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alt title(s): Lord Of The Rings 
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie
With those words, Sauron forged the One Ring, the vessel of his power and the pivot on which the fate of Middle-earth would turn for five thousand years — until the most unlikely of heroes did the one thing Sauron could never have imagined, and brought his dark tower tumbling down.
The story was originally intended as a shorter sequel to The Hobbit, but as its author famously remarked, "the tale grew in the telling." The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien is too well-known, and too complex, to be summarised in full, but in brief, Frodo Baggins, one of the hobbit gentry, learns that the magical trinket he inherited from his uncle Bilbo is actually the One Ring, Sauron's masterpiece. While it exists, Sauron cannot truly be destroyed; should Sauron ever regain it, ultimate victory will be his.
Frodo, his cousins Merry and Pippin, and his gardener Sam take the Ring to the Elves of Rivendell, where the elven-lord Elrond fills in the rest of the Back Story. There it was decided that the Ring cannot be kept there since Sauron would stop at nothing to reclaim it and its malignant influence would threaten to corrupt all who would attempt to guard it and especially those who would attempt to wield it. However, it was decided that one thing Sauron would not expect would be for his enemies to destroy it in the only way possible: in the fiery bowels of Mount Doom in the Land of Mordor, the Dark Lord's province.
The hobbits are joined by five more characters, that represent the races of Middle-earth: Legolas, an elven archer from Mirkwood; Gimli son of Glóin, a dwarf of Erebor; Aragorn, a Ranger of Eriador and heir to the throne of the human kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor; Boromir, heir to the Steward of Gondor; and the wizard, Gandalf the Grey.
Before long, Gandalf is lost in combat against an ancient evil, leaving the Fellowship following Aragorn. When Boromir succumbs to the lure of the Ring, Frodo decides to complete the quest alone. Sam manages to catch up with him, but the others are unable to, due to being embroiled in a battle with the minions of Saruman, the first among wizards — and traitor to the forces of good. Boromir dies a Karmic Death.
Guided by Gollum, a previous victim of the Ring, Frodo and Sam sneak into Mordor, Sauron's realm, making their way towards the only place where the Ring can be destroyed: the volcanic fire in which it was originally created. Meanwhile, Gandalf has returned from the dead as Gandalf the White and leads Aragorn and the Fellowship in a series of epic battles which keep Sauron distracted from the real threat until it's too late.
When the hobbits return home, they find that Saruman has taken over their homeland, but after they defeat his minions, Saruman is killed by his Renfield, Gríma.
There have been several adaptations. Among them:
In addition, there has been a BBC radio adaptation, two Tabletop RPGs set in Middle-earth, and several video games, from early text adventures to the latest Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.
The first attempt to make a screen version was made in 1958 by a certain Zimmerman, who wrote a film script for "The Lord of the Rings". J.R.R. Tolkien looked through it and in his letter to Forrest Ackerman heavily criticized this feeble attempt. It turned out that the script didn't reflect many of Tolkien’s thoughts and some of the characters lost their appeal.
There was another aborted attempt by John Boorman to adapt the books in the 70's. It would've been live action and the notes from it might have suggested that adaptation might have looked like Zardoz. The Harvard Lampoon published a parody titled Bored Of The Rings in 1969, which manages to cover the entire journey in under 200 pages.
The majority of tropes used in LotR are well-explained, unlike in the majority of its imitators. For instance, Mordor has large fertile areas offstage where food is grown, thus explaining how Sauron's armies survive in the volcanic hellscape around Barad-dur. The Ring is also more than just a convenient MacGuffin — its effects matter too much for that. This is largely due to the immensely elaborated Back Story and Tolkien's life-defining experiences in The Great War.
There were, though, some tropes JRR Tolkien couldn't justify to his satisfaction. He spent years trying to decide how orcs could be Always Chaotic Evil without being born evil or soulless (options he didn't think Morgoth, their corrupter, had the power to achieve), but never found any answer he liked. It was philosophical niggles like this that stopped him publishing the The Silmarillion in his lifetime. His son Christopher did it anyway.
Provides Examples Of:
- Achey Scars: Frodo Baggins' wounds received from the Morgul blade and Shelob often pain him afterwards and make him ill, especially on their anniversaries. He actually sails to the True West with the elves because of this, in the hope of finding a way of reducing the pain.
- Action Girl: Éowyn
- Adventure
- All There In The Appendices, including the love story. Tolkien's way of implying that the story of LotR, despite being one of the most important things to happen in Middle-earth, was not the only thing happening.
- All Trolls Are Different
- All Up To You: Quite a few times, but most notably with Sam when Frodo is captured.
- Alternative Calendar: The different peoples have their own calendars, with varying degrees of difference between them. The books generally use the Shire (Hobbit) calendar.
- Alternate Character Interpretation: Many are prone to this.
- Always Chaotic Evil (In one possible Back Story, orcs were magically corrupted from elf stock to be Morgoth's minions. Tolkien's own thoughts on this suggest that this may not entirely be the case, though.)
- Ambition Is Evil: The One Ring corrupts by tempting the user with the power to fulfill their ambitions, even if those are noble. Sam's only ambition is to raise a family and live quietly, so is little affected by it, while Tom Bombadil, who is completely devoid of ambition, is completely immune to its power.
- Amplifier Artifact: All of the rings, especially the One.
- Amusing Alien: Gimli the Dwarf, in the live-action movies.
- An Axe To Grind: Gimli carries an axe.
- Ancient Tomb: The Barrow-downs. The barrows of the Kings of Rohan and the tombs in Minas Tirith are also Ancient Tombs, but not haunted by anything. Also the haunted mountain (the Dwimorberg).
- Ancestral Weapon: The shards of Narsil.
- Annoying Arrows: Subverted; Boromir does get shot by several arrows, and does pull them out, but is still weakened and wounded to death and definitely cannot continue fighting.
- Anti Villain: Gollum (to the extent that he isn't "the real hero"; also doubles as The Woobie)
- Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Used in a heroic example during the Scouring of the Shire.
- Apocalyptic Log: The Book of Mazarbul, chronicling Balin's failed attempt to retake Moria up until their last stand.
- Applicability: Read the entry for details.
- Arcadia: The Shire.
- Arc Number: 9 - Nazgul, Fellowship
- Artifact Of Doom: The One Ring.
