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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9613735" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Precisely. They were not heroic. That's the whole point. The whole point of the Lord of the Rings is that it ISN'T looking at the obvious Hero. That Obvious Hero is Aragorn. For God's sake, he's literally the long-lost heir to the throne, descendant of an ancient bloodline, prophesied hero-king, wielder of the true king's sword reforged anew, his romance with the closest thing to an elven princess the setting has is literally seen as a reenactment of the greatest love story Middle-Earth ever bore witness to, etc., etc., etc., etc.By comparison? Yes, absolutely Frodo and Sam are not heroes. They're channeling Tolkien's experiences fighting in the trenches of WWI, one of the least-heroic, most-horrible places we have ever sent the young and foolish to die for the glory of generals and emperors.They are barely scraping by. They are hiding like rats. They are donning enemy uniforms to pass as goblins, because otherwise they'll be executed or they'll starve to death. And, in the end, Frodo falls to the Ring, showing that even his goodness is not absolute, it CAN be broken. It's only a fluke that gets the Ring destroyed at all--the greed and jealousy of Gollum, not the valor or virtue or stalwart heart of either character. Frodo is left a broken man, haunted by what he became in that moment, and Sam is chastened, his cheery disposition forever mellowed by the bittersweet taste of wisdom.They are not heroes. Not in the ancient Greek sense, and not in the modern, Christianized sense. They are ordinary people broken on the wheel, who don't even actually save the day.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 9613735, member: 6790260"] Precisely. They [I]were not[/I] heroic. That's the whole point. The [I]whole point[/I] of the Lord of the Rings is that it ISN'T looking at the obvious Hero. That Obvious Hero is [I]Aragorn[/I]. For God's sake, he's literally the long-lost heir to the throne, descendant of an ancient bloodline, prophesied hero-king, wielder of the true king's sword reforged anew, his romance with the closest thing to an elven princess the setting has is [I]literally[/I] seen as a reenactment of the greatest love story Middle-Earth ever bore witness to, etc., etc., etc., etc. By comparison? Yes, absolutely Frodo and Sam are not heroes. They're channeling Tolkien's experiences [I]fighting in the trenches of WWI[/I], one of the least-heroic, most-horrible places we have ever sent the young and foolish to die for the glory of generals and emperors. They are barely scraping by. They are hiding like rats. They are donning enemy uniforms to pass as goblins, because otherwise they'll be executed or they'll starve to death. And, in the end, [I]Frodo falls to the Ring[/I], showing that even his goodness is not absolute, it CAN be broken. It's only a fluke that gets the Ring destroyed at all--the [I]greed[/I] and [I]jealousy[/I] of Gollum, not the valor or virtue or stalwart heart of either character. Frodo is left a broken man, haunted by what he became in that moment, and Sam is chastened, his cheery disposition forever mellowed by the bittersweet taste of wisdom. [I]They are not heroes[/I]. Not in the ancient Greek sense, and not in the modern, Christianized sense. They are ordinary people [I]broken on the wheel[/I], who don't even actually save the day. [/QUOTE]

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