Top Ten Worst Lord of the Rings Characters

Vote for your least favorite Lord of the Rings character.

The Top Ten

Denethor

Denethor is a pretty annoying character. He showed no respect to Faramir and put him at a much lower level than Boromir, even though Faramir had BETTER resistance to the ring than his brother did. When Faramir was in a bad fever and was obviously still alive, but near death and needing medicine, Denethor would not accept that his son was still living, and wanted to burn both his son and himself alive. In the book 'The Return of the King', Denethor's madness is revealed to be because he got ahold of a palantir, the same type of object that Saruman used to communicate with Sauron. Through the palantir, Denethor witnessed the evil and power of Sauron, and was driven mad.
Frodo

Frodo Baggins is a fictional character and the main protagonist of J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings. He was a Hobbit of the Shire during the Third Age and was chosen to be the bearer of the One Ring in the quest to destroy it. Frodo was portrayed by Elijah Wood in Peter Jackson's film adaptations... read more

When it comes to the fight scenes in the movies, I think we can agree that Frodo is useless... Okay yes before the 3rd movie, Merry and Pippin weren't that great either but they both learn how to fight and become knights of sorts when the final battle comes! Even Sam has some skill when fighting and he uses a frying pan! All Frodo does is stand around in one singular spot whilst looking bloody petrified! Everyone basically has to hold Frodo's hand during the battles and when he gets injured, (which he always bloody well does), everyone caters for him because he can't do anything right.

Whiney, needy and self-pitying. Clearly and adamantly instructed by Gandalf to NEVER put the ring on, they aren't even out of the Shire when he tries to -- stopped only by Sam. He finally succeeds by "accident" at the Prancing Pony. He could have warned Pippin & Merry not to use the Baggins name. Also, he could have quietly drawn Pippin away from the totally bored patron, who likely wouldn't even have noticed, instead of acting like a clumsy hysteric and making a spectacle of himself. Puts the ring on AGAIN on Weathertop.
At Amon Nen he wanders off like a fool, which is the epitomy of self-centered irresponsibility and stupidity. Not only does he put the ring on AGAIN, he gets Borimer killed, Merry and Pippin captured, and the fellowship broken. Sam waits on and fawns on Frodo, who seems to think himself entitled, and often talks down to Sam and treats him badly.
I do give Frodo credit in that he did keep going, although he never would have made it beyond Bree without the fellowship, Sam and Gollum. Ultimately, however, he fails. Frodo does not destroy the ring. He puts it on AGAIN with the intention of keeping it! Gollum destroys it, along with himself, by accident. Frodo struggles with Gollum to get the ring back for himself, not to destroy it.
I bet those present at the Counsel didn't know about all his screw-ups, nor did the others know of his ultimate failure at the end.
After it is all over, he STILL can't get over himself and continues to wallow in self pity. Sure, it was tough. Everyone had it tough. Frodo bears the ring, but he is always borne by others. I find him tedious, unattractive and uninteresting, both in book and movie. Obviously not one of my favorites.
Grima Wormtongue

I don't think you understand. Grima was once a man of Rohan, tainted by Saruman's foul magic. In the end, Grima betrayed Saruman before he was shot himself.

This dude sucks. He's such a pervert. I just wont to beat the life out of this idiot and throw him in a jail cell to rot for the rest of his miserable existance.

What could he have gained out of screwing around with Rohans leader. If gandolf did not save that king guy than everything would of been bad...
Gollum

Gollum is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He was introduced in the 1937 children's fantasy novel The Hobbit and became an important supporting character in its sequel, The Lord of the Rings. In Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, he is portrayed... read more

Everyone stop hating poor Frodo! He had to carry the Ring as a huge burden in all the movies! It's not his fault he was making poor choices! It was the Rings! Sure he was stupid at times, but the Ring did most!

I really do not like him. I cannot believe he blamed Sam for eating the Elvish bread. Why the heck would Gollum throw the only food Frodo and Sam have over a cliff?

I must say, Gollum is really an amazing complicated character. But, to tell the truth, all his moments are so boring, like.. when you watch the movie again, you're obviously gonna skip through his scenes
Arwen

I really did not like her. Probably because she was only ever MENTIONED twice in the WHOLE series in the books, AND replaced my favorite character (Glorfindel) just so the movies could be "non-sexist". Such a pile of crap. I don't want so watch a girl cry every time she shouldn't be on screen instead of watching an ancient Elvish Lord rip orcs to shreds.

