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butterflySpoilers through Return of the King in the cut-tags.
Now, I haven't ever finished the books (and I probably won't try again, as I don't particularly like wanting to stab my eyes out with a bookmark so that I can avoid another line of boring yet annoying prose), but as I understand it, Arwen gives Frodo her grace there as well, though it happens much later, after the quest is completed.
What is Arwen's grace? Is it her immortality? Her right to travel home to Valinor? Do they establish this? I'd love to know.
In Fellowship, Arwen asks that whatever grace that is given to her be passed onto Frodo. Yet that is not the end of her chance to cross the sea - that moment doesn't happen until Return - "there is now no ship that can bear me hence". We also learn in Return that Arwen is weakening as Sauron grows stronger - but we do not know that she is the only one. In Fellowship, Galadriel says that she will diminish and go into the West. The time of the elves is over - is that in part because their souls cannot take the evil of Sauron this time around? Or is it merely a coincidence that the Elves leave as the evil reawakens?
I didn't question the idea that Arwen had become connected to the fate of the Ring because it made sense to me in the context of the movieverse. Arwen gave a piece of herself to Frodo in Fellowship, became bound to him, and thus the Ring, as by then the Ring was already physically affecting Frodo. Because the Ring is the very lifeforce of Sauron - the reason that that evil lived instead of perishing, it makes sense that the stronger he got, the stronger the Ring got and as it affected Frodo, it made sense to me that it would affect Arwen as well.
Also, I'm guessing that Elrond was pulling every card he had to convince Aragorn to take the mountain road. He's a father and he's finally embracing his daughter's decision - so he wants the choice that will make Aragorn alive and victorious.
Billy Boyd has the most beautiful voice.
I love that they had Sam hesitate before giving the Ring back to Frodo. And I bet he was worried, thinking about how the Ring was affecting Frodo, worried about whether Frodo could handle it - because that's just how the Ring would try to reach him. Oh, I know in the book, he laughs it off (as does Galadriel), but the movieverse Ring seems both more insistent and... smarter, if that makes sense (and it did deserve a slow death scene - it's one of the main characters).
This Ring would know better than to offer Samwise Gamgee the world - it would offer him a chance to aid his Mr. Frodo, to do for him, as he's done for Frodo for years. He's not strong enough, the voices would whisper. Your master is too precious and fragile to continue to carry this burden. You should share it - you should carry it. You could be the bearer of the Ring.
But Sam is smart enough to realise that the Ring isn't his burden - that it wasn't given to him and that he can't be the one to carry it. Someone, after all, has to think of practicalities - like finding clothes and ducking the Eye. And you can't think on such things while trapped in the slow honey-death of the Ring.
I'm so glad that there was that moment where he almost didn't give it back. Anything else would have felt too easy.
Now, I haven't ever finished the books (and I probably won't try again, as I don't particularly like wanting to stab my eyes out with a bookmark so that I can avoid another line of boring yet annoying prose), but as I understand it, Arwen gives Frodo her grace there as well, though it happens much later, after the quest is completed.
What is Arwen's grace? Is it her immortality? Her right to travel home to Valinor? Do they establish this? I'd love to know.
In Fellowship, Arwen asks that whatever grace that is given to her be passed onto Frodo. Yet that is not the end of her chance to cross the sea - that moment doesn't happen until Return - "there is now no ship that can bear me hence". We also learn in Return that Arwen is weakening as Sauron grows stronger - but we do not know that she is the only one. In Fellowship, Galadriel says that she will diminish and go into the West. The time of the elves is over - is that in part because their souls cannot take the evil of Sauron this time around? Or is it merely a coincidence that the Elves leave as the evil reawakens?
I didn't question the idea that Arwen had become connected to the fate of the Ring because it made sense to me in the context of the movieverse. Arwen gave a piece of herself to Frodo in Fellowship, became bound to him, and thus the Ring, as by then the Ring was already physically affecting Frodo. Because the Ring is the very lifeforce of Sauron - the reason that that evil lived instead of perishing, it makes sense that the stronger he got, the stronger the Ring got and as it affected Frodo, it made sense to me that it would affect Arwen as well.
Also, I'm guessing that Elrond was pulling every card he had to convince Aragorn to take the mountain road. He's a father and he's finally embracing his daughter's decision - so he wants the choice that will make Aragorn alive and victorious.
Billy Boyd has the most beautiful voice.
I love that they had Sam hesitate before giving the Ring back to Frodo. And I bet he was worried, thinking about how the Ring was affecting Frodo, worried about whether Frodo could handle it - because that's just how the Ring would try to reach him. Oh, I know in the book, he laughs it off (as does Galadriel), but the movieverse Ring seems both more insistent and... smarter, if that makes sense (and it did deserve a slow death scene - it's one of the main characters).
This Ring would know better than to offer Samwise Gamgee the world - it would offer him a chance to aid his Mr. Frodo, to do for him, as he's done for Frodo for years. He's not strong enough, the voices would whisper. Your master is too precious and fragile to continue to carry this burden. You should share it - you should carry it. You could be the bearer of the Ring.
But Sam is smart enough to realise that the Ring isn't his burden - that it wasn't given to him and that he can't be the one to carry it. Someone, after all, has to think of practicalities - like finding clothes and ducking the Eye. And you can't think on such things while trapped in the slow honey-death of the Ring.
I'm so glad that there was that moment where he almost didn't give it back. Anything else would have felt too easy.