Okay, so Amazon has expended over one billion dollars creating a series that is allegedly based on Tolkien's mythology, so why do I not like it? After all, is this not bringing Tolkien's lesser-known writings to the big screen?

In a nutshell, the writers of this series had perhaps a few years to come up with scripts that had conflict, that drew in the audience, and that ultimately had some sort of satisfying resolution that would satisfy that audience. The issue is that all this conflict required the showrunners to completely distort the history, and even where they could have maintained some semblance of similarity, they chose to ignore Tolkien's works. Instead, as I have said elsewhere, the only similarity is the names of some of the characters and the places.

One aspect of the series I do appreciate is how the showrunners attempt to demonstrate why one character, who appears to be Gandalf, has such an affinity for hobbits (harfoots), and so they have this character being hurtled in via a massive meteoric strike and appearing as a confused and befuddled younger-looking wizard. He then befriends and is helped by while simultaneously helping the halflings he encounters. Now, if someone was writing a fantasy that involved little people and wizards, the author could easily have a wizard appear in such a meteoric strike; however, this makes no sense in the context of Tolkien's works, for Gandalf, Saruman, and Sauron were all lesser gods, or Maiar. Thus, let us look at the history of the world, or Arda, as described in many of Tolkien's books.

1. The gods of Arda

There are three levels of gods in Arda, beginning with Eru Ilúvatar, the supreme being that created all, but first creating the Ainur, lesser deities with whom he created the world (Arda) through music, and some of those Ainur chose to enter into this world following its creation. Of those that entered the world, the fifteen greatest were given the title of Vala (pl. Valar), and there were seven masculine lords, seven feminine queens, and Melkor, who subsequently was named Morgoth. The name Aulë should be known to readers, as he is the Vala that created the dwarves. The lesser gods were named Maia (pl. Maiar).

Sauron was a Maia who followed Morgoth and who escaped when Morgoth was defeated at the end of the First Age. Gothmog is another, who is killed by (and kills) Ecthelion in single combat. Balrogs are also lesser Maiar corrupted by Morgoth. Another Maia was Melian, a goddess who wed the elven King Thingol and who bore a daughter Lúthien, the only child of a god and elf. Melian is the great-great-grandmother of Elrond and Elros, and Elros is an ancestor of Aragorn. The union of Melian and Thingol was the only marriage of a god and an elf, and their daughter Lúthien wed Beren, a human. Other Maiar are occasionally mentioned, but five of significance were sent as guides to elves and humans for the purpose of opposing Sauron: they were tasked with teaching and spreading knowledge and wisdom, and not with using their powers to command or dominate. Gandalf was one of these five, and so was Radagast and Saruman, although the latter turned from his mission of aid and support to one of control. These were gods and only took on the form of old men, and thus would likely not age rapidly, so the character of Gandalf would likely be similar to his character when he first entered Middle Earth: this befuddled and confused being thrown to Middle Earth as if a meteor is awkward at best: a god, if if that god is a lesser god, would likely not behave in this manner, but most importantly, this series happens two thousand years before the end of the Second Age when the Rings of Power were being forged. Gandalf et al. were sent to Middle Earth more than one thousand years after the start of the Third Age: Gandalf is not a character who even appears at this time. Additionally, these five, we will see, arrived by ship and were greeted by Círdan, one whose gift to Gandalf likely gave Saruman offence, one Saruman never forgave or forgot.

So, there seems to be an issue with timelines and the actual stories, so let us look at Tolkien's history of Arda. To begin, Arda is flat, and can reasonably be considered to be circular. It seems there are three continents: a smaller crescent-shaped Amen to the West, a larger Middle-earth in the center and, assuming some form of symmetry implied by the name Middle-earth, a third lesser continent to the East. It is only later with the fall of Númenor that the world is made a sphere. One image of Tolkien's however, only shows two such continents connected undersea and yet the assemblage is floating in an even larger body of water, almost as if it were a boat.

2. A history of Arda

History is divided into three eras defined by the source of light. Two lamps, Two Trees, and the Sun and the Moon.

