Why Does Good Suck So Much?

[Nikkolas]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

As for Sauron's noble intentions, everyone thinks they are good and noble and all that stuff! If you'd ask him "are you evil?", he'd say "of course not!" What else would you expect him to say? Not that he would waste time talking about that subject...

That actually reminds me of a thread I made elsewhere about why Sauron and the other Maiar chose evil. I can understand why Men serve Morgoth for they have precious little sight. But a Maiar like Sauron should know the cosmic working of things. He should know about how good will always triumph.

To my great surprise, I found a thing by Tolkien discussing pretty much that exact same thing. Seems Sauron deluded himself into thinking Eru an impotent god and etc..

Originally Posted by Boromir88

As far as the genocide, not seeing it. Elendil was instructed to gather all the Faithful and their family on to the ships. And The Silmarillion, from what I recall, is explicit in, the Faithful, including women and children, were on the ships leaving Numenor.

Genocide is defined as-
"The deliberate killing of a large group of people, esp. those of a particular ethnic group or nation."

It doesn't mean he sent out to stamp out every last one of them.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Nikkolas

That actually reminds me of a thread I made elsewhere about why Sauron and the other Maiar chose evil. I can understand why Men serve Morgoth for they have precious little sight. But a Maiar like Sauron should know the cosmic working of things. He should know about how good will always triumph.

He wanted power that he could not achieve through the "good" Valar's methods.

[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by Nikkolas

Genocide is defined as-
"The deliberate killing of a large group of people, esp. those of a particular ethnic group or nation."

It doesn't mean he sent out to stamp out every last one of them.

It's usually a good idea to use context and think of The Silmarillion (or any story) on its own terms and not slap modern definitions, or inflammatory analogies, on it.