Did the Valar abandon Middle-earth?

But like if the valor would've just gotten rid of all the evil bullshit there wouldn't need to be some slow withdrawals we would've been ready from the get-go this is a cop out

They abandoned Middle Earth and left quite the mess. If they had gotten rid of Sauron and then backed off, sure. But they basically let him loose among children and looked the other way.

That’s why numenor invaded them

In a way, it feels like parenting. Like teaching children slowly to grow and to take on tasks themselves, eventually to become fully fledged adults that can face the world and look after themselves mostly without guidance – we all need advice from time to time.

Considering the Valar are maintaining the physics of the universe, they are everywhere. Omnipresent you can argue. They might have established a self-imposed ban on direct divine intervention, but their love of the world leaks through here and there in moments small (dreams and unexpected spiritual fortitude), medium (winds out of the West blowing Sauron's protective shadows and vapors away from the Dark Tower), and large (Manwe sending his Eagles and Gollum "accidently slipping" at the precipice of the Cracks of Doom).

Don't forget the wind that changed direction when Aragorn was riding the Black Ships of Umbar that allowed him and his army to reach the Pellenor fields in time to save Minas Tirith

I always thought the Valar 'abandoned' Men and Elves the same way a strict parent 'abandons' you at 18 and sends you into the world. In this case, they taught their kids how to behave, how to pay taxes, and how to provide for themselves. At that point, they weren't about to start solving every problem humans and elves created, and needed them to be able to handle even bigger problems on their own. Tough love, so to speak. Except for Ulmo, who was that cool uncle who'd show up and offer to fight gangsters for you.

There's just no way to interpret the Silmarillion other than the valar are terrible, terrible guardians. Holy crap they are bad. Bad Shepards and mentors of the children, bad protectors of the land, bad architects and engineers of the world.

The Valar wanting to distance themselves from the turmoil of Man is a mood.

Tolkien's conservatism really shows in how the Powers are repeatedly excused for all the suffering they let happen, or cause themselves. Morgoth and Sauron were their own, they should've never been left for mortals to fight and contain, and destroying a continent when you finally drag yourselves off your collective holy arses is totally unsatisfactory

The Valar are not your nannies. Sending you a couple emissaries that helped you win the war with Sauron was already more than you deserved and the death and loss of a single emissary is more tragic than the destruction of all the human kingdoms east of the Anduin… And back when the Valar really handheld you nanny style and gave you longer lifespans and a brand new island, guess what happened, you became entitled, envious, prideful and eventually tried to kill and steal from Valinor.

They bent over backwards to help the Elves – as for Men, not so much. In fact they were a touch racist – not least in that they genocided the Numenorians and all they did to the Noldor who literally killed each other, twice, and also disobeyed the Valar was to say you can't come back – and then changed their minds even about that. Today the Valar would be cancelled…

Golum, the special agent of Valar, is not mentioned here. Although he completed the task when Frodo failed 😀

The Valar didn't retreat to Aman in a vacuum.

They were more active and literally hands on during the Spring of Arda. Which ended after Morgoth threw down Illuin and Ilmaren, the Two Lamps.

They are also very much aware that when they fight, it's not like two warriors exchanging blows. Or even Fingolfin vs Morgoth.

No: they are the Powers of the World. What happens when the Sky and Sea fight the Volcano?

What happens when the Valier of Light attacks the Shadow directly? Or did you never wonder why Morgoth fears Elbereth most?

Not even the whole Mahanaxar went to war in the War of Wrath. Tulkas was there, but it was an army led by a Maiar and staffed by other Maia and the Vanyar.

And Beleriand fell into the sea. An entire continent.

Would you directly intervene as the Powers after all that?

Given the ongoing discussion I was make a counter argument. There is an argument for the Valar – and the other lesser Ainur, – could/should withdraw from the world and leave it to the children to rule themselves. Despite their initial intent to protect and nurture Arda. However how would that be valid when one of their own, who they know is running rampant and will seek to destroy or enslave everybody he can is lose in Arda? Its the old "Am I my brother's keeper" question and given the massive gulf in power and abilities of the Valar over the children I think the correct answer was a resounding yes.

The Universe is a lot bigger than one planet.

I’d say we saw the work of Nienna the Weeper at work in the story through Gollum of all beings.

Bilbo: spares Gollum through pity when escaping the goblin tunnels.

The Elves of Mirkwood: give Gollum enough freedom to escape their custody out of pity.

Frodo: spares Gollum’s life in Emyn Muil out of pity.

Sam Gamgee: arguably the character with the LEAST pity or sympathy for Gollum, spares the creature one final time outside Sammath Naur because the 48 hours he was a ring bearer allowed him a shred of empathy for what Gollum went through.

So many acts of pity were put into place to get Gollum into the position where Eru could use him to destroy the Ring by an act of accident rather than an impossible act of will. And I personally do think that when Gollum’s soul made its brief visit to the Halls of Mandos, that perhaps Nienna, the Lady of Pity who understands the suffering of the Children of Illuvatar better than anyone, was there, pleading pity and mercy for a being who was long tormented many times beyond the span of his mortal life by a power greater than himself.

There's an important part of the lore that this video misses: The War of Wrath destroyed a populated continent and the Valar elected not to repeat it in the future. The Valar could have destroyed Sauron at any point. After all, Sauron bowed and supplicated himself at the end of the First Age to avoid being destroyed by Valar like so many other Maiar were. Instead of bringing him to Valinor in chains, the Valar elected for Sauron to make his own pilgrimage and to repent fully to the Valar yet he shirked this duty and returned to his evil ways. But I'm convinced that had the Valar decided to capture Sauron, they would have had no problem doing so.

IMO the Valar abandonded Arda and especially humanity. They could and should have returned to Middle Earth after Morgoths defeat. But they didn't. They still stayed in their little paradise. Middle earth stayed ravaged by war and leftover servants of Morgoth. The Numenorians were blessed yes. But many other humans couldn't even make the choice to move west and fight against Morgoth as it was too far away for a variety of reasons. Thus they had no choice but to live in Morgoths shadow and suffered for it. And they never got any other aid from the valar even after his defeat. This made them easy targets for Sauron, who seemingly did care and made quite the persona in the 2nd age by moving around and aiding the various people trying to recover.

The Valar are called the Powers for a reason. In Tolkien’s imagined version of the world, they ARE the forces of nature. The wind blows because Manwë is in it, the waves crash because Ulmo is in them. (It’s even explicitly said in the Silmarillion that Ulmo acts through / delegates much of the more calamitous behavior of the sea to Ossë, one of his Maia.) Though the Valar are anthropomorphic beings who can take corporeal form, I think they’re best thought of as diffuse, they permeate all of Arda and to some extent Eä – the universe – as a whole, notably Varda in this case, Queen of the Stars. If you accept that, can you really say by the later Ages that they’ve “abandoned” the world? I think it’s more reasonable to say they’re preoccupied with ensuring the world unfolds as it should according to some sense of natural order on the grandest scales, that over thousands of years the rain still falls and trees still bloom and mountains wear down then rise up again, and so on and on. In a more pessimistic characterization, you could say their powers are spent; I prefer to look at it more positively.

In one sense, no. In many other senses of the word, yes. They let Morgoth decimate Middle-Earth in the First Age until finally acting after most of Feanor's kin were destroyed. They allowed Sauron to continue on in the Second and Third Age with very little help. The Ishtari? Saruman was a massive problem and, at best, the Ishtari were slightly helpful overall.