[Feanor of the Peredhil]

If you'll excuse the pun, this is quite a good thread. It's gotten me thinking, and that may or may not be a good thing. Hmm... *tries, and fails, to make her thoughts more concise and understandable by the general audience*... Okay... I think I figured out my point. Let us go by some of the definitions as given by Iarwain:

1) having the qualities that are desirable...

The way I see it, leadership, organization, cleverness, practicality, intelligence, cunning, and many other such qualities are quite desirable.

2) Worthy of respect;

In my mind, worthiness (real word?) is relative. Who is to decide who is worthy of respect, or anything else for that matter? However, many people that aren't 'worthy' of respect have achieved it anyhow. Such as the person in my mind who will be revealed when I finish my brain-storming, if it hasn't already been made clear.

5) Skilled

My dictionary's definition of 'skilled' is this: 'Having skill; expert'. For 'skill' alone, it is this: 'ability; knowledge united with dexterity; aptitude.' The character I have in mind is quite skilled at a very large number of things, some things that very few others are even aware of the existence of.

10) Of moral excellence

This part of goodness is, to me, even more relative than 'worthy'. Every person has his own set of morals and it is really quite simple to be able to excel at something that you've created and is yours alone. So even if nobody else follows your particular set of morals, if you believe in your own code and follow it unconditionally, than you have achieved moral excellence.

So since the character in question has not only many desirable qualities, he's also very skilled, very worthy of respect, depending on who determines worthiness, and is of moral excellence to himself if nobody else, then would not the character be able to slip into a loophole of 'goodness'? So by my logic, would not Sauron be at least slightly good? And if he is good, even a little, than it is not possible for him to be evil, or even bad, simply a bit corrupt, or at most a little bit deranged, and this, my friends, would turn the War of the Ring from a war of Good versus Evil, to a war of Good versus Good, which makes no sense to me at all! And if you were to tell me that the ring was evil, I would tell you that an inanimate object can not take on human characteristics unless the characteristics are handed down by the creator of the object, and since by my reasoning, Sauron is not evil, nor can be the ring.

Well, I guess I'm done for now. How's this for a relevant post, Iarwain? As for all else, how about some thoughts in reference to my conclusion, or even to my reasoning?

Fea