My main issue with the LOTR books was how black and white they are, the good guys are just good and never do anything bad, and the bad guys are just bad and never do anything good.
You’re jumping into a story thousands of years late.
Like there’s a reason Melkor was bad, he was basically the stand in for Lucifer a fallen angel.
His forces are known for industry and huge numbers. So just like Lucifer (and before him Prometheus) he was bringing “knowledge” that had huge downsides and wildly regarded as a bad thing by existing society.
But there’s reasons why the people are “bad” and why people are “good”. Hobbit and LotR just skips over that stuff. Which is why Tolkien wrote almost as much material as appendixes for people who want that background.
My main issue with the LOTR books was how black and white they are, the good guys are just good and never do anything bad, and the bad guys are just bad and never do anything good.
You’re jumping into a story thousands of years late.
Like there’s a reason Melkor was bad, he was basically the stand in for Lucifer a fallen angel.
His forces are known for industry and huge numbers. So just like Lucifer (and before him Prometheus) he was bringing “knowledge” that had huge downsides and wildly regarded as a bad thing by existing society.
But there’s reasons why the people are “bad” and why people are “good”. Hobbit and LotR just skips over that stuff. Which is why Tolkien wrote almost as much material as appendixes for people who want that background.
It just wasn’t included in the main story
tbf it did start as stories he told to his children