Williams took broad influences from Tolkien (and others). The scope, fully-realized secondary world, the elves, the mythic tone. He added a Bildungsroman component you don't really see in Tolkien. Our hero Simon, a scullery boy, is more explicitly Arthurian. 
A casual viewer would assume the ring attracted the ringwraiths like moths, or spawned them in nearby as like a video game negative use effect. An attentive viewer would notice that Sauron reactivated them to find the ring after torturing Gollum. 
In Legend of the Phantosaur and Shaggy’s Showdown, we get Shaggy in thoughtful conflict with his fearful nature, overcoming it internally, without Scooby snacks, to crack the case and save his friends. 
POV: your last look at the party that you can remember 
You remember Leeroy Jenkins. Early modern internet culture meme. Normies played WoW. There was a bridge. The earth was not yet round. I saw the video and laughed, but wasn’t old or online enough to get interested in it. 
Recently I mocked one set of thin arguments people inherit and regurgitate about LotR. I’m completely right but the point is that these arguments don’t come from people actually reading and comprehending the words on the page.
Yes he was racist, sorry Fascists, but by reading the Tolkien Extended Universe in the light of modern understandings of these issues and by including new voices, much of this Franchise can be redeemed.
I never see anyone compare these two series but the parallels are right there. They're painful because Book of the New Sun is so good and the Kingkiller Chronicle is incomplete (and, if you ask me, not very good). But I wanna riff on it. 
Dead Man’s Chest is pretty strong but for a couple missteps. But At World’s End is starting off rocky. They really did a “comical number of hidden weapons” scene with Elizabeth Turner 🫤
Look at this striking passage in ‘The Valley of Terzol’. Mangos and Kat, hired by a dweeb with a map, and heading through the jungle to the ruins of the palace. 
