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I found myself thinking as I was finishing up watching through The Return of the King for the... umpteenth time or w/e, about how people often poke fun at the length of the epilogue. And I thought, what an odd thing to poke fun over. The events of the epilogue are just as important as anything else in the movie because it's the culmination of the story's theme about how people are forever changed by their experiences. Frodo's wound from Weathertop that never truly healed isn't just about the injuries you can see and heal physically, but the unseen things as well.

And then I thought, well, okay, maybe I'm kind of twisting myself in knots over nothing. I mean, one of the most fun ways to enjoy something is to poke fun at it for one reason or another. Like yeah, it is kind of funny that the eye of Sauron is like. A literal huge flaming eye just kinda lookin' around everywhere. That's pretty goofy.

and then i started thinking about suspension of disbelief and what amount of it we lose as we grow older. i was 100% onboard with there just being a huge flaming eye in mordor when i was like 14. did i grow out of that naturally? or was it eroded out of me by cynical media interpretation?

But I think I've sort of come to settle on the fact that, yeah, I do enjoy art differently now than I once did, but I still enjoy it. Because even if I'm acknowledging that the giant flaming eye is kind of silly, I think that comes in tandem with noticing the smaller details, like how Denethor's desire for power clashes with his inferiority complex where he'll claim to be the true ruler of Gondor but still sits his ass in the steward's chair.

And the epilogue is incredibly important to the themes and narrative and its inclusion is just as valid as any other part of the story... but yeah it does just kind of keep going, don't it?


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in reply to @AcidXShark's post:

Yeah what the Eye of Sauron is in the book is a little vague though the big flaming eye does make an appearance.

I dooooes go on pretty long but I personally think you gotta wrap all of the things up, and there's a lot of things to wrap up and pay off there (and also if any movie earns it it's RoTK)