I enjoyed this video because it touched on a lot of themes I'm currently encountering in The Lord of the Rings  

FFS Week 1: The Seven Signs of Classical Fantasy!

I chimed in on the comments: 

On the racism question: I'm reading Lord of the Rings now and it strikes me that the Orcs are treated like the Amalekites--that is, killing them all to the last one is framed as an unquestioned good.  I go back and forth on whether this is something I should be bothered by, or whether this is just part of the genre

I've actually expressed concerns about this before.  In my review of The Hobbit, I mentioned: 

 From Chapter 18 (p.335)

"Then dismay fell on the Goblins and they fled in all directions. But weariness left their enemies with the coming of new hope, and they pursued them closely, and prevented most of them from escaping where they could. They drove many of them into the Running River, and such as fled south or west they hunted into the marshes about the Forest River; and there the greater part of the last fugitives perished, while those that came hardly to the Wood-elves’ realm were there slain, or drawn in to die deep in the trackless dark of Mirkwood. Songs have said that three parts of the goblin warriors of the North perished on that day, and the mountains had peace for many a year."

It's taken for granted throughout the whole book that killing a goblin is always good, but this passage about pursuing into the forest and swamp until they've all been slain reminds me a bit of the Old Testament injunction to hunt down and kill all Amalekites.  

Is this problematic morals, or is this okay because irredeemably evil monsters are just part of the fantasy genre?  I'm on the fence.

And in regards to what Steve said in his video about how the characters' race is usually used in place of characterization, In my review of  The Fellowship of the Ring, I said:

The character development in this book isn't great, is it?  I'm not entirely sure what the difference between Merry and Pippin is.  They seem pretty interchangeable.  I'm not sure if Legolas will get more developed as the series goes on, but he doesn't really seem to have much of a character in this book except as "elf".  Aragorn doesn't really have much of a character.  I mean, right on down the line, none of these characters really have that much of a personality to distinguish them from the rest of the crew.