Yet another call by me.

[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by Imladris

Is it okay to illustrate a point using Harry Potter? Yes...it is. But don't bring your own opinion into it.

For example: The Istari are not like the HP wizards.

I would say that it is hard to make this comparison, for example in commenting on the nature of the Istari, without going on and explaining why you think that they are not like the wizards in Harry Potter. Which would be opinion.

But I think that Imladris has identifed a point here. It is unfair for people to make gratuitous opinion-based criticism of Harry Potter (or other non-Tolkien material) when those who wish to defend it cannot do so without taking the thread further off-topic. And by gratuitous, I mean irrelevant to the topic at hand. If the criticism is relevant, then it should be possible to defend it by reference to the topic. If not then, as Rimbaud suggested, challenge the criticism by PM.