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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 7671188" data-attributes="member: 6787503">It may be interesting to consider, in light of the direction this conversation has gone, that Tolkien did not conceive of Sauron, or most probably Morgoth either, as simply, unfathomably evil, but rather as someone with the same motivations that could believably lead a normal person to commit acts that we would call evil.We can see here that Sauron, in his origin was what we would consider to be LG, in that he desired the well-being of all creatures, and sought to bring it about through the establishment of order. Tolkien, through Elrond, alludes to the fall of Sauron in LR.Out of his desire to benefit all beings, Sauron eventually became a LN order fetishist, coming under the tutelage of Morgoth because of his admiration for Morgoth's effectiveness in carrying out his own designs. It was at that point, for Sauron, that purpose became the determinant, and he became willing to dismiss the rights of other creatures to their own well-being in his pursuit of the control and domination that were necessary for him to implement his plans. Thus, descent from LG to LE was complete in Sauron in a way that is very relatable, and has many parallels in the behavior and history of non-fictional people. He simply felt that he knew better, and after the end of the First Age, and the further withdrawal of the Valar into the west, he most likely felt that it was in some way his responsibility. According to Sauron, the world needed a God-King.So what happens when Sauron scans himself and discovers he is evil? I believe that he would not be surprised. All that would tell him is that he is someone who has decided that trampling on the rights of others is necessary to carrying out plans that he believes will ultimately be of some benefit. In Sauron's case, this benefit was most likely not just for himself (which would be CE), but rather in the service of what he must have conceived as "the Greater Good".</blockquote>

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