[Estella Brandybuck]

He was only briefly mentioned in this thread, but I think Théoden was a very good father/father figure before and after he was corrupted by Wormtongue. Although it's hard to tell what he was like before Wormtongue came along, I think we can assume by the way Éomer and Éowyn turned out, and by the fact that Théodred died in a fairly noble way (if I recall correctly), that he did a pretty decent job. He was also so kind to Merry, and of course, Merry loved him as a father. And (again, if I recall correctly) his last thoughts were of Éowyn, who was practically a daughter to him.

And I agree with everyone else about Bilbo - just the fact that he was kind enough to take Frodo in after he was orphaned makes him seem like a great father figure to me.

As for Arathorn... don't get me wrong, I'm sure he was a great man, but I don't really consider him to be a good father. Not that it was his fault he was killed when his son was only a toddler, of course, but I've always seen Elrond as more of a father to Aragorn than Arathorn. Again, I'm not dissing Arathorn, I'm sure that, had he survived, he would've been a very good father; I just don't think he was around long enough to have been proven as such. To me, it was Elrond (for the most part) who raised Aragorn into the man we all know him as.

Now my personal favorites (besides Théoden) have to be Sam and his Gaffer. I think that the latter did a mighty fine job with raising the former (and come on, how can you not love the Gaffer? [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] ), and Sam just seems like a wonderful father figure to me. Besides, do you really think Rosie would've continued having all his children if he wasn't a good father to them? [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]