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Re: So..

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  Posted by Michael Martinez on July 20, 2000 at 13:44:06
In Reply to: Re: So.. posted by Russ on July 20, 2000 at 11:21:05:



: The difference between orcs and Elves is that orcs as a race : consistently do evil things. Elves may have Feanor and his : wanker sons, but they also have the Vanyar, the Falmari, the : Sindar; they have the children of Indis and the great nobility : of those lines. The great majority of Elves are unfallen and : almost all the Elves evil or error can be relegated to one : relatively small subset of the race. On the other hand, : there's no analog among the orcs for the "good" elves.

The difference between Orcs and Elves is that Orcs are not in their natural state, Elves are. Orcs don't choose to be evil, they are raised to be evil. Elves CHOOSE to be evil.

The Orcs are not an "evil" race. Tolkien has no such thing. They are a "corrupted" race, which is quite a different matter. They didn't choose to be Orcs, but some of them do a pretty good job of displaying the same noble characteristics (in their own despicable way) for which the Elves are idealized.

The war in LOTR is not against the Orcs, it's against Sauron (and Saruman). The Orcs behave badly. There's no questioning that. But they are also perceived through the eyes of their enemies. Gandalf, at least, felt pity for them, even though he was as apt to lay to among them if they tried to hurt his friends.

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