Sauron's Great Miscalculation

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Elves, immune from greed?

Um, re-read The Silmarillion.

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I've re-read the sections on the Battle of the Pelennor from The Return of the King. Humans seem to have been Saruon's most effective troops in that battle. After the arrival of Aragorn the orcs are not referenced again, but rather the Easterlings and Haradrim are stated to have stayed and fought

I think in very great part that's because the Darkness broke at dawn, and the un-planned sunshine rendered the Orcs largely ineffective. Conversely, it aided Sauron's human troops (in unpublished notes he mentioned that the Darkness adversely affected them just like the Men of the West).

(FWIW, I think that PJ really blew the significance of the change from pitch-black to brilliant sunshine in that moment. But then he blew the 'cockcrow' moment generally, preferring Giant Samurai Trolls.)