Why did Morgoth turn evil?

In this video, we look at the reasons why Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, fell to evil before the beginning of the world.

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[attila]

Morgoth was like an angsty teen asked to mow the lawn and out of spite he also mowed down the flowers as well.

[acr]

Morgoth wasn't the greatest evil that Middle Earth ever saw. That honor is reserved for The Rings of Power.

[Davidh]

This is, in my opinion, the most accurate portrait of God, creation, and Lucifer (the morning star) that fell to become Satan (the accuser)
Lucifer was chief among all angels, a beautiful turned defiant such as Melkor or Feanor.

Never had I heard such a beautiful allegory for the scriptures regarding creation and Lucifer until I read the first chapter of the Silmarillion.
Perhaps that's why it's a harder and deeper chapter for some, it's spiritual words and ideas, metaphysical.

[disgruntledtoons]

Melkor never wanted independence. He wanted to run the show.

[chesterbless]

He wants to violate the First Law of Thermodynamics (the ability to create and annihilate). And Eru was like "lol no"

[RobertWF]

When reading that Melkor searched the void places for the Imperishable Flame, I imagined he was searching the innumerable stars and galaxies of the Universe beyond Arda for planets supporting life, but never found any.

[istari]

Melkor basically wanted to be Eru and when he couldn't have that decided to try and destroy everything.

[bristleconepine]

I'm going to observe a potential flaw in this analysis.

The only source we have on what Melkor was like early on is from the other Valar. We known that the other Valar are also flawed beings, and in particular Manwë is unable to conceive that Melkor might have been insincere in his repentance during his chaining. Much like Sauron became unable to understand beings with good motives by the time of the War of the Ring, Manwë was unable to understand beings with evil motives. I suggest therefore that the information that the good Valar told the Elves, and that the Elves passed on to Bilbo, was likely biased or otherwise incomplete.

Setting the record straight, this is not an attempt to excuse Melkor for what he became; by the time that the Elves awoke at Cuivienen, he was already completely evil. However, I do suggest that the reasons why that happened might more complicated than the version that we have in the Silmarillion, and that it is possible that the other Valar may have, perhaps unintentionally, helped usher him down the road to villainy.

[jacobshore]

In a way, you could say, Melkor was kinda like Caillou when he has one of his temper tantrums.

[LeftyScaevola]

In HoME, Melkor made a very bad choice in his career, trying to rape the sun. Nothing good could come from that.

[MajinOthinus]

Morgoth wanted true free will, free from Illuvatar. The moment Illuvatar tells him that "All your actions are to my greater design", aka "You are my puppet and have no free will" is the moment he chooses to destroy everything else. This is also why he hates the children of Illuvatar so much, because they DO get true free will.

People also neglect how Illuvatar is very much the true villain of the whole story. Either what he said was true and Morgoth was just his sock puppet, in which case he's obviously the one responsible, or he was cruel and lying to push Morgoth down that path and then not preventing it.

[tmbarton]

Melkor reminds me of a spoiled child who was given much but always wanted what others had. His main sin is that he wanted to usurp Eru Illuvatar's power. Later Sauron also wanted to be the primary god of Middle Earth. Both Melkor and Sauron wanted to steal what was not rightfully theirs.

[markgriffiths]

As a Catholic, Tolkien uses Morgoth as a Satan figure. What causes his fall & ours is pride, pride & more pride. Like you said, a doubling down, a rebellion, becoming more insular & self absorbed. Of course, the way out is humility but he was never going to do that. It’s interesting to note that it was the humble hobbits & the selflessness of Aragorn, Gimli etc… that eventually defeated him.

[akechijubeimitsuhide]

I always picture the music of the Ainur as something like the Hymn of the Cherubim or the Pilgrim's Chorus, and then Morgoth plays heavy metal.

[LeftyScaevola]

Melkor was not "Morgoth" until ages after he ha turned evil.

[aarondemiri]

Saw the idea that Melkor and Nienna were designed for one another but he refused to have a partner designed for him by another. Or maybe this is some headcannon i saw somewhere.

[dudeboydudeboy-zjkd]

Video idea : the works of literature that helped inspired/influenced Lord of the Rings

[anonymous-hzun]

Rings of Powers of all things made a really good point with the scene between Durin and his father. It brought the idea that Morgoth wanted to follow his own path in life that his father didn't let him have. This in turn filled him with spite and hatred for everything Eru had created and a desire to destroy it. Morgoth is basicaly a spoiled child with daddy issues on a grand cosmic scale.

[rogerbrownreacts]

Morgoth was created as a counter point to give existence depth. Its just Morgoth was also given free will.

[anthonymartell]

On this subject, I dunno if you saw it on your last vid but I was wondering if you could do a video on why Eru intervened against Sauron but not against Morgoth.