- Author Avatar: Faramir. An early version of him explained in depth about the Elves.
- Authority Equals Asskicking
- Averted Trope
- Cain And Abel: Averted with Boromir and Faramir.
- But played straight with Smeagol and Deagol.
- Elemental Baggage: Averted, Gandalf "cannot burn snow".
- You All Meet In An Inn: Only Aragorn is met this way. The rest are met at political conferences.
- No Cure For Evil: Averted, the Orcish medicine is made to heal the wounded as fast as possible but it tends to be very painful and it leaves scars.
- Black And White Morality: Really. For example: Sam wonders if Sauron's human soldiers are truly evil at heart, or manipulated or forced to go to war. Similarly, Merry and Pippin say Saruman's own human troops are not truly evil compared to Orcs. (After battle, human enemies are offered mercy and given it, if accepted.) The Rohirrim have a history of hunting the Wild Men of Drúadan Forest for sport (which happened with Elves and Petty-dwarves in The Silmarillion). In the Appendices, it is related how the Gondorians have a civil war over the blood purity of their king, with a pure-blood usurper villain. And so on...
- Weird Moon: Tolkien got the moon-phases all mapped out, so when they come up in the text they always fit.
- Awesome Moment Of Crowning: Aragorn at the end.
- Babies Ever After: Sam marries his longtime sweetheart the year after the end of War, and the next year sees the birth of little
Frodo Elanor. He goes on to have many more, although, as the epilogue was cut, this is revealed in the Appendices instead of in the narrative.
- Back From The Dead: Gandalf
- Backstory (And plenty of it)
- Badass Boast: Éowyn
- Badass Bookworm: Faramir is considered the 'nerdy' one of the brothers, but is quite capable of fighting.
- Badass Normal: Boromir, Éowyn, and all the hobbits, but especially Sam.
- Barbarian Tribe: The Orcs as well as most varieties of Eastern Humans.
- Batman Gambit: Gandalf used one of these to distract Sauron from the true location of the One Ring, convincing him that the Free People were planning to use it against him. Of course, the whole thing was a diversion to allow the hobbits to enter Mordor unnoticed.
- Battle Gardener: Sam
- Bearer Of Bad News: Gandalf has quite a reputation for this in many places. The Riders of Rohan don't like him much because of it.
- They probably like Shadowfax a whole lot more, just for being Shadowfax.
- But that just means they hate Gandalf more for taking him, so, swings and roundabouts...
- Being Watched: Being eavesdropped on by Sam (for the most heart-warming conspiracy ever) and several times with Gollum.
- Beneath The Earth: The dwarven realm of
Moria Khazad-dûm
- Benevolent Boss: Bilbo Baggins to Hamfast Gamgee, his gardener, and in turn, Frodo to Sam.
- Better To Die Than Be Killed: Denethor.
- The Berserker: Éomer
- Big Bad: Sauron
- Big Bad Diumvirate: Subverted. Saruman seems to consider himself Sauron's equal partner and has full plans of double-crossing him, but Sauron is both phenomenally more powerful and smart enough to be fully aware of his pawn's ambitions. It's quite clear to everybody else that there is only one Big Bad in Lord Of The Rings.
- Big Badass Wolf: Wargs
- Big Damn Heroes: Several times— Gandalf at Helm's deep, the Rohan army at Pelennor and later Aragorn and the Dead Army in the same battle.
- The Dead Army doesn't appear at Pelennor in the book, only in the movie. In the Book, Aragorn uses the Dead Army to take out the Corsair fleet (which by the way were descendants of Numenorean colonists, so should have looked more like Aragorn). He then uses the fleet to transport a large army of Gondor allies that previously couldn't send many troops for fear of leaving their lands open to said fleet. He brings with him Elrond's sons, 30 Dunedain Rangers, Legolas, Gimli and a good few thousand fresh men.
- Big Good: Gandalf.
- Big Lipped Alligator Moment: The whole Tom Bombadil thing.
- Big Ol Eyebrows: Gandalf.
- Binding Ancient Treaty: Gondor has one of these with Rohan, leading to a great call for aid.
- Bilingual Bonus: Most of the Meaningful Names. Generally speaking, the rest have translations given.
- For instance, "Gamling" is Swedish for "old man". A fitting name, considering the character is, well, an old man.
- Bittersweet Ending: Although Sam, Merry and Pippin have long happy lives, Frodo can't go back to enjoying life and leaves for the Undying Lands.
- Black Blood: Orcs have it.
- Black Cloak: The unusually powerful Nazgûl.
- Blind Idiot Translation: The infamous Swedish translation.
- Body Count Competition: Gimli owns Legolas 42:41 at the Battle of the Hornburg.
- Break The Cutie: Frodo
- Break The Haughty: Saruman
- Bullet Proof Vest: Frodo's mithril chainmail shirt.
- Call A Rabbit A Smeerp: Pipe-weed, Oliphaunts/Mûmakil (Oliphaunt is an archaic English usage - so not really a Smeerp)
- Call To Agriculture: Sam
- The Call Knows Where You Live: Frodo never actively resists the Call, but (as he doesn't just jump and run unprepared, but instead makes and executes a careful plan for his dissappearance and subsequent journey) he just avoids meeting a Nazgûl on (literally) his front doorstep.
- Camp Cook: Samwise is always the cook, but he is neither bad nor comic relief.
- Capital City: Minas Tirith
- Somewhat Subverted in that Osgiliath is the actual capital of Gondor and Minas Tirith was merely the western most military fort. Denethor wastes a lot of resources trying to keep Osgiliath, though that fact isn't as prevalent in the books as it is in the movies.
- In this case, though, Osgiliath is important not because as the former capital, but as a front line against Mordor because it is the best point to cross Anduin.
- The Cavalry: The Riders of Rohan and Aragorn, Rangers of Eriador and troops from southern Gondor. They are also, literally, the cavalry.
- Cave Behind The Falls: Henneth Annûn.
- Chessmaster: Several, but Denethor's "he uses others as his weapons" is probably the main doctrine of Chessmastery.
- Chess Motifs: See previous entry.
- Children Are Innocent: Theoden manages to break free of Saruman's charming voice because of the dead children (and the mutilation of a corpse).
