Aychamo BanBan
<Banned>
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I liked scouring a lot. It scales back the epic world ending lord of evil threat into something which is less fantasy but just as important, and importantly something that happens. That bit isn't so much fantasy as direct social commentary.
The first time I finished ROTK I also despised scouring. It was both a gutpunch and it felt anti climatic. But Merry and Pippin running off old sharky and letting their fat little brothers be free without being corrupted by violence (mostly) is important. At the very least the constabulary that they formed was free of the -joy- of violence. It's the story of the country people that get by without being directly effected by these huge world shaping events but in their more narrow ways their lives are effected even more negatively by forces they cannot control, comprehend, or even influence.
It's a story about soldiers coming home to find that while they were out fighting the good fight, all the cowards were at home eating their food and fucking the women.
That one small chapter contextualizes the entire three books. I really do think it was kind of brilliant to use it as an epilogue. For adults. Younger readers won't see the point he's making. I didn't, until I re-read the series in my 30's.
The story that GRRM has told will not lend itself to a scouring of the shire. He's made everyone complict and the commoners are not innocent... they're just chattel. He does not have a Shire to Scour. If he tries, which he probably would if he ever wrote the book, it would be peak pretentiousness.
Very well written. I absolutely adored the Scouring of the Shire, heart breaking, and exactly as you described. I may read it tonight before I goto sleep.