Every Time Frodo Almost Died...

[@DarthGandalfYT]

Happy new year. I'm sorry about the thumbnail.

[@lucasquintanilla1673]

Maybe you should make this a series and do something like this for each of the fellowship members. I wonder how many times Gandalf would count for this. If he was included, I wonder if technically the time he actually died when fighting the Balrog would count.

[@jamesw3413]

It's strange how the movies basically go out of their way to make Frodo look as incompetent as possible. Even if he gets into more life threatening situations in the books, it's small details Tolkien included that still manage to make him a good protagonist.

[@Lawrence_Talbot]

Yes I love the films but I hate how weak and borderline useless they make Frodo look. I also didn’t like the random subplot in the films where Frodo trusts Gollum over Sam and even tells Sam off, which wasn’t part of the books

[@SNWWRNNG]

The movies didn't include many of Frodo's strongest moments, or changed them in a way to lessen his courage and wisdom. They also make Frodo a lot weaker against the Ring and against Faramir - where book Frodo saved Sam and himself by gaining Faramir's trust through using his learning and courtesy, the movies have Faramir kidnapping the Hobbits until Sam gives a small speech. And if that wasn't bad enough, the movie also has Frodo go crazy and show the Ring to a Nazgul before threatening Sam with Sting...all entirely made up for the movie. But the worst thing that the movies did to Frodo is to have him fooled by Gollum and sending Sam away. In the books, Frodo is never fooled by Gollum - he knows Gollum is treacherous, but he knows they need Gollum and has pity for him. It's book Sam who is ignorant and sees Gollum as his rival, and who ruins Smeagol's redemption by being cruel to him when Gollum showed his love for Frodo.

[@tylerjones7592]

Like Frodo defying the Nazgul while dying from his Morgul wound in the book

[@Kilo_Alpha_Delta]

Dang I never realized how often that mithril coat saved Frodo. Good guy Bilbo for giving that away.

[@Lawrence_Talbot]

Good for the dwarves for gifting Bilbo a Mithril Coat in the first place, given how rare the material was

[@lotsofspots]

As a youth: almost eaten by Farmer Maggot's dogs!

[@MikaelKKarlsson]

Probably ate a mushroom he shouldn't have, as well. 😊

[@SNWWRNNG]

My favourite among these moments has to be Frodo defeating Saruman with his mercy and insight. Nothing could be more humiliating to Saruman than Frodo's mercy. - - - - But even as Saruman passed close to Frodo a knife flashed in his hand, and he stabbed swiftly. The blade turned on the hidden mail-coat and snapped. A dozen hobbits, led by Sam, leaped forward with a cry and flung the villain to the ground. Sam drew his sword. ‘No, Sam!’ said Frodo. ‘Do not kill him even now. For he has not hurt me. And in any case I do not wish him to be slain in this evil mood. He was great once, of a noble kind that we should not dare to raise our hands against. He is fallen, and his cure is beyond us; but I would still spare him, in the hope that he may find it.’ Saruman rose to his feet, and stared at Frodo. There was a strange look in his eyes of mingled wonder and respect and hatred. ‘You have grown, Halfling,’ he said. ‘Yes, you have grown very much. You are wise, and cruel. You have robbed my revenge of sweetness, and now I must go hence in bitterness, in debt to your mercy. I hate it and you!

[@SvengelskaBlondie]

Shortly after, Saruman got a spontaneous random throat surgery done on him by Grima wormtongue. He himself had an unfortunate acupuncture treatment gone wrong by many halflings, eager to cure him of those weird spots on his back.

[@rhyswallace3590]

Frodo is definitely Braver and a more proactive Protagonist in the book. He drives away the Cave Troll in Moria, Fights the Witch King on WeatherTop before he's stabbed...Defies all the black rider's while wounded on the way to Rivendell all alone. Saves the Hobbits from the Barrow Wights in the Barrow Downs in the Book. & Initially Scares the Giant Spider Shelob off. & Is over all portrayed with more wisdom, maturity and Authority in the books. Maybe you should make a video of all Frodo's brave moments in the book.

[@AfroChef]

I always tell folks Frodo in just Fellowship of the Ring has 3 heroic moments, doesnt abandon his friends in the Barrow, stabs the troll foot in support of Boromir, and most importantly he tries to fight the Witch King!

[@anr4306]

'The Mithril coat was the MVP'. Bold to say that while Sam is right there.

[@carljohnsson7593]

8:45 Boromir made such a good case to take the ring to his city that Frodos rejection of it was pure madness.

[@johanneskaiser8188]

Some of those "bad luck" instances Tolkien knew he could get away with due to the armour. So this is likely more a case of "can do an inconsequential hit here to establish danger".

[@carl-henrikfelth3985]

I try to imagine the confusion on both sides if the hobbits had been lost without a trace in the old forest.

