Actually, Clive Staples Lewis was right about many things. But he was especially right about the quality of his friend JRR Tolkien’s work:
‘When I reviewed the first volume of this work, I hardly dared to hope it would have the success which I was sure it deserved. Happily I am proved wrong. There is, however, one piece of false criticism which had better be answered: the complaint that the characters are all either black or white. Since the climax of Volume I was mainly concerned with the struggle between good and evil in the mind of Boromir, it is not easy to see how anyone could have said this. I will hazard a guess. “How shall a man judge what to do in such times?” asks someone in Volume II. “As he has ever judged,” comes the reply. “Good and ill have not changed…nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men.” (II, 40-41).
This is the basis of the whole Tolkinian world. I think some readers, seeing (and disliking) this rigid demarcation of black and white, imagine they have seen a rigid demarcation between black and white people. Looking at the squares, they assume (in defiance of the facts) that all the pieces must be making bishops’ moves which confine them to one colour. But even such readers will hardly brazen it out through the last two volumes. Motives, even on the right side, are mixed.
Those who are now traitors usually began with comparatively innocent intentions. Heroic Rohan and imperial Gondor are partly diseased. Even the wretched Smeagol, till quite late in the story, has good impulses; and by a tragic paradox, what finally pushes him over the brink is an unpremeditated speech by the most selfless character of all.
It’s interesting that whereas most people laud Tolkien’s worldbuilding – and rightly so – Lewis recognizes the significance and depth of his friend’s characters. Aragorn and Treebeard and Samwise Gamgee have lasted decades, whereas Harry Potter and Hermione are already being forgotten, because they were magnificently conceived and written.
As for Jon Snow and Tyrion and Arya, they have already been forgotten. About all anyone can remember about Jon Snow is that he knew nothing.