A Mary sue, boring, trophy wife, and shoehorned through few phrases in the books and unconvincing mentions in letter. Worst character indeed.

Arwen is a creeper all she does is stare at people. I don't care if she heals froto and somehow saves aragorn when he fell off a cliff. I don't understand any of the scenes she is in usually she is laying on a bed çrying when she could be fighting evil.
Galadriel

Galadriel is a character created by J.R.R. Tolkien who appears in his Middle-earth legendarium, including The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. She is one of the greatest of the Eldar, renowned for her beauty, wisdom, and power, and is the bearer of Nenya, one of the three Elven rings of power... read more

Everyone makes such a big deal about this chick who does nothing and couldn't be less helpful. She just stands there with that stupid, smug grin being useless

She's so boring... looks so sleepy all the time. Can't she try to look a bit fresher? I don't think she looked beautiful. Lady Ulgydriel

Don't mess with Galadriel, she banished Sauron and the nine to middle with only Earendils light.
Boromir

One shall not put Boromir on this list. I don't know why Boromir is on this list. He went down like a boss. He also was the only person to die. That proves he fought his hardest and fought till the very end. We can all be proud of Boromir in our hearts. Should have used his shield though.

He was not a bad character, but he had absolutely nothing to set him apart from a normal soldier besides that he was strong, and was kinda royalty. Not bad, just really bland. I was so happy that he died instead of an important character.
Elrond

Elrond is not that bad. Imagine being immortal and coming to terms with having your daughter die and living without her,forever. You would not be too keen on having that happen. But in the end, he made the greatest sacrifice and let her stay, despite how much it hurt him because he knew the most important thing was his daughters happiness, more important than his own.

I kinda don't really like Elrond because he won't let his daughter marry Aragorn even though she loves him and gave up everything for him. I mean, it's a little cruel, right?
Eowyn

Guys, Eowyn was brave. She fell in love and that was sad. She just tried to be in love which I admire. She also is a fighter of the women and this makes me so happy. She is handy with a sword and is very brave and fearless. She slayed a fell beast and killed the witch king! She is awesome and I waisted a vote to tell you how epic she is and how crazy you guys are for putting her on here!

Eowyn was pretty much useless- just flicking her hair around through out the films and lusting so obviously after Aragorn. It's pathetic. Also she is so attention seeking- just constantly wanting to go to battle when really she should've been listening to the King!
Pippin

I understand why people may fault Pippin - he doesn't use his head much at moments and did cause a lot of trouble for his friends - but honestly he's one of the youngest, more innocent characters in this entire story and grew quite a lot, especially in Return of the King. He learns to be wiser and to use his head and runs into battle right alongside Merry and his friends. It's easy to dismiss Pip as one-note and a "fool of a Took", but I think he has a lot of heart and bravery, just him setting out alone from the Shire and not turning back took courage.
I really can't believe he comes in higher on this list than Sauraman, just saying.

I didn't want to vote on Pippin, but I had to tell you guys that you're all wrong. Yes, in the first two films he was there for mostly comic relief, but during the Return of the King he was the main vantage point for Minas Tirith. His character evolves from care-free and funny to burdened and wise. His charge with the rest at the Battle of the Black Gate was heroic. He's a great, likeable character and no one should hate him.

The Newcomers

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Faramir

How was he not on the list. Was literally created so Denethor had a reason to kill himself.
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Treebeard

The Contenders

Sauron

Sauron is the title character and main antagonist of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Originally a servant of the first Dark Lord, Morgoth, Sauron rose to power after Morgoth's defeat. He forged the One Ring to dominate Middle-earth but was defeated when the Ring was cut from his finger.... read more

Sauron wasn't even a real character. You get a little background on him, and then he just ends up being this ever-present entity that doesn't actually do anything. He just somehow sends armies in the hope that he will get the ring and destroy the world, but the rest of the time he is completely useless. Just an eye looking for it's ring of power. The ring had more character than Sauron ever did.

Sauron barely appeared in the trilogy and when he did he was reaching for WHO KNOWS WHAT instead of just killing Isildur with the mace that he was holding in his VERY HAND! Not to mention the eye did nothing but look away from Frodo at times convenient for the plot.
Merry

I wasted a vote on poor Merry just to let you all know that the fact he is ranked as a worse character than SAURUMAN just because his name SOUNDS LIKE A GIRL'S is RIDICULOUS.
Merry's brave and eager, throughout the series all he ever does is try to protect his friends. He's willing to ride out into battle for them for goodness sakes even though he's only like 3'5' and doesn't let other people stop him from protecting those he loves.

