Was it out of character?

[Lyta_Underhill]

But if, like some have said, you must always play honorably and never stoop to your opponent's level, then shooting the guy in the back is still wrong no matter what the situation, so the proper thing to do would be fight fair and lose (which is pretty silly if you ask me).

With references to the "Wyatt Earp" thread and this one... What if the guy behind "Wyatt Earp" simply nodded while the man in front direct Earp's attention to the fact that he is surrounded and had better leave town before he "gets it." Then our hypothetical bad guy might either a) be smart and leave or b) show his arrogance and attempt to kill the one in front and thus become a legitimate target for the one in back (provocation to typical behavior). I think this method of dealing with Sauron is more like unto the strategy of both book and movie Aragorn, as he is using the innate evil tendency of his great opponent Sauron to drive the conflict, drawing him into the behavior he already knows to be native to the Dark Lord. If he "shoots Wyatt Earp in the back" or in our case "cuts off the head of the messenger," he, in a sense, becomes like the Dark Lord, using his own tactics and thus becomes a bit frightening and suspect.

This is not to say Frodo should stand up and wave and say "I've got your Ring, now stand down!" to Sauron, but that is in effect what he ends up doing when he puts on the Ring at Mount Doom and draws Sauron's attention to the fact that he is beaten. (Of course the analogy is not perfect and no one in his right mind would let Sauron just walk out of this one...) I hope I'm making sense!

Cheers!
Lyta