2.1 Era of the Two Lamps

The Years of the Lamps are those when Arda is illuminated by two Lamps, one in the extreme north and another in the extreme south, and these lamps were set on massive towers that allowed them to illuminate the entire world, and yet at the end of the Years of the Lamps, some 33 thousand years long, Morgoth threw down these lamps and the world was cast into darkness. At first, this author envisioned one lamp being yellow (gold) and the other white (silver); however, I have not found such an explicit statement. Both lights seemed to burn simultaneously, and readers are invited to read "The Shaping of Middle Earth" to investigate this further.

2.2 Era of the Two Trees

Following the destruction of the Two Lamps, the Valar retreat into the West to the continent of Amen where they raise the mountain range known as the Pelóri to protect them from Melkor, and Valinor is the land surrounded by these mountains. There they grow two massive trees, and these Two Trees illuminate Valinor, and thus begins the Years of the Trees; one was gold, the other silver, and they alternated in illuminating Valinor. Stars are fashioned to illuminate the balance of Arda, including Middle-earth. One hundred and forty-four elves awake in Middle-Earth around the year 10,061, and many but not all are brought to Valinor. Galadriel is born in Valinor in the year 13,051, and Fëanor crafts the three Silmarils in 13,894. The trees are killed by Morgoth in the year 14,325, he steals the Silmarils and flees to Middle-Earth. Some of the elves, without the blessing of the Varar, including Galadriel, follow Morgoth to Middle-Earth. In 14,373, the last two fruit of the Two Trees are fashioned into the Sun and the Moon. Galadriel is already 1322 years old at end when the Sun and Moon are formed.

2.3 Era of the Sun and Moon

The start of the Years of the Sun and Moon also see the awakening of humans. At first the Sun and the Moon divided the day into daylight and moonlight, but the Maia guiding the Moon came too close to the Sun, and it was burned and diminished, leaving the Moon as we see it today. These years are divided into three Ages.

2.3.1 The First Age

The First Age lasts 590 years and sees the conflict between the elves and Morgoth. Fëanor swore a terrible oath to recover the Silmarils and his sons, including Curufin swore this same oath. The reader is welcome to read the stories that reveal the consequences of this oath, including the killing of elf by elf. Elrond and Elros are born in 532 and by 590, the Valar return to Middle-Earth and overthrow Morgoth. At this time, Galadriel is already 1912 years old.

2.3.2 The Second Age

The Second Age is the setting of the series, and it begins with the gift of Númenor to the humans who supported Valar, and their first king is Elros Tar-Minyatur. Many elves return to Amen, but many remain behind, too. Soon after the start of the Age, dwarves establish Khazad-dûm and it is the finding of mithril that brings the dwarves to this place. After 600 years, the Númenóreans return to Middle-Earth. Plotting his revenge, Sauron begins to construct Barad-dûr in 1000. In 1200, the Númenóreans begin to construct permanent havens. In 1350, Galadriel and Celeborn establish a realm at Lothlórien. In 1500, the Rings of Power are forged, in 1590, the Three Rings are forged, and in 1600 the One Ring is forged and Barad-dûr is completed. Over the next one-hundred years, there is conflict between the elves and Sauron until Suaron is finally defeated by the Númenóreans. Over the next few hundred years, the Númenóreans alienate themselves from the elves and the Valar. Míriel is born in 3117, a millennium-and-a-half after the One Ring was forged. In 3209, Isildur is born. It is 3319 that Númenóreans travel West, causing the Valar to take Amen out of the world and creating a spherical Earth. Isildur and others who kept their friendhsip with the elves and maintained their veneration of the Valar escape to Middle-Earth and Isildur is now 110 years old. Númenor is destroyed. In the next century, there is conflict between Sauron and the Númenóreans and the elves and this ends with the defeat of Sauron in 3441 when Isildur, now 232 years old, takes the One Ring. And so ends the Second Age.

