I get knocked down but I get up again - you're never going to keep me down.

[Lush]

Great thread (great title too, takes me back to the 8th grade, or something like that ).

I want to comment specifically on something Saucy said:

To the extent that these "apparent death" episodes might come across now as slightly cliched, I wonder if it is beacuse they are so over-used in the modern horor film genre?

This is a very interesting point. The modern horror film genre, however, appears to use "apparent death" episodes more so on the evil characters than the good. Of course, it's very nice when a good guy (like Dewey in "Scream," if anybody knows what I mean) who has seemingly died comes back in the end. But overall, the most powerful moments are those when you believe the monster/psycho killer/evil witch/etc. to be dead, and then they suddenly spring back up to life again. It's like a demonic reversal of the Resurrection, a cross turned upside down (if you don't mind me using Christianity as a prop here).

I don't see Tolkien doing this. I do not believe he uses "apparent death" as a means of shocking the reader. Or does he?