Let's face it, the Valar were a right bunch of gits! I mean just look at their record:
Begining with their decision to remove themselves from Middle Earth into the West rather than stay put and fight Melkor. Yes an all out war would have been tremendously destructive and endangered the coming Children of Iluvatar, (like leaving Melkor in power didn't?) but a siege or cold
war-like opposition could have kept him in bounds. Instead they run away, leaving Middle Earth to him entirely.
I get the impression that the Valar, and later the Elves, find it difficult to live in a state of permanent strife and so basically they wimp out. Fine Guardians.
The next big mistake was when they decided Middle Earth, tainted by Melkor's creatures even after he himself was imprisoned, was too dangerous for the
Elves and brought them to Aman where they could be protected.
This was a genuinely tragic error that did
permanent damage to the Elves. Deprived of true challenge and of the freedom to explore and devolop in their own way they will now never achieve their full potential but are condemned to be permanent Valar knock offs. Worse still, by removing them from the life of Middle Earth it was the Valar themselves who doomed the Elves to eventual 'fading'.
Their next big mistake was accepting Melkor's pretended repentence and releasing him on parole. Actually I kind of sympathize with this one. Melkor had after all once been their friend and brother naturally they wanted to believe he'd seen the error
of his ways. In any case justice demanded he be given a second chance. However the Valar were unbelievably slow to trace the growing tensions between themselves and the Noldor, and within the tribe itself, to his influence.
Their relations with Men were disastrous from the get go:
After the poisoning of the Trees and the revolt of the Noldor the Valar seem to have gone into a blue funk. Clearly they realized they'd messed up bad - how bad becoming more and more apparent the longer they thought about it. Either they were sulking or they
were afraid to do anything for fear of further mistakes, (Okay they made the sun and the moon and those at least were good moves.)
So Men awoke into a world dominated by Morgoth and his creatures and were left entirely to their own devices recieving neither protection nor guidance from the Valar. Even so there were those who rejected evil and learning from the Dark Elves of 'Gods' in the West went off to seek them. Only to learn when they got to Beleriand that the 'Gods' were over the sea and no
longer took an interest in the affairs of Middle Earth.
Mankind's reaction to this sorry state of affairs ranged from Turin Turambar's bitter counter-rejection of the Valar to Earendil's bull headed determination to *make* them listen to him. And it put a permanent crimp in our trust of the Guardians which may have
been providential, (considering their record to date).
After the final defeat of Morgoth the Valar, suffering from a severe and well merited attack of guilt, did everything they could to make up for their previous neglect of Men. Unfortunately their decision to give the Edain a new home removed from the perils
of Middle Earth clearly demonstrates that while they knew they'd messed up they still had no clue as to how.
Mankind was saved from the fate of the Elves by our own nature; our mortality made impossible for us to live in Aman under the eyes and thumbs of the Valar enabling the Numenoreans to develop in their own way
influenced but not controlled by either Valar or Elves and our own restlessness sent us back to Middle Earth as soon as the challenge of building a new realm had
been met so we were not divorced from the Time and the Life of the World as the Elves were
The Ban of the Valar, (against sailing West) demonstrates the Guardians' total cluelessness about human nature. We are the last people in Arda to submit to arbitrarily imposed limitations and the best way to make us want something is to say we can't have it, (I don't think they understand Elves as well as they think they do either).
Well we all know what that mistake led to, the Downfall of Numenor, (not that it wasn't the Numenoreans own fault too). Personally I've always found it fascinating that the Valar, who took on and defeated Morgoth and his legions of creatures, are so
panicked by an Armada of Mortal Men they call on Eru to defend them. Of course a beneficial side effect was to send the Numenoreans back to Middle Earth where they belonged.
Possibly Eru had a little heart to heart with Manwe at the same time because after the 'Change of the World' the Valar do seen to have grasped that overt interference with the Children of Eru is a very bad idea but total hands off isn't right either. Thus the
emissaries or Istari sent to guide and counsel but not command or force.
Unfortunately it's too late for the Elves. They cannot readjust themselves to the flow of time and life in Middle Earth. They can only return to Aman or if they remain 'fade away'.
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