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He recognises them as a people unlike his leader Eomer
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Do you have any idea how a dunlendish war cry sounds? Do you have any proof that a dunlendish war cry is significantly different from that of an orc war cry (or that the difference would be perceptible from any distance)? Do you have any evidence that Eomer was aware of all these? Because if you don't know these, your presumption is unwarranted, and I will point this to you everytime you state this as anything else than a personal opinion.
Even if dunlendish cries are different from orc cries, you would still be making two errors of reasoning:
- fallacy of division: Eomer described how that
group in the night sounded; to say that what he thought of the group is what he also thought of part of the group, without evidence of this, is erroneous reasoning.
- false dillemma: the fact in itself that a person recognises that another group (most likely) intentionally makes savage sounds doesn't exclude that the person in question doesn't have racial attitude towards that group - unless there is additional evidence, of which I know none. This in itself is not a qualifier.
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the Rohirrim for example moving forwards from their prejudiced ways into learning to accept other races,
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Without proper evidence, we can't say that the rohirrim were more prejudiced against the woses (if that is what you are reffering to) than another group of people would have been in their place. This is an "argument from ignorace", a fallacy.
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which would eventually lead in to the more modern way of viewing an enemy as not merely something almost inorganic to be slaughtered but as a fellow human who deserves respect even in the fury of war
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Is there any evidence of events at the time of LotR when the enemies should have been given more respect, or when there was unnecessary harm done?
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the disrespectful killing games of Legolas and Gimli.
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But is heroic lore that proclaims the values of champions, in relation to how many enemies they stopped (I am being polite here), wrong? Aren't the noldor celebrated in the songs of their people for how many enemies they defeated (and I presume the same is true for the dwarves)?
Are the words of Gimli and Legolas any worse than the words of Aragorn who says "depart, or not one of you will be spared; not one will be left alive to take back tidings to the North"?
Is it wrong to equate value in battle with how many enemies you defeat? And if not, is it wrong to declare value in battle?
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Just like it's a couple of Hobbits who 'save' Middle-earth, not Gandalf or some high-falutin' Elf, it's the ordinary soldiers who view the enemies as people whereas their leaders see them merely as smelly, animalistic obstacles.
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I presume you are reffering to orcs. Do these hobbits view, behave towards, or describe the orcs in a more favorable light than Gandalf or the elves?