Can you imagine being Gandalf? Getting shit from other wizards because you have a thing for hobbits and you're just like, okay. Okay, maybe I'll temper my fascination with hobbits.
This Ring quest will have two hobbits. Maximum.
Then they all get to Rivendell and have somehow multiplied into four hobbits. And it's like. Okay. Maybe the others are right.
Maybe this is too many hobbits.
We have as many hobbits as we have not-hobbits.
But damn it, you just don't want to get rid of any of these hobbits. Screw it! Everyone can deal. Four hobbits. This is a four hobbits problem.
So away you go.
And things go bad in the worst possible way.
Over and over.
You've lost your hobbits. You've lost yourself. The fellowship has been separated.
It takes everything in your power to help the humans defend themselves, bringing them together to save Rohan. Finally, as things begin to look upright, you're ready to face the war with everything the Rohirrim have left.
You're ready to face him. This may be the hardest battle you've ever fought. But you ride.
Then you get there and two of your fucking hobbits are sitting there like "Yeah, while you were gone, we raised a tree army and beat Saruman's ass. Wanna help us loot his tower?"
....
There were not, in fact, too many hobbits.
This was a four hobbits problem.
A wizard neither underestimates nor overestimates the number of hobbits needed for an equation. He, er, always has precisely as many as he needs to.
























