[Anguirel]

Mith-it's a reaction to the Sam lovers. This has been stewing for a very long time. The thing about Sam is that in the last book his deeds are heroic in an obvious, blokey, easily identifiable way which tends to eclipse poor Frodo, who people quite unreasonably claim "failed".

I did prefer the earlier, Gil-Galad singing Sam. Sam has a strange aura of being morally lessened, not developed like the others, by the journey, for all the Mallornery. He ends up with power and with bliss-earthly and heavenly. It seems rather unfair.

obloquy, I quite disagree. The existence of the Mirth forum should not condemn the Books forum to solely Puritanical and platitudinal discussions of how wonderful the characters are. A controversy is nice occasionally. Consider the cat bepigeoned.