Feanor's true motivations

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Urwen

Well, none of them had a chance to redeem themselves. Do I need to remind you that all of them were promptly killed after the act? They weren't even asked if they would atone by other means.

Very few people are asked if they would like to atone. Atonement is done by your own will, and it could have happened at any point, really. One doesn't have to wait until the moment of death. So they all had a chance to redeem themselves, they just didn't care to.

Saying that the character did not do what he did, or did it for reasons other than the stated ones or the ones that go with his character, is not atonement. It's looking for excuses and re-writing the character's story. If you want to say, what if Feanor was a kinder man, with more love for family and more concern for other people? - then yes, if you change the character you change the motivations. But then the burning wouldn't have happened because this kinder Feanor would not have asked for a kinslaying and would not have called all the Noldor after him.