I dont know, from a literary standpoint I really liked the scouring, it did a good job of bringing things back full circle, to the point that there could be an actual ending. I liked that it showed that everything that happend had consequences, and that the shire was not untouched by the horrors of war. This is important because the Shire is purposefully a stagnant place. Nothing changed there for a long time, at least since Smegol or Deagol. The nature of the ring, and I think its very presence in the shire made sure that none of the places purity survived the war of the ring untouched, not Frodo, not Samwise, or Pippen and Merry, not Bilbo. The whole of Middle Earth was turned upside down in the Rings wake Rohan lost its King, Gondor lay in Ruin, in the appedicies we see that Rivendel and even Lonely mountain are assaulted by the forces of evil and left in ruin, as a result the fairest and purest beings of middle earth, the elves are leaving middle earth forever. The magic had gone out of the world. The scouring, makes a good transition to our age, one where mundanity and barbarity intermingle. Its also one of the few battles fought by the free people without any magical aid, no Gandalf, no Aduril, or ancient pacts, Just 4 brave and tired Hobbits to worldly to let anyone cow them into submission, to brave to quit. Remember its many years after the war that Frodo finally passes into the west. I liked that too, and it says a lot about Tolkein, I think a big part of him got left on Flanders Field, in "No Mans Land" and he never did find a way to reconnect with the world in the same way he had before. I think Tolkein had a bit of Frodo and Sam in him, but obviously more Sam. His point is very salient though, adventures dont leave us unchanged, life is a process of change. Problems that may have once been great before an adventure do not seem so great after, and that nothing is stays the same.
