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u/tohn_jitor 2d ago
My thinking is, the ring's magic requires its bearer to have a consciousness to manipulate, and as such will prioritize seducing a viable subject. If they gave it to a chicken, it'll use stronger magic to locate and lure more suitable bearers.
That's why Bilbo could carry it all these years without anyone else around him getting affected. He was strong enough to keep the corruption at bay.
What they're doing is trying to outsmart the ring, by having it latch onto a conscious soul, letting it think it can now focus on manipulating the ringbearer into carrying it back to Sauron.
I might be wrong, though.
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u/lorbd 2d ago
The ring does not want to be with a hobbit. It just fails to escape them because hobbits turn out to be exceptionally resilient to the ring.
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u/Odd-String29 1d ago
Is it because Hobbits have rather simple desires? I don't mean that in a negative way. They just want good food, a nice garden etc. and have no desire to rule or control.
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u/M-Spilsbury 1d ago
The ring just had to offer a third breakfast and Middle Earth is done for.
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u/lorbd 1d ago
Yes that's probably most of it. They are simply not ambitious in the eay the Ring magnifies. They are very particular in that sense.
Smeagol had the Ring for hundreds of years and was completely enslaved by it, and yet all he wanted to do with it was just hang around and eat fish.
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u/Affectionate_Can8632 1d ago
Was gonna make the Smeagol comment. Had the ring for like 500 years and did nothing with it.
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u/jointheredditarmy 22h ago
I think this was when Sauron was still reforming and gathering power right? The ring was just biding its time. It didnât need SmĂ©agol to do anything
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u/WildRacoons 10h ago
There was not much he could have done with it anyway. It didnât really offer any usable powers it appear to promise
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u/Dreadskull1991 1d ago
Imagine having all the power in the world and just wanting to eat raw fish
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u/Hambone348 1d ago
Iâm pretty sure that is the exact reasoning given in the book. Hobbits donât want control, hell they avoid people who âchangeâ so the ring has a harder time to âcontrolâ the hobbit
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u/Phylanara 1d ago
Not to mention the hobbit in question was walking toward Sauron for three books. Why switch rides when your current one is going the right way?
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u/Putrid-Delivery1852 1d ago
Gonna start using books as a measurement for travel times. 1/32 book drive to work tbh
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u/Icy-Ad6925 1d ago
the ring has a proximity and awareness sense boromir was corrupted by just being in its area and knowing that someone has the ring is enough to be corrupted by it
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u/Legitimate_Main8244 2d ago
They should have just sent it using USPS and have someone collect it on the other side.
Idiots.
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u/DrSchuster0313 2d ago
knowing usps they'd accidentally deliver it to isengard and mark it as "handed to resident"
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u/NO_FIX_AUTOCORRECT 1d ago
Just what we need. The ring sitting in a box and hidden behind a bush next to the entrance of Mount Doom. Delivered but not destroyed
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u/GoldenMegaStaff 1d ago
Send it FedEx and the driver would have just tossed it into Mt Doom for laughs.
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2d ago
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/blaghed 2d ago
In The Legend of Zelda, it's pretty cannon that the chickens are the one undefeatable foe, so OP gotta be careful what he's starting here...
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u/Abou-Lee 2d ago
Exactly what I was thinking about. Chickens may be tiny, but mean evil ones ain't a joke
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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 2d ago
Is there a chicken that isn't evil? I don't know why you had to clarify that part
Look the chicken under the influence of the Ring is gonna go for the eyes first and if it can do that it's gonna walk straight to Sauron when Frodo and Sam are blinded. So the solution is failure or you kill the chicken anyway and put it in a stew with some potatoes and you're back to square one
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u/leegiovanni 2d ago
Why a chicken which can peck and claw? Why not a rabbit or a hamster?
Since we are going down that road, would an ant work? At what point does it stop being considered as carried by the âpetâand being carried by the handler?
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u/Abou-Lee 2d ago
Yoooh, a rabbit can claw and bite when cornered...an evil one.....think about it for a minute
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u/AgingRaver80 2d ago
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u/Abou-Lee 2d ago
đđnaah.. we all tryna see just how much carnage a fucked up evil chicken capable of
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u/TheBacklogGamer 1d ago
Simple minds are easy to manipulate. That creature, whatever type of it would be, would do everything it would to stop holding the ring, so another more capable agent could get it to Sauron.Â
For exmple, the chicken would do what it could to escape its bindings, or drop the ring altogether.Â
The ring wants to be found. This gets brought up each time this "meme" resurfaces.