[@backwashjoe7864]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Old Man Willow wielding the One Ring would've been a great book too!

[@weststaf673]

Old man willow was allied with the witch king

[@Baelor-Breakspear]

It’s really impressive how you come up with these ideas for your tolkeinverse videos. It is honestly impressive and I salute you

[@thomasalvarez6456]

Good idea for a Middle Earth mysteries episode. Would be how did Narsil come into the possession of Elendil? It was a first age dwarven sword. But there is no record of who had it after? Did the noldor or the dwarves of the blue mountains? Was it given to Númenoreans in the first years of the second age? But why? Was it found somewhere or did the noldor not think they needed it? If so, it probably inherited by Tar Elendils daughter, along with the ring of Barahir. Or Elendil took it when he left Númenor. Presumably the sword of Thingol, Aranruth was given as the king of Númenor were the primary heirs. The same is obvious for the axe of Tuor. I always found it strange the most famous sword in Middle Earth has most of its history obscured.

[@istari0]

If you have narrowly escaped death 13 times, you were born to be a Ringbearer!

[@micklumsden3956]

It was indeed his destiny!

[@selwynevonbeereskow8053]

Like it!. I tried to make a game out of it and listed all near death events for Frodo in the Ring trilogy that I could remember before I watched your clip. I was quite successful but I completely forgot the Barrow Downs, the arrow at the bridge of Khazad Dûm and Sharkey's sneak knife attack at the end. On the other side I listed the Dead Marshes where Sam and Gollum had to rescue Frodo from following the lights of the dead and Mount Doom where Gollum might have easily taken Frodo with him if he had stumbled during their fight and afterwards their almost-suffocation when Mount Doom erupted.

[@tiltskillet7085]

DG, I'm afraid you missed an early one. When Frodo was in his youth, while innocently picking mushrooms, he was captured by the horrifying Farmer Maggot, and nearly fed to his Dire Dogs. Only the quick thinking and gumption of baby Samwise saved him from this gruesome fate. (Happy Birthday, JRRT!)

[@eng20h]

You missed the one in Cahadhras where he was Buried by snow lost conscoiusness AND was saved by Boromir

[@eng20h]

Also funnily he with Sam being rescued by the Eagles in mount doom

[@Lawrence_Talbot]

Could also include the Dead Marshes where Frodo enters a trance and starts to wander after the Floating Lights. Had Sam not stopped him, Frodo would’ve slipped into the water and sunk to his death

[@eng20h]

@@Lawrence_Talbot that's from the film tho. He mentions it in the video but didn't count it

[@Lawrence_Talbot]

@@eng20h no in the film he falls in and Gollum saves him. In the book, he is captivated by the lights and starts to walk off but Sam stops him before he gets to the edge, which prompts Gollum to explain the lights and faces in the water

[@superslayerguy]

All the more reason Sauron believed the ring was impossible destroy, Frodo literally did the impossible. Which makes the climax of the story even more satisfying, knowing that the hobbits triumphed over all odds, and made the dark lord himself really really pissed off

[@WizardofOdd-ws3wg]

Frodo failed but by his making it further than anyone else could it merited Erus intervention.

[@superslayerguy]

@@WizardofOdd-ws3wg yeah I get Eru’s intervention and I love it, however I have made points before about Eru on this channel and people just tell me I’m not giving enough credit to the free will of the hobbits, however I do agree, without Eru, none of the things would have been possible

[@heeho-elem]

If you've narrowly escaped death 13 times, you should probably start playing the lottery!

[@g3heathen209]

Its been bothering me lately, how did shelob sting get through frodo's mithril mail?

[@tominiowa2513]

"...but Frodo did not speak. As he had run forward, eager, rejoicing to be free, Shelob with hideous speed had come behind and with one swift stroke had stung him in the neck." - The Two Towers, Chapter 10

[@Lawrence_Talbot]

Random question for a possible Middle Earth Mystery: is there more references to the Apes in Middle Earth in Tolkien’s other works? I finished rereading TLotR and there a few passing references to Apes living in the far south. After reading about the Oliphants, I am curious what Tolkien may have envisioned these Apes being like. Were they giant chimpanzees like gorilla size yet still able to swing on trees and use rudimentary tools. That could be pretty scary to come across in the jungles of Middle Earth.

[@jamesw3413]

Now this is the kind of overly detailed and specific topic that would make an amazing video

[@mdefoe28]

I think that if Tolkien had said that orcs are just corrupted apes, with a mind just artificially enhanced enough to understand simple orders and say a few words, we would've avoided a lot of debates about their feä, that animals dont have. In the chapter "Myths transformed" in Morgoth's ring it actually says that Tolkien briefly tought of orcs as "empowered" animals as Huan on Manwe's eagles.