2.3.3 The Third Age

The Third Age sees Sauron slowly re-establish his power, and in the year 1000, the Istari (Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast and two others) appear. The balrog appears in Khazad-dûm in 1980. In 2770, Smaug conquers Erebor, and the events of the Hobbit occur in 2941, with Sauron returning to Mordor the following year. The events in the Lord of the Rings occur in the year 3018.

The astute reader may have already noticed that many different people over many generations, and even ages, are being thrown together in a few short weeks to see the events occurring in the series. The timelines cannot be reconciled in any way, for Miriel is born a millennium and a half after the forging of the One Ring, and even the One Ring was forged one hundred years after the forging of the Rings of Power began. The Númenóreans have been in Middle-Earth for centuries, and Gandalf does not come to Middle-Earth until over three millennia after the forging of the One Ring.

Consequently, none of the narratives that are told in the series appear in any of Tolkien's works: they are entirely a fiction authored by the showrunners. As I said, I appreciate some aspects of the shows, but the series cannot be harmonized with the actual events, and if any other series are to be developed from this first, they too must seriously diverge from Tolkien's stories and timelines.

The other issue I have with the series are the sources of conflict. In those stories that Tolkien authored, the beauty is that they do not seem forced. Most of the conflicts that occur in the series have nothing to do with the stories of Tolkien:

The showrunners introduce this absurd conflict between the dwarves and the elves, and despite the elves being in Middle-Earth for millennia, for some reason there is an existential threat that can only be resolved through the acquisition of mithril. Mithril, in Tolkien's timeline, has been mined in Khazad-dûm for the past millennium-and-a-half, and there is no prohibition of its mining, ever, and the dwarves continue to mine mithril until well into the Third Age, and it is only after five millennia of mining do the dwarves finally release the balrog. Elrond, at this time, is well over a millennium old, and yet is portrayed as a young twenty-year-old human. I cannot fathom what conflicts Elrond would have with his father at this time.
The showrunners introduce this annual migration of the hobbit-like people, and the tension is introduced with extremely draconian laws regarding this migration where any who fall behind are left to die. In my opinion, if Tolkien knew of these evil policies were being associated with his hobbits, he would turn in his grave.
Humans are living in what would become Mordor and they are in conflict with the orcs led by a corrupted elf. The conflict here is also absurd, as Sauron had already begun building Barad-Dur five hundred years prior to the forging of the Rings of Power.
The narratives and conflicts in Númenor cannot be resolved. Galadriel is in Lothlórien during the time of the forging of the Rings of Power, and none of the humans mentioned would even be born for over a thousand years. Galadriel is a queen as regal as she is at the time of the Lord of the Rings and yet she is portrayed as a human woman perhaps nearing the end of her teenaged years.

The conflicts that are meant to drive the interest of the audience are shallow and do not parallel in any way the conflicts that occur in Tolkien's narratives. To be fair, Tolkien was a professor of English literature at Oxford. He taught himself Finnish (a non-Indo-European language, making it that much more difficult) simply so that he could read the Kalevala. He established and modified his world over a period of over fifty years. The showrunners may have had two, and in that time, I doubt they were focused on even researching Tolkien's stories. The stories are not bad, but the conflicts are shallow, and the scripts cannot be harmonized with Tolkien's stories.

3. Magic in Middle-Earth

The magic described in Tolkien's writings is not like that in Harry Potter, but rather, it is a much more personal effect. One able to wield magic is only able to do so very locally, such as Gandalf setting pine cones on fire or the balrog causing its sword to burst into flame, or imposing the will of the wielder on others, or identifying when enemies pass some boundary, possibly even stopping those enemies from crossing that boundary. Magic can also be used to change the appearance of the wielder.

It seems that the magic can be passed from a wielder into objects, and this is done more than once throughout Tolkien's works. It seems that the magic stored in an object strengthens it but also allows for more powerful incarnations of the magic beyond what the original wielder could master. As an analogy, the transfer of magic allows the object to behave in the same way that levers allow for the magnification of force. For example, Sauron himself was not able to be aware of the Rings of Power, but by making the One Ring and passing half of his magical strength into that ring, wielding that ring allowed Sauron to not only be aware of other rings but also control their wielders. Gandalf, Saruman and Radagast seem to have had a significant portion of their magical abilities transferred to their staff, and when Gandalf wielded his staff, he was able to make a much more spectacular show. Saruman, however, lost a significant part of his magical abilities when Gandalf destroyed Saruman's staff following the conquest of Isengard. However, any such object imbued with magic becomes much more difficult to destroy, and such items may also acquire a personality.

