thedeadlyhook

The Tolkein comparison is an interesting one because the idea of corruption is huge in that story - those with real power are terrified of it, because they know the One Ring would simply corrupt their already potent power to its purposes. You could argue that W&H fulfills this aspect of the story, corrupting the powerful, and only those too humble to catch the attention of the Eye escape (e.g., Anne).

So yeah, you could say that the final alley scene has some similarities to the final faceoff at the Black Gate, although that also implies that the real battle is happening elsewhere... and now maybe we're back to Anne again, and the value of doing the fighting that's "hard and every day." Hm...