Pulled this example for applying a trope to the creator rather than his work:
- Recurring Dreams: Tolkien had his 'Atlantis dream', featuring a huge wave coming over the land. He stated that it had a part in inspiring the Downfall of Númenor.
Quoting from "Four Is Death": 'As West (西) is another near-homophone for death, one Chinese metaphor for death is "to return to the west", in a similar fashion to the way a broken piece of machinery is said in English-speaking countries to have "gone south". '
Do you think this qualifies as Stealth Pun, man Valinor? I wouldn't be surprised if Tolkien spake Chinese too...
The Singing Cat
"How can you not trust him?" Well, for one thing he looks disturbingly like the Coachman...
I'm too old to be cute dammit
I feel like "Eucatastrophe" is more of a Sub-trope of "Near Villain Victory" then a synonym. Basically, no matter how Near his victory is, if it's still the Hero's actions that thwart him it's not a Eucatastrophe.
Pulled this. The example seems to parse Authority Equals Asskicking more as "only people with authority are protagonists", while it is really "the higher in the hierarchy, the more fighting power". This is not universally true in Tolkien's works, because 1) the Hobbit protagonists generally are not "asskickers", 2) there are numerous authority types who do not do much asskicking themselves (Elrond, Galadriel, Denethor, the Master of Laketown, the Elven King of Mirkwood, Thingol, Sauron), 3) nor is it established that the "warrior princes" who combine authority with fighting power are also stronger than all their subordinates.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Frequently so in Middle-Earth. Most of the named characters are Warrior Princes or the equivalent for their culture. Even the hobbit protagonists are mostly the well-to-do ones, except Samwise.
- Possibly subverted by the fact that Tolkien considered Samwise to be the true hero of the tale.
Let's just say and leave it at that.