[Helkasir]

Super long post coming: those of short attention spans, beware.

1.) Saruman, I believe, falls to the fate of a recurring theme in all middle earth: Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Once put into power as lead istari and head of the council of the wise, saruman probably got his first taste of power, reference to "Back at the ranch" above. It seems that all those who die tragically in ME die in a lust for power; boromir, morgoth (In the case of the void and wanting to have the flame imperishable), sauron, gollum, Feanor, and even Lotho Baggins got in over his head. Saruman succumbed to his desire for power, the fatal flaw. That's what makes Aragorn, gandalf, Sam and Frodo such great heroes; Each had a chance at greater power and turned it down. To add to the list of doomed people, isildur. To add to the good, Galadriel. Those under the "Bad or doomed" list just didn't take sam's advice; the less can be more and small can be wonderful.

2.)Not that many. The best I can see in this case is that Bill Ferny only gets knocked out by a well thrown apple. Not much justice. But every character pays.

3.) Gollum was such a great foil character. Both sides in the war of the ring viewed him as both an asset and a danger. To Frodo he was a danger because he might be volatile enough to attack at any minute, but he alone could have led them to mordor (And, as it seems, to shelob) To sauron, he had informaiton on where the ring was, and could work as a potential spy, but was paid by gollum's suicidal dance over the edge of orodruin.

4.) The best well drawn vulnerable character is Frodo; think about it. He's a hobbit! He's not a great adventurer, and not that many people have the guts to infiltrate mordor, carrying a potential beacon (aka the one ring) to the enemy himself. Not only is unprepared meotionally for the strain of the ring and the journey ahead, but he is unprepared for the realization of what sacrifices has to make for his friends. reading through the entire book, I was stricken in pain with the description of how thin and drawn he had become. After all, the ring had lasting effects. Frodo was always on a knife's edge.

5.) One example of a person whose character traits aid his cause is Aragorn. Rising from the distant past, in an age with no elves or vala to help him, he alone needs to lead a stricken race of men to dawn against a power that defeated his predeccsors. No easy feat. But he's been tempered by LONG years of experience. e's no leonardo decaprio or gusto driven poet's hero; he's been out in the wild in his own solitary pursuits where he learned to make decisions; he's a veteran campaigner; he had the finest mentors, Gandalf and Elrond, and he had goals (Arwen). His steadfast charactertha made him such a pillar of confidence made the paths of the dead possible as route for him.

I'll post more later. Right now, I'm tired.