May I please make something very clear? SAM is #4 ranked on best LotR characters. SAM is also a girl name. MERRY is a boy and a girl name, just like SAM. I'm sorry, but the fact that Merry is in top ten WORST LotR characters because of his Name blew my mind. He's my second favorite character after Pippin. PIPPIN is also a boy AND girl name, thank you!
Gimli

How come everyone who voted on this is saying good things about him? This is for the WORST character in LOTR. (Also I like Gimli, I just voted so I could ask)

I dislike any person who voted on him. Gimli is an intelligent kind dwarf who wants to help out

I think he is very funny and he always wants to help fight.
Bilbo

Bilbo Baggins is the title character and protagonist of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel The Hobbit, as well as a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings. He was the first Hobbit to become widely known outside the Shire and was one of the few to travel to the Undying Lands across the ocean. In film... read more

Agree about Legolas go Legolas! He is the best movie character of all time
Eomer

He isn't ugly, I only hate him for when he said he would cut of Gimli's head. That is really mean
Mrs. Sackville-Baggins
Sam

Samwise Gamgee, known as Sam, was a Hobbit of the Shire. He was Frodo Baggins' gardener and best friend. Sam proved himself to be Frodo's most loyal and dependable companion in the quest to destroy the One Ring.
He played a critical role in protecting Frodo and helping complete their mission.... read more

I don't want to sound mean or anything but for part of the whole series, he was just too clingy towards Frodo, getting paranoid whenever something bad happens to him.

Sam is awesome, I mean when he carried Frodo up the mountain, you can't beat that
Otho Sackville-Baggins
Tom Bombadil

Why does he exist? To sing annoying songs whilst majorly slowing down the story? A truly pointless and annoying character and Tolkein's biggest mistake.

He is one of the kindest characters in the book series. He doesn't do a lot in the books, but that isn't the reason to hate him.

He sucks, mostly because of the fact that around the time of his chapter, I almost stopped reading the books.
Legolas

Legolas is a character in J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium. He is a Sindarin Elf from the Woodland Realm and one of the nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring. Legolas was portrayed by Orlando Bloom in Peter Jackson's live-action film adaptations.

I like Legolas, but I'm using a vote to say that he's cool and an excellent bowman, yet he's not number one fan-favorite material. He honestly never does anything but fight. His competition with Gimli is pretty funny, but it was probably Gimli who challenged Legolas. He's just not needed for the story overall.
Here's how the rest of the Fellowship is relevant. Gandalf is the leader. Aragorn is a king's descendant. Boromir is a cool villain. The four hobbits are all main protagonists in a way. Gimli leads them through Moria, and his realization that Balin was dead was very sad for Hobbit readers.
Legolas is basically saying, I'm cool, you know. If Thranduil had been involved, Legolas's arc would've been way better.
In defense of Gimli, he had personality and was funny. He may be relevant only in the first book, but after that he's still an endearing character. If his dwarfish kin or any dwarf had been involved, his arc would've been way better, but the book is so full that it was probably too long to add that arc.
Saruman

Saruman the White is a fictional character and a major antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. He was originally the head of the Istari order but becomes corrupted by his desire for power and control. In the film adaptations directed by Peter Jackson, Saruman was portrayed... read more

It's Christopher Lee! How can you hate Christopher Lee? He is Willy Wonka's father and a Sith Lord...

The White Wizard. The Elder and wise Istari. The First badass Bad guy. Puppet of Sauron, still, a Good character.
Gothmog

He was awesome directing the siege of Gondor. So what if he's deformed? They're probably scars from previous battles!
Deagol

The only thing he does is to die!
Tauriel

There is so many things wrong with this character I don't almost know where to start!
Well, first of all, she was never in the books or never even created by Tolkien. She was just a wish fulfillment.
Secondly, she was pretty much a Mary Sue, and no one likes those kind of characters.
She had almost no flaws and was even in the middle of a pointless love triangle - which led to neglecting some important things that were in the book, such as the brotherly relationship between FÍli and Kíli, since Kíli was in love with her...
She should be number one on this list, because these are not the only things wrong about her. These are just the main few things.
Fatty Bolger