It's also not true of Sauron. Perhaps if they were telling the story of him as Marion in the First Age and before, when he was still counted among the Maia. That's when his chief motivation was order and planning, seeking for all things to have their place and role. This can be a noble quality when used in moderation for the right ends, but as he fell in with Morgoth, this motivation twisted to complete domination and subjugation of the entire world to his will. A tragic tale of what might have been good intentions being corrupted could be a story about him being the hero of his own story

But by the Second Age, after the War of Wrath and Eru casting Morgoth outside of the universe, Sauron was given a chance to repent and he denied it. There is no version of Sauron from that moment on that has even one atom of goodness left in him. He wasn't picturing himself as the misunderstood good guy who actually had a great plan for the betterment of all, and was just being stymied by outsiders who couldn't see his vision. He reveled in evil for evil's sake. He hated the Valar, God(Eru), and all of God's children. This is the guy who takes the highest peak in Numenor, a mountain hallowed for the worship of Eru by the Numenoreans, with the last progeny of one of the Two Trees, and turns it into a site for human sacrifices and burning children alive using the wood of that now torn down tree as kindling to worship Morgoth. Oh and he does this in the same time frame Rings of Power is taking place. Tell me again about him being a hero of his own story.

Then again, the people writing Rings of Power actually do see child sacrifice to spit in God's face to be heroic.

I'd say Satan, but they actually like Satan being the hero.

Funny you should say that, because Morgoth and Sauron are Satan. Not just Satan-esque characters. They're actually written to be Satan, though split into two beings. Morgoth the more prideful, rampaging, calamitous, pure destruction for the sake of destruction side of Satan, and Sauron for the more slimy, sneaking, honied lies and mistruths spoken in whispers to cause God's children to hate each other and forsake faith in God side of Satan. But they were written to not just be like Satan, but to actually be him, just in a fantasy story. Just as Eru is God. It's Tolkien writing God playing himself in a story.

It's also not true of Sauron. Perhaps if they were telling the story of him as Marion in the First Age and before, when he was still counted among the Maia. That's when his chief motivation was order and planning, seeking for all things to have their place and role. This can be a noble quality when used in moderation for the right ends, but as he fell in with Morgoth, this motivation twisted to complete domination and subjugation of the entire world to his will. A tragic tale of what might have been good intentions being corrupted could be a story about him being the hero of his own story

But by the Second Age, after the War of Wrath and Eru casting Morgoth outside of the universe, Sauron was given a chance to repent and he denied it. There is no version of Sauron from that moment on that has even one atom of goodness left in him. He wasn't picturing himself as the misunderstood good guy who actually had a great plan for the betterment of all, and was just being stymied by outsiders who couldn't see his vision. He reveled in evil for evil's sake. He hated the Valar, God(Eru), and all of God's children. This is the guy who takes the highest peak in Numenor, a mountain hallowed for the worship of Eru by the Numenoreans, with the last progeny of one of the Two Trees, and turns it into a site for human sacrifices and burning children alive using the wood of that now torn down tree as kindling to worship Morgoth. Oh and he does this in the same time frame Rings of Power is taking place. Tell me again about him being a hero of his own story.

Then again, the people writing Rings of Power actually do see child sacrifice to spit in God's face to be heroic.

I'd say Satan, but they actually like Satan being the hero.

Funny you should say that, because Morgoth and Sauron are Satan.

It's also not true of Sauron. Perhaps if they were telling the story of him as Marion in the First Age and before, when he was still counted among the Maia. That's when his chief motivation was order and planning, seeking for all things to have their place and role. This can be a noble quality when used in moderation for the right ends, but as he fell in with Morgoth, this motivation twisted to complete domination and subjugation of the entire world to his will. A tragic tale of what might have been good intentions being corrupted could be a story about him being the hero of his own story

But by the Second Age, after the War of Wrath and Eru casting Morgoth outside of the universe, Sauron was given a chance to repent and he denied it. There is no version of Sauron from that moment on that has even one atom of goodness left in him. He wasn't picturing himself as the misunderstood good guy who actually had a great plan for the betterment of all, and was just being stymied by outsiders who couldn't see his vision. He reveled in evil for evil's sake. He hated the Valar, God(Eru), and all of God's children. This is the guy who takes the highest peak in Numenor, a mountain hallowed for the worship of Eru by the Numenoreans, with the last progeny of one of the Two Trees, and turns it into a site for human sacrifices and burning children alive using the wood of that now torn down tree as kindling to worship Morgoth. Oh and he does this in the same time frame Rings of Power is taking place. Tell me again about him being a hero of his own story.

Then again, the people writing Rings of Power actually do see child sacrifice to spit in God's face to be heroic.