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Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man
But we are not talking here about people who find Tolkien's works silly or ridiculous. We are, as far as I am concerned anyway, talking about people who treat it seriously, yet genuinely support the evil characters.
I would agree that, if they find it silly, they are not really genuinely siding with evil, and so few, if any, conclusions could be drawn with regard to their morality.
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But they may take it 'seriously' as a work of fantasy with no relation to the real world, so I would still argue that their support of the 'evil' side cannot be used to judge their morality as far as the real world is concerned. Supporting 'evil' characters in a fantasy world so far detached from the everyday world they live in means such conclusions cannot be drawn.
I cannot declare someone who thinks Orcs slaughtering Elves is cool (however 'seriously' they might take the slaughter) to be 'immoral' in the same way (or at all if it comes to that) that I would instantly declare someone who thought Serbs slaughtering Bosnians was cool. And I don't accept that the same thought processes are behind the former as behind the latter.