Least Favorite Characters in Tolkien's Writings

[Curufin]

I've seen plenty of threads where we talk about 'favorite' characters - this is kind of the obverse of that.

What are your least favorite characters in the works you've read of Tolkien's, and why? And they don't have to be 'evil' or 'bad' characters.

Don't forget the 'why' - that's the interesting part. :)

Me:

Lord of the Rings:
Frodo. I've never liked him. Sure, he has a heavy burden and all that, yadda yadda, but it's Sam that does all the hard work and gets none of the reward or renown. Frodo doesn't have much of a personality, and he can't even complete his task at the end. Curufin is not impressed.

The Hobbit:
I've only read this book once, granted, but Thranduil is a big jerk.

The Silmarillion:
Túrin. Probably my least favorite character in all of Tolkien. Conceited, pompous, arrogant (yes, he deserves synonyms), stubborn, self-indulgent, gratuitiously violent, refuses to listen to any counsel but his own, and is responsible for the fall of Nargothrond. So he killed a dragon. Big whoop-de-doo. This guy's a loser. Does anyone in all of Tolkien feel sorry for themselves half as much? You can say Fëanor, but he never made up uber-emo pseudonyms for himself. Blech! Somebody slap this guy.

[Earniel]

The Hobbit: Thorin, mostly. The Elf-King was a nuissance at times, but he had some decency going for him that he diverted his army away from the mountain to give aid to the people of Laketown. Whereas Thorin could be overly proud and arrogant as well. His refusal to give anything to the people of Laketown to rebuild and his failing to deliver the goods when he had promised, rather irked me.

Lord of the Rings: Boromir, definitely. He annoyed me at times. Oh, I'm sure he's noble, decent and brave on any other day, but I just didn't like him. And I have to say it therefor didn't quite bother me to see him dying on my first read.

The Simarillion: Túrin it is. I've lost count of the moments while reading the Silmarillion that I wanted to slap some sense into him.

[BeardofPants]

I don't think I can actually think of any that irked me enough to add to a least favourite list. I'll have to think about it & get back to you.

signed,
Turin fangirl

[Gordis]

The Hobbit:
The Eagles. Too easy way to solve problems.
Beorn - can't figure out what in Ungoliant he is...

Lord of the Rings:
Treebeard, definitely, and all his ents.:eek: Most boring creatures imaginable.
Huorns - as an easy shortcut to eliminating orcs.
Eagles - same reasons.
Tom Bombadil, because he is annoying, out of place, and again I can't figure out what in Ungoliant he is...

The Simarillion: Eru. :p

(And Turin is my fav. character. He didn't spend his life licking Elves's toes.)

[Willow Oran]

The Hobbit
I can't decide between Thorin, Bombur, or whichever nameless elf started singing the Tra-la-la-lally song. Thorin makes worse descisions, but Bombur is far more annoying throughout the journey and the Tra-la-la-lally song is a truly insidious evil.

Lord of the Rings
I can't say that I really despise any of the characters, but I definitely didn't miss Bombadil.

The Silmarillion
Sign me up for the Turin hate club. I wonder if Tolkien made him as loathable as he is on purpose...

[Curufin]

Looks like people either hate Túrin or love him - very little in the middle.

Wonder why that is?

[katya]

Yeah, it's interesting. I always liked him a lot.

[Aikanáro]

I like Túrin. I wouldn't list him as one of my favorites, necessarily, but he doesn't annoy me. These people do:

Lord of the Rings: Tom Bombadil. I find it very difficult not to skip his chapters, he is, as Gordis said, very out of place.

The Silmarillion: Thingol. Unlike Bombadil, though, I do think he adds a lot to the story, but he did annoy me, with all the bad decisions he made.

The Hobbit: Nobody I specifically disliked here, though I do think the number of dwarves could have been cut down without too much trouble.

