Someone: Why are you so mad that they cut the Scouring of the Shire from the LordoftheRingsmovies?
Me: Saruman’s takeover of the Shire collapses the boundary between “home” and “the world” that the characters have taken for granted for most of the novel. It forces them to confront the fact that evil isn’t a high and distant force that can be defeated and done away with forever; it comes home to you in the most intimate ways imaginable, and its effects take time and work to truly heal. And all this reflects Frodo’s own internal state, as he realizes that he can never fully leave behind and return from the things he did.
