The Snowflake Chronicles

three fictional faves

16 Izzat B.E. - September 23, 2006 at 1:42:21 PM Pacific Time

My "Invalid Entry"  are all tragic figures. So here they are in not particular order, except that of memory, King Kong, The Wolf Man, and Frodo Baggins.

The original King Kong, the one that carried Fay Wray across Skull Island, is my favorite. I didn’t see this movie in the theater, but on television. I can remember setting up on Friday or Saturday night and watching him on “The Late Late Show” (at least I think that was what it was called). Poor Kong fell in love with Fay Wray’s character the first time he saw her. I knew the instant I saw the look on Kong’s face, when he met Wray for the first time, that he would meet a tragic fate. I just never expected him to commit suicide by fighter pilot. I cried when I saw Kong lying on the ground with the crowd gathering. Poor Kong killed by unrequited love not the bullets from the fighter planes.

The original Wolf Man played by Lon Chaney, Jr. Another movie I saw on the late show; I watched “The Late Late Show” every Friday or Saturday night as a child. Poor guy destined to transform into a Werewolf once a month when the moon was full and twice a month when a “Blue Moon” occurred (this was something the movie didn’t tell you). Condemned to hunt his fellow human being through no fault of his own, but because he was bitten by another werewolf and survived. An innocent man punished because he was fortunate enough to survive. The Wolf Man met his demise when someone shot him with a silver bullet.

Frodo Baggins, from the book The Lord of the Rings, is my tragic hero. Poor Frodo he had to destroy his “precious” to save the human race. I don’t think when he started the journey that he realized how difficult the final act would be. Through out the journey he had other problems on his mind, so he didn’t really have a chance to consider the consequences of his actions until the final moment. At the final moment, the little bastard Gollum took the decision out of Frodo’s hands. Frodo didn’t get the chance to throw The Ring to its destruction. Gollum didn’t intend to destroy The Ring, he simply wanted to rescue it, but instead he went to his death taking “precious” with him.

Poor Frodo traveled all that way and never even got to throw “precious” into the lava. Now some may say that was Frodo’s reward for his bravery throughout the journey. I’m not so sure about that. I wonder if Frodo, was fated to question, for the rest of his life, whether he would have committed the final act or not.

True Frodo did get to go to Middle Earth’s version of paradise, but that still doesn’t mean Frodo didn’t spend the rest of his existence questioning if he could have thrown “precious” into the lava. Is there a more tragic creature in this universe?