I mean, it was his birthday.

Also, I feel like the entire episode is presented as a way to smear Sauron through guilt by association. Even if this wasn't just a family squabble, and Smeagol murdered his cousin, what does it have to do with the war waged against the sovereign nation in Mordor?

They have presented Sauron to us all wrong, they have told his story incorrectly. Sauron was actually someone who sought to establish order and justice in Middle-earth. Here are the misunderstood truths about Sauron:

Sauron was originally a Maia, one of the powerful and mighty beings. However, he was lured by the dark charm of Melkor and joined his ranks. Over time, when he realized that Melkor's true goal was to destroy Middle-earth, Sauron turned against him and became his enemy. Sauron’s true desire was to create a more just and orderly world in Middle-earth. Yet, he stayed by Melkor’s side, hiding his intentions and waiting for the right time to implement his plans.

When a fierce war broke out between the Valar and Melkor, Melkor's power gradually weakened. Eventually, when the war ended and Melkor was defeated, chaos truly began in Middle-earth: Elves, Men, and Dwarves succumbed to their desires and started fighting for kingdoms and even committing kin-slayings. The three great races now treated each other as enemies. Men grew envious of the Elves' superior skills and long lifespans, while Dwarves, consumed by their greed, withdrew into their mines.

Meanwhile, the poor and abandoned Orcs caught Sauron’s attention. After Melkor's fall, these forsaken creatures were left without a master, and Sauron showed them mercy, taking them under his protection. Even though Orcs and Adar had betrayed him, Sauron did not forsake them. Not only the Orcs, but Sauron sought to aid all the peoples struggling in Middle-earth. The Elves, whose trees were withering, the Dwarves, whose mines were running dry, and the Men battling hunger... Sauron created the Rings of Power to extend a helping hand to them all.

He also taught the Elves how to craft rings. These rings brought great benefit to the Elves, Men, and Dwarves, but over time, the power of the rings revealed the evil in their hearts. When Sauron realized their ill intentions, he forged a single ring that would control them all and subdue their danger. His goal was to unite all the peoples and bring lasting peace and order to Middle-earth. Sauron sought to reclaim the rings he had forged with his own labor. However, the Elves, Men, and Dwarves refused to return the rings, unwilling to share the power they had. Their pride led them to reject Sauron.

Sauron’s effort to collect the rings using the One Ring triggered great wars. In the end, Isildur stole Sauron’s personal ring and began using it for his own dark purposes. In Sauron’s absence, Middle-earth descended into even greater darkness, and the order he sought to create crumbled. Years later, the ring reached Mount Doom, where the hobbits tried to destroy it. But upon reaching the mountain, the hobbits, succumbing to their desires, could not bring themselves to destroy the ring. In the end, it was Gollum who destroyed the ring, sacrificing himself in the process.

Furthermore, since his creation, Sauron never told a lie and never forced anyone to do anything against their will.

https://preview.redd.it/rzgd3n1axtpd1.png?width=362&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f9399e76bc6aca47cebd9b0ba57cebe15291b39

For all fans of the LOTR universe and Sauron in particular, there is a good mod for the global strategy Crusader Kings 3. Playing for him is more difficult than for Gondor, but nevertheless, the conquest of the world is more than real (and if you really want to, you can even shift . So if someone didn't know, here it is: LOTR - Realms in Exile

Imagine this, you create a race of animals that are literally meant to be as strong as the Maiar, who you also have one as your herald(eonwe). Except, why would you want to do that? Of all the birds you could have picked, you chose eagles! Sure, first age was great for them except as the years go by, and once you reach third age, you have entirely forgotten on them as you are not even in Arda. Guess what? Your little creations that you force to be great only for your own purposes have to fend for themselves! Worst, they are literally easily corrupted by another Maia. The same race that you created those eagles to be! How stupid are you to make something that is only handy in one age, then irrelevant in the next two ages?! They barely even do anything in the second and third age.

