Someone once did a thread on here comparing individual community members to what he asserted were appropriate characters from A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones). I believe that Amby was Renly. Such an exercise with Lord of the Rings might be fun.

Also Lord of the Rings is a pretty heavily didactive narrative, which handicaps the crafting of genuinely good characters within fiction.

"A novel is never anything but a philosophy put into images. And in a good novel, the whole of the philosophy has passed into the images. But if once the philosophy overflows the characters and action, and therefore looks like a label stuck on the work, the plot loses its authenticity and the novel its life. Nevertheless, a work that is to last cannot dispense with profound ideas. And this secret fusion between experiences and ideas, between life and reflection on the meaning of life, is what makes the great novelist." --Camus