You know, seeing Martin's Bilbo made me wonder somewhat the same thing....only....differently....
it was PJ that cut Frodo's balls off. Book Frodo, tho surely much different from Bilbo, was a brave soul, and surely not a drama queenish person.
So....PJ saw a reason to make Frodo look like that, just as he has a reason to present Bilbo in such a light.
The way these characters are written for the film versions i see as sort of amplifications of how they are in book verse (or amplifications of how they are interpreted by PJ & CO in book verse):
Bilbo the rascal (who had to be padded out into some more ballsy sort of hobbit for the films, if they were to work), who decided on an Adventure. (you can use that one point alone to extrapolate the rest of it, if you will (and PJ will, to be sure),
vs.
Frodo the thinker, the orphan (damaged and lonely or not) who enjoyed hearing and reading of Quests, but did not go upon one until it was thrust upon him.
Even in the simplest terms, they were very different people to begin with. But I think it's telling that Bilbo choose that Adventure, and Frodo's adventure, in a very real way, choose HIM.
I find it more moving than anything that Bilbo adopted Frodo, who really was not like (his younger) self at all. What did he see? A bright and perhaps lonely lad, but one who had a spark of difference that, although not like his own, touched Bilbo deeply. Frodo would not ever be a warrior hobbit. But Bilbo, having been one such, would know all about the worth (and non-worth) of that. It's quite flash to go one on one with a sword against an orc, but it's kick-ass of quite another degree to wrestle with the Dark Lord for the salvation of an entire world.
Bilbo saw, i guess, in the young Frodo, exactly what we see in the 'old' one: a reservoir of pure and vigorous love.
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Re: part deux
Date: 2014-01-12 06:16 pm (UTC)it was PJ that cut Frodo's balls off. Book Frodo, tho surely much different from Bilbo, was a brave soul, and surely not a drama queenish person.
So....PJ saw a reason to make Frodo look like that, just as he has a reason to present Bilbo in such a light.
The way these characters are written for the film versions i see as sort of amplifications of how they are in book verse (or amplifications of how they are interpreted by PJ & CO in book verse):
Bilbo the rascal (who had to be padded out into some more ballsy sort of hobbit for the films, if they were to work), who decided on an Adventure. (you can use that one point alone to extrapolate the rest of it, if you will (and PJ will, to be sure),
vs.
Frodo the thinker, the orphan (damaged and lonely or not) who enjoyed hearing and reading of Quests, but did not go upon one until it was thrust upon him.
Even in the simplest terms, they were very different people to begin with. But I think it's telling that Bilbo choose that Adventure, and Frodo's adventure, in a very real way, choose HIM.
I find it more moving than anything that Bilbo adopted Frodo, who really was not like (his younger) self at all. What did he see? A bright and perhaps lonely lad, but one who had a spark of difference that, although not like his own, touched Bilbo deeply. Frodo would not ever be a warrior hobbit. But Bilbo, having been one such, would know all about the worth (and non-worth) of that. It's quite flash to go one on one with a sword against an orc, but it's kick-ass of quite another degree to wrestle with the Dark Lord for the salvation of an entire world.
Bilbo saw, i guess, in the young Frodo, exactly what we see in the 'old' one: a reservoir of pure and vigorous love.