcoz Silmarillion is a super boring read. Bad jokes? Yes. Rude? Hmm. WOW
HoneNathan
Things that were, things that are, and some things that have not yet come to pass.
woozle
I never understood Bombadildo's part of the story
modis
He doesn’t have one. He exists outside of the story.
puffadder91
Tom is a character Tolkien created to make the stories he told his children less frightening.
sneerglaw
Lotr is allegory for ww2 and bombadil is Switzerland
matshelge
What does it matter to Tom who wins the war? If everything goes downhill, Tom can make it right again.
IHaveAGuyForEverything
What is there to understand? He was powerful and old enough to harness the ring, but was a of and powerful enough not to give AF about it.
IHaveAGuyForEverything
So, if left with him, he would have forgot about it and it could have been found by another, worse person.
drakionx
Gandalf also said that even if he kept it safe his power was bound to the glade, and once only he was left he too would be consumed.
ChickenChickenBurningBright
he was Tolkien's Mary Sue insertion when he thought he was still writing a children's book sequel.
IDidntWantToDoThis
It is really simple:Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo!
Ring a dong! hop along! Fal lal the willow!
Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!
GandalfTheGhey
PicassoCT
He is part of the original creation song, untouched by melkor or the valar
DarkZalgo
I was always under the impression that he bombadil was Tolkien. I.e. a 4th dimensional on-looker with nothing to lose or gain by helping.
SubliminalBear
He wrote bombadill decades earlier, loved the character so much he put him in a world that he doesn’t belong in. He’s broken. He’s perfect.
LurkerOfDarkness
He is indifference.
billyjonas
I saw him as a proto hippie who didn’t give a shit about money, greed, society etc. Punk rock before punk rock. He’s underrated imo
dtallen243
Most likely Iluvatar
drakionx
I want to say that Tolkien specifically debunked this one in a letter.
rshini
LotR is written much like ancient epics like Beowulf and the Odyessy and often times the heroes get drag into a strange adventure with a 1/2
rshini
liminal or unearthly being that aids the hero and then disappear with nary a future reference, leaving the reader to puzzle over them. 2/2
somecallmetimmmmkay
@Ngugi, idk if you ever did a post about him but your thoughts?
[deleted]
[deleted]
somecallmetimmmmkay
Never lord! *deep bow* just the chance to hear his word again is gift enough!!
LeviathanOmega
I sorta read him as 'Shit Happens.' He's this nigh omnipotent being that just does what he wants and shows off his hot wife.
LeviathanOmega
I imagine Sauron is content to leave him 'over there', not wanting to risk whatever absolute batshit crazy fuckery Tom could bring.
EasyNarwhal
I had a theory which didn't pan out but I liked to think he was one of the wizards who had fulfilled his purpose.
noescapes08
We are not meant to it’s supposed to be the a mystery to ponder forever. :)
FarceMajeure
I think he was included to bring in a recurring character from stories he told his children before he started writing them down.
synallagma
This makes the most sense
MTLOrangeCones
That's also what I heard, simply included a cameo from a story he told his children.
KingXizor
Tom is the master of his place. In his home he cannot be superseded. This is why the ring did not affect him, he didn't want it to. He is >
KingXizor
Not all powerful, though. Sauron may have been able to overpower him in person, and even if not his keeping the ring still would have left >
KingXizor
all the world apart from him and Goldberry to fall under Sauron's sway. He was a neat character, an artifact of creation, separate from >
KingXizor
The Children of Iluvitar and their woes.
IGotLordVoldemortsNose
He was a super powerful being, but wouldn't be a good solution as he would lose interest in the ring. He said so himself.(as far as I remem)
theDogter
Just to show that not everyone cares about politics, especially the super powerful
Freakayou
I always liked the theory he was the most evil being in LOTR https://km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html
NinjablazerZero
Tom Bombadil is Switzerland.
Grambot
I read a take that he's personification of the world itself. Grand conflicts come and go. Nations rise and fall. The world just exists
Grambot
I haven't read the books in like 10 years to really refute any of it
PoopSammich
Looks like it's time to read them all again then ?
oblimo
He's at least there to foreshadow the Eye of Sauron. He looks at Frodo through the Ring, and Frodo gets a powerful premonition.
bobbo007
Nether does Tom...or even the Tolkiens.
AnApologeticCanadian
Imo it's just supposed to be arda itself. The earth and possible a part of eru (God) himself.
drakionx
I'm under the belief that he's the personification of Tolkien in his world.
AnApologeticCanadian
Yea but he admits he has no power over the back rider and sauron. Further more the council believed that if sauron won he would be the 1/?
AnApologeticCanadian
Last to go, as he was also the first to be. Imo this implies he shows both the birth and death of arda the beginning and end. His 2/?
AnApologeticCanadian
Origins start with the start of arda and the first seed but he does not talk about the "timeless halls" of heaven. He begins and 3/?
GingerLaird
Each race has a god of origin in Middle-Earth. Tom Bombadil is the creator of halflings. Simple folk that occasionally succumb to an >>
GingerLaird
>> overwhelming wanderlust and a desire to adventure.
theAught
And that Old Toby
ActionJohnnie
And second breakfast
FallingStar7669
In a meta sense, it's Tolkien's OC insert; Tolkien just wanted him in there. In a canonical sense, the debate rages... but he's probably +
FallingStar7669
+ a spirit of Middle-earth itself, and thus simply exists.. but can't really do anything. In a similar vein, it could be a personification +
Goldensands
It’s not that he can’t do anything - he does, for starters, help the hobbits. It’s that he won’t. That he is so beyond it all that he is
Goldensands
Beyond even power itself, and the struggles for it. A primal entity.
FallingStar7669
+ of Eru, the in-universe God, who similarly takes a back-seat to all major events, owing to the fact that any direct action would +
FallingStar7669
+ literally reshape the Universe, and cause untold amounts of catastrophic consequences.
burtreynlds
Well that and…Goldberry is waiting
NationalOrganizationOfMenAgainstAmazonianMasterhood
Do what any rational LOTR fan would do and re-read every book ever written by Tolkien for new hints.
sp1cychick3n
Lmao yesss
FartsSmellBad
There really isn't any though
RealRaceRiotsAreAboutGettingBlueshelledInMarioKart
THAT'S the hint. For. You. SEE! Long before time began ...
secularink
umm....
Thisusernameisalreadyinusealso
My take is that he's infallible in the face of greed and corruption and is so lost in naturality that sauron poses no threat to him
Thisusernameisalreadyinusealso
Tolkien uses him as the prime example of what the world should be driving towards. There's no place for evil in bombadils way of life
ErrorUsernameNotSetToInstanceofAnObject
Isn't his whole thing having the power to intervene but not doing it?
msd3k
It wasn't like he refused the offer, Gandalf just realized that it was pointless to ask. He even said that Tom could keep the Ring, with-
msd3k
-no risk of corruption. But Tom was so beyond the understanding of mortal shite, he wouldn’t bother to destroy it either. So Sauron could-
rosebudthesled
But didn't Sauran want to destroy the forests so wouldn't that effect his life?
Thisusernameisalreadyinusealso
I think the implication was that he could be surrounded but never encroached upon and was blissfully ignorant
Thisusernameisalreadyinusealso
I could have it wrong though
Tassyr
The world should be driving towards not helping people who need help and then fucking off into the underbrush instead?
ishovethingsupmyass
I think its more of the idea of a goal we should have for this world. To be able to just be merry and enjoy it all, like bombadil.
Tassyr
See, I appreciate being merry and enjoying it, but the message I got was "People who can easily help won't, because stupid reasons."