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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 5254048" data-attributes="member: 18280">Conan encounters many selfish and downright evil people, as does both Frodo and Bilbo.  Bilbo himself is a thief.  In most of his adventures he's a treasure hunter or tomb raider, just as the PCs are in D&D, particularly OD&D, 1e and 3e. Bilbo doesn't plan to spend the money on the betterment of mankind.  EDIT:  It is from raiding a barrow of the dead that the hobbits gain swords that can harm the Witch-King of Angmar, and Merry & Pippen certainly help themselves to Saruman's storehouses in Orthanc!I would say that it is far more likely that Conan failed his Will save against an Enchantment/Charm effect, as other Conan stories demonstrate that Conan views rape as beneath him:From The Frost Giant's Daughter by REH:His gaze went again to her unruly locks, which at first glance he had thought to be red. Now he saw that they were neither red nor yellow but a glorious compound of both colors. He gazed spell-bound. <snip>"Then why do you not rise and follow me? Who is the strong warrior who falls down before me?" she chanted in maddening mockery.<snip>He did not wonder at the strangeness of it all, not even when two gigantic figures rose up to bar his way. The scales of their mail were white with hoar-frost; their helmets and their axes were covered with ice. Snow sprinkled their locks; in their beards were spikes of icicles; their eyes were cold as the lights that streamed above them."Brothers!" cried the girl, dancing between them. "Look who follows! I have brought you a man to slay! Take his heart that we may lay it smoking on our father' board!"<snip>"I saw a woman," Conan answered hazily. "We met Bragi's men in the plains. I know not how long we fought. I alone lived. I was dizzy and faint. The land lay like a dream before me. Only now do all things seem natural and familiar. The woman came and taunted me. She was beautiful as a frozen flame from hell. A strange madness fell upon me when I looked at her, so I forgot all else in the world. I followed her. Did you not find her tracks? Or the giants in icy mail I slew?"Niord shook his head."We found only your tracks in the snow, Conan.""Then it may be I am mad," said Conan dazedly. "Yet you yourself are no more real to me than was the golden-locked witch who fled naked across the snows before me. Yet from under my very hands she vanished in icy flame.""He is delirious," whispered a warrior."Not so!" cried an older man, whose eyes were wild and weird. "It was Atali, the daughter of Ymir, the frost-giant! To fields of the dead she comes, and shows herself to the dying! Myself when a boy I saw her, when I lay half-slain on the bloody field of Wolraven. I saw her walk among the dead in the snows, her naked body gleaming like ivory and her golden hair unbearably bright in the moonlight. I lay and howled like a dying dog because I could not crawl after her. She lures men from stricken fields into the wastelands to be slain by her brothers, the ice-giants, who lay men's red hearts smoking on Ymir's board. The Cimmerian has seen Atali, the frost-giant's daughter!"----------------------Fault REH for being a simpler storyteller than JRRT, and I will agree with you.  But pirates, thieves, murderers, betrayers, etc., are as much a part of JRRT's world as they are REH's.  And The Scouring of the Shire is as dark and cynical a tale (chapter) as any story of REH's ever was.  Darker, in many ways.At the worst, REH's cynicism rises to the level of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, with Conan in the place of Blondie.  This is nothing compared to Saruman's betrayal of the Hillmen who live near Rohan (Saruman steals their women, breeds his orcs with them, and then blames the Rohirrim so that the Hillmen fight -- with the orcs -- to preserve Saruman!).  This is nothing compared to the men of Gondor (the good guys, let us remember) hunting the human wood-woses for sport.REH has a reputation for being dark and cynical; JRRT truly pulled it off.  And JRRT pulled it off in such a way that, unless you were paying attention, you might not even notice.RC</blockquote>

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