/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.12056687]

Who is the best literary character of all time and why is it Tom Bombadil?

[Anonymous No.12056692]

>>12056687
lieutenant glahn

[Anonymous No.12056696]

>>12056687
the narrator of the tumult of niggers

[Anonymous No.12056699]

>>12056687
Harry potter tho...

[Anonymous No.12056706]

Why didn't this stupid forest idiot join Gandalf in crushing the Dark Lord's menace? Supposedly Bombodil is the most powerful nigga around. We're talking giga. He's a godlike being practically even though he doesn't show it, as he demonstrates the perfectly valid (according to Tolkien) position of neutrality and pacifism in wartime.

He instead prefers to dance with squirrels and sing with rabbits or whatever the fuck he does.

[Anonymous No.12056724]

>>12056706
People obsess about Tom Bombadil's fucking "power level" for some reason, as if it matters. Tom is merely master of his own little realm; that's all he is. Theorising that he's Eru or super powerful or whatever other idea people have is meaningless.

[Anonymous No.12056756]

His pony, Fatty Lumpkin! The passages in the book where the Hobbits are staying with Tom are some of the comfiest I can think of.

[Anonymous No.12056778]

>>12056724
The thing is that Bombadil just doesn't engage with the affairs of the world outside of the countryside. So if they gave him the ring to hold on to for safe keeping he would forget about it or leave it out for the taking. His power is useless because he only uses it to make merry, engage in handicrafts, and to whistle a cheery tune.

[Anonymous No.12056828]

>>12056756
The journey from The Shire to Rivendell is one of my favourite parts of Lord of the Rings. Bombadil's forest is the final barrier the hobbits need to cross to reach the real world; the point at which the peaceful bliss of the Shire ends. Then they're immediately thrown into one of the most harrowing scenes in the books at the Barrow Downs, and though Tom could still save them, the hobbits and the reader both get a taste for what the world is like outside of the fairy tale land of the Shire.

He's like the final bastion of the pleasant children's fairytale world that the Shire is, and he'll be the last to go when all else disappears.

[Anonymous No.12056842]

>>12056706
Join in one grand quest and all of a sudden you're dragged along on a new one every few decades. Mortals expect far too much.

[Anonymous No.12057108]

>>12056828
Love u bby

[Anonymous No.12057116]

>>12056687
I would hang this fucker by his beard and light a fire underneath him

[Anonymous No.12057152]

>>12056706
Because he was written in a time period before wikis, power levels and post-modernist approach to stories and because Tolkien wrote his world less like a logical one and more like a mythical one of folklore where powerful but disconnected from reality creatures exist. Tom is a character he wrote separately of LOTR and decided to use him to add some flavor to the world, and show its' "wild, unexplained" side.

[Anonymous No.12057829]

>>12056724
>people obsess about Tom Bombadil's power level
they've been watching too much dragonball z.

[Anonymous No.12058084]

>>12056706
exactly because of that. he doesn't give a single fuck. he prances around like some tree hugging fag because he can. if he was still super powerful but not as stupidly OP, he would feel obliged to care about the mortals and the very slight chance of their wacky antics having implications for him, but as it is, he's here to stay and that won't change, so why bother.

also >>12056842 and >>12057152 but my point still stands

[Anonymous No.12058870]

>>12056687
Cottard from Proust. How can one man be so based.

[Anonymous No.12058900]

>>12056706
Bombodil is an accelerationist who rightfully sees that the only way the oppressive power structures of the races of Middle Earth can be destroyed is through the success of a violent outside threat finally motivating the proletariat into revolutionary action.

[Anonymous No.12058919]

>>12058900
>being a left accelerationist
there can be no deeper sign of retardation than this. understanding everything involved with accelerationism and then somehow thinking there is going to be a class revolution and oppression will go away? It's literally fairy tale tier thinking

[Anonymous No.12059005]

>>12058900
while I like the idea, go back to (You)r containment thread

[Anonymous No.12059166]

>>12056687


Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo!
By water, wood and hill, by the reed and willow,
By fire, sun and moon, harken now and hear us!
Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us!