TLDR: Manwe is overrated

"Dominion of Darkness” is a strategy text game in which the player takes on the role of a Sauron-style Lord of Darkness with the goal of conquering the world. He will carry out his plans by making various decisions. He will build his army and send it into battles, weave intrigues and deceptions, create secret spy networks and sectarian cults, recruit agents and commanders, corrupt representatives of Free Peoples and sow discord among them, collect magical artifacts and perform sinister plots.  Note – one game takes about 1 hour, but the premise is that the game can be approached several times, each time making different decisions, getting different results and discovering something new.

Game is avalaible for free, online: https://adeptus7.itch.io/dominion

If you are hesitant to play the game, I invite you to watch/listen to the reviews:

- Indie Sampler (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM6f4UCEgWU

- [BOKC] BlancoKix (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgNpSKToOSg

A popular interpretation is that Eru is a stand-in for the Christian god (or even the Christian god himself, if you subscribe to the notion that the War of the Ring took place in the distant path of our Earth and Tolkien merely translated an ancient chronicle to produce his novel).

But there's one problem with that interpretation. Eru's "gift" for humanity is death. I think it needs to be said - calling death a gift is among the most cynical, nihilistic and misanthropic things I can imagine. In that regard Eru gives off strong Stalin vibes. "Death solves all problems. No human being, no problems" - is a saying attributed to Stalin.

I guess you could try to spin it by saying that Eru's gift is not death itself, but what comes after it - the afterlife. If people know there's something awaiting for them on the other side, they shouldn't be afraid of death, right? The problem is, there's zero certainty that the Men of Middle-Earth go anywhere after death. The Elves are certain to have an afterlife. They can even pinpoint a specific geographic location that they go to after death (the Halls of Mandos). There's no such place for Men. The afterlife for Men is always discussed in extremely vague terms. It is said that it's a mystery what happens to Men after they die. So it's entirely possible that they go nowhere and simply stop existing. And even if there's some form of afterlife, who knows what it's like? Maybe it's a place of eternal joy, like modern Christians imagine heaven. Or maybe it's a cold, lonely, dark and hopeless place like the Tartarus ancient Greeks believed in. I'd say that in the absence of any concrete information regarding what happens after death, the Men of Middle-Earth are completely justified in being afraid of it.

Now contrast Eru's "gift" with the gift bestowed by Sauron on the Nine kings, sorcerers and warriors he chose as his apostles. The rings he gave them granted them eternal life. He gave them a cure for Mankind's greatest fear.

In Christian theology, death came into the world because of the original sin. It was a result of Lucifer tempting Adam and Eve. Death is Lucifer's "gift" for us humans. But the Christian god, through his sacrifice, gave those who follow him eternal life.

So I propose a different interpertation of who Eru and Sauron are supposed to be. Eru, who cursed Men with death, is Lucifer.

And Sauron, who grants eternal life to his followers, is the stand-in for god. Sauron, just like Christ, was martyred in an effort to save Men. Only instead of being crucified, he was butchered by the Last Alliance of devil worshippers. Just like Christ's symbols are the cross and the wound in his side, Sauron's symbols could be the broken sword used to desacrate his dead body and his missing ring finger, reminding us of the torment he went through trying to save us Men from death.

One other detail that supports the above interpretation - while Christianity is now commonly associated with the global West, it most certainly wasn't at its inception. Ancient Romans mocked Christianity for being a degenerate, Eastern, "Asiatic" religion. So Sauron being an Eastern sage fits, if we see him as a stand-in for Christ.

The conflict ravaging Middle-Earth is supposed to be waged between the forces of "good" (the nations worshipping Eru and the Valar) and the forces of "evil" (followers of Sauron). But what exactly makes one side of this war "good" and the other "evil"? Good and evil are labels used to denote positive or negative moral judgement. Before applying such labels, we need to establish a criterium by which we are going to determine who deserves positive and who deserves negative moral judgement.

I believe that moral judgements should always be rooted in substantive, not formal criteria. By substantively good actions I mean actions that either serve to maximize the well-being and minimize the suffering of others or which serve to protect certain fundamental values (like the dignity and life of all living beings). Substantive moral criteria focus on the action itself, if it respects fundamental values and what is its impact on the world. Substantive criteria always yield the same result, no matter who performed the action we are evaluating.

