Quote:
Originally Posted by Hookbill the Goomba
As horrible as battle always is, it strikes me that Tolkien almost promoted a sort of line of thinking that if you are going to kill them, don't do it from afar. Perhaps he thought of the sword and shield as being preferable to the gun and bullet.
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I think it's also that fighting behind a ranged weapon (and more so a gun) is usually thought of as more cowardly than face-to-face combat, especially in ancient times. With an arrow you're just hiding and killing without even giving your opponent a chance, whereas with face-to-face combat you throw yourself into the fray, and are at much more risk. The opponent also gets to see who kills them, and a chance to fight back, rather than a shot coming nowhere.
I think that this idea was shown well in the LOTR movies, with Boromir's death (
here)