...to make it total.
Of course it works. ALL of LotR's great battles - and
that in the Hobbit as well - end in wonderous deliverances. It's good
storytelling, which is purpose enough for me. I suppose it could be taken
to indicate that providence is looking out for the good guys, but who wants to
get into that?
What is emphasized is not mercy as such, but the difference
in status between humans in evil service and orcs. Humans are redeemable,
orcs aren't. Later Tolkien would decide that this was heresy, and tie
himself into knots trying to redefine orcs. I can't say that I think that
he succeeded. In any case the ruthless annihilation of orcs makes the
callous killing game of Gimli and Legolas less reprehensible.
By the way, there is a marvelous book called 'The Rape of
Nanking' which records, among the many greater horrors of the massacre around
that city, a story of two sword-weilding Japanese junior officers who had a
contest to see who could kill 100 Chineese the quickest. They were
eventually executed for war
crimes.
