[Boromir88]

The nominees for my 5 favorite characters in Middle-earth - ever! - are as follows:

Faramir
Denethor
Theoden
Boromir
Mouth of Sauron
Bilbo
Saruman
Isildur
Hama

Drumroll please....

The 4th runner-up is...Hama! Hama is not your automatron "As you wish master" doorwarden you would expect a doorwarden to be. No. Hama has a brain and he likes using it. It is Hama's trust in Gandalf and company that arguable starts the wheels a turning for Theoden's healing. It is also because Hama uses his brain which makes him the most inept, bumbling, screws up any order ever given to him guard ever. This guy botches even the simplest of orders. Hama honestly reminds me of the guards in Monty Python's Holy Grail - "So we are to not let him leave until you are anyone else comes in to get him." Oh bless Hama's heart, the guy's got spirit.

3rd runner-up goes to the other Rohirrim nominee up there with true spirit...Theoden. Here is a guy who has his mind poisoned by a wizard and corrupt counselor, his wife is dead, his only son and heir dies, his kingdom is on the verge of annhilation and he rises (due to trust in Gandalf) above and conquers. That's not even the end of it, I've only just begun. After defeating his enemy, thus saving his people, does he decide where he's going to place the next hot tub and ease into a relaxing retirment? Of course not. Gandalfs pops up again, "Well...umm I know you just kind of got done fighting a war and many of your men died, but I'm going to need you to ride out to another war, where I am 98% certain all of you will die." Does Theoden whine about how unfair life is? Does he raise one grumble, complaint, or out right refuse? Of course not, he's like "Did you say something about death? Yeaahh baby, bring it on Mordor."

(Oh and in my opinion he has one of the best lines in the story: "But I will not end here, taken like an old badger in a trap." oh the beauty).

3rd place goes to the most petrifying and scariest villain I have ever come across in literature...The Mouth of Sauron. Here is a guy that gets one paragraph description and a couple pages of lines, but he is the most terrifying guy ever. The Ringwraiths are scary enough, but to imagine that a living man can actually appear as scary as them is even more frightening. Not only that but the fact that a man also can be more cruel than any orc (who tortured and killed for their own pleasure)...uhh the shivers. And the horse, what about that horse he rides! The just scares the bajeebers out of me!

...mounted upon a black horse, if horse it was; for it was huge and hideous, and its face was a frightful mask, more like a skull than a living head, and in the sockets of its eyes and in its nostrils there burned a flame.

If the scariest villain I have ever read took third, than runner-up most go to the most fascinating and deceitful villain ever...Saruman. Ok, this guy was able to fool his allies (Men, Elves, Istari...etc) for over 160 years as well as play Sauron for a good amount of time. He wove a masterful web of lies that was only undone because Gandalf escaped Orthanc, thus Saruman got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Imagine how long Saruman could have kept up his charade had Gandalf not tattled on him? But the true mastery of Saruman is even after everyone knows he's a traitor. After Gandalf rats on Saruman, and everyone knows he's full of crap, he's still able to trick and deceive them! Theoden just got done telling Saruman to hang from a gibbet, and Saruman was able to weave a seed of doubt making Theoden think Gandalf was a traitor! The guys skills are so good, in August when he runs into Galadriel, Gandalf, and everyone in the woods he hides his intentions with the Shire, only to take control of the Shire a month later. Is this guy good or what?

And the moment you've all be waiting for (well probably not). Will it be one of the young sons of Gondor? The dead King? The crazy Steward? Or maybe it's the little hobbit Bilbo, said to be the dark horse pick.

Oh, you all know who it is and can tell by my many posts on him, and my many more posts gushing about my Sean Bean fanboyishness. I was just trying to add some Peter Jackson type "tenshun."