Frodo Baggins is an asshole - at least the movie version of him. It's been a while since I read The Lord of the Rings, and I probably should reread that soon. For the purpose of this write-up though, I am referring to the movie portrayal.

While recovering from a rather significant hangover, I ended up binging all three extended versions of Lord of the Rings yesterday (After a hike, I'm not a complete slug). I was really struck by how poorly Frodo treats Gollum. Samwise does not treat him much better, but at least Sam is honest. Frodo blatantly lies. In fact, Frodo lies a lot about Gollum - which if he hadn't, the whole issue with Faramir would have been much simpler and a lot less painful for Gollum; and to Gollum

At that point, Frodo and Sam have been taken prisoners by the soldiers of Gondor, lead by Faramir. They are in the secret cave behind the waterfall, and when Faramir asks about the "skulking" companion, Frodo lies. Honestly, I'm not surprised Faramir initially starts to take the ring to Minas Tirith as Frodo essentially threw all credibility out the window right off the bat. When Gollum is spotted in the Forbidden Pool (really, that's just an excuse to kill people, but whatever), it's already obvious that Faramir has called Frodo's bullshit. If he didn't, Gollum would have already been dead.

After pitching a fit about being able to trust Gollum and Gollum following through, this would have been the perfect opportunity to cement that trust. But what does Frodo do? He tricks Gollum and allows him to get captured, which leads to him being beaten severely. If at the pool Frodo had just been honest with Gollum, telling him about the men, the pool being forbidden, and his life being in danger, the outcome may have been somewhat different.

I think, if I'd been treated like Gollum by Frodo, I'd have let Shelob have her way with him too. Frodo Baggins is an asshole, not a hero- though that is a different rant.

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