In the Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring film, it’s always bothered me that right at the start of the movie there is a scene where Bilbo refers to the Ring as ‘my precious’ in front of Gandalf. Gandalf then replies to say ‘it’s been called that before.’
After this, Gandalf just let’s Bilbo leave the ring for Frodo and hikes off to do research to confirm the ring referred to as precious is the Ring of Power.
Now, if you know the books, you’ll know that its actually something like seventeen years before Gandalf comes back to Frodo, having confirmed that it is the Ring of Power.
I mean, saying ‘‘it’s been called that before” shows that Gandalf thought it was the Ring of Power itself. So why leave it in the hands of an unsuspecting Hobbit? And why leave it for so many years?
Now, when you watch the movie, it feels like Gandalf returns to Frodo within a matter of days, so even if that is the case in the movies, why would Gandalf ever risk leaving the most powerful and dangerous object in Middle Earth in the hands of Frodo?
They could have fixed this line to show Gandalf was suspicious of the ring without seemingly acting as if he knew it was that ring.
Why not say something like ‘rings have been called precious before…but it can’t be.’ And then go off and research your suspicions. Or, you know, take it away from Frodo?
And yes, I get it. As we see later, Gandalf says he cannot personally take the ring because of the danger it would be in his already powerful wizard hands…but even if he thought it would be dangerous left in his hands, why just leave it in the hands of Frodo? Who had no idea that he was holding onto the most dangerous object in all of Middle Earth?
Gandalf should have said to Frodo that they’re going on a quest to Rivendell immediately and figured out if they needed to go to Mount Doom to destroy it immediately.
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