Who would have fallen?

[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by Glirdan

Maybe Pippin seeing as he fell to the lure of the palantir... I do not see Merry succumbing to it. Maybe it's because of his close kinship with Frodo and out of love, he would not even dare to try it. Sam is Frodo's "servant" and Sam loves Frodo deeply, so that's why he would not.

How come Pippin always seems to be regarded as having less love for Frodo than Merry? Is it his "lighter" nature?

Originally Posted by Glirdan

Aragorn had a lot of chances to take the Ring and he never did so

Boromir had a lot of chances to do so too, but never did until he did, if you take my meaning. We have to assume that the next person to "succumb" does so after Boromir's attempt. For the reasons stated in the link I provided above, I believe that it would have been Aragorn. At the outset, the distance from Mordor and his strength of character mean that he is in no danger. But had they all stayed with Frodo on the journey to Mordor, I believe that, of them all, he would have been in the most danger.

Then again, I believe that given sufficent time and exposure, they would all have succumbed to the lure of the Ring - with the exception, perhaps, of Gandalf.