[Nogrod]

Thanks phantom for giving me the stuff to comment on for my top candidates...

Originally Posted by the phantom

Bombadil is crazy: "The world is going to crap around me, la la la. No one knows who or what I am, hey dilly. I treat the Ring like it's a trinket, ding dillo. And I could really help on this adventure, but I'm staying here to... dance and stuff."

Yeah. He's the Tralla-lally guy. A perfect match in a sense. Mad, insane, deranged... even if not psychotic I'd say. But then again, being this older than the oldest living beings I doubt Eru would have given precedence to a Joker... So there must also be a wisdom of sorts there - and Gandalf seeked his advice anyway -and he wouldn't take an insane person seriously.

But well, he is crazy whatever one argues...

Denethor is crazy: "We're screwed! I'm just going to kill myself. Oh, and my son too. Duty to kingdom? Ha! I like fire better."

Denethor is deranged by the Palantir, he is insane in not letting any other information come through but building his own deranged reality, he is mad for losing his wits because of that, and psychotic in his insistence of burning also Faramir in his folly when it really takes over. No counter arguement there I can see.

Except one could say the real reason for his folly was Sauron and not him... (compare to the arguments made on Sting or Eowyn)

Thorin is crazy: "I'm going to reclaim my kingdom with the help of twelve dwarves and a hobbit. There's a dragon there, but, uh, something will... happen, I think. Anyway, we can steal from him. If he doesn't kill us. And if we can get in. And then I'll lock myself in the mountain."

Thorin clearly got deranged after gaining the dwarven treasure - and it is plain obvious he became mad in the end. Denying the offer from the elves, men and Gandalf was just insane and his insistence on it was psy: chotic to the bone...

Except one could say - like in the case of Denethor - that there was an outside factor that made him that way. In many occasions, well before gaining the treasure, Thorin was the most reasonable dwarf...

Gollum is crazy: "I like my master. No, I don't, he's tricksy. But we want to destroy the Dark Lord, but no- I don't want to, because the Ring is my precious. But I hate it. Etc. etc."

Now Gollum seems to fit it perfectly. Insane, psychotic, deranged, mad... Surely he is deranged (by the Ring), psychotic (for his insistence on having it whatever it meant), mad (for losing his wits even if Frodo offered him a chance for redemption), and insane in trying to accomplish something that could only be his own downfall (did he really think he could have become the Lord of the Rings with Sauron, Gandalf and all the others just nodding to it?).



In a way all the others were made crazy by something else: The ring made Gollum deranged, the treasure made Thorin psychotic, the Palantir made Denethor insane - but Bombadil was "mad" by himself... but then again it can be questioned whether the "Old Tom" was insane or whether it was the world around him that was mad?

I'm happy I'm not judging this round...