God I hope this isn’t a repost from my Swiss cheese brain
Prior to leaving the shire and facing the hardships at hand, the hobbits were incorruptible and unlikely to be influenced by the ring. A gamble by Gandalf, if somewhat deceptive of him, not to prepare them for the journey ahead.
Also, he was baked out of his gourd.
Edit: Yes, yes. Gollum and such, but just look at Pippin.
and look at Bilbo!
So many years of having the ring just for himself and the worst he does is disappear sometimes and then he doesn’t want to give it back more than usual. Hobbits seem like hoarders of nice little trinkets anyway, the ring just made the hoarding instinct stronger
Boromir was in near proximity of the ring for a couple of months and got corrupted by it to the point of temporarily losing his mind just in time for the orcs to attack a freshly split fellowship
And though Boromir’s circumstances certainly didn’t help him - his home being close to the soon-to-be front lines of the war & the long perilous journey both certainly put a strain on his psyche, all he had was the mere idea of the ring’s promises & he was alongside Frodo during the journey, that against everybody telling him “the ring is the most dangerous thing in the world and using it might make things better in the now, but will spell doom in the long run anyway”
“They may not look like much, but believe me – these dudes are hilarious!”
The Halflings weed has clouded his mind.
Saruman was right
He also probably loved the Hobbit pussy. He kept coming back for more than just Bilbo.
“damn it Gandalf, the last time you went on a Longbottom leaf bender you brought home one of those little weirdos too remember? You Trolled those dwarfs and told them he was a burglar. Not cool dude, you got so many people killed.”
“To be fair, this isn’t the first time, and that worked out super sly.”
Old Toby, not even once.
I would argue that Eärendil’s voyage was the most important mission of all time.