- City Of Spies: Bree
- Clingy Mac Guffin: The One Ring — justified.
- Come To Gawk: Saruman's accusation, when found on the road.
- Con Lang: Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin. And other less detailed ones, like Khuzdul, Black Speech, etc..
- Cold Blooded Torture: Orcs do it to anyone they can get away with doing it to, including each other.
- Collectible Card Game: two, Middle Earth in the 1990s and [one of] The Game[s] Of The Movie.
- Collapsing Lair: Barad-dûr
- Color Coded Wizardry: Saruman the White, Gandalf the Grey, Radagast the Brown.
- Compelling Voice: Saruman
- Constructed World: Set in the world of Tolkien's legendarium, on the continent Middle-earth.
- Which is actually just ancient Europe, or parts thereof.
- Actually it isn't. Tolkien toyed with the idea of making his stories as a kind of surrogate mythology for England (which he felt sorely lacked a mythology of its own). But he ultimately abandoned it. Furhermore he thoroughly rejected the idea that his work was an allegorical one. More about that is to be found in Letters of Tolkien in the Ho ME-series.
- Contemptible Cover: In the first authorised American paperback, Tolkien complained about the creative artwork for the covers. It supposedly had a "tree with bulbous fruit" and "lions and emus" on the covers. This edition is nicknamed the "Hippie Edition".
- Cool Chair: The throne of the King of Gondor and Steward's chair.
- Cool Horse: Shadowfax
- Cool Sword: Gandalf has Glamdring, Frodo has Sting, and Aragorn has Anduril. The Witch King of Angmar wields a flaming sword at the Siege of Gondor, and the Balrog of Moria uses a burning sword as well.
- Cosmic Horror: In the backstory, the Dwarves Dug Too Deep and connected with the tunnels of 'nameless things' which are older than Sauron, where the Balrog was hiding; later Gandalf falls into their territory via the abyss below Durin's Bridge, and says that he will not speak of what he saw there.
- Cosmopolitan Council: The Council of Elrond, possibly also The White Council.
- Cowboy Bebop At His Computer: Inflicted on the series by the Writer's Almanac.
- Crouching Moron Hidden Badass: Tom Bombadil.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Pretty much every character has at least one.
- Cruel Mercy: This is how Saruman views Frodo's decision in the Scouring of the Shire.
- Crystal Ball: The Palantíri
- Darkest Hour
- Dark Is Evil, Dark Is Not Evil: Different nations and peoples on both ends of the good-evil-spectrum have used black as their color, or have black hair.
- Death Glare: Aragorn to the Ambassador at the Black Gate.
- Death Of The Author
- Death Seeker: Éowyn.
"He caught the glint of clear grey eyes; and then he shivered, for it came suddenly to him that it was the face of one without hope who goes in search of death."
- Denouement
- Despair Event Horizon: Denethor during the Siege of Gondor, which leads to him trying to immolate himself and his son on a funeral pyre.
- Determinator: The Three Hunters, and Sam, especially when going through Mordor.
- Didnt See That Coming: The fact that his foes actually went to destroy the Ring never entered Sauron's mind until it was too late.
- Die For Our Ship: Poor, poor Arwen. Both Aragorn/Legolas and Éowyn/Aragorn fanbrats hate and bash her like there's no tomorrow.
- Dirty Business: When Frodo lures Gollum into the hands of Faramir's men.
- Disney Death: Happens to Frodo twice when he is stabbed by an Orc and stung by Shelob. His mithril armor saved him the first time and Shelob used paralytic poison instead of a fatal one.
- Divided For Publication
- The Dog Bites Back: Gríma
- Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night: Every major battle begins with one or more, and Sam, in the movies at least, is the master of these.
- Doomed Hometown: The Shire, though it's sort of inverted. And it gets better eventually.
- Doorstopper: Despite being called a trilogy, it's really just one giant book. Which the publisher divided into three volumes because of its size.
- And, supposedly, postwar paper shortages. There wasn't enough to print a full run of the whole book.
- Double Agent : According to Unfinished Tales Bill Ferny was a spy for Saruman until the Witch King intimidated him into working for Sauron. In the book Aragorn is shown wondering who he had been working for.
- Actually I think that was one of Bill Ferny's companions. No matter.
- The Dragon: The Witch-king of Angmar to Sauron. Sauron himself was The Dragon to Morgoth.
- Actually, Ancalagon the Black was The Dragon to Morgoth. Sauron was more of The Assassin or The Vizier
- Really, Morgoth had a bunch of Dragons- which one was the Dragon depends on which particular story from The Silmarillion you're looking at. Sauron is definitely The Dragon in Beren and Luthien.
- The Dreaded: Lots of examples. The Nazgul scare by their nature, Sauron commands awe and fear by reputation, and the ghosts Aragorn leads just plain look scary, though being ethereal invulnerable killing machines doesn't help matters...
- Dressing As The Enemy: Frodo and Sam in Mordor.
- Driven To Suicide: Denethor
- Due To The Dead: Good guys bury corpses, or at least keep them out of orcish hands; evil guys mutilate them, and even use their heads as siege weapons(for psychological warfare).
- Earn Your Happy Ending
- Easing Into The Adventure: The beginnings in the Shire.
- Eldritch Abomination: Shelob, though technically she's the daughter of a full-on Eldritch Abomination and an "ordinary" Giant Spider. The creatures that Gandalf and the Balrog encounter beneath Moria are implied to be this as well.
- They were supposedly intended as a subtle Shout Out to H.P. Lovecraft's works. Tolkien's earliest writing suggests they are entities with entirely separate origin from the Ainur, and perhaps even from Eru himself, but this idea was dropped as part of aligning Middle-Earth with Tolkien's own Catholic values.
- Elephants Child: Pippin during the ride with Gandalf to Minas Tirith. Gandalf tries answering questions, but finds each answer just leads to more questions. Exposition nicely done.
- Elite Mooks: Saruman's Uruk-hai and Sauron's specially bred sun-proof Trolls. Heck, Morgoth essentially created all the evil races on Middle-earth through dark magic and breeding.
- Elves Vs Dwarves: They don't get along. Possibly the originator of the cliche.
- Emotion Bomb: Evil things, especially the Nazgûl, are cloaked in Fear and Despair. This may also be (at least part of) how Denethor was Driven To Suicide.
