Carry on, carry each other. Hide if you have to. Fight when you can. Survive, protect, endure, prevail.

(7/7)

I think we're in for a long, difficult road. Bad things will happen (though I hope not exclusively). There's going to be a lot of times where we feel like all is lost, and that we can only give up.

But it won't be, and we must not.

(6/7)

Important note: that doesn't mean they don't fight, or that they don't struggle and suffer.

But they carry on. They carry each other. They endure, and eventually they prevail.

(5/7)

Tolkien's point was not that Good will always conquer Evil. His point was that Evil cannot sustain itself, and will inevitably collapse under the weight of its own corruption.

The good guys win by surviving. And by taking care of each other.

(4/7)

Sure, the ring does get destroyed, thanks to an assist from Gollum and gravity. The good guys win. But why not make it a decisive win? Why trade a victory of heroism for one of happenstance?

Years later, I decided to search online for an answer. I found one pretty quickly. To summarize:

(3/7)

My first exposure to Lord of the Rings was when the movies originally came out. The fact that (spoiler alert) at the climax of Return of the King, Frodo succumbs to the ring's power and refuses to destroy it came as a genuine shock, and stuck with me for a long time after.

(2/7)