'Obscure Character(s) you dislike most' by Sauron 666

[doug*platypus]

Ioreth !!!

Graarrggh, burárum! She is so annoying! I wish that Treebeard would stomp into town and just slap her! [img]smilies/mad.gif[/img]

But it seems as if most people dislike the evil characters. Hmm... guess this makes me one mean platypus.

Faramir in my opinion actually isn't very likeable when we first meet him. He has all the haughtiness of an Aragorn, and we don't really know him yet. I guess like Sam (and unlike Frodo), I don't trust him fully from the start. But later when we see Pippin's description of him, and his bravery in the retreat from Osgiliath and the Causeway Forts, he is great! But I just thought that I'd mention he starts out as not very likeable.

[The Mushroom]

Saeros! Eeeewwww... I also dislike Mim, Radaghast, and Bill Ferny.

[Gorwingel]

I have to agree with others. I dislike Wormtongue... the only good thing that that guy did was kill off Saurman for good! But I just didn't like him, I even think I liked him better in the film than in the book because it just seemed like he had a larger part. But, yes, he has to be the first obscure character that I don't like that popped in to my mind. I really don't have an extreme dislike towards anyone else (in the book at least, the film is another story...)

[Bêthberry]

Interesting that many here name Tom Bombadill. The Old Forest holds yet another character, one more obscure than he. Goldberry.

I suppose my frustrations with her arise from two points. I find some of the qualities Tolkien ascribes to her embarassing. (Some I like, I hasten to add.) And I dislike the way she is simply dropped, from the post dinner conversations with the hobbits and from the book's conclusion, where Tolkien attempts to tie Tom into the story's end but completely omits any mention of Goldberry.

It seems to me that Tolkien clothes the Persephone myth with all the sumptuous accoutrements of a Martha Stewart refining the art of dinner presentation. I don't think it is the concept of her, a character pointing clearly to fantasy and mythology, that bothers me so much as it is the actual practice of describing her.

And lest I be criticised, let me say I think the idea of a couple creating convivial dinners is not the fault. I enjoy Ann and George Edwards tremendously in Mary Russell's The Sparrow. Now there's a host and hostess who create supurb conditions for the enjoyment and exercise of human social intercourse--warm, witty, charming, endearing, neither sentimental nor perfect--the stuff that molds kindness and friendship and fellowship. Maybe it is the oxymoron of "so fair was the grace of Goldberry and so merry and odd the caperings of Tom." Maybe it is that I wish there was something more perilous to her character, something grounding her more thoroughly in the realm of true fairy.

Yet though, this could simply be the effect of an embarassment of riches. A fertile imagination, playing with so many materials, and needing yet more story to bind them.

[Urwen]

For me, it would be Ar-Pharazon beyond a doubt.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Urwen

For me, it would be Ar-Pharazon beyond a doubt.

I'm going to go more obscure than that and name the Ruling Queens of Numenor - all three of them.

• Tar-Ancalime was a nightmare. She was surrounded by some pretty spiteful people (both her parents, and her husband), but she flipped from 'Dad should have given Mum her way' to 'everyone must do things my way', up to and including 'no woman of my house can get married'. Note that both of her granddaughters flatly refused to take the throne (and yes, they too were subject to the 'no marriage' rule ).
• Tar-Telperien, great-granddaughter of the above, was insanely prideful. Her reign is characterised by refusals: she refused to marry, refused to honour the alliance with Lindon, and ultimately refused to yield the sceptre before her death. There's a reason for my 'Witch-Queen of Numenor' theory.
• Tar-Vanimelde, nearly a thousand years later, was useless. She didn't rule at all, allowing her husband to do so in his stead, ultimately leading to his usurpation of the sceptre after her death. You could read her as being silenced by an overbearing husband - except that Tolkien makes a point of telling us that she just didn't want to bother.

Between them, I think the three thoroughly poisoned Numenor's view of women in power. I think their awfulness made it easier for the people to accept Pharazon's usurpation of Miriel's power (and in fairness, from a Numenorean perspective, an elf-loving Tar-Miriel would have been Terrible Queen Number Four), and I think it also led directly to Elendil's/his successors' revocation of the New Law of Succession. Without them, there could have been Queens Regnant of Gondor, Arnor, and Arthedain, and Chieftainesses of the Dunedain.

(From an external perspective, I almost wonder if Tolkien created them specifically to justify the fact that he hadn't given Gondor any ruling queens...)

hS

[Urwen]

I disagree. She was supposed to redeem Numenor, not destroy it, unlike her power-greedy idiot husband. He elevated Sauron to his chief councilor, after all. And we know what happened to last three people who let someone with an evil heart advise them. Then again, he himself had an evil heart too. As one fan put it: 'Who does he think he is - Maeglin?'

For he too married his close kin. He was surrounded by like-minded people, who cheered for his act of marrying close kin like it is nothing out of the ordinary, despite there being a precedent to it being unacceptable (Silmarillion, chapter 16).

That might be part of the reason I hate him, actually. He was lauded for this, while Lomion - his predecessor - fell into infamy for attempting to do the same thing. Another reason is Tar-Miriel herself, as he took her chance to rule (and redeem the land and it's people) away from her. Say what you want about me, but I stand by the characters I like.