#and oh my gosh yes that ending--it's one of the only movies i've actually shed tears over

[sailforvalinor]

I don't really "do" polls, but you're right, LotR is a hopeful tragedy. I was already thinking tragedy, and then you added hopeful and I thought: perfect! The ending has always bothered me on some level, but it is still hopeful. Tolkien had seen first hand what war can do to someone, so I figure he felt to stay true to the story he had to end it that way. I always think of the movie, how Frodo smiles at the end. He's finally found a measure of peace after all that war and pain. And Sam, learns to enjoy life despite losing his best friend. It's tragic, but beautiful.

Yes, exactly! To be honest, hopeful tragedy doesn’t quite satisfy me—it certainly qualifies for Frodo and Gandalf, but I think what makes LOTR so great is that because it is truly a fictional history, all the characters are living through different genres at the same time. For Sam it’s a Hero’s Journey (ish), for Aragorn it’s an epic, as well as for Legolas and Gimli (although I think you could make the argument that they’re in a buddy cop film), Merry and Pippin are in a tragicomedy, Faramir and Eowyn are in a romance, the elves are in the third act of a tragedy, etc etc. And yet all of it has that same hopeful undercurrent that ties it all together, and I love it so much.