Edit - and this is my 42nd post (if there are any Douglas Adams fans to get the significance ;) )

[Earniel]

Lord of the Rings:
Eagles - same reasons.
Spoken like a true nazgul. :p A bit bitter, perhaps, because they plucked you out of the sky in the final battle? ;)

The Hobbit: Nobody I specifically disliked here, though I do think the number of dwarves could have been cut down without too much trouble.
I tend to agree the Dwarves could have been cut down story-wise. Some of them hardly say a word during the whole book. But plot-wise that would have eliminated the need to include Bilbo if they had less than thirteen to start with.

[Gordis]

Spoken like a true nazgul. :p A bit bitter, perhaps, because they plucked you out of the sky in the final battle? ;)


Nah, they didn't. :p We were recalled by Sau to fly to Mt.Doom ASAP. But for it, eagle feathers would have been scattered all the way from Emyn Muil to Morannon.:D :p

[The Gaffer]

Good choices, Gordis!

Don't agree about Bombadil though. Or the Ents.

Elrond is a bit annoying in the Hobbit, though less so in LOTR. And Imrahil is a bit of a plank.

[Curufin]

And Imrahil is a bit of a plank.

His daughter's one lucky girl, though...:D

Sorry. Must. Stop. Drooling. Over. Rohirrim.

[feawen]

i cant say i really like arwen that much, she just sits there looking pretty . get on a horse women and stand up for your gender! Oh she made a flag at the end of the return of the king big flipping woo, give me some thread and ill do that for you and im not an elf!

The hobbit, didn't like Bombur, he just eat alot, i liked the twins but no he kills them off and kills the moaning one why?

As for The Silmarillion i never liked Turins parents. Their daughter died and they just stop talking about her, now thats going to cause some mentle scars in grown life and his mums a right piece a work, hug your son more and he might not of gone on killed a whole elf city! Blame the parents!

[Ingwe]

Silmarillion: Off to the Turin hate club for me. Happy Hour starts at 4 PM. Also, the Elves who hunted the Petty Dwarves down and killed them for sport. Sure, they were a nuisance but I'm sure they wouldn't have been so evil if the Elves hadn't have shot first. I'm an Elf myself but don't agree with 90% of what they've all done, especially in the first age. Feanor meant well but swearing in oath using Eru as a witness - it's using the name in vane (which is the literal meaning of a curse word or phrase). "As God is my witness I will recover the Silmarils." Things like that usually don't turn out so well. I'm glad most learned from that mistake, most.

Hobbit: Grr. Thranduil. He was a jerk. Just gave the Dwarves another reason to hate the Elves. Thankfully his son Legolas was able to make friends with Gimli even after Thranduil imprisoned his father and others amongst him.

Lord of the Rings: Gollum/Smeagol. I didn't realize that the Ring would debilitate its wearer by making them have multiple personality disorder. Fortunately it's only two multiple personalities, but still, wow. I liked how cunning it made him though. I thought he was quite intelligent in some ways, he really had Frodo going. That's another one though - Frodo. Of course, if Frodo had not trusted Gollum, Frodo and Sam woulda went to the cracks of doom and Frodo would have put the Ring on anyway, and Sam may not have stopped Frodo. Gollum was possessed by the Ring to the point that he was a very formidable opponent (despite his very very small size). Gollum destroyed the Ring, so Gollum > The Ring > Sauron > Gandalf > Balrog (apparently). Everyone > Frodo. Even Turin, and that's saying a lot. Sam was one of my favorites though. If Aragorn would have died at the Morannon, I would have made Sam the King of Arnor (including the Shire) and Gondor, to heck with the Dunedain by that point.

Pippin ticked me off in the first book, he led to Gandalf's demise. But of course, without Pippin, you'd not have Gandalf the White. I think Gandalf yelling at Pippin also had a lot to do with why the enemy heard them. Pippin became awesome though. He helped rally the Ents, he fought in battle, he whooped a lot of butt, and he kept his lovable Hobbit nature even after all that! That's pretty good. Most people come home from war changed. He really didn't seem to change at all.

On the opposite side you have Frodo who didn't really go through all-out war. He got stabbed by the Witch-King and stung by Shelob and so forth, but the spider incident was his own fault. Let's go into this tunnel with spider webs the size of houses, yea, good going. Some survival instinct he had.

