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Originally Posted by B88
Nice point, and I'm glad you brought it up because I don't think I got my previous post across well. I didn't mean to come across as Damrod and Mablung being mean, but simply biased, and possibly not understanding the situation the Southrons faced. I could certainly understand their despise for the Southrons, after all, they joined the Enemy that is planning to take away any good left in the world (you've already pointed out Ithilien would be a place worth fighting for, worth saving). I was trying to get across that their view of the Southrons was opinionated since they disliked them, where Sam presents a more neutral, sympathetic look towards them.
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I wasn't criticising your point - which I think was well made. My post was a kind of stream of consciousness thing, just writing what came to me, & was mostly doen before reading your post. I think you make an important point re Sam as a kind of objective observer of the situation, confronting the facts of war for the first time - possibly reflecting Tolkien's own emotions as a young Subaltern coming face to face with the realities of war for the first time. I think Sam's viewpoint may come as a shock to some & as out of place to others. He is showing empathy toward the 'enemy', seeing them as human beings - which is so easy to forget, particularly with the kind of mass media we have today.
I don't think this scene is in the book because Tolkien was a pacifist, & wanted to make out that all war is evil & morally wrong. My understanding is that Tolkien felt that, human nature being what it is, war is most likely inevitable. But he was a man who had seen war first hand & knew what it involved. Perhaps this is one of the things that keeps drawing us back to LotR - for all that its marketed as a 'fantasy' story it confronts us with some pretty harsh facts: like, for instance, while sometimes war is unavoidable (because some things are so precious they have to be preserved & other things so Wrong that they have to be stopped), at the same time war is ugly & real human beings will be hurt, maimed & killed as a consequence. We can't use that fact to avoid our responsibilities & let the Hitlers & Stalins have a free hand, but at the same time we can't dehumanise the 'enemy' to such an extent that we refuse to see that they are human beings like ourselves, with hopes, fears & dreams - just like ourselves....