[Trippo The Hippo]

Here are some of my feelings on why the characters got on there.

Tom Bombadil- I just feel like he is not explained well enough. Even some of our very smart downers don't have all the answers on this fellow.
Galadriel/Elrond- I have only read LotR, (my Silmarillion just came) and in LotR they are set up to be very respected characters, and I didn't feel that it was explained good enough why they were, except that they were old, wise, and owned a forest.

I think its important to remember that some of the reasons these characters are showing up is that they were not explained enough, or where not developed character wise. Also somne of these characters are coming on is they just annoyed people.