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Originally Posted by osse
Evil itself (as this discussion is meant to outline) is very hard to define in itself
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um-m, let me doubt that maxim
Even without mentioning Eru and sin of pride (=root of all evil), evil may be defined simply as:
Something achieving its ends (even if ends are good at some point) on the expense of others:
To use the list provided by Fordim, it can be cast down to:
- The Black Riders - (end - service to their master/ means - slavery of all the rest of the world)
- Old Man Willow - (end - protection of the wood (?) / means - death of the hobbits)
- The Barrow Wights (end - revival of itself ~ preservation of memory (?) / means death/loss of own personality for the hobbits)
- The Watcher in the Water (end - protection of the gate/ means - death of all who pass by)
- The Balrog (end - unclear / means - burn them all)
- Gollum (end - freedom and being his own master~eat some fresh fish/ means - s-s-s-sstrangle nass-sty thieves-s-s-s)
- The ghosts of the unfaithful (end - keep the secret~find rest/ means - kill/drive mad anyone going in)
- The Mouth of Sauron (end - domination/means - kill 'em all)
- Sauron (end - order/ means - slave 'em all)
Only the Fell Beasts seem to behave like mere animals (and probably Watcher should be modified to fit the description) = (end - live on/ means - kill anything fit to eat)
Shelob is left quite apart from the list:
end - destroy everything but herself/ means - destroy everything but herself
But it is stated that nothing is originally bad - Good is the real thing, and Bad its' parasite, so even Shelob's paradigm can be modified to stand for:
end - exist in herself/ means - stop everything else form existing