[Dancing_Hobbit]

only a hobbit could take the ring, because anyone else would not be able to resist it long enough. i think the resistence is due to thier love of happiness and good things, they are so accustumed to them and love them so much, that evil and power just don't have the same pull on them. however, it would have to be an unusual hobbit. mery and pippin, while spirited, are just too hobbity. they don't take the quest seriously for a long time, and they blunder and don't seem to understand just how terrible their danger is. they would have blundered along and been cught quickley. they also probably never would have left the fellowship, which was essential. it allowed the onther members to do other important things, prevented them from being corrupted, and made the party small enough to avoid notice and not to seem as threatening to gollum. sam wouldn't be bad, but as someone said, he is too attached to frodo and doesn't think things through well enough. also, while he is very sweet and kind, he doesn't have frodo's empathy. if frodo hadn't stopped him, he would have killed gollum, without whom, they never would have gotten into mordor, nor would anything, even a hobbit, have had the strength to wilfully destroy the ring.