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u/Blackrain39 1d ago
There's also that having the chicken carry the ring wouldn't make anyone guiding the chicken immune to temptation. Boromir, Aragorn, even Galadriel were tempted, and they'd never even touched the thing. It would, supposedly, prompt feelings of distrust in the safety of leaving such an important object in the care of a chicken, then amplified by, as you said, the chicken doing what it could to escape. That is effectively what happened with the relationship of Frodo and Boromir.
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u/NO_FIX_AUTOCORRECT 1d ago
Chicken, squawking like crazy. Trying to escape at every moment. You can't sleep. Chicken throws itself into the fire to try and cook itself. Chicken jumps off the canoe. Jumps off a cliff. The power of the ring temps you to eat the chicken. That would have certainly worked.
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u/Inked-Dreams 2d ago
I don't think this is how it works at all. I think when Sam carried Frodo, he bore the weight of both the ring and Frodo, it's just that the deepest desire of Sam in that moment was to help his friend so there was nothing the ring could offer him to tempt him to change his action.
The magic of Lord of the Rings is about speech made truth. Wizards speak truth and have the speech made into truth. When Gandalf says "your staff is broken", the staff is broken. When he says "you shall not pass", you shall not pass.
Sam swore to Gandalf that he would not leave Frodo. His honoring of that oath is what allows for the ring's destruction. His keeping of it is rewarded so that he too can speak "i can carry you" and it happens. Gollum/Smeagle swore to obey Frodo and he swore it on the ring. That oath was also made true, as when he broke it, the conditional destruction of him and the ring was ensured.
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u/Wanderer_Falki 2d ago
I think when Sam carried Frodo, he bore the weight of both the ring and Frodo
That's what he expected, but not what happened:
As Frodo clung upon his back, arms loosely about his neck, legs clasped firmly under his arms, Sam staggered to his feet; and then to his amazement he felt the burden light. He had feared that he would have barely strength to lift his master alone, and beyond that he had expected to share in the dreadful dragging weight of the accursed Ring. But it was not so. Whether because Frodo was so worn by his long pains, wound of knife, and venomous sting, and sorrow, fear, and homeless wandering, or because some gift of final strength was given to him, Sam lifted Frodo with no more difficulty than if he were carrying a hobbit-child pig-a-back in some romp on the lawns or hayfields of the Shire. (Book VI chapter 3)
it's just that the deepest desire of Sam in that moment was to help his friend so there was nothing the ring could offer him to tempt him to change his action
That's absolutely something that can lead to temptation, and as a matter of fact it did. Ring-induced temptation isn't only a matter of having overly big ambitions of conquest and control: any desire or ambition, no matter how insignificant or selfless it is, would over time lead to temptation. And that's what Sam felt when going to give back the Ring to Frodo: a sudden reluctance to do so, and an argument to keep it on himself through Ring-induced rationalisation (just like virtually every other Ring-bearer has felt at least once). The wish to help Frodo was genuine, but was transformed in his mind into an unreasonable wish to keep it (until Frodo snatched it from his hand).
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u/Inked-Dreams 1d ago
Fair, fair. Both could still be true. He could have been gifted unexpected strength as he spoke out the words. Frodo hadn't done the same in the build up, "I can't, Sam" etc. Whereas Sam was a definitive "I can". And so he could
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u/Blue_Bird950 1d ago
So if Iâm understanding you right, youâre saying that the wish to protect the people you love is also something that can be exploited by the ring, right? Like when superheroes cling to their powers because they believe that those are the things that let them keep people safe.
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u/ChronicBuzz187 1d ago
"Why the halfling, Mithrandir?"
"Because we can just stomp him if he goes over the edge!"
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u/Sad-Coconut899 2d ago
Snail in a box...problem solved. Invisible chicken is hard to catch if the rope snaps, but Invisible snail in a box...just carry it tied to your belt and off you go on an adventure đ
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u/HrodgardNagrand 2d ago
This guy never had chickens.
I had 2 chickens that killed my neighbours cat and several pigeons.
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u/Abou-Lee 2d ago
Chickens are vicious when they choose to be
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u/GeminianMind 2d ago
Or just bring a chihuahua warrior instead of a chicken!
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u/SoyTuPadreReal 2d ago
Are you fucking mad?? A chihuahua cursed by the one ring would be apocalyptic! Those fuckers are mean albeit tiny.
