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Thank you Inziladun,
That is true, I did disregard the Doom of Mandos a bit, but does Mandos telling them that they're all gonna die horrible deaths really override their free will? Also, how does Mandos have such power? Or did the doom come from Eru himself?
And the Oath: I always thought the oath only applied to Feanor and his sons, not their followers, so it should not have any effect on the decisions of their soldiers.
Yeah, also forgot that the Silmaril had some sort of hypnotic effect that made people want to posses it, however, you can't argue that this doesn't cast Dior and Elwing in quite a negative light, let alone that it lends a sort of sinister aspect to the Silmarils.
And we don't know if Finwe was descended from Tata and Tatie (the first Noldor that awoke), and even if, what sense does it make to equate that with the right or skill for leadership? I'm not saying that he story is bad, just that Elves (supposedly wiser than humanity) automatically have an absolute, patriarchal monarchy is a bit weird, why don't they have at least a council system, modeled after the Valar?
And even so I would have felt better if there had been at least a few more mentions of dissident during the more problematic phases. Well, at least we get Amras, Galadriel, Celebrimbor and the handful of, sadly nameless, Feanorian soldiers that refused to butcher refugees for jewellry. Galadriel in particular seemed rather untouched by the Doom/able to leg it out of Beleriand before any of the really bad stuff happened.
But yes, forgot that Tolkien was very much influenced by the Norse Sagas and the whole "you can't fight fate" thing.
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