Drama out of nothing... perhaps (Regarding the War of the Ring)

[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Hmmm. hmmm. But is this the feeling readers have as they read along and even once they close the book? If it is, then where is the stunning sense of eucatastrophe? How can we experience this unexpected joy if we feel it was definitely going to happen this way all along? Surely at least in some measure the story makes us fear that this can happen 'another way' and therein lies the tension of the story.

I think this sense 'could not have happened any other way' has to arise after the fact, when thinking back over the story.

Life's like that. We pass through it not knowing how things are going to be, and how often has it not been that you look back and know that it could not be any other way? Of course, there are plenty of instances that we look back and wish it could have been different....
So a reader will have the same experience; even, perhaps, wishing it could have been different in certain ways (like Sméagol repenting!).