It seems, too, that using magic saps the energy of the wielder, but using a magical object reduces the impact on the user. It does not seem that the objects suffer a similar effect.

It seems that magic can be passed into objects, and those objects then allow an amplification of that magic. It seems, too, that the objects imbued with magic share a bond with that person who imparted that magic, but may also form a bond with others who wield that object. The Rings of Power are one example, as are the staffs of the wizards. Magic is built into the construction of Barad Dur, but also the watchers of Cirith Ungol. In the latter case, the magic prevents enemies from trespassing, and this is what we see with the Girdle of Melian, the goddess who married Thingol, which protected the entire realm of Doriath. Galadriel, too, was able to protect Lothlórien in a similar manner, but only after acquiring the ring Nenya, as was Elrond able to protect Imladris.

There seems to have been a bond between a magical object and the one who imparted that magic on that object, and the destruction of that object subsequently weakened the one who created that object. The loss of the One Ring greatly diminished Sauron, and the destruction thereof seems to have vanquished him. The destruction of Saruman's staff greatly weakened him. The other Rings of Power, being bound together with the fate of the One Ring, were diminished in power, but their diminishment does not seem to have actually harmed their bearers.

Tolkien does not elaborate on the theory of magic as I describe above, but this seems to be a reasonable approximation of the philosophy he seems to follow in his writings.

Gandalf uses magic to create fire, and uses his staff to destroy the Bridge of Khazad-dûm. The staff is also used to free Théoden from the influence of Saruman and subsequently uses the staff to destroy the staff of Saruman. While Gandalf was a Maia, it seems that much of his magic was passed onto his staff. Gandalf also had the ring Narya, which perhaps gave him an edge over Saruman, even if Saruman was his senior. Perhaps Gandalf used his magic to to disguise not his appearance but rather his voice when fooling the three trolls in The Hobbit. Gandalf uses his staff to light the way in Moria, but this may in part be similar to holding up a large stone, and thus would be potentially tiring.
Galadriel uses Nenya, crafted by Celebrimbor and given to her, to wrap a circle of enchantment around Lothlórien, and when the One Ring was destroyed, so too was the power of Nenya diminished, ending the enchantment.
Melian used her magic to wrap a circle, or girdle, of enchantment around Doriath, and being a Maia, was able to hold this enchantment until the death of her beloved Thingol.
The Watchers of Cirith Ungol created a barrier that prevented enemies from entering Cirith Ungol, and it was only the stronger magic in the Phial of Galadriel that allowed Samwise to pass. This author would hazard a guess that it was not Sauron, but rather the Lord of the Nazgûl that enchanted these watchers.
Sauron was able to disguise himself on a number of occasions, at least until his last fair appearance was destroyed with the fall of Númenor. For unexplained reasons, this was the last time he could wrap himself in a benevolent-seeming body. Sauron passed much of his magic into the One Ring and it seems some of this was subsequently passed onto the defences of his realm, including Barad-Dur and the Black Gate and the Towers of the Teeth.
Elrond also had the ring Vilya, used magic to heal and to create the flood that preserved his realm from the threat of the Nazgûl. Likely magic was used to counter the evil of the shard of the Morgul-knife, and this no doubt was enchanted by the Lord of the Nazgûl.
Merridoc uses an enchanted Númenórean blade to strike the Lord of the Nazgûl.
Morgoth is a Valar, and his magic was more significant, being able to send forth torrents of flame at the start of the Nírnaeth Arnoediad or Battle of Unnumbered Tears, but this was after decades of silence, and

I'll add to this later, as many beings in Tolkien's works use magic, but it is generally not the magic that is seen in, for example, Harry Potter. The scene in the Rings of Power series where one of the three beings uses fire to impart mass destruction suggests that this individual must be a Maia, but this mass destruction exceeds even the destruction wrought by Sauron.