Then after it's all over, oh, he had to leave his friends almost immediately, well a couple of years after it was done. I guess all's well that ends well. I don't see Frodo being Thain of the Shire material anyway. But he had his courageous moments. He was just too darned sensitive.

I feel bad for some of the things Turin went through, but a lot of it he put on himself.

[Gordis]

As for The Silmarillion i never liked Turins parents. Their daughter died and they just stop talking about her, now thats going to cause some mentle scars in grown life and his mums a right piece a work, hug your son more and he might not of gone on killed a whole elf city! Blame the parents!

Morwen is practically the only mother in Silm who cared for her children.

Look at Rian, Tuor's mother and the widow of Huor. She had just given birth to her son and then "departed from Hithlum, and going to the Haudh-en-Ndengin she laid herself down upon it and died". OWWW- how tragic! :rolleyes:
She had a baby to care for, dammit!:mad:
This attitude always seemed most "inhuman" and quite selfish to me.

Contrast it to Turin's mom, Morwen. She must have believed her husband dead and lost forever, but she lived for her children - even on occupied territory, even sending Turin away to safety. She is the one to admire.

Elwing is even worse than Rian - abandoning without a second thought her two little sons to the bloodthirsty sons of Feanor - just so that they don't get the Silmaril! To save her children, ANY normal mom would have given away all three Simlarils and all the 20 Rings and all the Seven Palantiri to boot!

[Willow Oran]

I tend to agree the Dwarves could have been cut down story-wise. Some of them hardly say a word during the whole book. But plot-wise that would have eliminated the need to include Bilbo if they had less than thirteen to start with.

Actually there is a way to cut half the dwarves and still keep Bilbo's addition numerically symbolic. When we did it as a play we only had six dwarves, and then with Bilbo they became seven which is a lucky number, so it still worked. Of course... we kept some of the wrong dwarves.:rolleyes:

[katya]

Pippin ticked me off in the first book, he led to Gandalf's demise. But of course, without Pippin, you'd not have Gandalf the White. I think Gandalf yelling at Pippin also had a lot to do with why the enemy heard them. Pippin became awesome though. He helped rally the Ents, he fought in battle, he whooped a lot of butt, and he kept his lovable Hobbit nature even after all that! That's pretty good. Most people come home from war changed. He really didn't seem to change at all.
I'd have to disagree there. I thought Pippin changed a lot. At first I didn't like it- I didn't like the idea of him becoming a soldier. I don't mind now though. Anyway, sure, he does stay lovable little Pippin through and through, but I think he matures a lot.

[feawen]

i still dont like morwen! i dont care i dont like her!

[Curufin]

After reading Children of Húrin, I decided I don't really like Morwen either. She's arrogant and awful, just like her son. All his bad traits, he gets from his mother.

[Kennashi]

All these hate messages towards Túrin are a bit ironic since Turin's the one that kills Morgoth in the end, thus saving all of us.;) But anyway...

The Hobbit: Pretty much all of them annoy me, in different ways, but all in the same amount...except for Bilbo, since the dwarves and Gandalf effectively forced him out of his hole and the poor hobbit didn't have much choice in the matter.:(

Lord of the Rings: Aragorn. Why? Because the guy is so damned perfect, and pisses me off with his....perfection.:o:( Tom doesn't bother me much. He's very significant in my mind in the sense that he's the only one that can resist the ring...and that has to mean something special.

Silmarillion: Túrin. Yes, I'm a hypocrite. :D

[Willow Oran]

I refuse to be saved by a whiny, emo, incompetent. Let Hurin kill Morgoth. Way cooler than his son and he's the one who was really wronged.

Though I do have to say, the saving grace of the story of the Children of Hurin is that it accomplishes admirably its story-internal purpose. It tortures its audience quite well.:p

[Curufin]

All these hate messages towards Túrin are a bit ironic since Turin's the one that kills Morgoth in the end, thus saving all of us.

In some versions. But I can selectively choose to ignore those versions. ;)

I refuse to be saved by a whiny, emo, incompetent. Let Hurin kill Morgoth. Way cooler than his son and he's the one who was really wronged.

