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Originally Posted by davem
Of course - and yet the tragedy here is due to 'delusion' or trickery, not because noble warriors are fighting each other for causes they truly believe in. Hence, that element of tragedy is missing.
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Excluding perhaps Feanor & sons, the noldor were convinced of their cause, that they were marching to freedom. Also, the late-coming noldor were fighting to save their kin, while the teleri were fighting to protect their treasured ships. In Gondor, there was also those who tried to preserve the old traditions and those who tried to preserve the existing blood line. I would hold all these fighted for causes in which they believed.
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Originally Posted by davem
There is no Hector to Aragorn's Achilles, & that particular & specific tragic horror of war is absent - is it a serious lack?
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The problem is that a Hector marred by Melkor would have little merit. This is not just a moral corruption; evil men can stirr great evil, at least during those mythical times. His merit (if he had any; it can be argued that his free will would have been heavily subdued) would be diminished by using "nukes" against "savages". Resisting that kind of evil, in the first three ages, is always a long defeat from an individual point of view, without "outside" intervention.