The greatest joy that I derived from reading the Trilogy was discovering that Frodo and Sam had that 00.01% chance of succeeding in their Quest, and that they did indeed succeed. The innate pessimism in the books up until that point seems to drag readers down, and then suddenly, as the Rohirrim ride onto Pelennor Fields, as Gollum falls into the fires of Mt. Doom, and as the dark towers of Sauron fall, that pessimism falls away from readers' hearts, and is replaced with a newfound hope. That is the true beauty of the Trilogy, and it does take some getting used to. I have heard many people complain about Tolkien's fatalism, and how all the characters seem to end up in bad situations, but those people have to realize that "Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."
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But Melkor also was there, and he came to the house of Fëanor, and there he slew Finwë King of the Noldor before his doors, and spilled the first blood in the Blessed Realm; for Finwë alone had not fled from the horror of the Dark.
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