- End Of An Age: Set at the end of the Third Age.
- Ending Fatigue: Some consider the end to be too long. Tolkien wasn't eager to pawn off a pat "happy-ever-after" ending. Instead, the heroes' homecoming is just as important a part of the journey as it was in the old epics it emulates.
- Enemy Civil War: The various factions of orcs.
- Enemy To All Living Things: The Nazgûl; their horses have to be specially bred and trained just to stand being near them, let alone serving as their mounts.
- Engagement Challenge: Elrond gives this to Aragorn in the backstory. If he wants Arwen's hand in marriage, he's got to become King first.
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Glorfindel and Prince Imrahil.
- Estrogen Brigade Bait: Given the fact most of the major characters are guys, this shouldn't be surprising.
- Everyone Is Related
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The whole plan hinges on the fact that Sauron can't even conceive of someone trying to destroy the Ring and get rid of that kind of power.
- In all fairness, he was right. At the moment of truth, instead of throwing the One Ring into Mount Doom, Frodo claimed it for his own. The Ring was only destroyed when Gollum tried to steal it back, succeeded, and fell into the lava still clutching his "precious".
- Evil Overlord: Sauron.
- Evil Sorcerer: Saruman, and Sauron.
- Evil Tower Of Ominousness - Barad-dûr, Minas Morgul, Orthanc, Dol Guldur, and the Tower of Cirith Ungol.
- Evil Versus Evil: Saruman was constantly plotting against Sauron.
- Exactly What It Says On The Tin: "Edoras" means "buildings" in Old English. "Meduseld" means "mead hall." "Mearas" is "horses."
- Expansion Pack World: Not directly, more like The Hobbit got transplanted very neatly into Middle-earth during the writing of LotR.
- Face Heel Turn: Saruman seduced into evil by the perceived superiority of Sauron's power; Denethor driven mad due to his imperfect understanding of how a Palantír works; The Scouring of the Shire, the ultimate result of a few hobbits wanting to bring in "outside ways" to do things "better" and "faster".
- The Faceless: The Nazgûl
- The Fair Folk: Not exactly—the Elves in LOTR are all on the side of good—but the Rohirrim think the Lorien elves are these. For that matter, Galadriel herself isn't 100% sure she's not one.
- Famed In Story
- Fantasy World Map: Yet another Tolkien example, also Left Justified Fantasy Map.
- Fellowship: The Fellowship of the Ring
- Female Success Is Family
- Fighting A Shadow: The reason Sauron keeps coming back, until the Ring is destroyed.
- Fighting For Survival
- The Film Of The Book: Several, see bottom of page for tropes.
- Final Battle
- Friend Or Foe: The fleet
- Flaming Sword: The Balrog and the Witch-king.
- Anduril, Aragorn's sword and an Ancestral Weapon (in the sense that it was reforged from the shards of his ancestor Elendil's sword Narsil), is called "Flame of the West", but it never actually catches on fire, though it occasionally shines as though it were.
- Follow The Leader: It started the fantasy genre as we know it, and indirectly started role playing games as we know them too. The live action movies led the way for more film adaptations based on epic fantasy books.
- Forbidden Zone: The Paths of the Dead, and of course Mordor.
- The Dead Marshes and Moria are also rather harsh, and both the Old Forest and Fangorn Forest get this label all but smacked onto them.
- Ghibli Hills - Most of Middle-earth fits, especially in the films.
- Giant Flyer - The Ringwraiths' flying steeds, and the Eagles.
- Giant Spider - Shelob.
- Goddamn Orks - Orcs mainly, but the Dunlendings, Easterlings and Haradrim as well to a lesser extent.
- God In Human Form: The group of so-called "wizards", while appearing as old human men, are actually five Maiar, a kind of angelic spirit, who are themselves incorporeal but can usually clothe themselves in any form they like. The five have been sent on a mission to help the peoples of Middle-earth against Sauron, during which they are bound in their physical form, unable to change it, and also limited in their powers and knownledge.
- Gods Hands Are Tied: The Valar
- Gondor Calls For Aid
- Good Hurts Evil
- Good Is Not Nice: Denethor. Also, Frodo threatening Gollum.
- Big Good Gandalf himself, who has a short temper and a caustic sense of humor.
- Gotterdammerung: The War of the Ring signals the passing of the Elves in Middle-earth.
- Grail In The Garbage: How both Bilbo and Gollum acquired the One Ring.
- Gray Eyes
- Green Eyed Monster
- Half Human Hybrids: Elrond and his family are half-elven, Aragorn's ancestors had elven blood (his ancestor was Elrond's brother), and the Uruk-hai are rumoured to be part-human part-orc.
- Actually, if you trace the bloodlines of the Nûmenorians back to Luthien and then look at HER parents, you find that her father was an Elf Lord and her Mother was a Maia. As such, Aragorn, Elrond and company are part spirit/angel as well as elf.
- Hannibal Lecture: Saruman Hannibal Lectures all of his triumphant enemies, and all are swayed by the power of his voice; likewise, the Riders of Rohan are wholly overcome by it, while Pippin is particularly shamed. Gandalf breaks the effect by laughing.
- Grima Wormtongue is a student of Saruman's, and earlier uses similar Hannibal Lecture techniques on Theoden to render him helpless and hopeless against Saruman, and on Eowyn in order to break her resolve and drive to desperation.
- Happy Fun Ball: The Ring
- Warning: Prolonged use of the One Ring may cause one to become obsessive compulsive, immortal, or schizophrenic.
- Hate Plague: The Ring
- Healing Hands: Aragorn, as well as Elrond and other powerful Elves.
- Healing Potion: The Uruk-hai use this with Merry.
- Herald: Gandalf
- Here There Were Dragons: To us the War of the Ring takes place in such a world. To the characters, the earlier Ages were this.
- Heroic Lineage: Elrond and Aragorn are descended from many of the Elven and Human heroes/protagonists from earlier Ages.
- Heterosexual Life Partners: Frodo and Sam, Gimli and Legolas, Merry and Pippin.
- Hidden Elf Village: Rivendell, Lothlorien.
- Though interestingly enough, the Shire rather than any elf haven is the closest to this example. Along with being generally unknown to most of the world, they also generally don't bother themselves whatsoever with outside business.
