Quote:
Originally Posted by Urwen
So you see him as nothing more than a turncoat? That's a strangely shallow interpretation and it ignores the depth of his character.
|
Yours really is the shallow interpretation in that it looks for depth which just isn't there, so you contrive it, instead.
He was obsessively incestuous with Idril. Yes, yes, we all know Pharaoh married his sister as a matter of course, but this tu quoque doesn't excuse Maeglin's (to use a rather execrable neologism) toxicity. And this obsession was his proverbial gateway to other things.
He disobeyed Turgon's order to not venture too far and got himself captured. Morgoth then scared him really, really badly. Oh, and he offered him the throne and Idril if he betrayed Gondolin. And then let him go!
But, according to you, he was too traumatized, or something, instead of just, plain greedy. So, the Middle Earth Manchurian Candidate then returns home, and, instead of telling Turgon about all of this (and, you know, ensuring that his people aren't slaughtered and his city destroyed), he stuck to the deal that he made with (
ahem...) Morgoth. Well, perhaps I'm being too harsh. I suppose that sticking to the deal he made with Lucifer, I mean, Morgoth, makes Maeglin a man of his word in some fashion. Kudos to Maeglin, then, for being a stand-up guy!
Once the attack started and dragons were flying around, and however many days or weeks it took to breach the walls of Gondolin (Tolkien isn't specific on these times, but, presumably, they didn't happen instantaneously, like a Star Trek transporter invasion) Maeglin was still so traumatized that he was content to watch his own people get slaughtered as he went after Tuor. Now, that's a victim. Man... I'm in awe of his intersectional victimhood privilege.
So, yes: Maeglin was a victim, as well as a genuine, bona-fide tragic
hero. I've now worked through my issues with Maeglin and I'm
convinced!
May we now please stop playing this music? I suspect that everyone who's ever going to be convinced of Maeglin's... virtues... is convinced by now.