Formal criteria focus not on the action, but on who is performing it. An example of a formal moral criterium is the divine commandment theory, according to which if a certain action is perfomed or ordered by a deity, it is morally postitive, even if exactly the same action performed by someone without divine sanction would be considered morally negative.

For example - a deity commits genocide, like Eru did against Numenor. Using a substantive moral criterium we would judge that action to be evil, because it increased the amount of suffering in the world and it violated a fundamental value of human life and dignity. But using a formal criterium, we would judge that action to be good, solely for the reason it was performed by a deity.

I think it's obvious to any person with a working moral compass that we should be using substantive moral criteria, and by using formal moral criteria it's easy to justify any kind of atrocity, as long as it's committed in the name of "the one true god". We should call a spade a spade. Evil is evil, even if it was sanctioned by a deity.

The criterium traditionally used to judge Sauron as "evil" and his opponents as "good" is not substantive. It's formal.

In letter no. 183 Tolkien wrote, that even if the chieftains of the West ravaged the lands of other Men, their cause would remain indefeasibly right even if the individuals and their actions were morally wicked. In other words, even if the West committed atrocities in their war against Sauron, they would still be "good", solely because they fought in Eru's name, against foes that refuse to worship Eru (Sauron and his vassals). Following "the one true god" is an end which justifies any means used to accomplish it.

As an aside note, the West has on many occasions commited war crimes and ravaged the lands of other Men, so that's not a hypothethical scenario. For example, following the defeat of the kingdom of Angmar in the battle of Fornost, the Elven and Gondorian forces committed a successful genocide of the population of Angmar - the Men of Carn Dum and Rhudaur.

Going back to letter no. 183 - it proves that the criterium for determining "good" and "evil" in traditional narratives about Middle-Earth boils down to which god the person we are judging worships. Those who worship Eru and the Valar are "good", even if they are hateful, cruel and destructive. Those who refuse to bow to Eru and the Valar and follow Sauron are "evil". "Men of Darkness". As you can see, the traditional, formal criterium used to discern good from evil in Middle-Earth is completely unjust and should offend the sensiblities of every person who is not an Eru-worshipping zealot.

Ends never justify the means. Evil actions are evil even if they are committed by soldiers fighting for "the one true god".

So let's apply a substantive criterium to the sides of the war between Sauron and the worshippers of Eru and the Valar.

The core philosophy of the West is that Eru, through his music, created a divine plan and all should follow it. All should obey that plan. Trying to change Eru's design, like Morgoth tried, is wrong. Eru and the Valar do nothing to right the wrongs of the world. They do nothing to fix what is broken. When the first Men awoke, they cried out for guidance. They wanted answers. But Eru wouldn't give them any. He would speak to them in riddles. He would tell them they needed to be patient. But in case of Men, who live short lives, being patient meant that countless generations would live in hardship and sorrow before their distant descendants would finally learn the lessons Eru refused to teach their ancestors. It's no wonder that when Morgoth found them and started teaching them, they listened. When war and slavery took hold in Middle-Earth, the Valar refused to step in, despite their awesome power. It's no wonder that when Sauron offered to lead the Men of Middle-Earth as their King, they followed.

The behaviour of Eru and the Valar is wrong. If you have infinite wisdom and others suffer in ignorance, you have a moral obligation to share your wisdom. If you withold it, it's an act of evil. If you have infinite power to shape the world and the world is an unjust, cruel place where people suffer, you have a moral obligation to use your power to lessen the suffering of others. If you refuse to do so, it's an act of evil.

The West embodies blind obedience to a deity (Eru) whose plan is obviously flawed, as it produced an unjust, cruel world (and no, Eru-worshippers, you can't place the blame on Morgoth, because your deity explicitly told Morgoth that everything Morgoth did found its source in Eru himself). Following a flawed, evil plan is wrong. It doesn't matter that said plan was made by a deity.

Sauron embodies the desire to improve things. To rebel against a flawed, broken world. To try to remake it into something better. To bring order where there is chaos. To bring progress where there is stagnation. And for that reason, Sauron is morally superior to Eru and the Valar. Beause he's trying to use his power to improve things. Even if he fails, he's still morally superior to them. Because trying to do good and failing is still superior to not even bothering to try and letting the broken, unjust, cruel world go on.

