DallasTeleAg said:
Put me in the group of fans who thinks Tom Bombadil is useless.
I'm reading Fellowship and just got through "In the House of Tom Bombadlil."
Unnecessary? Definitely.
Useless? Not totally, IMO.
I think the point of Bombadil is to put the entire War of the Ring in context, in that this is a really big deal to the players involved in the game but mother nature don't give a damn
Also, it does show some limitations of the ring's power. It has dominion over people, but not really nature itself. This might explain why hobbits seem more resistant to the ring than others would and Sam seems almost totally unaffected (even when he's in Mordor). Maybe that last bit is a reach... just riffing.