Let's Talk Morgoth

[Makar]

Originally Posted by alatar

Would Sauron have taken the side that he did if Melkor had not led/shown/provided the way? Did Melkor say, "Hey, Maia, check this out/try some of this..."?

To me, this raises an even bigger question, about the nature of evil in JRRTs writing. Would Sauron have ever been evil without Melkor? Evil seems such an alien concept to the other Vala that they let Morgoth go after his imprisonment. It seems that can't concieve of why someone would want to commit acts of evil. This leads to the question, why was Melkor evil? Was this part of Iluvatar's plan? If so, why did Eru begin with plans for Melkor and Manwe to be brothers in his mind and why do the other themes seem to have been in response to Melkor's theme?