I'd expect Galadriel to be very much in the "The only good orc is a dead orc" camp. That's based purely on vibes, I don't recall anything about it in the LOTR books and I never could finish The Silmarillion.
this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2025
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All elves are in that camp, and within the bounds of LotR I think they're right? It's definitely a setting with objective, and cosmic, Good and Evil.
But also do Orcs have souls? If they do they should have the potential for good inside them. If not, how are they more than animals? Even JRR wasn't sure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU8Rw3OWweA
I like this one.
Robert's great
That was awesome, thank you.
Yes, because each time an elf looks upon an orc, they see a mangled, corrupted version of themselves, with no hope of reversing the corruption.
like the french looking at england
Tolkien also wrote the orcs as pretty explicitly "always evil", at least in lord of the rings and the hobbit. He seemed to be conflicted about making an always-evil race, but that IS how it's written in those books.
at least in lord of the rings and the hobbit
On the other hand Tolkien was quite clear on that the story was told from the perspective of the protagonists. Not least through the strong insinuation that the in-universe book that Bilbo started, Frodo continued, and Sam finished, is if not the book we are reading, at least an important source for it.
Lord of the rings telling them as evil mostly shows that's how the fellowship saw them.
Pretty sure theres a letter or two where he wrote that orcs could be saved, should they turn from evil, but he also didn't know how any of them would ever know to do so.
Wasn't it because they didn't have any Will? Their entire drive to do anything was completely enslaved by whoever was controlling them: as long as they were controlled by an evil willpower they'd also be evil.
Because the OG's example picture wasn't nearly as relevant.
Fair enough, I try and avoid fandom sites as much as possible.
Frodo: Don't blame, me. You guys made it
Those were different times. It was accepted back then.
Most of today's living elves were already alive back then! By human standards, those times were like the 1990s ... which were actually pretty different times when it comes to political correctness, so fair point actually.
Are you saying that the sword was made due to elven cocaine?
If it was made by Ñoldor, which seems likely... yeah, you could say that.
(“Elven cocaine” being mainly Fëanor's hubris, the doom of Mandos, and all that; which admittedly had all the bad parts of actual cocaine, but none of the fun ones).
The elves of Gondolin predated Galadriel iirc. So, Galadriel's ancestors made the sword.
Galadriel had nothing to do with Gondolin but she was definitely in Beleriand at the time. She was around to experience the light of the trees and make her way to Middle Earth with the Noldor.
Ah ok thanks, I thought Gondolin was 1st age and Galadriel was 2nd, my bad
No shes third generation from the first elves that woke up. She's one of the oldest elves in middle-earth.
I think only her husband is older? Though it's been a while since I read Silmarillion.
Uhhh, the sword is from a different generation.
Could you stop by my office? Bring your cardkey.
This is probably funny in a way I don’t understand, because I miss the reference, and will most likely regret posting this because everyone will learn me now
His sword glows when orcs are nearby.
I hope you still didn't regret the message.