Though I do have to say, the saving grace of the story of the Children of Hurin is that it accomplishes admirably its story-internal purpose. It tortures its audience quite well.

And at least the gene pool dies with Túrin. Thank god he didn't have any children...er...nieces or nephews?

[Finarfin-1]

Least favorite characters:

Feanor: Self-involved to the point of narcissism, controlling to the point of megalomania, insecure to the point of psychosis and the ingrate of all ingrates. I could understand him denying everyone the Silmarils when the Trees were poisoned, everyone *except* Yavanna. If he so clearly understood how painful it was to lose the masterwork of your immortal life, and had to acknowledge on SOME level that his masterwork owed what made it great to her Trees it's impossible for him by his very nature to be unaware just how deeply and permanently he was hurting her. Feanor must have loved the light of the Trees if it came into his heart, the inspiration to preserve their light I mean. To abandon the Trees to their fate when (it seemed) it was within his power to save them is on par with knowing as he died that the Noldor would never be able to defeat Morgoth, but still charging his sons to keep their Oath with his dying breath. My hatred for Feanor has never been eclipsed, not in all the thousands of fantasy novels I've read.

Frodo: God, could he have been any weaker emotionally/psychologically? His incredibly poor judgment, combined with the ugliness of his personality that the Ring only highlighted. I guess it wouldn't have bothered me so much, except for the fact everyone considered him this huge hero for failing JUST LIKE Isildur did. It was wrong (but perfectly in-character) for Samwise not to tell them what really happened.

Yup, I'll join the Turin hate-club as well. For all the reasons so eloquently stated.

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

I agree wholeheartedly regarding Feanor. I'd like to see some textual support for your description of Frodo. You sound like you're talking about movie-Frodo more than book-Frodo.

[Finarfin-1]

Hmm,
Maybe my views of Frodo have been colored by the movies. I know I was/am susceptible to it, since he always seemed weak and wishy-washy to me. Perhaps I should give him a pass because of it.

I'm rather Anti-Hobbit to begin with. I could have lived quite nicely without Tolkien ever infecting Middle Earth with them. Think that's why I adore the Silm. so much, it's a much more serious/high fantasy work. No goofball hobbits and their stupid overactive appetites and quivering at danger and...bleh, you get my point.

The man committed to a work of high fantasy. Trying to stick an Everyman in there just didn't work for me.

[Gordis]

I'm rather Anti-Hobbit to begin with. I could have lived quite nicely without Tolkien ever infecting Middle Earth with them.
:eek: :D I agree!

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

Problem is, they're US. They're what ties that world to our own. It could have been done with Men, but Men who act like Hobbits are nothing more than tall Hobbits. The Hobbits were necessary for what Tolkien was trying to do.

That said, it would have been a very cool story, and I'll concede perhaps even cooler, without them.

[Finarfin-1]

Oh don't get me wrong,
I get what Tolkien was trying to say with/through the Hobbits, and he did a great job doing it. My problem is with his adding those elements at all.

What I find very interesting is that the bulk of Tolkien's later work in his last years was related to refining and expanding Silmarillion content. The Lord of the Rings were pretty much "finished", but Tolkien never seemed to feel like he'd said/done enough with the First and Second Ages.

When you read things like Aldarion and Erendis in the unfinished tales you almost get the feeling that Tolkien regretted to an extent going in the natural direction of Entropy. There's this subtle recurring theme present everywhere that he allows something major to be destroyed. Not simply renewal from the ashes of the old. Almost a return to the old. It's hard to explain.

[frodomerryandaragornrock]

Hobbit : probably Thorin. He's such a JERK!!!:mad: He bugged the HECK out of me!!! He's SO vain and greedy, I just wanted to punch him square in the face!

LOTR : probably Boromir. The only character I didn't really like. He's just so ignorant and [I]stupid[I] he just annoys me!!:mad::mad:

I haven't read the Silmerilion yet, but I'm planning to!!:)

[ElizabethAnnRoger]

I could never like Frodo. He is just so...pansy!
The real hero in the LOTR is Sam, if you think about it.

