Once upon a time, when I was young, (around 1977) Stephen R. Donalson wrote a fantasy series called the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. It's a fairly traditional sword-and-sorcery person-from-here-gets-snatched-into-another-world-to-be-refined-in-the-cauldron-of-its-need-and-become-its-savior. Thomas was a crotchety old fuck and the first anti-hero I had ever read about.
Lord Foul was the bad guy.
After long and convoluted runnings here and there, Thomas faces him with his new friends, the Giants at his back. These Giants are pretty much Ents made of rock. Old, wise, loving, Yoda-esque. And, rather than wait for Thomas to become a new person and all of a sudden have insights he hasn't had before, the Giants save teh day.
And they defeat Foul by laughing at him. They see the absurdity of his plotting ans scheming and striving for world domination and they belly laugh. One of them has died chasing around in this dumbass quest, but they still see through to laughter.
There is nothing else in all those books (and Donalson wrote two 5-book series about Thomas, if I recall correctly.) that is worth remembering. But THAT was perfect.
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