- HoYay: Hi, meet the fandom. Read the books. Go on the Internet in general.
- Hobbits
- The Horde: The orcs.
- Humans Are Special: Intersting twist on this, because the whole thing usually revolves around either their negative qualities or their mortality.
- I Am Not Shazam: The "Lord of the Ring(s)" is Sauron. People get it wrong and are corrected in the book, as well as in real life.
- I Call It Vera: In spades...which are probably also named.
- I Can Still Fight: Éowyn tries this.
- I Have Many Names: Gandalf, Aragorn, the Witch-king, and Sauron all have many names.
- Internet Backdraft: Everyone stand back... "The Balrog has no wings!" Watch the explosions!
- Invisible Jerkass: Gollum was this when he first found the Ring.
- I'm A Humanitarian: In the films, orcs will kill and eat one of their own if there's no other food. Averted in the novels where they express disgust at the thought of eating orc-flesh, but they rather enjoy eating humans.
- It's For A Book: Excuse used by Frodo for his traveling to Bree. Not to mention, of course, the fact that he ended up writing about the whole quest in a book.
- It Was A Gift: Quite a few, including that small, completely insignificant trinket Bilbo gave to Frodo...
- It Was His Sled: Gandalf comes back. The Ring is destroyed.
- Jumped At The Call: Sam is even described as "springing up like a dog invited for walk" when Gandalf tells him to go with Frodo.
- Just Eat Gilligan: A few of these are ripe topics for fan squabbling, including easier ways that the Ring might have been taken to Mordor and ways that Sauron might have guarded against the one thing that could defeat him, such as, I don't know, installing a door with a lock on it in the tunnel to the Cracks of Doom. Naturally, bringing something like this up among serious Ringers is at least as dangerous as making a statement about whether Balrogs have wings.
- Karmic Death: Boromir, Saruman
- Keystone Army, in part: The destruction of the Ring kills Sauron, which confuses and thus incapacitates the parts of his armies which were more directly controlled by his will (e.g. the orcs), which makes them easy game; the not-magically-controlled human armies had various natural reactions, some surrendering and some keeping on fighting.
- Kill It With Fire: The Ringwraiths, Shelob. Depending on how you want to look at it, the Balrog inverted the trope.
- King Incognito: Aragorn for the first part of FOTR.
- Lady Of War: Éowyn
- Large And In Charge: Aragorn stood at 6'6'', which was considered very tall for Men at the end of the Third Age. His ancestor King Elendil was even taller at nearly 8'.
- Last Stand: Or so everyone thinks at the Battle of the Black Gate.
- Lawful Evil: Sauron (and by extension the Nazgul) is of the highly organized tyrant variety. Saruman starts out the Well Intentioned Extremist variety before decaying into a tyrant as well, and then into a Chaotic Evil revenge-obsessed psycho in the Scouring of the Shire.
- The Law Of Scarcity: The Ring seems to allure and tempt others partially due to the fact that it's beautiful, rare and powerful. It is "the precious."
- Least Is First: Frodo offering to take the Ring at the Counicil of Elrond, immediately joined by Sam.
- Lemony Narrator: Mostly in the early chapters in the Shire and till Bree; again in the later chapters on the way back.
- A Light In The Distance: The will-o'-the-wisps seen in the Dead Marshes.
- Line In The Sand: Before the battle at the Black Gate.
- Literary Agent Hypothesis: The author claims that The Lord of the Rings is translated from the Red Book of Westmarch, which was written by the hobbits (mainly Bilbo and Frodo).
- It seemed obvious given the changing nature of the narrator's voice from section to section. Starting with Frodo's over-thinking, scholarly descriptions in the first part and ending with Sam's down-to-earth humble descriptions towards the end. Personally, I kind of wish that Merry had more impact on the narrating than he did. He's got a wonderful eye for detail and consequence that strikes quickly to the heart of matters.
- Loads And Loads Of Characters
- Load Bearing Boss: The fall of Barad-dûr coincides with Sauron's death.
- Justified because he created it using the Ring. Once the Ring's power was no longer holding it up, the whole unwieldy thing just fell in.
- The Lone Dalek: Gollum
- Losing The Team Spirit: this happens to the fellowship when Gandalf falls in Moria. Even though he's not really dead, they don't know this. Aragorn manages to pull them together long enough to get them to safety.
- The Lost Woods: The Old Forest, Fangorn Forest, and Lothlórien
- Lowest Common Denominator: The positive version of this trope.
- Mac Guffin: Frequently described as such, the Ring was originally intended to be a sequel hook to The Hobbit until Tolkien decided it was actually an Artifact Of Doom.
- Mac Guffin Escort Mission: Escort the Ring to Mount Doom.
- Made Of Indestructium: Quite possibly the origin of this trope. The One Ring can only be destroyed at Mt. Doom where it was made.
- Somewhat subverted in that it is implied that the Valar could destroy it if they wanted to break their own rules and that the main reason for the indestructibility is that no one has a full mastery of how it was made except Sauron.
- I personally feel that Sauron only destroyed the Elf-Smiths of Eregion because, after they made the Three, he realized that they might eventually figure out how to unmake the One. I think he originally intended to use the Rings to enslave that nation and then spread from there. The Three put a bump in his plan.
- The Magic Goes Away: Elves sail off to the West, wizards leave (or otherwise drop off the radar), no more magic- although Tolkien was extremely loath to use the word "magic" to refer to any of that in the first place.
- Magic Mirror: Galadriel's mirror, which is just water in a silver bowl.
- The Magnificent: Merry
- Magnificent Bastard: Sauron, especially if you read his backstory in the appendixes and realize how magnificent a bastard he was.
- Manly Tears: In most Middle-earth societies crying seems acceptable, and there are many instances of manly men weeping.
- Mayfly December Romance (Aragorn and Arwen)
- Meaningful Funeral: The funerals of Boromir and Theoden.
- Meaningful Name: Most names in the books have other meanings and are often based on obscure words. Mordor, for example, comes from the old English word for "mortal sin" or "murder".
- Meaningful Rename
- Medieval Stasis, and when they're not standing still, they're going backwards. Justified by the dwindling population of the West, and the steady procession of wars an plagues engineered by Sauron, but also by more metaphysical concerns. The grass really was greener in the Second Age, and the physical world less recalcitrant. As Morgoth slowly regain his power, matter is becoming ever more hostile to mind, making engineering get steadily harder. ( Yes, every time your shoe lace breaks or your pen leaks, it's Morgoth's fault. It wouldn't have happened in the Second Age.)
