[Talking Hawk]

Well-spoken, StarBreeze! (Don't mind me budding into this conversation..) I agree whole-heartedly, and I think that as some people view particular characters as "villainous" because they know that they would have opposed them, I think that other people see these characters as - for the lack of a better word - not-so-bad because those characters may have traits that the person has. (Okay, did that make any sense..?)

All right, here's an example. Person A thinks Boromir is a toosh-head because person A has a big fat crush on Frodo, and would've beaten up the son of the steward of Gondor in an instant for attacking the little hobbit. Meanwhile, Person B, from his/her own life experiences, has a very strong bond to his/her family - comparitive to Boromir's bond to his people, the Gondorians. Person B, therefore, might have felt that Boromir is a misunderstood character, one of a noble heart who is only trying to do the best he knows how.

(pauses and blinks) I just realized that I did not directly answer Maul's question...hm... I suppose the reason we need "bad guys" are for readers/viewers to argue/discuss/share their point of views on where to draw the line between a "good" and "bad" character. As far as LOTR is concerned, there is a lot of grey area (i.e., Elrond, Boromir, Gollum, Saruman...). That's all for now..