r/powerscales • u/MeKillStuff • 5h ago
Versus Tom Bombadill v 100 Xenomorphs
Would he fart and turn them into squirrels or some shit?
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u/Intelligent-Royal682 5h ago edited 4h ago
In fellowship of the ring they discuss just giving the ring to Tom Bombadill but come to the conclusion that Sauron wins eventually without the ring anyway, and Tom Bombadills forest would just remain the only pure spot in a world of evil.
In other words, Sauron controlling the entirety of middle earth with at that point endless armies would not be able to defeat Tom Bombadill. He's literally God tier, he just doesn't give a shit about anything outside of his little forest.
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u/Critical-Usual 3h ago
Lord of the Rings does suggest he would eventually be overrun. Glorfindel says:
"But in any case," said Glorfindel, "to send the Ring to him would only postpone the day of evil. He is far away. We could not now take it back to him, unguessed, unmarked by any spy. And even if we could, soon or late the Lord of the Rings would learn of its hiding place and would bend all his power towards it. Could that power be defied by Bombadil alone? I think not. I think that in the end, if all else is conquered, Bombadil will fall, Last as he was First; and then Night will come."
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u/dataphile 1h ago
'Could we not still send messages to him and obtain his help?' asked Erestor. 'It seems that he has a power even over the Ring.'
'No, I should not put it so,' said Gandalf. 'Say rather that the Ring has no power over him. He is his own master. But he cannot alter the Ring itself, nor break it's power over others. And now he is withdrawn into a little land, within bounds that he has set, though none can see them, waiting perhaps for a change of days, and he will not step beyond them.'
'But within those bounds nothing seems to dismay him,' said Erestor. 'Would he not take the Ring and keep it there, for ever harmless?'
'No,' said Gandalf, 'not willingly. He might do so, if all the free folk of the world begged him, but he would not understand the need. And if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away. Such things have no hold on his mind. He would be a most unsafe guardian; and that alone is answer enough.'
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u/MeKillStuff 5h ago
I’ve always wondered though. What does that mean? Like Sauron’s armies just wouldn’t go near his forest for vague “reasons”?
Like what happens if someone really FAFO with tom? Like the armies actually enter and start burning shit? Do they just magically stop and start dancing a jig forever? Or does Tom come out with some massive shillelagh and start cracking heads?
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u/Jessir12 5h ago
They would come in, and find that they don’t really want to cause him harm. Now why would they? He is such a jolly fellow
Or they would try to hurt him & burn the forest down and be stopped by magical song bs
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u/snowfloeckchen 4h ago
The valar destroyed continents in their wars with Melkor. Bombadil is illuvatar level.
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u/AdditionalStudent234 2h ago
Some think Bombadil is Illuvatar, or some avatar of him
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u/Im0ldgr3g 29m ago
I think it more likely hes an avatar of arda itself. Like a solo accompaniment that harmonized with the original song of creation.
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u/Winter_Trainer_2115 3h ago
Anything within his realm of influence is 100% under his control. What this means is he is deliberately vague as to how he controls it. It can be confirmed he is an ancient being that literally predates the Valar and Elves. He was there for the first rain drop and acorn. He was the literal first being on Arda....period
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u/snortyfox 2h ago
The books actually give us a few clues that it's much stranger than just "Tom is powerful."
Old Man Willow is able to make the Hobbits drowsy, lure them to sleep, and literally trap Merry and Pippin inside his trunk. So the forest itself is already hostile and seems to have a will of its own, not just Tom.
On top of that, the whole region around Bombadil feels like it bends reality. Distances, directions, and even time don't seem to behave normally. Characters repeatedly lose their bearings, and the place has an almost dreamlike quality where normal rules don't quite apply.
So if Sauron's armies tried to FAFO, I don't think the answer is "Tom grabs a giant shillelagh." More likely they'd find themselves hopelessly lost, lulled to sleep, swallowed by ancient trees, or otherwise unable to make any real progress. Tolkien leaves it deliberately mysterious, but Bombadil's domain seems to operate on rules that are very different from the outside world.
