today in defenses of boromir that no one asked for: tired of reading that boromir’s death was in vain because he failed to save merry & pippin from the uruk-hai. the fact that this clearly important warrior was willing to die to protect those two is what convinced the urukhai that they had indeed captured the halfing who carried whatever important thing saruman wanted. they took the hobbits to isengard (to isengard gard) because they thought they had the right ones! boromir didn’t succeed in preventing their capture but he did in fact keep them alive by making them seem valuable. furthermore, he actually also saves frodo in this way: because the orcs and uruk-hai think they have what they came for, they stop looking and turn back: if they had not, they might have ultimately found and captured frodo or at least raised the alarm that a hobbit with an Important Thing was on the loose, setting others searching. which is the very heart of tolkien’s worldview - that you do the right thing because it is right, and doing the right thing is never in vain.
to conclude this essay boromir died a hero and saved not just merry and pippin but also frodo and sam.
some excellent additions in the tags here @erynalasse & @manta-ray-parade
[ID: Tumblr tags that read ’“#thank you op #and also on a wider note #it bothers me that people say boromir’s death was in vain #as if utulity is the only axis we measure worth on #i’m sure tolkien would have disliked the implication #that honor and courage and a real effort to do better #especially after succumbing to temptation #somehow don’t matter #because they do!
#but also his willingness to sacrifice himself for the hobbits/fellowship shows the ring did not end up consuming him #his love for the hobbits saved him from the ring’. There are two pleading emojis at the end. End ID]
