Boromir is a hero. If the bar for not being a hero is that one was not tempted by the ring then there are no heroes in LOTR
this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2025
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The movie does him dirty, imo. He's kind of set up as suspicious right from the start, not too overtly but just with certain framing and shots. I think the extended version has some extra scenes with him that improve this somewhat, but the films really miss out on showing him as this noble, highly respected character, which highlights how seductive the ring is when he falls for it.
You're right, but I offer a counterpoint, and not just the 'film is trying to condense everything and foreshadow wherever it is possible.' They actually did that part fairly well.
Boromir's whole involvement with the ring is shown as conflicted from the start. That he is shown so suspiciously throughout the movie makes his martyrdom so much more meaningful.
The scene that does him dirty is the one with Aragorn where he treats the weapon used by Isildur with disrespect.
(They also cast Sean Bean so even if you were blind to the series, you knew what was gonna happen to him.)
That he is shown so suspiciously throughout the movie makes his martyrdom so much more meaningful.
You can make that argument (though I personally don't really agree with it), but my point is that his character and the intent of his arc is very different from the novel.
Yeah, I get that. I see it as a necessary casualty of novel>movie narrative.
It's really the Narsil scene to me that diverges his arc and does him dirty.
I have a lot of issues with the movies in general, I think they miss the heart of a lot of the characters in favour of cliches and fitting better into mainstream movie tropes.
Exactly, and he didn't even want the ring to become a just but powerful king; he just wanted to save his kingdom and then get rid of it. That makes his fall into temptation not the worst.
I mean, the ring offers whatever good intentions it needs to. He said they should use it as a weapon of good, and in that moment he probably believed it, but it would not have gone that way.
Oh of course, I'm not saying that he was going to resist the bad part of the ring, far from it, he would have ended up corrupted if he got it, it's obvious, but at least his original intention was good, others were already tempted with power for themselves and that is not the case.
Samwise? I can't remember the lore now
He’s tempted briefly when Frodo had been captured and he carries the ring, but he breaks out of it.
Kind of? The Ring desperately tries to find something to bribe him with, but he just doesn’t want anything except to go home to his garden. So the Ring tries offering to turn all of Mordor into a garden just for him.
Sam thinks about this for all of a few minutes before deciding (quite sensibly) that a kingdom-sized garden would be a pain to take care of, and promptly spends the rest of the story ignoring the silly piece of jewelry.
Galadriel, Gandalf, Bombadil, or Faramir?
I guess it depends on your definition of "tempted". All four of these characters had the opportunity to take the ring, but ultimately did not.
All of them were tempted by it, except Bombadil whose ADHD was too strong
Galadriel was certainly tempted by it—in fact, I’m sure she fully intended to take it from Frodo.
Gandalf had clearly considered using it at some stage, but rejected the idea.
Tom Bombadil wasn’t capable of being tempted by it. It seems the only thing that could tempt him was Goldberry.
And Faramir doesn’t seem to have been affected by it at all and rejected the idea of using it out of hand, even before knowing exactly what it was.
Boromir fell for the one ring's influence but came back from it. That takes real willpower.
It's a shame he couldn't get a days sober chip before he died.
Not gonna lie, I teared up when he was killed. Just finished the three books last month, my first time reading them. He was a great hero.
Boromir my love
Putting Denethor's head on Tony would make the meme next level