Are trolls sentient/sapient? Does killing one carry the same moral/psychological weight as killing a human? Cononically, they are able to comunicating using a system of grunts, though we don’t know enough about it to tell if this is a true language, or merely a call system. We also know that some trolls can understand a few human words, but so can dogs.
Even if they are sapient, it might not have the same psychological effect.
The effect of killing a large, snarling, distinctly-not-human-thing on one’s mental faculties and the effect of killing a human being are going to be very different, even if one recognizes that thing to be sapient.
If they are, Harry would assign moral weight to the act after the fact: but the natural sympathy that is described as eroding in the above quote doesn’t seem as likely to be affected given a human being’s psychology.
Are trolls sentient/sapient? Does killing one carry the same moral/psychological weight as killing a human? Cononically, they are able to comunicating using a system of grunts, though we don’t know enough about it to tell if this is a true language, or merely a call system. We also know that some trolls can understand a few human words, but so can dogs.
Even if they are sapient, it might not have the same psychological effect.
The effect of killing a large, snarling, distinctly-not-human-thing on one’s mental faculties and the effect of killing a human being are going to be very different, even if one recognizes that thing to be sapient.
If they are, Harry would assign moral weight to the act after the fact: but the natural sympathy that is described as eroding in the above quote doesn’t seem as likely to be affected given a human being’s psychology.