- Many like to imagine the look on Sauron or Morgoth's face after seeing their armies crushed by artillery and bolt action rifles. Then again, they'd probably just do what Sauron did to the Numenoreans, or reverse-engineer the technology (Sauron was a maiar of craft) but it'd be worth it just to see that look on their faces.
- Initially, Tolkien did toy with the idea that Morgoth had more advanced technology. Drafts telling the Siege and Fall of Gondolin describe Morgoth's forces using crawling iron machines that sound a whole lot like tanks.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: This happened to Gandalf. He's feeling much better now.
- Mid Season Upgrade: Gandalf almost suffers Heroic RROD after killing only one tiny balrog. His boss de-nerfs him a bit to make sure that doesn't happen again.
- Miles To Go Before I Sleep: Sam and Frodo's hopeless persistence as they travel through Mordor.
- Misaimed Fandom: No, really. There are hundreds, if not thousands of pages that discuss Sam's and Frodo's relationship.
- Monogender Monsters: The movie's portrayal of Orcs, being all male and spawned from mud pits.
- Mooks
- More Hero Than Thou
- My God What Have I Done: Boromir after he tried to take the Ring from Frodo.
- Mythopoeia: The Ur-example.
- Named Weapons
- Names To Run Away From Really Fast: Mordor the Black Land, for one, ruled by the the Dark Lord Sauron, guarded by the Morannon, the Black Gate, and Minas Morgul, the Tower of Black Sorcery...
- Narrative Poem: "Eärendil Was a Mariner"
- Near Villain Victory: Tolkien basically coined the word 'eucatastrophe' that describes this trope, and happens plenty of times throughout the novel.
- The Necrocracy: The kingdom of Angmar in the Back Story and Minas Morgul.
- Never Accepted In His Hometown
- No Man Of Woman Born: After ''Macbeth'', the best-known example, like, ever.
- Word Of God once mentioned that this case of the trope, as well as the whole idea of the Ents, was directly inspired by Macbeth. Tolkien said he was disappointed that Macbeth wasn't just killed by a woman and that Birnham Wood didn't actually get up and march against Macbeth.
- Noodle Incident
- No One Could Survive That: Pippin and the troll.
- No Ontological Inertia: Everything done with the rings, including Mordor and Lothlórien.
- Nose Tapping
- Not A Game
- Not Very Pretty Now Is He: What the Mouth of Sauron hints at when he shows Frodo's mithril shirt, his elven cloak, and Sam's sword (which Sam had switched with him when he presumed the other hobbit dead) to the Lords of the West at the Black Gate.
- The Obi Wan: Gandalf, mentoring Aragorn, Frodo, and Faramir.
- Obviously Evil: Sauron.
- Odd Friendship: Legolas and Gimli.
- Offing The Offspring: Denethor, after he went into full-blown insanity and despair, tries to burn both himself and his feverish son Faramir on a pyre.
- Oh Crap: Several of these, such as when the heroes are confronting the latest spawn of darkness (the Black Riders, the Balrog, the witch-king, etc). The best, though, is when Sauron spots the Ring near the Cracks of Doom and it finally dawns on him just what his enemies are up to, and how close they are to bringing about his utter ruin. "And Barad-dur trembled from the depths of its foundations to its proud and bitter crown."
- Older Than They Look: Aragorn, and those descended from the Númenóreans in general. For instance, Aragorn is in the prime of his life when the War of the Eing occurs- age 87. It is mentioned that his is a reduced lifespan compared to his ancestors.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Morgoth, in the backstory
- One Gender Race: The Ents, although not by design, as there originally was a distinct female gender - only those wandered off, and haven't been seen since. If they did not have such long lifespans, they would be extinct already for lack of children. (situation is elaborated upon in the trope entry).
- One Sided Battle
- Orcus On His Throne: Tolkien does this with his villains, but only towards the ends of their careers - he had a theme of deliberate Villain Decay and Motive Decay, with smart people with real goals turning to evil but evil itself corrupting them and gradually turning them into cardboard cutouts. Together with this, they start out going out and kicking arse by themselves (e.g. Morgoth fights Tulkas personally at the dawn of time, Sauron comes out to fight Huan in the Silmarillion) but eventually becoming throne-bound. Often after one too many of such direct interaction had a painful outcome (e.g. Morgoth after his duel with the elven king Fingolfin, Sauron after his defeat/half-death and loss of the Ring in the War of the Last Alliance).
- There's also the fact (according to "Morgoth's Ring"), that Melkor/Morgoth and Sauron spent much of their power controlling their "agents". They were not exactly lazy: using their physical incarnations to go into battle would have been simply foolish (especially for Morgoth, who "at the time of the War of the Jewels had become permanently incarnate" trying to control physical matter and who as a result could be killed in battle.)
- Our Founder: The Argonath, two statues of Isildur and Anárion, founders of Gondor.
- Our Orcs Are Different: Yet another Tolkien-created trope.
- It's worth noting that Tolkien's orcs are actually quite different from the standard Chaotic Evil barbarian orcs when you look beyond the superficial level. They're actually a technologically advanced race (surpassed only by the humans of Nûmenorean descent, the elves and the dwarves) who are generally of human-level intelligence and have a sophisticated appreciation for others' pain. The problem is, they're usually not working together in huge groups unless forced to do so by an outside force.
- Overly Long Name: The Ents, combined with the fact that they talk really, really slowly.
- Add to that their immortality, their isolated civilization and how generally hard to kill they are. Keep in mind that an Ent's full name is essentially his entire personal history.
- Overshadowed By Awesome: Celeborn by his wife Galadriel.
- Note that Galadriel is one of the few Noldor that escaped Feanor's curse and actually predates the day-night cycle. If she and Elrond weren't stuck maintaining the safety of their realms, the story would have been a bit different. After all, they're not bound by the stricture to inspire rather than champion like Gandalf is.
- Pals With Jesus: Gandalf and darn near anyone who's good.
- Papa Wolf: Everyone is this to the hobbits. Even the hobbits get to be this on occasion because of The Power Of Friendship.
