In the books, hard yes. Also the Robert Inglis in the older audio version reads him surprisingly perfectly, rhymes and all, sounding playful but not cutesy.
Wouldn't know about Rings of Power, as I avoid it.
It depends what he is there for. In terms of general plot progression, he does not really add much per se.
What he does offer during his conversation with the hobbits that evening, is a moment with a bit of growth and self-reflection for Frodo, and if you consider that an important part, then yes.
His appearance in the books reminds you this is a fun story, made-up for various reasons. Party are poetic, parts are epic, parts are silly. Don't take a world more serious than it's author did.
And now we have a generation that grew up on a film without him that thinks the film is holy scripture.
Judging from reactions I saw when the films originally came out, this has little to nothing to do with the movies, and everything with fans being fans.
Yeah, the boring truth is fans always take every single piece of media too serious and stop treating it as fictional stories - and we just can point at random things we dislike and say that's the exact reason for it 😬
Still only one episode into season 2 of ROP so no spoilers plz but I hope we see Tom in a brown jacket and then later in the season he meets Goldberry and she gives him a blue jacket and he’s like damn this girl’s a keeper
If nothing else, as a reminder that the universe is fundamentally weird and inexplicable and there are Things Going On you don't know about, that may not pertain to you.
I always adore how LoTR by itself is this incredible epic and yet Bombadil and Goldberry's roles are a reminder that there's more to the world than a handful of countries. They're a force of nature who care little for your wars as they were there when the rains first fell and will outlive much more.
Yes, in the books Tom Bombadil was what gave me the sense of the world & its mythos being true vast. That The Hobbit was to LOTR as LOTR was to the history of middle earth
Gotta go yes on this one, rando singing ADHD chaos engine, he's the closest we get to a cat-companion in all the books (f out here with Queen Berúthiel's spy-cats)
"And Bombadil will dance down amongst them, clad in his true shape at last, singing his incomprehensible rhymes as the trees mutter their curses and the black and terrible Barrow-Wights dance and gibber around him. And he will be smiling."
While I may question his cinematic and televisual interpreters, I have found it unsatisfying, and even embarrassing, to question the Professor. Hey dol!
Hell Yes.
That was the problem with the movies - all the poetry and music and WTAF Anglo-Saxon weirdness was chucked out for more CGI battles and Aragorn falling off a cliff.
Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo!
By water, wood and hill, by reed and willow,
By fire, sun and moon, harken now and hear us!
Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us!
Without Tom Bombadil the whole notion of deeper magic and the inherent chaos of the world completely disappear and we're left with a much more bland good-vs-evil allegory.
I see that but some of it is Tolkien was pioneering epic fantasy as a form, I think LoTR was the first big hit that wasn't "normal person goes to fantasy world" like a Yankee in King Arthur's Court?
So it feels less well paced because he's laying down the formula other refined later
Comments
Tom Bombadil fucks
Wouldn't know about Rings of Power, as I avoid it.
What he does offer during his conversation with the hobbits that evening, is a moment with a bit of growth and self-reflection for Frodo, and if you consider that an important part, then yes.
And now we have a generation that grew up on a film without him that thinks the film is holy scripture.
But Old Tom would have saved us, for sure 🥺
Absolutely
In the movies? Nah, we're good.
Maybe, hear me out, maybe...
A short film 🤩
Massive love for the Jolly Fellow
(This is at least 1% to troll @theculprit.bsky.social)
“Let’s hunt some Orc” would have made the Anglo-Saxon Prof spin in his grave.
If nothing else, as a reminder that the universe is fundamentally weird and inexplicable and there are Things Going On you don't know about, that may not pertain to you.
People take it too seriously, it's just a fanfic with more money
Bombadil? Yes
Entwifes? Sure
Turnip elf farmers? Give me three of those!
I want to love the genius loci of the Oxfordshire countryside but he really gets on my nerves
We do not speak of any other media that may have made an attempt recently
Tom Bombadil wrote this in my account, it wasn't me.
"And Bombadil will dance down amongst them, clad in his true shape at last, singing his incomprehensible rhymes as the trees mutter their curses and the black and terrible Barrow-Wights dance and gibber around him. And he will be smiling."
https://km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html
The first half of Fellowship is the weakest part of the trilogy.
IMO Tom Bombadil embodies a weird growing phase where the book is still trying to feel like a Hobbit sequel.
Tom and the Barrow-Wight episode don’t add much to the story (that’s why it was so easy for the movies to cut them).
Not so much narratively, but as a… fact of the world? Representation of a certain truth about consciousness vis-a-vis the size and age of the Earth?
There are always bigger and weirder things out there than you know about. Even when the world is ending.
bright blue his jacket was and his boots were yellow,
But do we want to see more of him? Oh, hell no.
That was the problem with the movies - all the poetry and music and WTAF Anglo-Saxon weirdness was chucked out for more CGI battles and Aragorn falling off a cliff.
Just keep him away from the Rings of Power series. Tom transcends the rings and just isn't interested.
He needs a spin out: Lord of the ring-a-ring-dillos.
Then a team-up: Beorn again.
Yes to ROP Tom
Yes to Boobadil.
I said what I said
Yes to book Tom
No to ROP Tom (too literal, no Goldberry)
Yes to Boobadillo
Long answer: No, but longer.
By water, wood and hill, by reed and willow,
By fire, sun and moon, harken now and hear us!
Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us!
(It means yes)
(But also bizarre demigods can be little a narcissist. As a TREAT.)
He makes the Hobbits get naked. Automatic win
Tom Bombadil is ESSENTIAL.
With a jaunty song and big naturals.
He is a living, breathing and, definetly, singing contradiction
That said, totaly YES!!!! He might be a moron but he is MY MORON!
So it feels less well paced because he's laying down the formula other refined later
Rationale here:
https://slate.com/culture/2024/09/rings-of-power-tom-bombadil-tolkien-season-2.html
I 100% understand why he was cut from the movie because it would've grinded the pacing to the halt
Don't mind him in the book though. The book's pacing is already glacial (affectionate), and it foreshadows Frodo going to Valinor at the end soooo