Building the Bad Guy

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Boro

Legolas screams like a girl and Gimli starts crying and can't even look.

Classic!

That's the thing - Tolkien doesn't have to worry about offending anyone with his bad guys a lot of the time because they are unseen or even nameless terrors - not always, but I'll come back to that one later...

Tolkien makes use of classic horror/Gothic emblems to conjour up almost subconscious or primeval senses of terror within us. You do not need any knowledge of Satan to be scared of some horned beast rising out of the darkness in the way the Balrog does - he's the kind of creature every child imagines lurks somewhere in the cellar, under the stairs, in the castle dungeon, at the back of the clan's cave... Likewise with the 'dark' image of Sauron and Morgoth, the classic robed figure once seen in the symbol of the Grim Reaper or the plague doctor with his sinister beaked mask and nowadays seen in the image of Darth Vader.

That would be all too easy though, just to make your villains mysterious, thus avoiding describing their race and age. But Tolkien also has other villains who are very real and visible. Like Saruman, ostensibly a very clever and reclusive elderly man. Or Grima, a stereotypical nerd by all descriptions with his greasy hair and pale skin (hours spent playing Warcrack ). Or even Lobelia, a snobby old lady who may not turn out to be Mata Hari but she certainly gives Bilbo some unbearable grief.

The thing is, Tolkien was not scared of making us see how all people can easily slip into doing bad things, into being villains. He told us nobody was above censure, nobody immune from 'falling'. So he had no need to set up pantomime villains as everyone was a potential baddie. And yes, uncannily like Orwell's 1984, in that the ordinary people, the neighbours themselves, make it so that nobody can feel safe and secure!

Actually that's got me thinking again...just how symptomatic of the Cold War are both Lord of the Rings and 1984 in terms of baddies?! You have not only the faceless or impersonal threat in the form of Sauron/Big Brother but you also have the threat from and suspicion of your own neighbours - the Shire Quislings/Grima and the Thought Police being like the 'Reds Under The Bed'/Stasi threat. Hmmm...

[Boromir88]

The thing is, Tolkien was not scared of making us see how all people can easily slip into doing bad things, into being villains.~Lal

Very good point. Tolkien did not seem to offend any one particular group, because his villains can't only be seen as being representations of one particular group, but can be seen as being anyone. Unlike Horowitz who talks about the fact that he can't create a villain who is an environmentalist, a religious fanatic...etc, Tolkien's villains (nor as you cogently argue Orwell's) are not aimed at a group of individuals but every single individual person. Anyone can be 'the villain.'

And Tolkien doesn't do this just with his villains, but also with most of his characters (when we are talking about The Lord of the Rings). There are a few characters that seem super good and the ultimate heroes (Gandalf, the Elves, and Aragorn for instance). Sure they make their own errors in judgement from time to time, but they just seem too great and heroic for the everyday individual to be able to identify with. Or at least I've never been able to identify with them.

The Lord of the Rings focuses around Hobbits, and I think Tom Simon does an excellent job explaining why it was Hobbits that made The Lord of the Rings a success and why for millions of readers The Silmarillion was a failure.

Personally, I find Mr. Simon's comments to be dead on, but everyone is different with what they like and don't like. I found it much easier to connect with the ordinary and simple hobbits than with the 'high and noble' Elves. When it comes down to it, it is the ordinary and simple that 'save the world,' and it is the 'ordinary and simple' that dominate the Lord of the Rings.

So, not only are Tolkien's villains capable of being anybody, but also the heroes (or perhaps the unheroes is a better word ) can also be anybody.

[Lalwendë]

That's something I often wonder- if its the absence of Hobbits that alienates so many readers from The Sil - even for me, I love the book, but it's not half as satisfying as reading about the adventures of Bilbo and Frodo. There's something 'like us' about them.

And maybe that's why Tolkien does manage to create non-offensive villains, as they are rooted in reality, and are essentially like us - well, perhaps the Balrog is only like me first thing in the morning, but most of the villains in human form are just like us or like people we know. Saruman is like the clever guy who just thinks he knows too much. Grima like the office sneak, the brown-noser. Gollum like the guy on the street corrupted by bad influences and addictions. Lobelia like the interfering neighbour. Denethor like the politician making the wrong choices...

Odd that. Tolkien was writing fantasy, and yet his characters are also very everyday people. It's in the thrillers where we find the people who are not everyday folk maybe?

EDIT: and yes, you can good sir