4. Sources of conflict

It seems that the only way the showrunners could generate any source of conflict is to introduce an existential threat. This made the show exceptionally tedious: everyone is in a desperate life-or-death conflict with their existence at stake:

the Harfoots are on this migration with draconian policies and dire consequences if they do not succeed,
the Elves will be relegated to nothing if they do not get their mithril,
the society in the Southlands is fighting the orcs of Sauron for their very lives, and
for anyone who is aware of anything about the history of Middle-earth, the Númenóreans are already doomed to have their island destroyed.

The only other real conflicted character is that of Gandalf, the Maia who participated in the Music of the Ainur that created Arda and who chose to enter this world. For some reason, Gandalf has been hurled as a projectile from Amen and in being thrown so, he lost his memory.

Another issue is that almost every major male character seems to have daddy problems: Isildur, Elrond, and Durin. If anyone should have daddy problems, it should be Celebrimbor: he explicitly refused to follow and was estranged from his father, Curufin, one who subsequently died when he and some of his brothers, the remaining sons of Fëanor, attacked and killed the grandfather and grandmother of Elrond and Elros. All of this occurred in the First Age, and the reader is again invited to read further, but most beautiful is the "The Lay of Leithian". Do the showrunners have so few plots they can follow that they must repeat the same conflict over and over again? It would have been great if the showrunners had read the book on the Seven Basic Plots and used at least a few of these in their alternative history. Elrond is unlikely to have daddy issues as, among other nuances of his past, he and his brother Elros were given the choice of immortality or death. Elros chose mortality, while Elrond chose immortality. Elrond was kidnapped by the sons of Fëanor, but fortunately two of those befriended Elrond and his brother, and due to this friendship, the two lived. The showrunners really had no clue what actually went on; they never did any research, they never read anything, they just wrote fan fiction that had nothing similar to Tolkien's works other than names of people and places.

5. Last episode of Season 1: oh my god...

So, we finally have the last episode of Season 1 (and hopefully the last season). In my earliest Facebook posts, I made it obvious that it was painfully clear that the "Stranger" was Gandalf. The showrunners actually thought that they could introduce a plot twist by having Gandalf accidentally identified with Sauron is absolutely absurd--is this the best that they could do? First, Gandalf et al. were sent by the Valar in the Third Age, and we are still in the middle of the Second Age. Three thousand years pass in Tolkien's stories between the creating of the Rings of Power and Gandalf et al. appearing on the shores of Middle Earth. Conflating these storylines is equivalent to putting Tutankhamen fighting it out with Byzantine armies with Teutonic knights as an army and with the aid of Napoleon as a military advisor at the Siege of Vienna all while Bob is trying to develop the iPhone. Additionally, Gandalf, like Sauron is a Maia, but he was sent to Middle Earth by the Valar to help the elves and men confront Sauron. Let anyone decide whether or not this is what was going through the minds of the Valar when they sent Gandalf et al.:

"Okay, Sauron, after being defeated and having lost the One Ring (oh, wait...that didn't happen yet) seems to be coming back into power. We've got to help those in Middle Earth confront this threat, so let's send as meteors five lesser gods, and let's make absolutely sure that they forget anything and everything about their mission."

The entire plot line is laughable and sad to the extreme. When Gandalf arrived in Middle Earth, he was met by Círdan the shipwright, and it was this individual, who had been giving Narya by Celebrimbor, who gifted this ring to Gandalf. Even though Saruman was the senior of the five, this gift to Gandalf may have been a slight that Saruman never forgave. Additionally, in Valinor, these five messengers were merely Maiar, and they did not have any special designation. In the series, however, Gandalf is immediately identified as one of the Istari. The term Istari ("wise ones") was a name given to these five by the elves of Middle Earth. Up to the point in the series, Gandalf had not even met the elves, so who is even identifying Gandalf as an "Istari"?

