Good post, Maril.
Frodo and Sam basically kept each other sane. They were in a situation that was completely hopeless -- dead men walking. At this point their relationship was just raw uninhibited emotion. Sam was sustaining Frodo and vice versa. If something had happened to Sam, Frodo would have laid down and died. Likewise, if something had happened to Frodo, Sam would've died with Sting in his hand, slashing amid a horde of Orks; or of heartbreak, if he could find none. They each gave the other the love that he needed to sustain the will to live. Sometimes Sam's love of Frodo seemed to be mixed with pity, somewhat like the man who will sit for hours on end and watch his comatose friend drift further from life.
That's how I always felt as I watched Sam and Frodo trudge across the plain of Gorgoroth (which is where the story reaches its most aching bleakness). This was a pure love between two friends who could literally not live without one another.
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