Beautiful Sad Endings

I took my Jewel to see Part 3 of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies. I have two reflections.

1) Having a child who enjoys the same types of movies as you is incredibly freeing. It means that if I'm going to see a heavily anticipated film, I don't need to worry about critiquing it anymore. All that matters is if my child enjoyed it. If she enjoyed it, the experience was worth while. It means I don't have to play any "what if's?" in my mind, because there are no regrets.

2) As the credits to the movie scrolled past, I didn't want to leave the theater. I think part of the reason why is, once we did, the story for me would be over. I had witnessed all 6 parts of Tolkien's work on the big screen, starting all the way back in 2001, before I was even married. Now that the last movie has been made and I have seen it, the saga is over. There will never be another book written in this world nor another movie made about it, and there is no other source material that exists in literature that will ever be able to boast of such accomplishment. This feeling brings both fulfillment as well as sadness. The only thing left is to move through the Lord of the Rings trilogy with my Jewel and witness those films through new eyes. And then the journey will be finished.

Frodo: Sam! Wood-Elves! They're going to the harbour beyond the White Towers. To the Grey Havens. 

Sam: They're leaving Middle-earth. 

Frodo: Never to return.