One point I don't have an issue with are these three oddballs, who somehow think that Sauron has forgotten who he was. Sauron, in all of Tolkien's literature, was quite aware of what he was doing when he escaped at the start of the Second Age, and was working diligently towards the domination of Middle Earth for fifteen hundred years. My only issue with these three oddballs is that their magic seems to be far too powerful when contrasted with the magic of other lesser beings (see above).

I notice one of the scriptwriters dedicated the series to their recently deceased father. I would hate to have such a series dedicated to me, so I'm thankful I did not have the opportunity to receive such dubious honors, as I'm still alive.

6. Looking at the text of the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales

Let us look at what appears in the text, and the reader is welcome to compare and contrast this with what is presented in the series.

First, after the defeat of Morgoth, which marked the end of the First Age, "Sauron put on his fair hue again...and abjured all his evil deeds." However, Sauron would have to return to Amen to be judged, and so, instead of returning, "he hid himself in Middle-earth; and he fell back into evil, for the bonds that Morgoth had laid upon him were very strong." For the next 1500 years, he single-mindedly worked towards his goal of domination.

The Noldor who had originally been in Valinor and returned to Middle-Earth to pursue Morgoth established their realms in Lindon, east of the Erid Luin and the last vestiges of Beleriand, "Only in Eregion [over 700 miles to the east of Lindon]...did Elves of Noldorin race establish a lasting realm beyond the Erid Luin." Now, it was Galadriel and Celeborn who "established the Noldorin realm of Eregion" around the year 700. The chief city was established fifty years later, and "from Ost-in-Edhil, the high road ran to the west gate of Khazad-dûm, for a friendship arose between Dwarves and Elves, such as has never elsewhere been, to the enrichment of both those peoples." Fëanor had crafted the Silmarils, and Celebrimbor was his grandson, was amongst the Jewel-smiths who "surpassed in cunning all that have ever wrought, save only Fëanor himself." It was Celebrimbor who enetered "into a close relationship with the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm, amoung whom his greatest friend was Narvi." Together, these two made the Western Doors and their inscription, which incidentally, required mithril. Galadriel, too, befriended the dwarves of Khazad-dûm.

While the north-west was generally at peace at this time, "in the south and in the further east Men multiplied; and most of them turned to evil, for Sauron was at work." In his fair hue, Sauron visited the elves, posing "as an emissary of the Valar", he hoped to persuade them into his service; however, "only to Lindon he did not come, for Gil-galad and Elrond doubted him...and though they knew not who in truth he was they would not admit him to that land. In his fair hue, he named himself Annatar, or Lord of the Gifts, and his counsel was "gladly received" in Eregion and they "learned of him many things, for his knowledge was great."

Now, Sauron's coming to Eregion was at least two-hundred years prior the beginning of the forging of the Rings of Power. There he instructed and counselled the jewel-smiths, giving them hitherto unknown knowledge and wisdom. Only Galadriel saw through Sauron's fair hue, and while she did not know who he was, she scorned him, and Sauron recognized her as his "chief adversary and obstacle." Through Sauron's machinations, he was able to have her expelled from Eregion, after which she passed through Khazad-dûm and established her realm in Lothlórien on the other side of the Misty Mountains. This was over a century before the Rings of Power had begun to be forged.

With Sauron's counsels in the following century, the elves began to make Rings of Power, and many were made made; and having worked on these rings for ninety years, finally the last Three, the greatest Rings of Power made by the elves, were "forged by Celebrimbor alone." It is at this point that Sauron forges the One Ring, and it is only when he places the One on his finger do the Elves become aware of him, and they took off their rings. It was Sauron's intent that through the One Ring, he could control those who wore the lessor rings and the Three, but when the elves refused to wield those rings, he attacked Eregion, destroying it, and captured all of the rings except the Three. It is at this time that Gil-galad sent a host led by Elrond from Lindon to aid their kin in Eregion, but they arrived too late and were forced north. It is at this time that Elrond established Imladris or Rivendell. Celebrimbor was killed in front of the gates of Moria, and the doors of Moria were shut. Sauron captured the lessor rings and then distributed them to Dwarves and Men. Now, the nine men who received the rings from Sauron initially became very powerful "kings, sorcerers and warriors," and yet over time, they "became for ever invisible" and were named the Nazgul, Sauron's "most terrible servants."

