Lydia Bennet as Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings*

Sauron wins. Middle Earth is doomed. Game over.

At least that’s the obvious answer. Let’s do a more nuanced analysis.

Had Lydia grown up as a hobbit, her self-centeredness might be less ingrained. She’d be less boy crazy, at the very least. In Pride and Prejudice, her boy craziness stemmed from a lack of parental guidance and the societal message that marriage is her highest calling, which means pursuing men is the greatest adventure she’s allowed. Since she’d have little pressure to marry as Frodo, it’s likely her thirst for adventure would be as great in the Lord of the Rings as her boy craziness was in Pride and Prejudice, making her a lot like Pippin.

Frodo’s friends, companions, and Golum are the reasons he succeeded as he only makes a handful of decisions that propel the plot forward. To determine if Lydia would destroy the ring, we need to analyze the decisions Frodo made that got him to Mount Doom. First, does she leave the shire when Gandalf tells her to? This seems likely as it plays into her sense of adventure. There is a possibility she tosses the ring and returns home as soon as the wraith chases them, dooming Middle Earth. But since Pippin runs with them to Bree, Lydia would most likely make it there as well. The story would stay the same until she reached Rivendell.

Does Lydia volunteer to take the ring to Mount Doom? Only if her sense of adventure overrode her self-centeredness. Although, I doubt little would stop her if she was determined to go. In which case, nothing would really change until they got to Moria, where she’d be throwing rocks into the lake with Pippin instead of helping Gandalf solve the riddle to open the door. So the lake monster might eat them before they could escape into Moria. If they survived the monster, most of the story would remain the same until the encounter with the Uruk-hai.

I’m not convinced she’d decide to strike on her own, which means either the Uruk-hai capture her and the ring—game over—or the Uruk-hai run off with Merry and Pippin. Aragon, Gimli, and Legolas would most likely go with her. It’s possible Lydia and Sam make it to Mount Doom faster with help, maybe even destroying the ring before Sauron’s forces are ready to fight. Maybe they’re able to save Merry and Pippin after they’ve completed the mission, and maybe not. There’s also a good chance a larger group would attract Sauron’s attention, making it almost impossible to reach Mount Doom.

By the end of the story, the ring has a hold of Frodo. Sauron would have won if it weren’t for Golum, the unintentional hero of the story. Would Lydia show him mercy and allow him to guide her? Possibly. Losing Gandalf and the weight of carrying the ring changes Frodo, even matures him, as does the journey to Mordor. He had little pity on Golum when he first notices him. I doubt he’d trust him while in Moria. As time goes on, Frodo sees how easy it would be to become Golum and shows him compassion. The journey could also mature Lydia, in which case, she makes the same decisions as Frodo and the ring gets destroyed. Then again, if the journey doesn’t mature her, she’d get rid of Golum and Sauron wins.

The chance Lydia makes it to Mount Doom and destroys the ring—slim, but not impossible.

*Analysis made using the Lord of the Rings movies