- Parental Favoritism: Boromir (the elder son) is heavily preferred to Faramir by their father, Denethor. It's especially emphasized in The Movies, where Denethor is shown as blatantly unfair; in the book, Gandalf at least believes that it is partly that Denethor is still grief-stricken over the death.
- Peaceful In Death
- Pirates: The Corsairs of Umbar.
- Playing Possum: A scene with Uruk-hai during Helm's Deep in the novel.
- Playing With Fire: Gandalf
- Please Wake Up: Sam to Frodo after Frodo is stung by Shelob.
- Plunder : Merry and Pippin feasting in the ruins of Orthanc.
- Poisoned Weapons: The Morgul blade and the arrow that hit Faramir.
- Orcs in general are said to be fond of this.
- Poke In The Third Eye: Using a Palantir.
- Popcultural Osmosis: LotR's influence is widespread and isn't limited to the fantasy genre.
- High Fantasy: It popularized the genre and is generally credited with creating it, although high fantasy in the novel format is actually older than Tolkien. The demand for novels similar to Lord of the Rings was so great that many imitators joined in to feed the demand. The term "Tolkienesque" has been used to describe the literature of his many imitators. A few writers actually tried to go in a different direction than Tolkien, such as Ursula K. Le Guin with her Earthsea novels. Even today, Tolkien's shadow is so big that it's difficult for a writer to escape it.
- Role Playing Games: The Fellowship can be seen as the prototypical RPG party. It established many archetypes and tropes that are seen RPGs like "rangers", warrior dwarves, the Balrog and Mithril. The Fellowship's trek through the dwarven city of Khazad-dûm might have been the basis for Ruins For Ruins Sake. It inspired D&D and many of the RPGs that came after it.
- War Gaming: Before LotR, war games were limited to historical wars like WWII, the Napoleonic Wars, and the American Civil War. LotR popularized the idea that war gaming can take place in a fictional land with fictional races and nations. It influenced such games as Warhammer, War Craft, and Star Craft.
- Which came full circle when Games Workshop made a tabletop wargame based on LOTR, inspired partly by Warhammer.
- Heavy Metal: Many of the earliest metal bands were influenced by Tolkien. They use many of his themes and events as a basis for numerous songs. Led Zepplin is a band that shows a lot of Tolkien influence(see page quote). There's even a subgenre called Tolkien Metal.
- Post Climax Confrontation: The One Ring has been destroyed along with Sauron and the armies of Mordor, Aragorn has been crowned the king of Gondor, and the members of the Fellowship have separated to return to their homelands. When the hobbits return to The Shire, however, they discover it has been taken control of by Saruman, and they have to fight one last battle against him.
- Posthumous Character: Boromir.
- The Power Of Friendship: Especially the friendship between Sam and Frodo.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Uglúk, to some extent Sauron.
- Prophecy Twist: The Witch-king
- Prophetic Fallacy: Denethor and the Corsairs
- Proud Warrior Race: Rohirrim, Uruk-hai
- A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: Aragorn
- Psychic Dreams For Everyone: Faramir, and Boromir once
- Publisher Chosen Title: The publisher meddled with the titles of the three volumes. Tolkien wanted the last one to be named The War of the Ring to avoid spoilers, but it didn't get through.
- The Quest: Frodo's quest is a double subversion. So much so, it might called an Anti Quest
- Rags To Royalty: Aragorn
- Ransacked Room
- Redemption Equals Death: Boromir
- Red Eyes Take Warning: Sauron, while not red-eyed himself, uses a red eye on black as his symbol.
- Although in the movie, he takes the form of a giant red eye.
- Regent For Life: Denethor
- Though he actually has a good precedent for not accepting Aragorn's claim - especially since he has reason to believe Aragorn won't act in Gondor's best interest - and we don't know what he would have actually done had he not been Driven To Suicide. So it's certainly not a clear-cut example.
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old
- The Renfield: Wormtongue
- Roar Before Beating: Cave troll
- Robe And Wizard Hat: Gandalf
- Ron The Death Eater: Poor, poor Arwen. Boromir, Denethor, and Thranduil definitely tend to get this treatment too in fan fiction.
- Royal Blood
- Royals Who Actually Do Something
- Samus Is A Girl: Dernhelm aka Éowyn
- Sapient Steed: Gandalf's steed Shadowfax.
- Scenery Porn
- Sealed Army In A Can: The Oathbreakers from the Paths of the Dead.
- Sealed Evil In A Can: The Balrog of Moria
- Second Hand Storytelling: Gandalf's escape from Saruman, Treebeard's attack on Isengard, and Aragorn's adventures in southern Gondor. Justified by Word Of God that the story is mostly seen from a hobbit POV, since it was hobbits that wrote the tome professor Tolkien translated
- Secondary Character Title: The Lord of the Rings refers to Sauron not Frodo as some believe. The full title of Frodo's book about the war is The Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the Return of the King.
- Seinfeld Is Unfunny: Almost every modern fantasy copies from it to some extent or another; so much of the genre is aimed at children that by the time a reader gets to the Real Thing, they've seen it before...
- Sensitive Guy And Manly Man: Faramir and Boromir.
- Shrug Of God: Tom Bombadil. In response to a question from a fan about his true nature:
"Even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally)."
- Siege Engines: The assault on Minas Tirith.
- Simultaneous Arcs: The main continuity splits off into two branches when the Fellowship breaks up near Rauros - one arc following Frodo, Sam and Gollum in the journey to Mordor, the other one following everyone else and the wars in Rohan and Gondor.
- Single Line Of Descent: Surprisingly, subverted. Aragorn is descended from the northern branch of the kingly line; the Gondor branch of the Numenorean kings diversified into several potential claimants, endured a civil war over the question of inheritance, and eventually no viable successor could be found (All explained in the appendices). Also there are other people appearing and mentioned who also descend from the same ancestor as the "main descendant" of that line.
- Further subverted in that although the Gondorian and Arnorian branches claim direct descent from Elros, first king of Numenor, they are not descendants of the last king, as their ancestor branched off around king 13 or so. Also found All There In The Manual.
- Sleeping Dummy: The hobbits pull this off at the Prancing Pony in Bree.