[@ciaranirvine]

@@mdefoe28 While it would have avoided the endless debates about the feä of orcs, you have to remember the eugenicist and racist theories going around in the 1920-40s. I think Tolkien ultimately rejected this possible explanation for orcs as it was too uncomfortably similar to certain supremacist theories of the time on the origin and status of "lesser races" - theories Tolkien detested and didn't want to, even accidentally, give any credence to. Ultimately he never did manage to come up with an explanation for orcs that wasn't problematic, leaving us with our debates

[@enfiskutensykkel]

I always wondered how Frodo would have become a wraith. The Nazguls spirits are bound by the nine rings, which make them age slower, eventually fading, but as soon as the one ring is destroyed their spirits are released from Arda as well. But how would this have worked by being stabbed with the Morgul blade?

[@ciaranirvine]

Both Sauron and the Witch-King are described a few times as "necromancers" who (somehow) had the power to bind the spirits of Men after death, preventing their feä from leaving Arda and binding them to eternal service. Sauron had been dabbling in this since the First Age and presumably taught the Witch-King - it was the Witch-King that used necromancy to create the Barrow-Wights in the first place. The process seems to involve these blades piercing the heart. So my reading is that Frodo would have become something similar to a Barrow-wight. I don't think we're ever told if these wights also got released when Eowyn killed the Witch-King. Perhaps they are still around and are the origin of e.g. ghost and vampire legends...

[@oldworldpatriot8920]

Ironic,Frodo almost does every other page but Bilbo was the one that saved everyone else from certain death in the hobbit

[@philipcraig6230]

He was quite close to death wrestling Gollum in Mount Doom. Also when he & Sam left Mount Doom it was all but over until the eagles arrived.

[@napoleoncomplex2712]

It's worth noting that Isildur, another ring bearer, was ultimately slain by an arrow. The One Ring seems to bring misfortune upon its keeper.

[@SirBolsón]

Last time I was this early, Sauron was still making the One Ring! 😂💍

[@bristleconepine4120]

Quick note: Shelob is not a spider. Reread the description of her anatomy in the book and compare that to the anatomy of a real spider. Shelob - and thus presumably Ungoliant - was some kind of eldritch horror that merely resembled a spider. And this is to be expected: spiders are, of course, animals, and therefore creatures of Yavanna and/or Oromë. 🙂 Also, you forgot the time that Frodo nearly died on the slopes of Orodruin before being saved by Gwaiahir.

[@philipcraig6230]

Frodo had some impressive plot armour though. He survived enough assassination attempts to run for US president.

[@skatemetrix]

Die Hard: A Hobbit's Tale

[@SvengelskaBlondie]

Gandalf: Ho Ho Ho, I have a machine gun 😅

[@TheMeleeNuke]

Don't forget about his many encounters with the Sacksvile-Baggins' in the shire

[@violator7964]

Frodo nearly dying again. The rest of the Fellowship: 🤨

[@kicorse]

I thought the questionable Amon Hen one was going to be when Frodo was almost seen by Sauron (presumably using a palantir) while wearing the Ring, but took it off just in time thanks to the remote intervention of Gandalf. I can understand it not being included though - Frodo's death would not have happened immediately. There are quite a few borderline cases like that. Personally I would also have included the Black Rider fleeing the elves in the Shire (though you explained why you didn't) because it's clear that Frodo had been discovered this time and did not yet understand his peril, so it's doubtful that he could have survived otherwise.

[@crusher0427]

What about when he and Sam were trapped by the lava flows on the slopes of Orodruin? If not for the intervention of Gandalf and the Eagles, they would have been roasted to death.

[@JackHankeAnd]

Yeah, I came here to say this. They very much almost died on Mount Doom. A couple other moments in Mordor stand out, but this is the big one.

[@General12th]

Hi Darth!

[@gregbors8364]

There’s that one time he tried to do standup on open mic night

[@SirBolsón]

Happy 2025, guys! May the Valar bless ye! 🙌🏼

[@samuelvine]

Thank goodness the last of those 13 experiences did not take place on a Friday!

[@thegang3551]

To get technical Frodo does die in the end. Where exactly is that boat taking him? For being ring bearer he was given a spot in Elven Heaven.

[@KyleReese-vt8bo]

I'd have just thrown the ring at the first Nazgul and ran.

[@Sen-xt5oj]

What if Fatty Bolger was the ring bearer?

[@phoule76]

heh, damsel in distress

[@mechtim]

Sam the real hero

[@micklumsden3956]

How many times did Sam nearly die? The real hero volunteered to take the ring knowing what that would mean

[@SirBolsón]

Here to say "first" before some petulant child does!

[@General12th]

And so, by attempting to preemptively eliminate the petulant child, you have become the petulant child.