Hello, fellow devotees of King Mairon.

I wrote a fanfiction story about the main characters of Life is Strange 1, Max and Chloe, going to Middle-Earth. There, they witness first-hand the evil of the accursed Elves and the nobility and courage of the humble Orcs. Even if you're not Life is Strange fans, I encourage you to read it.

A little teaser of what to expect (it's an Orcish soldier explaining to Max and Chloe who King Mairon is):

"I’d like to think this is not the last Middle-Earth has seen of Mairon. In the past, he came back from worse predicaments. An Age ago, Men of the star-shaped island to the west would raid the land of Harad from the sea, carrying off its people into slavery. Each time, they would kidnap untold thousands, to be exploited in the worst possible ways. When Mairon learnt about this, he stood on the shore and challenged the raiders. The evil Men assembled such a great army, that they swept over the shore like a tidal wave. They bound our King in chains and carried him off into slavery, like the people of Harad he stood in defence of. Mairon was able to use his captors’ lust for domination against them. He set them against their own gods, who in their bloodthirst made the star-shaped island sink into the seas. From that ruin, from that watery grave, our King returned. Some years after he had emerged from the sea, he was very close to fulfilling his dream of uniting all the fractured peoples and lands under one banner. But the jealous chieftains of the West would never allow that. There was a great battle. On that day, creatures of every kind, even some of the proud Dwarves, even beasts and birds, could be found in Mairon’s host. Only the Elves all remained stubbornly loyal to the evil powers who dwell beyond the sea. The chieftains of the West, with all their retainers, hurled themselves at Mairon. He slew all who challenged him. Crowned head after crowned head fell under his sword or burnt at this touch. But just as a mighty oak may be fallen when thousands of woodworms start gnawing on it at once, the wounds dealt to Mairon by the hordes of enemies swarming around him finally brought him to his knees. In their lust for plunder, the savages of the West hacked our King's body to pieces, to loot it for valuables. And he came back from that. Scarred, but unbroken”.

As you can see, I described the story of our Lord and Saviour exactly how it happened, not how the Elf-stream media would have us believe it did.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/50430394/chapters/127419673

Should have been "#MakeAngbandGreatAgain" ;)

This must be said - the western elves, dwarves and the numenoreans are just nazis.

It can be seen with just a naked eye. They are so obsessed with their race etc etc etc. Just pure pangermanism.

Not to mention that genosse manwe is literally adolf hitler and in reality he is the one that betrays Iluvatar.

On the other hand, the east- and southerners are just commies.

All what товарищ sauron does is to build a soviet union, not to mention some easterling factions having a legit red flag.

And sauron is literally vladimir lenin.

I recently saw a post on Lord of the Rings that honestly struck me as a joke and everyone was raving about it. About how the literary version of Sauron has "little depth" compared to other characters in Middle-earth. And I couldn't help but laugh at the generalized discussion about Sauron from people ignoring all his development and how he is practically the only openly gray character in Tolkien's entire work. To begin with, they label as deep characters whose greatest depth is found in a verbiage of words expressed by Tolkien himself around themselves. Words about her grandeur, looks, beauty, depth, lineage, but whose story is flat as cardboard filled with heroic deeds, tragic losses, and courage. When a character like Sauron has real changes, nuances, obsessions beyond mundane obsessions of power like those that someone like Saruman can acquire by being prone to them from the beginning.

Honestly I cannot understand even looking for absolute objectivity how you can call the detailed and exuberant description true depth and not find depth in a character with true nuances, changes, self-inspiration and who decided by himself to go against everyone when the battle was on. completely lost. Sauron began trying to help the world obsessed with perfection, correctness and absolute order that, seeing the world in chaos with false concepts of perfection in living creatures like elves, was disappointed and found admiration in a character so determined, ordered and with the ability to carry out his plans with agility and surgical perfection like Melkor. From that point on, as an insecure teenager beginning his true development as an immortal, he followed in Melkor's footsteps not out of true evil, but out of admiration, some ambition, and a fervent desire for order in Middle-earth. He freed himself from the Valar's grasp and magnified Melkor's power in his return by underestimating him. Becoming more powerful, second only to Morgoth himself until his defeat at the hands of a shitty dog with a plot cloak of ''You are invincible until X'' and after that there are theories as to what happened, but regardless if I run away or he stayed by Melkor's side (which seems infinitely more logical to me since he is his second in command and with true loyalty according to Tolkien's words, so due to an inevitable mistake they would not preside over him) he showed humanity, desire, real feelings without they decide the totality of what it is (And yes, I'm talking about the fucking elves, whose entire depth is which of you is more ''Pure and perfect'')

