Wight-ringers
The only thing this is missing is the denialism that the ring exists at all
Unironically this is what would have happened in real life. Every fantasy good and evil conflict would have morons like we do now clamoring for ‘bOtH SiDEs’
In the broader context of the novel it was that way. Rivendell wasn’t an open forum. And it shouldn’t have been.
Uhm, yes it was, and all that took part in the council where there by pure chance (e.g. fate) in the book.
“Yeah, Sauron and the orcs are bent on conquering everything and enslaving everyone, but Denethor is mean to one of his sons, so there are no angels here. I can’t in good conscience support the Free Peoples until he apologises and steps down.”
Sauron just wants to protect his western border!
I mean, in the book the Mouth of Sauron talks pretty much like a modern politician.
It’s actually really funny because you’ve got 800 pages of dudes talking like they’re from Middle Earth and this dude shows up and starts spouting talking points like he’s a modern, career politician. Genuinely actually funny.
Less funny when you think what this means, but yes, and in general LOTR’s humor is slow-paced, not too persistent, but of caliber impossible to ignore.
Well, career politicians are only acting in the interests of the ruling class. I find that despite his catholicism Tolkien was quite progressive
He is forced into it by Gondor and Rohan encroaching on his borders. The elves totally made an unwritten and unsigned promise to Morgoth that they would never expand their alliance (that somehow nobody except Sauron remembers).
By the way, there were Elvish soldiers present at Helm’s deep. This is proof that the Elves are fueling this war at the cost of millions of human lives. The people of Gondor love Mordor and yearn to join it, but the Elves staged a coup and are now forcing its people into war.
