Smaug isn’t a simple minded insect operating on pure instinct, though.
He’s canonically a highly intelligent and shrewd being and should thus be able to distinguish between good and evil and understand the consequences of his action.
Tl;dr: he is capable of understanding the difference and CHOOSES evil behavior, making him evil.
Still an animal doing instinctual things, orcas aren’t evil and they’re widely believed to be extremely intelligent. They attack ships to protect their territory and murder things to use them as play toys but that is just what they’re programmed to do.
Good and evil is a moral distinction, a dragons morals aren’t likely to be identical to yours or mine.
He behaves like any other greater dragon in hoarding wealth and defending it with great violence, that doesn’t make him evil. Truly in a world where dragons exist holding gold is also a choice to take the risk of being attacked for it by dragons. It’s a direct human analogy but they made the instinct to be hoarding rather than an outcome of capitalism as humanity claims it to be. Which leaves the question is humanity instinctually evil? So if your answer is smaug is evil humanity is evil if your answer is nature isn’t good or evil nature is just nature then humanity isn’t evil and neither is smaug.
Smaug is not an “animal”, he’s a mythological icon that had existed for centuries, in which he amassed untold wealth at the direct expense of those around him and he relished in the chaos & suffering he caused.
Referring to him a “an animal” is naive at best, and downplaying his irrefutable villainy is utterly tone-deaf if not dishonest.
No. Smaug knew exactly what he was doing at every step of the way.
So you’re saying he’s a fungus or a plant? You’re an animal in an animal, why are you saying that’s beneath him?
Yes and so do humans the only difference is that hoarding is not recognized to be an innate human trait whereas it is for dragons. The whole concept of draconic greed is an allegory to human greed as there would be no gold based conflict if humanoids didn’t also have an equal streak of greed and violence.
No one said Smaug isn’t of the “animal kingdom”, but your attempt to excuse his choices as unavoidable, blameless instinct is ridiculous. He was the opposite of mindless, and even your rebuttal with humankind as a mirror undermines your half-baked argument, friend.
Except that Barad-dûr should be Maralago
And smaug wasn’t evil, just a grumpy dragon doing grumpy dragon stuff.
Well… Hoarding extreme wealth and protecting the hoard with deadly violence IS evil, and indeed analogous of capitalism 😉
Is a mosquito evil because it’s nature to attack you and suck your blood? No it’s just an animal doing it’s instinctual behavior.
Smaug isn’t a simple minded insect operating on pure instinct, though.
He’s canonically a highly intelligent and shrewd being and should thus be able to distinguish between good and evil and understand the consequences of his action.
Tl;dr: he is capable of understanding the difference and CHOOSES evil behavior, making him evil.
Still an animal doing instinctual things, orcas aren’t evil and they’re widely believed to be extremely intelligent. They attack ships to protect their territory and murder things to use them as play toys but that is just what they’re programmed to do.
Good and evil is a moral distinction, a dragons morals aren’t likely to be identical to yours or mine.
He behaves like any other greater dragon in hoarding wealth and defending it with great violence, that doesn’t make him evil. Truly in a world where dragons exist holding gold is also a choice to take the risk of being attacked for it by dragons. It’s a direct human analogy but they made the instinct to be hoarding rather than an outcome of capitalism as humanity claims it to be. Which leaves the question is humanity instinctually evil? So if your answer is smaug is evil humanity is evil if your answer is nature isn’t good or evil nature is just nature then humanity isn’t evil and neither is smaug.
Smaug is not an “animal”, he’s a mythological icon that had existed for centuries, in which he amassed untold wealth at the direct expense of those around him and he relished in the chaos & suffering he caused.
Referring to him a “an animal” is naive at best, and downplaying his irrefutable villainy is utterly tone-deaf if not dishonest.
No. Smaug knew exactly what he was doing at every step of the way.
So you’re saying he’s a fungus or a plant? You’re an animal in an animal, why are you saying that’s beneath him?
Yes and so do humans the only difference is that hoarding is not recognized to be an innate human trait whereas it is for dragons. The whole concept of draconic greed is an allegory to human greed as there would be no gold based conflict if humanoids didn’t also have an equal streak of greed and violence.
No one said Smaug isn’t of the “animal kingdom”, but your attempt to excuse his choices as unavoidable, blameless instinct is ridiculous. He was the opposite of mindless, and even your rebuttal with humankind as a mirror undermines your half-baked argument, friend.