Boromir, Theoden, Denethor all die. They may each have weaknesses and personal struggles, but none of them are evil.
Also Bilbo and Frodo leaving for the Undying Lands always felt like they died to me, leaving everything they knew behind without ever being able to see it again. Same with the Elves "fading" and slowly departing from Middle Earth, which I also interpret as an allegory of death (this being the closest they come to it from a mortal perspective).
Reading LotR always felt profoundly bittersweet to me, and that's one of the main reasons I love these books.
Yeah it is definitely bittersweet, but if you compare it with the Children of Húrin, it is a very happy book. Boromirs death may be the saddest part of LOTR, but it would be the happiest part of The Children of Húrin, just because that whole book is so dark.
I kinda like a story or movie where the bar guy wins in the end, idk.
I feel like the Green Dragon probably did pretty well when the Hobbits returned after a long journey. But I'd call that a pub rather than a bar.
thats oddly specific
I can't recall, but that movie with the clones and eye scans is technically that. No main characters survive, just a successful terrorist bombing by the aliens.
Now i no longer like it. It's like being given a problem without key solution. In the end I gained nothing but frustration.
Though an impossibly good ending is like a fake solution key which is even worse so I can see why people avoid that more.
There's an art to it. I've read books where the villain wins only for it to be revealed that the protagonist was fighting for the wrong side. The only one who's title comes to mind is Columbus Day, where humans team up with aliens to fight other aliens that invade earth, only to realize that they joined the "fascist-leaning" side of the conflict as a species-wide pawn.
news flash: the genre's called fantasy!
It's meant to be unrealistic, you myopic manatee!
This Erb was awesome!
Lord of the Rings is a bad example. It follows the heroes succeed bad guys die trope. Side characters dying is part of the trope to ramp up the stakes for the good guy heroes despite the heroes never being in danger.
Tolkien even went out of his way to make sure the bad guys die by having the scouring of the shire run by Saruman- something highly unrealistic given the previous world building. A demigod Maiar sets up shop bullying hobbits?
A demigod Maiar sets up shop bullying hobbits?
Hadn't he lost most of his power by that point, what with the whole "your staff is broken" thing in TTT?
Hell yeah! Incest! Who's with me?!