[Jon S.]

I love Frodo. He is a true hero.

Tolkien in no way presents Frodo as a young headstrong hero aching for a fight, but rather as a reluctant one full of trepidation and self-doubt. Frodo seems to me more of a modern-day hero — who does his duty for lack of another choice — than a typical fantasy or legendary hero, who does it for the challenge and test of his prowess. This is part of what makes The Lord of the Rings so very different from other fantasy tales. If a typical fantasy writer had written the tale, he or she would undoubtedly have made Aragorn and not Frodo the main hero who confronts and destroys Sauron (as Aragorn's ancestor Isildur did before him). With Frodo, Tolkien does his own take on confronting evil and gives us a more accessible model for our own heroics.

http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/Examining-Frodo-as-the-Unwitting-Hero-of-Tolkien-s-Middle-earth.id-2292,subcat-LANGUAGE.html

[frodomerryandaragornrock]

I could never like Frodo. He is just so...pansy!
The real hero in the LOTR is Sam, if you think about it.

i think they both were essential to the story, in my opinion....i mean, without Sam, frodo wouldnt have been alive, but without Frodo, the whole story would have been pointless!! but yes, w/out sam the story would be much different/.

[Jon S.]

It's not a zero sum game where if Sam is a hero, Frodo can't be. In fact, they're both heroic.

[Olmer]

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
Definitely - Gandalf. A brilliant, shrewd and scary unhuman entity, who, by luck, has acquired a ring, which was enhancing his ability to persuade and manipulate persons by fegning concern and affection, but in reality he has none of human's feelings. Without any remorse and hesitation, he sends on a sure death people who love and trust in him.
The Silmarillion
Eru - out of a boredom has created his own game and was impassively wanching as his kings and knights are feuding, ripping the earth apart. But, anyway, he was not hesitating long in finding a scape-goat to put all blame for his erratic play.
On the other hand, if he started to look like a looser in this chess play, why not to wipe off the chess-pieces from the board, thus a whole population of living and breathing people of Beleriand and Numenor, and begin the game anew?

[hectorberlioz]

How can Gandalf be a least favorite character?! :eek:

Truth be told, I was never a big fan of Bob and Nob, the two hobbits who worked for Butterbeer.

[Gordis]

How can Gandalf be a least favorite character?! :eek:

I believe the question we answer in this thread is somewhat confusing.

There may be at least 2 meanings of "least favorite":
1. the one we find boring and unnecessary to the story, the one we don't like to read about
2. the one that we find hateful, or unsympathetic. These ones are interesting to read about, but they produce an unexpected emotional response.

I think Gandalf for Olmer falls in the second category.;)

When I have given my answers, I thought along the lines of boring and unnecessary characters, so named Tom, Ents and Eagles.

As for unsympathetic but interesting ones, for me it is Galadriel and all her dwimmor-realm, Gildor (ugh!), Sam (I find him so irritating!), Faramir (Mr.Perfect). In the Silm it is Eru, hands down.

[jammi567]

Sil - Turgon, simply because you believe that he's going to do the right thing (even if it's the hard choice), but in the end, acts like a ba*tard, just like his step-uncle. And I actually kind of liked him up until he made the choice to ignore Ulmo.

And I don't get the anti-Turin hate. He seemed to act exactly like the majority of the Elves did in that age.

LotR - Perfect Faramir. What makes him so special that he can act exactly like Tom around the Ring - I mean, even Aragorn had a moment in which he was tempted to take it before rejecting.

[Gordis]

LotR - Perfect Faramir. What makes him so special that he can act exactly like Tom around the Ring - I mean, even Aragorn had a moment in which he was tempted to take it before rejecting.
Yea. It is unnatural, if you ask me.:rolleyes:

BTW, never expected to find another Faramir-hater. Normally people adore him.:p

Er... did I mention that I don't like Eowyn? Not so much the lass herself, but the view of her as a hero and model.

[Mari]

Hmmm, Frodo is annoying, in the film more than the books.
In the Hobbit, the guy who was the leader of Rivertown was annoying as was that elvenking.