And I have realized that at the time when Tolkien demonstrated aspects of true humanity such as doubt in the ''Light'' faction it was a worthy feeling, something that every warrior must experience. But when experienced by someone from the ''Darkness'' faction it's pure cowardice, he puts it next to a dog and even lower.

To ultimately sum it up, when Melkor lost, Sauron experienced true regret. Tolkien himself makes reference to it, whether it's out of fear, an enlightenment about how Melkor wasn't a good for Middle-earth or whatever, he felt genuine regret. And with the passing of time he sought to help Middle-earth, the economic future of the people, the union, the salvation of themselves so that other wars cannot divide this world. And when he realized how mentally weak the races are, how hypocritical they are (I talked about this more extensively in my other post here and I'm sure many have already talked about it too) and how easy it was going to be for the chaos without a Dark Lord to focus attention. He realized that he was the only one capable of truly unifying Middle-earth. Put them all under the same command, a single evil that would end all war, all division, racism, exclusion from culture or appropriation for themselves. Based on that ideal he began to struggle and slowly lose his vision, but never completely. Everyone will know the great deeds of Sauron in Numenor and his frustration when Illuvatar himself intervened in fear that Sauron would give a new course of perfection to the world away from his control or original idea. As he revived and with everything against him, he did not give up and fought until the end in the last alliance. But much later in the events of the Lord of the Rings he lost his vision between despair for what men would do, the little vision of his cause and how he lost part of his sanity until the last moment when he realized what they had done and had been deceived.

You can think many things of Sauron. But shallow? He's pretty much the only great character who's overtly morally gray. With a good final wish, but willing to do anything to achieve it. These are just some thoughts that I wanted to share with you about one of the most profound, real and human characters that Tolkien ever created among his list of ''Perfect Beings'' or ''Despicable Beings'' with no middle points. That he did not go from point A to point B like the others. Authentically changing, evolving, developing, fearing, fighting, striving for an ideal. And since the mere idea of ​​calling it "Shallow" seems so hypocritical to me, thank you very much.

At the time Machiavelli’s the Prince was written due to historical reasons Italy was a pile of fighting city-states.

It gotten so bad the French were invited to the region to help another territory

among these men with the highest stake was Cesare Borgia. he was nothing like how AC depicted him. He was a philanthropist and was super loved by his subjects especially the commoners

-in fact the modern appearance of Jesus was based on Cesare Borgia for good reasons

-Some territories would write letters begging to be conquered by him

yet he was also deceptive, methodical, sometimes even sociopathic. He would invite the ambassadors of his rivals and shower them with gifts then when the actual rivals came to be best friends he would kill them on the spot.

to Machiavelli this was necessary. Italy never moved on after Rome after Firenza split after all the crusades. it was regressing. Machiavelli loved Italy so much he‘d rather have one man conquer it all, then move on to something instead this era of perpetual war (Of course Cesare died before any of this was realized)

think of this in context of Middle Earth. All the neighboring kingdoms are pretty shaky. They only really cooperate when trying to kill Sauron

​

and sure Sauron wholeheartedly like every conquerer before wants power and control but he brings industry, innovation, culture. He is a Force of progress. May not be the greatest shift in the world, but it is an end of an age of perpetual regression

to borrow some words for the New world to be born the old world must die

i took Tokeins work to be an allegory for feudalism in our time it is called bureaucracy.

Sauron split himself into many rings gave those rings to men that granted them basically immortality among other things for just siding with him

Feudalism involves splitting land between subjects to them have those subjects split land between more subjects to better manage the land.

