I know it’s just a meme, but when I see anti-Lobelia propaganda of any kind, it fills my veins with rage. Therefore I now spread the truth that Lobelia did nothing wrong, but that Bilbo framed her as a thief. Here is why:
Once upon a time, the hobbits lived peacefully in the Shire, never needing to leave their paradise, therefore never leaving it. However, one day Bilbo suddenly disappears with a wizard and some weird beard-dudes. Then he does not return.
Obviously, he is dead. So his family inherits his estate, among other things, and Lobelia moves into Bag-End.
Now Bilbo is returning from his adventure in the Hobbit. While vibing with Gollum, he had taken the ring of power, and now he comes back to his home. What he sees here horrifies him: His own home is being taken by Lobelia! This fills him with rage.
To understand matters fully, we must understand the power of the One Ring, as well as Bilbo’s psychology. The power of the ring, as is clear in the LOTR books, lies in corrupting the mind. However, we can point to a specific type of corruption: possession. This is logical, as Saurons goal was to possess all of Middle-Earth. You can see this influence of the ring with Frodo becoming paranoid, being mad at Sam for taking the ring.
Now Bilbo. He never went outside the Shire, the only place he calls home. He is continuously among strangers and obviously longs for home. Now when he finally comes home, he sees that this home is taken from him. With the ring already corrupting him he cannot think clearly and therefore doesn’t see how it is logical that others would think he is dead.
But the ring doesn’t stop corrupting Bilbo’s mind. He spins a fake tale to justify his possession of the ring and doesn’t even trust his best friend Gandalf.
Now the question is: why would he only care about posessing the ring? The rings power can’t solely lie in this, for then it would be useless to Sauron. The only logical conclusion is that he became more paranoid every day and started justifying himself in all his possessions.
Now to the point: Bilbo, paranoid as he was, tried to attack Lobelia in every way. She was a selfish person, always trying to get Bilbo’s house and his furniture and what not. Most notably, he said that Lobelia took his spoons, without providing any evidence.
The only thing that we can really say about Lobelia personality is her conversation with Frodo and the second-to-last chapter. The conversation with Frodo does put her in a bad light, but we must remember that Frodo was heavily influenced, or rather indoctrinated, by Bilbo, so this can’t be seen as an objective source. This means the only thing we know about Lobelia is that she was the most courageous of all Hobbits in fighting Saruman and his gang.
If you have mad it this far, I am sure you have been convinced of this truth, and if not, I invite you to give your arguments so that I can crush them.
Tl;dr: Lobelia was right
How many spoons did the Sackville-Bagginses pay you to shill their propaganda?
The only pay I need is justice; the only food I need is truth; the only drink I need is apple juice. Lobelia is just a Hobbit, a widow even late in her life! Nowhere in the books is any mentions of women working in the Shire, nor of any pension funds. It is fair to assume that the poor woman was in deep poverty. On top of that she was robbed of her inheritance, Bilbo making Frodo his only heir just to spite her. And here are you, talking about paying someone to defend your name ages after your death! Sometimes even a platform as glorious as Lemmy can make you lose your faith in humanity.
Gollum self justified murdering Deagol after the fact. Bilbo spends the rest of his corrupted days blaming Lobelia. Bagginses! Sackville Bagginses! We hates them! We hates them forever! They stole it from us! Our precious…spoons.
Lobelia is even seen as a folk hero by the people of Hobbiton after the scouring of the shire because she literally spat in Sarumans face.
I never thought of it this way, but it all fits. Lobelia did nothing wrong, Bilbo was influenced by the ring.
No crushing here either.
Exactly! You can see that even Frodo and the boys, the ones most corrupted by Bilbo’s indoctrination, admire her courage. Frodo even gives her Bag-End at last, probably after he found out about what really happened. And while Lobelia was seen as a hero, Bilbo was literally the most controversial Hobbit of his time!
They didn’t want to give Bilbo his stuff back once it turned out he was indeed alive upon his return. I think some of them might’ve been skeptical he was an imposter?
If so, going by your theory maybe the evil of the ring corrupted him so, it really changed him and they were rightfully suspicious.
Although I’m happy to read that you are open to the truth, your comment also shows just how effective Bilbo’s propaganda has been. Don’t you understand that you base your comment on a book written by Bilbo himself? They didn’t want it, you say? How do you know?
The sad truth is that we cannot make an objective reconstruction of what happened when Bilbo returned. It is however obvious that Lobelia moving into Bag-End was absolutely logical and that if she was angry, that can easily be understood. It also is obvious that Bilbo greatly disliked Lobelia. With this information we must try to understand what really happened. It is a hard battle we must fight, but in the end, I am convinced that truth shall be victorious.
going by your theory
You misspelled “truth”.
I invite you to give your arguments so that I can crush them.
I’m convinced! No crushing please!
It’s free real estate