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@daeus-lamb @gabriellepollack

Okay… so… WOOHOO!!! *gets really hyped* Someone dared to challenge The LOTR… *draws sword*

Anyway… yeah… It’s a legit question. When reading the books, I had a preconceived idea of how it would end, because I’d seen the movies first. And because of that, I think I love the books all the more. But it also meant I had trouble dealing with how it ended, at first:

I draw a comfort from the fact that even in healing, things won’t be the same. When we get back to “normal life” it’s a different story. But things got better… because cleansing happened. The Shire still held a sickness in it that was revealed when “Sharky” came. He let them come out of the shadows as fallen beings, who needed a light otherwise they were no better than the orcs. But there were some still that held the light that had been given them, only they needed leaders. And those leaders came back, having left as little kids, and come back as warriors.

In the end, I would say the messes were cleaned up. But when cleansing happens it’s not pleasant. There’s hardship, there’s pain, there’s anger, there are deep scars left behind. Then then what happens? Seeds are planted. Things become beautiful again, in a weathered and aged kind of way, but also in a new age of growth, where the king is on his throne protecting those around.

Tolkien gave us a gift that is not given in most of literature. He gave us pain… he showed us the healing… but it didn’t end where it started. It ended in a time of recovery from enslavement. And that’s a dark time. There was finally time to mourn, there was mental space to, there was safety in it. And that doesn’t look pretty either. But he gave us the gift of showing comfort in it. He showed us that it’s okay. Not that it’s the same, and that we will be the same people… but that there’s growth, and in the pain and sorrow, beauty grows.

Tolkien let us know that it’s okay. And yeah… it’s sad… but it’s so powerful. I don’t agree that it would have had an overall greater effect if what Daeus said happened. It would have been a different story, and maybe more pleasant. But no, not greater. Adventures of pain and toil are not something we go on to come out the same… war is no heroes tale… war is real… and if we are to ignore what it puts us through, even though the cleansing can bring great beauty, there will be scars. And no… it wasn’t just about Sam and Frodo coming back to confidently take on evil… It was about bringing the cleanse to it’s full extent. It was about showing even the darkest corners of darkness, and no matter how small they be, how hard it will effect us.

But even so we can have peace… because in all the darkness… lemme rephrase that… with all the darkness being exposed to the light, and thus becoming light: we have a home… a place to mourn.

How else would you ask Tolkien to show that? It wouldn’t do just to end it after the destruction. No… for how many times do we complete the adventure only to come back to perfect peace? We don’t, not until the very end.

I can tell you from personal experience, that any form of war takes something from us. And it’s something that we must get back. It won’t just be sitting there for us.

Tolkien’s ending was beautiful, and I would have it no other way. Cleansing happened… and it was painful… but it resulted in peace. What happened next, after the last line of the book? They still had families to build… Sam was back.