Success through Failure

[Amarinth]

It seems that in the end his tendency to mercy was more important than his resilience towards the evil of the Ring.

beautifully expressed, doug [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] frodo fails because of an evil power he cannot overcome, yet the seed of his past deeds bears fruit and saves him and ME in the end.

my $0.02: i've always had the impression that the most crucial of all success through failure events in lotr is the fall of boromir and the events surrounding it. this is where the fellowship ends, the quest diverges to different fronts, all of which then fuse and culminate successfully in the destruction of sauron and the ring. boromir's fall was a pivotal point that started a chain of events, and though its immediate effects (pippin and merry's capture, frodo's flight and aragorn's forsaking gondor) were lamentable, the long-term pay-off was tremendous.