Quote Originally Posted by Porthos View Post
Why I'm spoilering a 60+ year old story, I have no idea, but here goes and simplfying hugely to avoid a lot of mess...

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I am referring to the fact that when Frodo got to Mt. Doom, Tolkein found that he simply could not have Frodo dump the ring into the lava because he made such a big deal about temptation.

Thus when writing his outline he came up with the idea of Hopping Happy Gollum plunging to his death when he failed his balance check.

It has been a bit of a source of commentary ever since it came out, you know.


Now mind, I still like the story. A lot, actually. But, really now.
Ah, kids today. I read LOTR before I knew the internet consisted of anything but AOL.

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Fair enough, I suppose. I thought it still worked as a natural outgrowth of what had gone before- Gollum's primary skill set seems to be in climbing sheer walls, and his slip shows how his desire for the ring robs him of something that had been second nature to him all this time.

At the same time, Frodo is not as corrupted as Gollum was- rather than killing anyone who tries to take the ring, he lets Gollum live despite it being against his own best interests. This leads to him surviving the episode, ironically because Gollum tries to turn on him in the end. The Mount Doom chapter is a lot more about the self-destructive nature of corruption and the possibility of redemption than any arbitrary plot-wrapping-up would be.