Okay I started tag rambling and it kept going so I’m just moving up here. Fair warning for full LoTR fangeek mode activation.
I still absolutely cannot with the amount of LoTR parallels they managed to stuff into the second half of 13x21. It’s in the music even, I can distinctly hear themes and chord progressions from both Fellowship and RotK.
It was delightful at the time, and it still makes me grin, but I’m just... coming back to it knowing how s13 ended, knowing where s14 storyline goes...
Sam and Dean both end up as Frodo. Dean is following the story path after Moria, where the protagonist is struggling with the death of a very dear friend. That death and loss forces him to leave his companions, to try and do *everything* alone. The weight of saving the world is squarely on his shoulders, and this is the point where he says “This is my task, and mine alone.” It’s not too long after this he ends up making a devil’s bargain, he needs help that only one creature can provide (Gollum, Michael)
Sam, on the other hand, is much further along in the story, near Cirith Ungol. Frodo “dies” in the story, set up to be lunch for Shelob, and instead his body is dragged off to be tortured. He’s a spy, must be, he knows about the Ring, he must; torture him and you’ll get the prize, you’ll win the war.
I can make such parallels between Lucifer and the various antagonists of the trilogy, but there’s two I’m looking at rn: the Balrog, Shadow and Flame, a creature left over from an old war, who only understands destruction now that it’s free; and Shelob herself. Old, hungry for everything the world can offer (flattery, power, food), the comfortable evil sitting at the door to hell, always hating the light and never satisfied; her, you can find where it’s darkest.
