Tolkien and George R. Martin

[PrinceOfTheHalflings]

Originally Posted by tumhalad2

I Message boards are chockablock with followers writing about how Tolkien's characters are "flat" and "never change", they are "emotionally the same at the end of the book as they are at the first".

They must be looking at the wrong characters! Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin are profoundly changed at the end of the book. That is the point of "The Scouring of the Shire"; to show how much they have changed.

The problem is that all these reviewers want Aragorn to be the hero of the story, and so they complain that he never changes. They miss the point that Aragorn is only a supporting character. The hero of the story is Sam ... he rises the furthest. Merry and Pippin were already "princes" of the Shire (as the sons of the leading Hobbits) and Frodo is spirtually broken by the quest ... so Sam is the unexpected hero.

It's a pity that PJ downgraded Merry to Pippin to mere comic relief while turning Aragorn into all-purpose action hero. I suspect most of those complaining about character development in the book are really having their opinions shaped by the movies.

I mean, isn't it a marvellous "character development" moment when the ruffians try to bar the hobbits' way at Bywater and Pippin draws his sword?

"...Swagger it, swagger it, my little cock-a-whoop. But that won't stop us living in this fat little country where you have lazed long enough. And" - he snapped his fingers in Frodo's face - "King's messengers! That for them! When I see one, I'll take notice, perhaps."

This was too much for Pippin. His thoughts went back to the Field of Cormallen, and here was a squint-eyed rascal calling the Ring-bearer "little cock-a-whoop'. He cast back his cloak, flashed out his sword, and the silver and sable of Gondor gleamed on him as he rode forward.

"I am a messenger of the King," he said. "You are speaking to the King's friend, and one of the most renowned in all the lands of the West. You are a ruffian and a fool. Down on your knees in the road and ask pardon, or I will set this troll's bane in you!"

The sword glinted in the westering sun. Merry and Sam drew their swords also and rode up to support Pippin; but Frodo did not move. The ruffians gave back. Scaring Breeland peasants, and bullying bewildered hobbits, had been their work. Fearless hobbits with bright swords and grim faces were a great surprise. And there was a note in the voices of these newcomers that they had not heard before. It chilled them with fear.

"Go!" said Merry. "If you trouble this village again, you will regret it." The three hobbits came on, and then the ruffians turned and fled running away up the Hobbiton Road; but they blew their horns as they ran.

The hobbits don't do anything like that at the start of the story, do they? Also, Frodo is the leader back then, but by the time of the Scouring Merry and Pippin have taken command.

I'd rather have this subtle character development instead of having to endure the sort of overblown "character arc" nonsense that every two-bit novelist feels compelled to inflict on the reader these days. You know ... these hacks who read a Cliff Notes version of Joseph Campbell and think that they are now God's Gift to Fantasy.