the palantiri weren't dystopic objects. they were positive items used for communication until some of them were captured.

I think the name of the company is highly apt.

Fair enough, I'm not very steeped in the intricacies of Lord of the Rings. I got the feeling that it was the nature of their power and omniscience that corrupted most individuals who used them, sort of like the Ring, but that could be completely wrong.

That's completely wrong. The Palantiri were created by the Noldor (one of the powerful old races of elves) and used without corruption, and then given to the Numenoreans as a gift; they were used for a long time without corruption. They were so powerful that even Sauron could not make arbitrary images appear. But the weak-minded were easily influenced by him through it; not through the nature of the stones.

The ring was created by Sauron and embedded most of his life-force, and nobody alive at the time of the LotR had enough strength to resist his will.

The exception being Tom Bombadil, but he is a strange creature.

You'll probably enjoy this essay "Oldest and Fatherless: The Terrible Secret of Tom Bombadil" https://km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html

Ok, that was awesome. I don't buy it at all (if Sauron was indeed a threat to Tom, or if Tom could be bound by the art of the Valar, I feel as though the ring would effect him as well), but it was a really fun read.

A fun thought invoked by this, and given Tolkien's intent to create a creation myth for our Earth, is somewhere out there Tom still sits in his forest, waiting, for when the might of the Valar fades. Feels almost Lovecraftian.

Oh, if you're also in Lovecraftian horrors you should read this paper https://arxiv.org/abs/1210.8144

"Possible Bubbles of Spacetime Curvature in the South Pacific"

oh, yeah, sorry, I left that out, but that's a subtle issue, because it's not clear whether he is actually a creature, or an embodiment of nature.

That must be why he was left out of the movies.

/s

There's a lot of writing about the omission that I think explains Jackson's thinking (and it's clear he thought about this).

Personally I think Tom is one of the most important moments of the book, but not as part of the plot; rather, it's fascinating to somebody who considers the LoTR as an archetypal myth, because Tom's identity is intentionally kept mysterious, even when his powers are not.

Oh.

Well, stuff happens; thanks.