- Soul Jar: The One Ring
- Spanner In The Works: Gollum
- Speak Friend And Enter
- Split Personality: Gollum/Sméagol. It's highlighted even more in the films.
- Sssssnaketalk: Gollum
- The Starscream: Saruman.
- Stay On The Path: Averted. Gandalf tells the hobbits to stay off the roads on their way to Bree.
- Though in The Hobbit it's played straight, again by Gandalf. The dwarves run off the path anyway, and get captured by wood elves for their trouble.
- Stealth Pun: Merry is given the name "Holdwine" by Éowyn and Éomer once, and it's never mentioned again. It means "loyal friend" in Old English, but in Modern English ...
- A Storm Is Coming: When Gandalf came bearing news of Saruman's plans to the Rohirrim. King Theoden (still under Saruman's influence by way of Wormtongue) calls him "Stormcrow", and Wormtongue mocks him: "Lathspell I name you; 'ill news' is an ill guest."
- Storming The Castle: Subverted
- Story Breaker Power: Gandalf in both The Hobbit and LoTR.
- The Strategist: Gandalf
- Succession Crisis: Gondor had a brutal civil war over who should inherit the throne, a half breed or a pureblood. A generation later, when the last king of Gondor foolishly walked into captivity and (presumed) death, there was no one left willing to take the throne, for fear of a second civil war.
- Super Soldier: Uruk-hai, Olag-hai. Not really super though, just Elite Mooks.
- Supervillain Lair: Barad-dûr and Isengard
- Swamps Are Evil: The Dead Marshes and the Midgewater Marshes.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Éowyn
- Take That Critics: In the Foreword: "Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works."
- Take Up My Sword: Isildur takes Narsil from his dead father, and 3000 years later Aragorn uses the same sword re-forged in the War of the Ring.
- Tear Jerker: Lots
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Frodo and Sam
- The Three Faces Of Adam
- Time Abyss: Tom Bombadil, Treebeard, Elrond; the Ents and Elves overall
- Title Drop
- Translation Convention: Technically, they aren't speaking English. All "real world"-languages are used as a translation/stand-in for a language spoken in-world. The languages are not chosen randomly, but to represent the relation between the languages, or a certain image. Westron is translated with English, while Rohirric, which is supposed to appear vaguely familiar to the Hobbits, is represented by Anglo-Saxon aka Old English, etc. If you read the appendices you also find out that the "original language" version actually has features which influence the plot, but which are not rendered in the English "translation". One of such is the contributing factor to the rumor in Minas Tirith that Pippin was a Prince of high status and power: hobbits do no longer have/use a formal address, so Pippin's informal address to Denethor made the listeners think he would have to be of high status indeed.
- Treacherous Advisor: Gríma
- Trope Maker: And how! The ISO Standard Fantasy Setting started here.
- Ugly Cute: Gollum
- The Unfavorite: Faramir
- Unfortunate Implications: Tolkien was no racist and fiercely despised Nazism in particular, as attested to in his letters, but there is fodder galore for Misaimed Fandom. Even for those who know Tolkien's views, it's still very hard for a modern reader not to wince a bit when reading that the line of Númenor declined partly due to mixing with "lesser men." It is also especially unfortunate that many readers cannot distinguish the characters' views from the author's, resulting in even more misunderstandings.
- Universe Chronology
- Vestigial Empire: Gondor
- Vindicated By History: The book wasn't really popular until the Vietnam war and then the reading public started seeing parallels between Vietnam and the War of the Ring.
- Wait What Whoa: Frodo claiming the Ring for his own at Mount Doom was unexpected by certainly a few fans.
- Warrior Prince: Basically most of the main Man characters.
- We Can Rule Together: Saruman pulls this on Gandalf. He turns down the offer and ends up being a prisoner.
- Well Done Son Guy: Faramir
- What A Senseless Waste Of Human Life
- What Could Have Been: Previously unpublished materials has a lot of examples of what could have been. Aragorn being a ranger hobbit was one of them.
- What Do You Mean Its Not Didactic
- What You Are In The Dark
- When Trees Attack: Ents and Old Man Willow
- Huorns in general, which are described as either being "Tree-ish" Ents or "Ent-ish" trees. More mobile and vocal than trees while not being as active as Ents.
- Where It All Began: Mordor and the Shire count.
- Where Are They Now Epilogue: LotR did originally have one, which it was cut for the original publication, but its three versions have since been published in the Ho Me 10: Sauron Defeated. The first two versions are almost identical: It shows an evening seventeen years after the Ring's destruction, with Sam just having finished reading the story to his children, and answering their questions about the story and what happened after. The third version skips ahead a bit, and begins with Sam writing down the Q&A session with his children and talking to Elanor, who is allowed to stay up after the other children because she's oldest and it's her birthday. All versions end with a scene of Sam and his wife standing outside at night.
- Where There's A Will There's A Sticky Note: Bilbo, after he vanishes in The Fellowship of the Ring.
- Whip It Good: The Balrog, the nonsexual example.
- The Wise Prince - Faramir
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The One Ring tends to have this effect.
- Wizard Beard: Gandalf
- Wizards Live Longer: Justified with the "wizards" who are explained to be divine beings on the level of Biblical archangels.
- Played with in the Nazgul. Their rings of power enhanced their lifespans far beyond that of ordinary mortals while simulateously giving them magical powers, but the ultimate price was the loss of their souls, humanity, and free will to Sauron. In Middle-earth, unless you're and Elf or Physical God and therefore naturally immortal, prolonging your life always comes with a cost.
- Woman In White: Galadriel (and Celeborn) are both described as fully clad in white.
- Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds: Averted when Bilbo, Frodo and finally Sam take pity on Gollum, ensuring the Ring's destruction.
- Word Of God: The appendices are only the start; Tolkien's son has edited together and published fifteen volumes from his notes.
- World Building: The Ur-example
- Xanatos Gambit: the whole War of the Ring is used to distract from the attempt to destroy the Ring
- Also Xanatos Roulette declined. The history of the Second and Third Age including the forging of the Great Rings through Sauron's encouragement was a complex attempt to enslave the peoples of Middle-earth.
- You Cant Fight Fate
- You Shall Not Pass: Gandalf facing the Balrog, although the films named the trope.
- You Should Have Died Instead: Denethor to Faramir.
- You Were Trying Too Hard: Speak Friend And Enter.
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