Power was all corrupting not Sauron. Sauron just gave them what they want in exchange for what he wants they are not enslave enslave they just Value power over their mortal lives not influenced by Sauron.

Have you ever thought about what is real in Middle-earth when it comes to dividing the political vision into inhuman enemies and holy allies? There is not much difference with reality and I will give some quick examples. Sauron is seen as the evil lord of darkness for acts of war and unification, but Númenor is still seen as one of Sauron's greatest losses. Although what led Numenor to attack in the first place was Ar-Pharazôn's jealousy over the presumption of Sauron's domains which he quickly came to conquer. It wasn't difficult just after he started his company to start conquering for himself everything his passed with the admiration of practically all of Númenor. But of course they were ''corrupted'' by Sauron, it has nothing to do with Númenor's personal desire for expansionism, goods, lands, slaves, nah. How clearly Gondor only conquered the lands of Harad and imprisoned the firstborn of the leaders out of a desire for freedom. Because otherwise? Darkness is Sauron after Morgoth after all.

And the conquest of all the territories that served Sauron at the point of the sword if they resisted? Aragorn clearly only thought of peace by expanding his domain throughout Middle-earth, it's not like Sauron wanting to expand his domain, clearly not, it's Aragorn, a hero.

It's all so ridiculous and always comes up the same way. Let's start with why Sauron yearns to conquer Middle-earth. Sauron felt true regret after Melkor's fall and sought to aid Middle-earth whose inhabitants quickly worshiped him as a god and admired his profound charms and wisdom. That led Sauron to see that he was the only pillar left capable of bringing Middle-earth to true peace. Through what? From the unification of everything, all races, entities, cultures and bringing the world into a new and golden era that he would not know the mistakes of the God who created this world. Mistakes? If errors. Illuvatar saw as imperfection everything that was far from the panorama that he raised and even within it in a disgusting way, elves are not perfect, they are hedonistic, narcissistic and despicable. Dwarves are individualists, proud, and ambitious. Humans are part of all these things with a sense of superiority and individualism, as well as a division among themselves that led them to stop feeling when killing their own race. Everything is a mess. In addition to the deep and internal hatred and rejection that all races have among themselves and the hatred that they have among their own race even more deeply. The only reason why a great war has not broken out between all of them is the common enemy ''Melkor'' during the first age.

Sauron saw this with a clarity that not even Illuvatar would be able to, blinded by his foolish perfection. The answer is not his filthy concept of perfection that leaves orcs as the most imperfect and filthy of races. The answer is the acceptance, unification, the separation of all that individualism and stupid racial ego, the acceptance of the imperfect beyond such simplistic words as "Corruption" because the world never was nor will be so basic. And of course, to stop stagnating in a technological and functional era without evolution since the beginning of life, industrialization was a necessary step in a better world and more suitable for subsistence.

But no, no one else would see that how he did it. But his servants admired him for it. Sauron was not Melkor, his worshipers and servants did not hate him deeply, on the contrary. He came to have an influence over Melkor's former servants much greater than because they loved him, they declared him his God with much more joy, willingness and loyalty. He was a guide to something more than destruction, hatred and revolts against the creator. He was the savior.

And well. What happened right after Sauron was relegated to a lesser spirit? More war, more conquest, more division, more blood-based monarchy, more races and creatures persecuted until he exterminated. More "glory" based on territorial unification. And the end is narrated as a glory "And now the world will never suffer again" ha, what a joke. As if you were suffering right at the moment you take possession of people who don't want it. Sauron ruled for his dream of peace, Aragorn for peace? Ha, I really think more for power than anything else, but let's just say peace. What will happen when the ones you conquered group up and get tired of being your slaves? When someone does not want to serve their honorable king and the honorable decrees of him? When again the elves, dwarves and men remember why they can't stand each other, the differences of their races and how each one believes to be superior to the other? No, Middle-earth is not such a peaceful place, Sauron simply let them slumber in his dream of perfection a little longer. But every dream ends, the only difference is that Sauron's dream, for which he fought even when Illuvatar himself took away his beauty and even after his body was undone twice. That dream was eternal, for a world eternally different from what was previously written.

Pd: Sorry if there are mistakes, english is not my native language.