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Originally Posted by alatar
The word 'become,' at least on this morning, grates on me. Not sure how it was intended, and I'm not saying that Menelvagor meant it in any particular way, but to me the word 'become' does not seem to connote 'choice.' One chooses to do evil or not. Maybe Melkor and Sauron became evil by the thousand slices of evil choices or one big choice - I don't know. But to me all cognizant beings are free to choose and do not simply wake up one day on the wrong side.
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But how much choice did the humans who first confronted Melkor had? I wouldn't discard the effects of dealing with higher evil power that cannot be resisted (the foremost case being Frodo). Even in a modern society, I would certainly give mitigating circumstances to a person that has been indoctrinated and brainwashed with evil since childhood, through various means. A good example of Sauron's hold on his servants was at the last battle:
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Originally Posted by The Fields of Cormallen, RotK
The Power that drove them on and filled them with hate and fury was wavering, its will was removed from them; and now looking in the eyes of their enemies they saw a deadly light and were afraid.
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Originally Posted by davem
The problem is the Ring gives the power to do good as well as evil.
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I would call the power to do good one of the deceits that the ring filled the mind of others.
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If Galadriel took the Ring & made the whole of Middle-earth into Lorien that wouldn't be an 'evil' act in an objective sense - it would be quite a nice place to live.
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Taking all things into consideration, it is rather safe to assume that no such thing would be possible.
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Surely if Gandalf or Galadriel took the Ring they would do good. There's no reason to believe that they would behave like Sauron.
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This runs contrary to what we know of the ring; a good deal has been already quoted by Boromir.
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Many readers of Tolkien would consider the Lorienisation of M-e as a victory for good. So, Sauron & Mordor are not 'ideals' of evil.
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I disagree with that idea and reasoning, at least because Sauron and Melkor became nihilistic; I know of no reference that they strived for a Lorien-like M-E.