The Middle Earth Popularity Cup

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

The dialogues of Saruman are intriguing, more so than those of Boromir (who had to basically die to be a redeemable character).

Now, now. That is pretty nasty towards Boromir. Saruman was great, but Boromir certainly can't be degraded like that. If he were against somebody of less "stature" than Saruman, it would be very probable I would have voted him. He is a very nice and interesting character with a very sad and touching destiny.

But now, I am going to once again shed some light on why I like Saruman so much by putting myself into a dialogue with the posts above

Originally Posted by Ilya

He may not be as much fun as Saruman, but his redemption and death cast a shadow over the rest of the books in a way that Saruman's menace never did for me.

Saruman does not cast a shadow, Saruman emits the shards of broken light which penetrate all the books, from Silm/UT to the LotR. And even in The Hobbit, you can "hear" him there, "sense" him there, as one of the "council of the white wizards"... most fascinating.

Originally Posted by Tuor in Gondolin

After all, this is a Popularity poll and Sarman
has almost zero likeability.

If I were to say whom I like the most in Tolkien's world, Saruman would be probably the first one to come on my mind.

Originally Posted by Strongbow

One does not simply beat Boromir. This being said, Boromir seems more like a real person than many of the other characters because you see multiple dimensions of him.

And Saruman does not have multiple dimensions in him? On the contrary! That's what connects him with Boromir, actually, I think. He is the White Wizard, the Maia Curumo in the realms beyond the mortal world, he is the great Head of the Order, the fair man with raven hair and beautiful voice who came to Middle-Earth, he is the landlord who took Isengard into his custody, he is the Enemy of Sauron, and he is the traitor, the master of Uruk-hai and the beggar on the road. He struggles to defeat the Enemy, loses to his pride, struggles with his fear and you can feel how the good inside him is trying to surface still, when Gandalf offers him mercy, and when he imprisons Gandalf and the Black Riders come, and even a bit when he talks to Frodo. Come on, he is just brilliant.

I cannot vote otherwise than for my favourite

++Saruman

[skip spence]

Boromir is a bit annoying, always going on and on about how great and courageous he and his people are. He's also the only non-hobbit of the fellowship I can relate to, and I don't blame him from trying to take the ring, he simply wanted to protect his people and became desperate, doing what he though the least bad of two evils. His only fault (apart from pride) is a lack of faith, Estel I think Tolkien calls it, and that's not really fault at all in my book.

Sauruman is okay but I'd have like to see him doing something Wizard-like once in a while. In the movies he could control the weather from hundreds of miles away which of course was ridiculous, but in the book he can't do anything but hold speeches that turn into bitter tantrums (funny ones though).

++Boromir

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

++Saruman

Because of his many colours in a time of black and white.

[Lalwendë]

Oh what a choice!!!! I so do not want to knock out the one who I don't choose....

But the choice was made from the start, because I am such a simpering fan...and others compared to him are just brigands who roll in the reek. If you took the figure of Merlin and split it down the middle then one side would be the kindly, cantankerous Gandalf, the other side would be the mysterious and aloof Saruman. He's easily as archetypal a wizard as Gandalf, and more intriguing because he locks himself away in Orthanc doing who knows what kinds of interesting experiments...The 'mad professor' of Middle-earth

++Saruman

[Aganzir]

++skippy

Grrr I hope you're ashamed of yourself for forcing me to choose between Boromir and Saruman!

Not that it was that difficult, I would just have hoped both of them had survived.

There are many things I don't like about Boromir - patriots like that are always a bit scary, putting the needs of their country above their own. However, Gondor was apparently his true love for the good of which he did all his deeds, and who am I to judge that?

I love his pride and his dry sense of humour. Also, he seemed to treat Gandalf and others as his equals - he never indicated he thought he was above them, but neither did he accept without a word everything that Gandalf or Aragorn said. He had a mind and will of his own.

Some day, I'll draw that death scene.

Okay

--skippy

++BOROMIR

[the phantom]

Boromir is great. He's the member of the Fellowship that I can really identify with. I mean, the plan to send the Ring to Mordor was madness, and they avoided capture only through amazing circumstance and in the end the mission failed. Frodo didn't destroy the Ring. Hardly a surprise since at the beginning of the book he was not even capable of throwing the Ring into his cooking fire at Gandalf's request.

Boromir's reaction to the whole thing seems downright sensible, and were I in his position I imagine I would've tried to snatch the Ring just as he did.

Besides being brave, hardy, a great captain, and all that stuff, he was simply one of the most realistic characters in the book.

++Boromir

[mormegil]

I don't much care for either, but I really dislike Boromir so...

++Saruman

[Groin Redbeard]

Ooh, this is a hard choice, I really like both of these characters. However, I shall vote for the character that I most identify with. For king and country!

++Boromir

All my reasons for voting for him are already stated.