Thus, it was Galadriel and Celebrimbor who were the closest friends of the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm and Galadriel established the realm of Eregion, while Elrond and Gil-galad remained in Lindon. Galadriel, by the time of the forging of the rings, was in Lothlórien, as Sauron presented himself as an emissary of the Valar, and he had Galadriel expelled from Eregion, with her leaving to found another realm on the other side of the Misty Mountains. The casual reader will note that at this point, we have not yet even introduced the Numenoreans. They did, however, have a role to play in the defeat of Sauron at this stage.

Now, Celebrimbor made the Three Rings, and he had them himself, and yet, when the One Ring was forged and wielded by Sauron, he went to Lothlórien "to take counsel once more with Galadriel." "Galadriel counselled him that the Three Rings of the Elves should be hidden, never used, and dispersed, far from Eregion where Sauron believed them to be." Thus, one ring was gifted to Galadriel, and two went to Gil-galad in Lindon: "It was at that time that she received Nenya." At some point, Gil-galad gave the Ring of Fire to Cirdan Lord of the Havens, and Elrond received the other.

More than a millennium-and-a-half after the forging of the rings (the time between the fall of the Roman Empire and today), Elendil, Anarion and Isildur join with Gil-galad to vanquish Sauron, hopefully, for once and for all. This ends in the Last Alliance of Men and Elves, and in that battle, "[a]ll living things were divided in that day, and some of every kind, even of beasts and birds, were found in either host, save the Elves only. They alone were undivided and followed Gil-galad." Yes, it is said that orcs were corruptions of elves, but this occurred under Morgoth in the First Age, long before the Noldor even returned from Amen. Morgoth was able to corrupt individual Elves, but never to the extent of fighting for him. In my opinion, orcs should be significantly weaker than Elves or Men, and it is only in numbers that they are able to overwhelm their adversary, but that is based more on the fact that Morgoth corrupted Elves, and thus the corruption cannot be greater than what was corrupted.

As for Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast and the other two Istari, "they came from over the Sea out of the Uttermost West; though this was for long known only to Cirdan, Guardian of the Third Ring, master of the Grey Havens, who saw their landings upon the western shores. Emissaries they were from...the Valar." They sent "members of their own order [the Maiar], but clad in bodies as of Men, real and not feigned, but subject to the fears and pains and weariness of earth, able to hunger and thirst and be slain; though because of their noble spirits they did not die, and aged only by the cares and labours of many long years." This was, however, a full millennium after the Last Alliance of Men and Elves and the defeat of Sauron.

7. A Comment on Race

Tolkien meant for his mythology to be a mythology for the peoples of the British Isles. As a consequence, the majority of the central characters in Tolkien's works are British in character, and it did frustrate me even in my youth that many of those in league with Sauron were described as non-northern-European. The Southrons of Harad are analogous to African nations, the Easterlings and Variags are analogous of peoples of the Russian Steppes, and the Corsairs of Umbar were inspired by the Barbary pirates. Tolkien refers to darker elves and darker halflings, and so I do find the more diverse cast of this series to be refreshing. However, this one good (together with the nascent relationship between Gandalf and his halflings) cannot undo the harm done by the scripts and the smashing of unrelated stories as described above, nor can it undo the lesser harm of significantly more magic being introduced. Criticizing those aspects of the series that deserve scorn does not and should not automatically have the critic be labeled as a racist.

8. A contrast with Starship Troopers

The last time this author saw such a horrible translation of a book to the big screen was Starship Troopers. At any time that the script writers could distort and in fact completely change the intentions of the author, they did. The movie has bugs fighting humans in spaceships. That, together with the names, is about the extent of the similarity of the two. Sort-of-like the Rings of Power and the balance of Tolkien's works.