MovieChat Forums > The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) Discussion > Sam marrying Rosie Cotton

Sam marrying Rosie Cotton

posted 4 years ago by AmeriGirl26 (14423)
5 replies | jump to latest

I thought that was one of the sweetest scenes in this whole movie :D. It was especially delightful to see the 4 guy Hobbits in the tavern again (sort of a callback to a scene in "Fellowship"), and now, after his big adventure, Samwise finds proposing to Rosie is nowhere near as dangerous or risky compared to what he's been through, lol. My brother tells me that Rosie said "Yes" because she'd had her eye on Sam for a while, he was just too shy to speak to her. From what I've heard, they had a very good marriage, and had 13 children. (Hobbits are very prolific and for some reason, have no issues having lots of kids).

Sam even kicked those Sackville Bagginses out of Bilbo's old house and forced them to pay for the damages (they were squatting there while Frodo was away saving the world). He even became mayor of Hobbiton. Talk about a happy ending for Sam :D

[–] Ace_Spade (9550) 4 years ago

Sam gets a pretty well-deserved epilogue, yeah. It's pretty sweet for Pippin and Merry, too.

Merry became Master of Buckland, Pippin is Thain of the Shire (military hobbit). Each had wives and children, and Pippin's son (Faramir) marries Sam's daughter (Goldilocks).

Frodo's the only one who gets hammered, never recovering body or soul. He gets to sail West, yes, but he suffers greatly before heading off into that sunset.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (14423) 4 years ago

Yeah, it's really sad how Frodo ended up living alone at Bag End and never moving on with his life beyond writing his own version of "The Lord of the Rings" in addition to Bilbo's "There and Back Again." I have no doubt he had a support system within the town for dealing with his PTSD, but it would have been nice for him to have had a family of his own for at least a short while. Going off with Bilbo and the elves was a relief for both of them.

[–] Ace_Spade (9550) 4 years ago

Frodo's end is bittersweet, but that's kinda Middle Earth. It's a poetic, beautiful finale with a hard truth concealed in it, but that's what makes it great. It is nice that the other characters do get nice epilogues, though. I think every other hero who survives gets rewarded well, in fact.

[–] Annkat (342) 22 days ago

I was sad that the film didn't show Sam going back home to Bag End. Frodo gave the home to Sam when he left Middle Earth.

The Sackville Baggins story was ultimately very sad. Frodo sold the house to them in the books. His story was that he was moving to Crickhollow to be closer to other parts of his family when really he was going into hiding because of the ring.

When the Shire was sacked, Saruman used Bag End as his headquarters. He killed Frodo's relative Lotho. After they took back the Shire, Lotho's mother Lobelia was too heartbroken to keep living there and she gave it back to Frodo.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (14423) 22 days ago

I remember reading on Quora that in the original book, the horrifying vision Frodo had of the Shire going to crap happened for real, because Saruman survived his fall from Isengard and snuck off to the Shire, and caused The Scouring of the Shire.

Purists are unhappy that this whole thing wasn't included in the film, but Peter Jackson had two good reasons for leaving it out: one, the movie was already running on pretty long, even in extended form; and two, he felt the audience had already had to go through a lot watching the great battle at Minas Tirith (as well as the other battles in the other two movies) and felt the audience deserved a "happy ending" scenario, where the Shire had remained untouched by the War of the Ring, and the hobbits in the story still had a decent home to go back to.

However, the purists have a good argument for keeping the Scouring of the Shire part of the story in. They said the Tolkien included this to show that war touches everyone, even Hobbits, and just going home isn't the way to escape war in general, that sometimes it follows you back to the one place you thought was "safe," and that you have to deal with your issues, even at home after the main big war is over with. I believe Tolkien also experienced something like this after WWII, when he came back home and saw what had happened to his home town after the war, and how it affected him emotionally and economically.

So it's a bit of a controversy about how the movie version of "Return of the King" was written, versus the novel.