I quite agree it was an exaggeration! My point was, you can't just say "well, they were swell people and it's not fair that people always bringing up the kinslaying" as if that should therefore be ignored. People bring it up over and over PRECISELY because it can't be ignored. It was a horribly
evil deed.
The root of desperate comes from the loss of hope. That clearly doesn't apply. Let's look at other usages.
desperate (adjective)
- feeling, showing, or involving a hopeless sense that a situation is so bad as to be impossible to deal with:
"a desperate sadness enveloped Ruth"
(of an act or attempt) tried in despair or when everything else has failed; having little hope of success:
rugs used in a desperate attempt to save his life"
- (of a situation) extremely bad, serious, or dangerous:
"there is a desperate shortage of teachers"
- (of a person) having a great need or desire for something:
"I am desperate for a cigarette" · "the government is desperate to clean up Rio's streets"
- (of a person or fight) violent or dangerous:
"a desperate criminal" · "a desperate struggle"
I bolded the only sub-definition of desperate that applies. Note that it's the only one where the desires of the person are the primary aspect. And that's my point. Their selfish desire for what they wanted (MY stuff, MY vengeance, My life's work) was all that mattered to them. They simply didn't care that the boats of the Teleri were THEIR life's work - and they burned them. Their desire was all that mattered to them, so they murdered Teleri to get what they wanted.
Sure, vengeance against the Morgoth was a good thing. So was recovering their possessions. So was holding the Morgoth to account for his crimes. All good intentions.
But if you commit evil deeds to a good end, you've still committed evil deeds. The question then becomes, was there a better way that had a better chance of working? And there were better choices. Build ships and use them. Build ships and negotiate with the Teleri to be transported. March across the Helcaraxë. Ask the Valar for help to leave.
And instead they chose the hasty, violent, evil choice of the kinslaying and theft of the Teleri's life work. Then they built bad blood with Fingolfin by burning the ships and leaving Fingolfin's people stranded in Valinor so they took the Helcaraxë path out. Feanor wasn't willing to accept a delay or the inconvenience of such a path. Lots of bad results for a sub-optimally executed good goal.
Fingolfin's people were willing to pay a price rather than leave their kindred in Middle-earth without their aid.
So, hasty, violent, selfish, and evil actions were how the Feanorians started off, and that's how they responded when they saw Luthien alone and unprotected. It's par for the course.
Yeah, but I wouldn't sic an army on innocent people to steal the means to do it. These things matter.
Someone kidnapped or killed my family? I would fill the Grand Canyon with their blood to get my loved ones back or take vengeance. But I wouldn't kill the people in the car dealership to steal a car to get where I needed to be to do it.
Thanks for making my point, his own selfish desires were more important to him than acting morally and dispassionately thinking things through.
Maedhros got it. He realized that his families actions were wrong to some degree. He's the only one who is documented as trying to make amends.
Maglor at least showed remorse at the end, after they got a silmaril back.
Yeah, I reached for exaggeration to make my point. I was reading things like they were great craftsmen, you should take that into account as justification. I'll admit it triggered me. I remember the Brock Turner rape trial. His defenders pointed out he was a great athlete. Yeah, but he's a rapist and that trumps athletic skill. In this case, they murdered the Teleri, stranded the Fingolfin branch of their family, burned the Teleri's life work, took Luthien captive, and attempted to usurp
Nargothrond.
I had already figured out why Feanor acted as he did. I had already looked at all the reasons listed for actions and found them lacking. They were insufficient justification for his actions. Period.
But we aren't discussing rank-and-file members of the Feanorian host. We're discussing Feanor and his sons and grandsons, the leaders.
In my own set of stories, I posit that Feanor found the secret to embedding such a beautiful light into
the Silmarils. He put the brightest and loveliest part of his own soul into them, his empathy. But it wasn't enough, so he secretly stole the empathy from his sons and grandsons and added it to
the three jewels. It explains he and his family's lack of empathy afterwards, why he couldn't make them again. It also explains why both Maglor and Maedhros felt such remorse when they each held a silmaril in their own hands, they were again reconnected to their original empathy. Maedhros just had more than the usual share of empathy to begin with, which is why he had some left over after his dad's theft.
So, you see, I'm capable of showing empathy for their situation. I've even invented a reason why they lacked the empathy to see why their choices were wrong at the time they made them.
But that's my excuse for Feanor's sons and grandsons. I know of no exculpatory explanation that
Tolkien offered and accepted as valid justifications.