The Middle Distance

Stories (read or visual) become too real to me for me to enjoy the terror -- I'm the sort that can wake up in a cold sweat from nightmares generated by books and movies. And I really hate that. ;P

Not so much superficially as archetypally -- they occupy the same sort of story-niche for the focal characters. The Nazgul, gaunt, black-robed, powerful, terrifying, and inhuman, hunt the young Hobbits; just as the Dementors, gaunt, black-robed, powerful, terrifying, and inhuman, hunt the young wizarding children. For both groups, learning how to face their fears and overcome these shadowy horrors is part of growing up on their journey.

(For the record, I never saw the Nazgul as bunglers or stupid! They were too scary to analyse that way. What I saw, instead, was that seemingly insurmountable horrors could be overcome by courage and determination and sticking by your friends. That, and a good dose of Good Triumphing Over Evil, of course.)