Gordis, I agree with you on Eowyn.

I thought I posted in this thread before.

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

I go with "least favorite" being the one I feel is the biggest jerk.

Too many to choose from. I can probably narrow it down to two but I really dislike both Thingol and Feanor.

[Butterbeer]

Truth be told, I was never a big fan of Bob and Nob, the two hobbits who worked for Butterbeer.

You are officially on thin Ice Mister!!

[Gordis]

You know BB, how to pinpoint a Mooter on another forum? All of us tend to spell Butterbur as "Butterbeer." :D
It has happened to me more than once....

[Voronwen]

What are your least favorite characters in the works you've read of Tolkien's, and why?


I.

Hate.

Sauron.


:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:




He ruined Numenor, and

he killed my beloved Elendil.


Enough said! :(

[Gordis]

It was Eru who ruined Numenor, not Sau...:p

[Voronwen]

It was Eru who ruined Numenor, not Sau...:p

Well...! I suppose that could be argued. ;)

[Earniel]

It's Sauron that wrecked the island, it's Eru that sank the wreck. ;)

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

I dislike Turin greatly.

His dad's one of my favorites, though.

I'm not a fan of Thingol, either.

[Gordis]

It's Sauron that wrecked the island, it's Eru that sank the wreck. ;)

Numenor was still in a perfectly good condition when Eru made format C: to the longsuffering World.:p

[Earniel]

So Sauron's temple with its ever-hungry fires, people being sacrificed left and right, Nimloth being cut and burned, lawlessness, harassing the coasts of Middle-earth for slaves and gain, the Meneltarma being forbidden territory...

Ye-eah right, perfectly good condition, oh yes, definitely. :p

I think Ar-Pharazon is rapidly turning in one of my least favourite characters this way. The idiot.

[Voronwen]

I have to agree with Eärniel, here! (You knew i would! :p ;) :cool: )

[Tessar]

Melkor has ALWAYS freaked me out. I'm not exactly sure why I would find him any more scary than the other villains.... but he's definitely my least favorite.

[Tinman]

Bombadil. I swear his chapter is longer than the entire trilogy...

Nothing kills a serious moment for me like a yellow shoed blue hatted fop singing merrily.

If you wanna look at it from a less personal and more literary point of view, nothing kills the mood of the story like a character taking the ring, after all the build up by gandalf about how evil it is, and wearing it with no repercussions or effects. Sure, you can say it shows bombadils age and power... but really, it just belittles the capabilities of the ring after an establishment of its power.

[EllethValatari]

Bombadil. I swear his chapter is longer than the entire trilogy...

I agree-in a way. Bombadil has always bothered me because even Tolkien himself admits that he is an enigma; a character from a bedtime story he told his children. Bluntly put, I'm appalled by Tom's presence because I expect Tolkien's organized and well-connected plot and characters to remain consistent throughout.

On the other hand, I admire Tolkien's ability to include something entirely unpredictable that fits into the story: Tom is thrown into the story to be a means of help to help Frodo and his friends.

After all, without forcing a strange little hobbit out his front door, Tolkien couldn't have shown us Middle Earth.

[Tessar]

I would actually disagree about TB belittling the Ring's power. To me, Tom B. Is a reminder that there are things in the world much older than the Ring. I won't say more powerful, because Tom doesn't seem keen to get into a fight with Sauron, but he is definitely a different "creature". To me, TB sort of helps to flesh out the world and make it seem wider and much more mysterious.

[Earniel]

I agree-in a way. Bombadil has always bothered me because even Tolkien himself admits that he is an enigma; a character from a bedtime story he told his children. Bluntly put, I'm appalled by Tom's presence because I expect Tolkien's organized and well-connected plot and characters to remain consistent throughout.
I think he fits well with the structure of LoTR in the way that it shows how Tolkien developed the story. You can see how LoTR started like an actual sequel to The Hobbit, and then gradually morphing into a bigger story as he found ways to connect it with his other, existing mythology. Bombadil would have fitted well into the Hobbit, but I don't think Tolkien would have fitted him in LoTR at all beyond the events of the Fellowship.