Bilbo's Compassion Protected Him From The Ring's Corruption Luckily, Bilbo's compassion causes him to show mercy. The importance of that moment is revealed in one of Gandalf's wisest quotes when he tells Frodo that Bilbo's pity and compassion in acquiring the Ring help protect him from its corrupting power: “Pity?
He would have done anything possible to avoid more battles, more destruction, more cruelty. Therefore, it was near impossible for the ring to be able to twist him into making a foolish mistake and revealing its existence, so it stayed hidden in Bilbo's pocket for the better part of those 60 years.
Inversely, the hobbits' good-naturedness and lack of ambition makes them less susceptible to the Ring's promises of power, as in Frodo and Samwise Gamgee, who are able to handle the Ring for extended periods of time.
Hobbits are simple creatures and do not wish for much, so there is nothing for the Ring to use against a hobbit. Frodo is the hobbit that is corrupted the most next to Gollum and Bilbo, which is why he is unable to throw the Ring into the fire. But even Frodo remained good at his core.
As the new possessor of the One Ring, however, Bilbo's lifespan is extended. For sixty years, he barely ages, a peculiar trait that Gandalf the Wizard notes. However, Bilbo also feels himself changing internally. He doesn't understand the Ring's influence on him, but he knows he is different.
The films might say yes, but the books say definitely no. In fact, Gandalf in the books said that it would take some time for the influence of the One Ring to wear off and that when Bilbo gave up the ring, he essentially 'stopped' where he was.
Bilbo was in possession of the Ring for many years but only gave it up near the end of his personal journey, when he would not be in need of it. It also probably helped that he didn't know the full extent of the Ring's power or significance, and was guided into letting go of it by Gandalf, whom he trusts fully.
Tolkien attributed Sam's resistance to the One Ring to two main factors: "In that hour of trial it was the love of his master that helped most to hold him firm, but also deep down in him lived still unconquered his plain hobbit-sense." Ultimately, Sam's greatest desire was not to defeat Sauron or transform Mordor into ...
Though someone could start out with good intentions, the Ring would eventually corrupt them. And that is why Gandalf can't touch it. He is afraid that if he did, it would corrupt him and make him just as bad as Sauron since Sauron put so much of himself and his evil into the One Ring.
As a powerful wizard, Gandalf wasn't affected in quite the same way. He was likely the safest person to be around Frodo (aside from Samwise Gamgee) since he wouldn't be tempted to forcibly take it from him like Boromir. However, Gandalf's strength could only take him so far.
Her intentions would have been pure because she sought to instill peace. Ultimately, however, Galadriel would have been corrupted by the power of the One Ring, and her beauty would become an object of worship.
A huge part of why the hobbits can resist the Ring's power so strongly is that they were not a part of Sauron's original conquest plans. The Dark Lord saw hobbits as lesser, and they were not a race he tried to convert with his corrupted power because he saw nothing exceptional or outstanding in them.
But, in fact, when Frodo offers the Ring to Gandalf, the wizard pulls back sharply, refusing even to touch it. His explanation is candid and revealing. He says that his power makes him too susceptible, and that his great moral goodness could turn to equally great evil under the Ring's influence.
Why didn't Gandalf destroy the Ring in The Hobbit?
When, despairing of his ability to destroy the Ring, Frodo offers it to Gandalf, the wizard immediately refuses because he recognizes the danger: "the way of the Ring to my heart is through pity, pity for weakness and the desire of strength to do good." Because the Ring is evil, the wizard knows that any attempt to ...
The contents of Tolkiens' notes and other works weren't covered and were thus off-limits to the filmmakers. That's why Gandalf's mind coincidentally went blank — he legally couldn't name the wizards. So, the writers had Gandalf exploit a loophole by alluding to the two Istari without explicitly mentioning them.
Even if she took the One Ring and defeated Sauron, she would have eventually faded. Having seen the light of Valinor, she couldn't stay in Middle-earth indefinitely. And she needed to finally refuse power to be accepted back into Valinor. RELATED: Saruman Was Immortal in Lord of the Rings - So How Was He Killed?
Summary. Gandalf, as an Istari, was sent to Middle-earth to assist in the fight against Sauron, but he was forbidden from using his full power to interfere with the natural order. Saruman's downfall serves as a warning of the dangers of exceeding the limits placed on the Istari by the Valar.
Though Elves and Maiar had greater natural resistance to the Ring's effects, Hobbits possessed an inborn resilience to its primary means of temptation. In fact, they saved Middle-earth from Sauron precisely because they could fend off his influence better than most others.
Except for Tom Bombadil, nobody seemed to be immune to the corrupting effects of the One Ring, even powerful beings like Gandalf and Galadriel, who refused to wield it out of the knowledge that they would become like Sauron himself.
The One Ring has the power to extend the life of any mortal indefinitely. Gollum survived after losing the Ring because its effects on him lingered as long as the Ring existed in the world.
There's a big reason why this coincidence didn't clock with Gandalf, and it's because the idea of Bilbo finding the One Ring seemed out of the realm of possibility. For close to 3000 years, the One Ring was missing, with no hints as to its whereabouts.
In "The Shadow of the Past," Tolkien explains that Hobbits are less susceptible to the Ring's powers than humans. This could explain why, much like Bilbo is not as monstrous as Gollum, the discernibly Hobbit-like Gollum is not as deformed and unrecognizable as the Ring Wraiths.
It explains in the LOTR somewhere, that the reason Biblbo was less affected by the ring's power is becasue he was a good person to begin with and he never used it for evil, or even power or control over others. He didn't wear it that often, he kept it on the mantel.
