Character(s) that you dont like...

[Lyta_Underhill]

Gollum.

I am very Sam-like in this matter. I can tolerate him, and I appreciate the part he has to play, but for me he is a nasty, slimy, treacherous creature.

Fascinating from a reader's point of view, but I never could sympathize fully with Frodo for taking him in.

Certainly, to like Gollum on his own merits is counter-intuitive, but I rather think it is a stroke of genius that Frodo took him in as he did, even if one discounts his instinct towards pity for the poor creature. Gollum is the one being at hand who has been to Mordor and knows ways into it. I know that Frodo doesn't realize just how much he knows about the Black Land, but he does know that this knowledge is far greater than his own. I think, however, that if Frodo had not sympathized with and pitied Gollum, his faith would have been gone much earlier, and he might not have seen humanity as worth saving. The Ring would have him then. In a way, Gollum personifies the corruption wrought by Sauron on the whole of Middle Earth, and at the same time personifies the glimmer of hope for its redemption. Smeagol/Gollum is the balance of good and evil of the greater world, and Frodo has that in his hands, literally. If he hadn't sympathized with Gollum, Frodo would certainly have been lost. (This concept is difficult to separate from a selfish reading of Frodo's motives, i.e., he sees his own reflection in Gollum and so treats him civilly.) I don't think this is the case, and his sympathy goes deeper than a simple personal reflection. Sam cannot see this necessity until he has borne the Ring as well, and somehow I think it is impossible to purify oneself without this trait.

But enough of my well-known penchant for Frodophilicity...

Who don't I like? Well, like others here, Denethor pops to mind, but mainly because of his intellectual vanity, i.e., his idea that he knows better than Gandalf, better than Faramir, is stronger than the Eye in the Palantir, etc. etc. His lore is deep, and he is exposed to and absorbs the same knowledge as Faramir does, and yet his spirit is corrupted so that he cannot do good with that knowledge in the end. He puts his own interests above those of his realm, not a good trait in a Steward. (This is not to say he does nothing--he defends Minas Tirith admirably, but his unbalanced mental state leaves the command of his forces in doubt at a crucial point and Gandalf is forced to take over the conducting of the city's defense. Also, there are hints of his nature upon the recollections of Aragorn as Thorongil long ago in the service of Ecthelion II in Minas Tirith--Denethor resented him back then, too! That man held a lot of grudges, didn't he?)

Others I dislike are not hard to guess: Ted Sandyman, petty evil incarnate; I most certainly didn't like the silly songs Bombadil sang most of the time, and could see myself turning as red as Frodo when he looked upon Goldberry if I tried to sing them...Tom Bombadil--the spirit of the Silly Old Forest! I don't mind his silliness or Bombadil himself, really--I just don't care for his tunes! Aragorn used to irritate me long ago, with his "Lo!'s and thou's" and high flown speech, as if he were a charging battery that got more high and mighty the closer he came to Minas Tirith...strangely enough, I don't mind that so much now! Legolas dancing on top of the snow near the Redhorn Pass made me want to slap him sometimes, although the description of his 'shoes' always makes me think of a Keebler Elf, rather than Orlando Bloom!

Well, that's all for now! Happy character-beefing!

Cheers!
Lyta