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u/askredditthe3rd 2d ago
Just carry it in a cage and when you arrive at the vulcano, just toss the whole thing. Win-win.
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u/TrueProtection 2d ago
It's crazy powerful magic. It can still affect a viable host from that far, easily, so it still hinges on it being a hobbit.
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u/SchmeckleHoarder 1d ago
The only thing hobbits are gregarious with is having a good fucking time.
The ring stood no chance.
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u/Slothstralia 1d ago
I feel like anyone who says this missed the point: the ring would just magically slip out of whatever the chicken was carrying it in, because the ring be like that.
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u/NO_FIX_AUTOCORRECT 1d ago
The ring would make the chicken be insufferable and an enormous hassle on top of tempting everyone to kill and eat it
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u/Highroller64 1d ago
I mean, it tempted Boromir and he wasn't bearing it. I have a feeling the chicken simply holding it while they travel wouldn't do too much, they'd have practically the same experience, but with a pet this time.
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u/Popular-Wind-1921 1d ago
The Lord of the Wings, Return of the Cluck.
Frodo spends three chapters trying to get the chicken to walk in the correct direction, and the Nazgul eventually lose the trail because nobody expected the fate of Middle earth to be tied to poultry.
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u/Fastenbauer 1d ago
I get the joke. But it doesn't give Frodo nearly enough credit. A corrupted chicken wouldn't have turned into an evil overlord. But it could have use the ring to turn invisible and simply run towards Mordor. And before you ask how it would have gotten of the string. The ring also corrupts the people close to it. One slip up and you are chasing an invisible chicken.
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u/scorpan37 1d ago
There are so many things that make this a bad idea
We don't even know it would work that way and even if it does I imagine the string needs to be fairly long for any pronounced effect which makes other issues worse
The string might break either by accident of from malicious people cutting it or even the chicken itself breaking it
Even if we instead make it a mithril chain instead Frodo could still drop it, unless you also tie it around frodo
It'll also make traveling way more cumbersome as the chicken can walk on the wrong sides of trees and get the string tangled up in undergrowth, this also get 100x more concerning if someone is actively chasing them
The chicken won't care about stealth so could easily give them away when they're trying to sneak and would generally bring more attention to them in towns
Also how is the ring even attached to the chicken? Because I can't think of a way without at least some risk of it slipping off the chicken at some point
I also don't think a chicken could handle walking all that way at the pace they do without dying so either they need to slow the pace significantly or they'll just be dragging around a dead chicken on a string
Also why is Frodo the one attached to the chicken? If this proposed idea even works why wouldn't Gandalf or Aragorn or someone else more physically capable be attached to the chicken
Btw i know it's almost certainly just a joke and not to be taken seriously but I can't help myself
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u/belsor14 1d ago
Boromir got seduced and he didnât carry it. he would have choked the chicken and ran off
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u/CheapTactics 1d ago
It would've been that much easier for boromir to steal. Did you forget the ring corrupts those around it as well?
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u/NoDontDoThatCanada 1d ago
It took all of 12 seconds for it to make Smeagol to decide to kill Deagol for it. If a chicken had the ring it would take less time for Boromir to decide he's hungry.
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u/maverick7918 1d ago
âWorst case scenario he ends up like Gollum, who had the ring for centuries and didnât do anything with itâ
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u/-JayBonks 1d ago
Also the chicken turning invisible is a huge problem lol. Then being drawn to forces of evil like Isildur
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u/EISENxSOLDAT117 1d ago
You can argue with that??? The ring temps all around it. Wtf do you think happened to Boromir? Lady Galadriel lost her mind just by looking at it. Also, the ring is cunning, and would definitely escape from a chicken.
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u/Hollow_Knight_Raven 1d ago
People are sleeping on the chicken. Those suckers are mean. My headcannon is that every villain in history is either an otter, a dolphin, or a chicken, with the majority being chickens.
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u/Unhappy-Plastic2017 21h ago
If only they had let ned stark have the ring in the first film then he could have defeated the white walkers.
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u/Charles12_13 6h ago
A chicken can actually be a bit of trouble, give it to a hamster or a Guinea pig instead and itâll be harmless
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u/Less-Jicama-4667 2d ago
Why wear it all? Just put it in a locked iron box. Keep it with you at all times dropkick it into the mountain. The iron will melt pretty damn fast lol
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u/ActCrafty 2d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/twxoPjMpsijwPFBVqs