Why are people complaining about Rotk ending??

[Joseph DeMartino]

I don't know why, but something about that phrase made me think of Morden and his question, "What do you want?"

Interesting, especially when you consider that Morden rejected G'Kar as a candidate precisely because his dream wasn't big enough. He merely wanted to revenge on the Centauri and safety for his own people (in that order. ) G'Kar didn't have as great a sense of the greivance as Londo and the Centauri did. Once they had been a great power, then somehow they had lost it all, not through their own failings, but because somehow the universe itself had conspired against them. G'Kar had a concrete enemy he wanted to destroy, after that he would have been satisified. But the Centauri wanted to return to an idealized past where they had been stronger and greater than was possible, and therefore they could never be satisified. They wanted revenge on the universe itself for denying them, and they could never truly get that. (Although thanks to the Shadows, they came close.)

Finally, and ironically, Londo was motivated by patriotism and a kind of altruism. At the beginning he genuinely did not want power and honors for himself, he didn't even want bad things to happen to others, he merely wanted his people to get what he saw as their "due." To paraphrase Gandalf, "The Ring's way to my heart would be through pity, through a desire for power to do good. I will need its strength in the days to come." G'Kar, on the other hand was primarily driven by hatred and a desire for revenge, not a positive desire for his people's freedom.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Bab5nutz]

When Bilbo got hold of the Ring, he was quite a different person from Gollum than when Gollum had gotten hold of the Ring.
Bilbo could easily have killed Gollum - he had every excuse to kill Gollum infact. Gollum had made clear his intention to kill and eat Bilbo. [Bilbo had realised that the Ring made him invisible when Gollum had run straight past him in the dark, and from overhearing Gollum's babblings]. And Gollum was blocking the passage between Bilbo and the door to freedom. It would have been much easier for Biblo to have killed Gollum then and there, and then galloped up the stairs, past the Goblins that were guarding the door, and out to freedom.
However, Bilbo felt that he had an unfair advantage over Gollun, being invisible. He felt pity for Gollum, and didn't think that he deserved to die. So, instead, Bilbo took a running leap, and jumped over Gollum, snd headed for the hills [or in this case, the door]. So, instead of beginning his stewardship of the Ring with violence, as it would have been so much easier to do, Bilbo began it with sparing Gollum's life.
Bilbo was also quite different in the way that he used the Ring later on. He used it solely to protect himself from danger, or to protect his friends [ie rescuing the Dwarves from those giant spiders, and later the Wood Elves] Even the time when he stole that cup from Smaug - well that was what he had been brought along to do anyway.

 

[Demon]

I don't know why, but something about that phrase made me think of Morden and his question, "What do you want?"

Interesting, especially when you consider that Morden rejected G'Kar as a candidate precisely because his dream wasn't big enough.

Exactly! Small dreams

Finally, and ironically, Londo was motivated by patriotism and a kind of altruism. At the beginning he genuinely did not want power and honors for himself, he didn't even want bad things to happen to others, he merely wanted his people to get what he saw as their "due." To paraphrase Gandalf, "The Ring's way to my heart would be through pity, through a desire for power to do good. I will need its strength in the days to come."

Which makes Londo the Gandalf of his universe, without Gandalf's wisdom.

Curiouser and curiouser

 

[GKarsEye]

Thanks for the the long reply to my Frodo question. Don't have the time to respond in depth, except to say that I pretty much see where you're coming from. Still, I got the impression that the race of the ring-bearer does have a greater role to play in how powerful the person could be with it. But, yes, of all hobbits, Frodo would be the most powerful with the ring, and stronger than many men and dwarfs.

Don't remember if you mentioned this, but Bilbo isn't the only ring-bearer who voluntarily gave up the ring. Sam did, as well, and even though he had it very briefly, we know that it can be enough, as in the case of Smeagol.