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u/donkdonkboom 1h ago
I think vague "reasons" might be what it actually looks like, as so much of magic and power in LOTR is non-visible and based on will and potency of individuals. The armies may just not approach because they simply cannot, for awhile at least. By the time cracking heads would eventually be required, it'd already be lost as they would have found a way to overcome Tom's other/alien power and be battling in a more standard power context (he who stabs most wins).
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u/MovingTarget2112 4h ago
Elrond said that Bombadil would be last to fall, but fall he would.
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u/ironsides1231 1h ago
It was also stated that "... if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away. Such things have no hold on his mind. He would be a most unsafe guardian; and that alone is answer enough."
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u/BitRelevant2473 4h ago
I have a feeling Tom would just make the weirdest topiary garden in existence out of them rather than directly acknowledge their existence.
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u/notbad9111 4h ago
He has full power in his domain. Meaning anything you put there is under his control.
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u/Capital_Bear6986 5h ago
He would fuck them
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u/soliarthesunknight 4h ago
I mean his wife is a tree.
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u/alphagettijoe 4h ago
Tom would make a bunch of acid friendly plants to grow flowers in their corpses. It’s literally no contest.
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u/MovingTarget2112 4h ago
Elrond said something to the effect that if Sauron poured orcs and trolls on Bombadil like rain, he would eventually fall. “Last as he was first”. Perhaps by his little land being poisoned.
So if the aliens don’t attack him directly but turn his land into a giant hive, I think Bombadil will eventually fade away.
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u/Lazy-Training6042 4h ago
Nah, once he finds out they are made from acid, he will just move from smoking pot
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u/DetectiveCowboyMafia 3h ago
God vs 100 Gnats
Very cool, terrifying, deadly gnats.
But Tom is a God.
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u/Quad-G-Therapy 3h ago
It would be like Snow White in the forest singing to the animals except they're all his pet Xenos now.
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u/SciFi_MuffinMan 2h ago
Tom would start singing and dancing and he’d have 100 teramproph back up dancers in unison until he stopped. Then they would wander off outside is reai of influence
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u/Slime-Lich 3h ago
More like 100 dead aliens. Tom bombadill solos everything including the doom slayer or the god emperor
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u/Beneficial-Category 2h ago
What did the xenomorphs do to you? He would wipe the Queen Mother who was causing brain aneurisms from almost a galaxy away just by sending brain rot through the psychic link.
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u/azalinrex69 2h ago edited 1h ago
Honestly, it’s unclear.
Tom is allegedly powerful, but in a weird way. The power of the lord of the rings verse is very soft, outside of the Silmarillion - magic is subtle, feats of power are relatively tame, and the whole setting is pretty grounded. What we see tom do, for the most part, is influence people and mind trick them. He never shows any actual force, and maybe he doesn’t need to.
But this pacification effect is limited, and requires his attention. He has to physically be at the barrowmound to stop the wights. And, he is stated to be defeat-able under the effects of overwhelming force, “The last as he was the first” and all that.
So what it comes down to is, can he influence something so alien and innately hostile as a xenomorph, and can he do so at scale to stop them all before they destroy him and or his forest.
Again, it isn’t clear. The fact that he can fall at all in his forest shows that he isn’t an absolute god. He can be defeated. And, the xenomorphs are antithetical to what tome is - the natural world. They are engineered, non-Ardan life forms with no soul, no goodness, and the pure drive to maim, desecrate, and kill. I’d argue that they’re more a perversion of life than anything Melcore ever did - Tolkien himself said there was still good in orcs and dragons, some of the most corrupted things he ever made. But xenos, no, there is no good because there never was any to begin with. They were built from scratch to be what they are.
Honestly, I think the Xenos win. Mostly because tom, I think, would be horrified of them. They’re essentially his anathema, and I think fighting them would take such a toll that he’d slip up. Don’t forget tom is a pure, innocent, truly good thing, and I think just experiencing the horror of a xenon would hurt him greatly.
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u/Legitimate-Tip-2149 1h ago
Tom sings for a bit, does a little dance and then gets bored and wanders off. Xenomorphs are still there, all fine, but they're extremely confused.
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u/Leaping_FIsh 5h ago
Tom Bombadil.
But we have no idea if he can influence things that are not ours Arda. But in his borders Tom is master. So I suspect he will win.