[aragornreborn]

I agree with Dain.

In LOTR, Gandalf does say something to the effect of "I am the most dangerous person you'll meet unless perhaps you meet Sauron." The "perhaps" indicates that Gandalf is pretty close to being as powerful as Sauron if he isn't already. Same with the Valar and Melkor. It seems ridiculous that Melkor could be powerful enough to overcome all the Valar combined. I do think Melkor was coeval with Manwe at the beginning and that he lost his power as he went. He does seem to have an edge in the violence department (as does Sauron), however. So, to me, that explains why Sauron and Melkor were able to last so long. Even though they were in the minority and were not the most powerful they had an edge in the violence/destruction area. Also, it's hard to get good guys to agree to fight, because fighting does go against good tendencies. Hmmmm, we may be seeing that playing out in global politics, right now. The similarities are rather striking. But, that is getting supremely off topic and will no doubt open a can of worms, so I'll just let you all think about it to yourselves!