I mean, yeah, valid! but but but I also want to add on the fact that lotr AGGRESSIVELY rejects the āgrimdarkā and āgrittyā settings that is so prevalent in fantasy (and also in general) right now, because I physically can not shut up about it
It is hope and love and compassion that saves each character individually, and because of that, the world. Frodo fails in the end, but his acts of compassion from earlier in the story save the day. And even as the world is saved, it is acknowledged that Frodo failedāwithout judgement, without blame. He fails, and he is still loved.
And like what can happen in the real world, he is still irrevocably changed by his trauma. But there is still hopeāhe has to leave, but he leaves with the promise of healing, and the promise that his ever-faithful Sam will follow.
Aragorn, Boromir, Frodo, Sam; each and every one of the characters are driven by their love of the people around them and their hope for the future. They cling to that love and hope throughout their trials, and that bears them through.
Of course people are watching it for comfort!!!! Lotr is eternally consistent in its promise, which Sam articulates so clearly in The Two Towers: āEven darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, itāll shine out the clearer.ā
Things are dark and awful and terrible, but it will not be that way forever. That is the promise of LOTR. A promise of hope, and the reminder that it is love and compassionāfor our friends, for our families, for the strangers weāve never even metāthat will save us in the end.
