The ring gets destroyed about halfway through the last book
The rest of the book is almost equally divided between Aragorn getting inaugurated, going back to Rivendale, the scouring of the shire, life in the shire afterwards, Frodo Bilbo and the elves going to the undying lands, and then the appendices lol
Exactly. Being close to pissing myself in the cinema due to the incessant false summit endings soured that film a bit. Rewatching the extended version at home was amazing though.
The ring is destroyed like halfway through the last book. Tolkien was really into worldbuilding, and he refused to let the ring be the end of it. He had to ramble for another half a book about the fallout afterwards. Aragon getting crowned king, Frodo getting banished to the Shadow Realm, some more politicking in Rivendell, and I think we hear a little bit about the elves too?
I’m also not a fan of the series, FWIW. I read the books. Gave them a fair chance. And fucking hated every minute of it, because I kept expecting it to get better. Because everyone loses their shit over it, so it has to get good eventually, right? I’m a massive fantasy nerd, but LOTR is just a slog.
He did the same thing with The Hobbit. Smaug dies like three quarters of the way through the book, and he doesn’t even get killed by one of the characters that we’ve been following for the entire fucking book. The main characters just sort of wait for him to leave the lair, then rummage through his pile of gold once he’s gone.
Don't forget the part where they get back to the Shire and they fight off... just some dudes. Over some tobacco. They've fought orks, goblins, a giant spider and saved the fucking world. But their arc can't be complete without fighting a couple guys in the woods I guess.