I think one of the reasons I prefer the friendships in Tolkien's works be seen as just that, friendships, is because it honestly makes me really think about my old friends, and my childhood overall. It makes me think of all the time I used to spend with them, and all the happy memories we made together. It reminds me of the times before the world took me and countless others and twisted us up; when we were just kids messing around. Memories of warm summers, imaginary characters; of playing house.
It's easy to get wrapped up in the shipping craze but when you really step back and really look at all the intricate, beautiful friendships that Tolkien wrote, it always felt much more fulfilling and wholesome rather than saying "Oh, they must be in love" and leaving it at that. Those kinds of things always felt...meaningless. Empty. Sometimes even painfully hollow. But when I saw it as a friendship rather than a romance, I actually felt something, something good. I understood the story Tolkien himself was trying to tell better. It's pretty obvious that Tolkien himself held friendships in very high regard, sometimes as an even higher and more selfless form of love than romance, which in my opinion is something that people need now more than ever. And it hits even harder when you learn that Tolkien himself lost many of his old friends and mourned them. Tolkien knew the importance, uniqueness, and beauty of friendship most people today don't, and I think we all need someone who we can without a doubt call a friend, and it seems like too few people have that nowadays.
Now, I'm not trying to bash people who do ship stuff like that. I'm not saying you're a bad person or whatever nor am I saying that you can't have a good, strong romance. I just wanted to put in my point of view. I just think it's something important to talk about and something that's been on my mind ever since I got interested in Tolkien's works.
