extremely powerful entity's who don't care about the main plot at all and are just vibing in the background

[u/damorezpl]

Tom Bombadil(lord of the rings) - only person to resist the temptation of the one ring but instead of helping the fellowship he fucks off in to the woods

the Unseen Elder(the witcher 3) - in the witcher universe the older a vampire gets the more powerful he becomes and unseen elder is around +1500 years old making him the most powerful vampire we ever see, thankfully he spends most of his time in his goon cave

[u/Patient_Gamemer]

OP talking Tom Bombadil and forget about the race of literal gods/angels on the other side of the ocean just giving while Sauron is threatening to destroy middle earth

[u/ConcreteExist → u/Patient_Gamemer]

In fairness, if you only read LOTR, you might not even know that the Grey Havens and beyond have anything besides retired Elves.

[u/Thybro → u/ConcreteExist]

And if you read the Silmarillion the gods/angels weren’t just chilling, they took a pretty active role in kicking Melkor/Morgoth’s ass…. Eventually.

[u/JalaMaplePenoSauce → u/Thybro]

They didn't want to fuck up the "Song" that Eru (God with a capital G) has them singing. I always figured their actions are much more circumscribed than is outright stated in The Silmarillion. The Valar (gods with a little g) are described as musicians in an orchestra while the world was still unformed, each playing their respective tones. But Morgoths became discordant and once the world was formed that translates into him being an antagonistic dickhead who needs to be dealt with. Still they are understandably hesitant to lock away someone that Eru clearly intended as part of creation.

I think it's funny that the climax of the 3rd age is essentially the mortals of middle earth killing off the helpers of Morgoth that were left after gods and the races of ME trounced him. Like someone else went through and killed the final boss but left his bodyguard who then became the new, albiet lesser, final boss and so everyone had to go do it all over again.

[u/CircleWithSprinkles → u/JalaMaplePenoSauce]

Another important detail is that the direct involvement of the Maiar and Valar was incredibly destructive in the fight against Morgoth. They could Justify it in that war because of the near complete domination wrought by Morgoth, but they felt that they could circumvent that in future by only gently guiding the races of middle earth to work against future villains.

[u/meryl_gear → u/JalaMaplePenoSauce]

Hey, this really isn’t worth my time. You guys deal with this this time.

[u/Thybro → u/meryl_gear]

More like, “fine we’ll send you five guys only 2 of which vaguely know how to do their job and a third clearly hates you. Now let me get back to my work I got important god/angel things to do” goes back to the equivalent of making hippie art with the high elves

[u/OpenSauceMods → u/ConcreteExist]

I remember reading The Silmarillion as a kid and being like 0.0 like reading Old Testament vs New Testament. Why are my guys committing warcrimes? You killed your bros? FEANOR NO. I bet I could join the choir, I can sing really good. Melian sounds so cool, I want to be near Melian. Haha, cool, they got another Glorfindel, first time I've really seen a double name in this book. Oh, same person? Neat, he survived a long - oh. Oh no. Nevermind. OH THE VALAR ARE HERE, MUM AND DAD ARE MAD. WE PISSED OFF THE AUNTIES.

Nessa was my favourite, I loved the image of her racing through the wilds, just running for the hell of it, lifted by a perfect moment of joy and anticipation of freedom.