When It All Comes Together

I've already mentioned that I favor an analysis of setup and payoff, rather than the shallow fad of trope recognition. Let's look at one way that dramatic tension favors multiple threads of setup and payoff.

• Governor Tarkin wants to use the Death Star to destroy the Rebellion.
• Luke Skywalker wants to join the Rebellion in the fight against the Empire.
• Princess Leia wants to deliver the plans into the hands of the Rebellion to stop the Death Star.
• Han Solo wants to earn a reward so he can pay off his debts.

At the climax of the film, three of these threads are unresolved, and one (Han's) is seemingly resolved, though not to the audience's satisfaction. Han Solo got his reward money, but we can tell that Luke would have preferred Han to be less mercenary, to stay and join in the fight.

A fifth thread is introduced:

• Darth Vader wants to defend the Death Star against the Rebel attack.

Then the climax of the film happens, and in about ten seconds of screen time, all five of these dramatic threads are resolved with the destruction of the Death Star. Tarkin is killed before achieving his goal; Vader's reason for defending the Death Star is taken away. Luke finally fulfills his objective to join the fight against the Empire. Leia's arc is resolved the moment the battle station is destroyed. Han's arc is improved upon when he finally returns to save the day, because he

It's a pretty textbook climax to a story: the near-perfect 

• Han Solo never returns; Luke blows up the Death Star anyway.
• Han Solo returns, but Luke is killed; Han blows up the Death Star.
• Luke is too late; Tarkin blows up Yavin IV and destroys the Rebellion.
• Tarkin blows up Yavin IV and 

It could have ended a lot of different ways, is what I'm getting at. All of the narrative threads could have come together in a myriad of different outcomes. I contend that it's the multitude of resolutions 

Let's look at another one.

In 

• Sauron wants to destroy the West.
• Gollum wants to recover the Ring.
• Aragorn (and Gandalf, Gimli, Legolas et al) wants to buy time for Frodo.
• Frodo wants to destroy the Ring.

At the moment of the destruction of the One Ring, all four of these threads are hanging. Then, with one single action — Gollum seizing the ring and falling over the cliff into the Cracks of Doom — all of the narrative conflict is resolved. Sauron's power is diminished and depleted by the Ring's destruction; Gollum recovers the Ring 

This makes for a satisfying climax to the story, because all of the major threads are resolved; in the novelization, we have a few minor elements to wrap up, such as the Scouring of the Shire, but for the most part we are past the downhill slope, shooting past the tip of the ramp, and ready to land. Nevertheless, all of the threads come together in a neat little bow in a very short space of time.

Notice in that summary that Frodo did nothing. He had no hand in the resolution of his own plot arc. He 

This, I feel, is why Frodo feels like such an empty, unfulfilled character at the end. Tolkien allowed Frodo's very mission to be stolen from him, and correctly painted him afterward as unhappy and incomplete. Yes, Frodo was susceptible to the temptations of the One Ring, so in some sense he is like an addict who needs his fix; but in another very important way, Frodo (the inheritor of the Red Book of Westmarch, Bilbo's story of the Ring) knows he is a failed character in an otherwise successful story.