Quote Originally Posted by Fyraltari View Post
Boromir, Denethor, Saruman, hell, even Theoden (sort of) say hi.
Hell, add in the rest of the legendarium and I can throw Thorin, Thranduil, all of the Fëanorians, Eöl, Hùrin, Tùrin, Mîm, most people Tùrin interact with and even Galadriel. And I wouldn’t be done. Just because Tolkien has some pitch-black (and even then...) and pure white (and even then...) characters doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of gray to go around.
I would disagree about Denethor. He's not morally complex, he's just... mistaken. And he failed a willpower save. There's no moral dilemma. He wasn't trying to choose the lesser of two evils, because Sauron is infinitely evil, and any choice that defeats Sauron is automatically lesser of two evils. It's not morals, it's just tactics at that point. (Or, in Denethor's case, willpower to resist the evil.) There's no ambiguity; there's never a point where you go "Ah, I'm sympathetic to his decision to burn his son alive." There's a Wrong thing and a Right thing and that was clearly the Wrong thing to do.

You don't see the lack of moral complexity very clearly when reading, because Tolkien never puts his heroes in a place where tactical / strategic considerations required them to do something "bad". They're almost never in a situation where leaving a friend to die or double-crossing an ally is a tactically better choice but morally reprehensible. (Aragorn letting the Army of Dead go after they just defeat the Corsairs, instead of insisting they help Minas Tirith or stick around until the battle at the Black Gate is the only example I can think of where "doing the Right Thing" and "doing the tactically sensible thing" might be in conflict, and notice Tolkien does that completely off-screen. We don't really know why Aragorn held their oath fulfilled, or if he even could have kept the Army of the Dead longer.)

Ditto Boromir. There's never any doubt that Boromir trying to grab the One Ring is Wrong. He even looks evil when he does it. He even admits he was wrong after he makes his willpower save and comes to his senses. Again, this is about willpower and the ability to resist Sauron / The One Ring's ability to make you take evil actions. It's not about having a moral dilemma. Ditto Saruman and Théoden. (And Frodo at the Cracks of Doom, for that matter.)

Quote Originally Posted by Fyraltari View Post
Hell, add in the rest of the legendarium and I can throw Thorin, Thranduil, all of the Fëanorians, Eöl, Hùrin, Tùrin, Mîm, most people Tùrin interact with and even Galadriel. And I wouldn’t be done. Just because Tolkien has some pitch-black (and even then...) and pure white (and even then...) characters doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of gray to go around.
I was trying to stick to LOTR, not The Silmarillion and the other works.