Top Ten Worst Lord of the Rings Characters

Vote for your least favorite Lord of the Rings character.
The Top Ten
1 Denethor

Of all the characters in Lord of the Rings, Denethor is the only one I absolutely hate!
Maybe not as much villainous as Sauron or Saruman, but still an extremely unlikable person (unlike Frodo, who shouldn't even be here)!
He despised his son Faramir and straight told him that he should've got killed instead of Boromir! Sometimes I wish Gimli had slit his throat, but still, he deserved what he got in the end! I felt no sorry for him at all!

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.

First of all, he's just an idiot.
Second of all, he's mean to his own son - but only one of them. That's just pure jerk.
Thirdly, he didn't listen to Pippin and was mean to him too.
Lastly, I just want to say that he should be above Frodo because Frodo was a good character, and just because Sam did so much work without getting credit doesn't mean that you should blame Frodo. Anyone who votes for Frodo instead of Denethor just has no idea how much influence the One Ring had.

Look, Denethor, like others on this list such as Wormtongue and Sauron, is arguably a bad person. But that doesn't make them bad characters. You're supposed to hate them. That you have such loathing for them means that they've done their job and gotten you more emotionally invested in the story. And Borimir is not a bad person. He's a conflicted person, but he did what he did for his people, and in the end he gave his life for Frodo and the fellowship. The world is not black and white.

2 Frodo Frodo Baggins is a fictional character and is 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. He was also a Ring-bearer, a best friend to Samwise Gamgee, and one of the three Hobbits who sailed from Middle-earth to the Uttermost West at the end of the Third Age. The character was portrayed by Elijah Wood in the live action films.

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 ...more

Frodo in the movies was a lot worse than Frodo in the books. In the books he was kind of whiney and not very good at his job, but not too bad overall. The movies just ruined his character completely. He spent most of the movie whining, then falling over, then being helped by Sam, then snapping at Sam; and it just repeated.
Also: Sure, Frodo didn't go crazy over the ring at first, but he started going insane pretty soon. As for Sam, he was with Frodo the whole journey PLUS carried it the whole time Frodo was poisoned by Shelob, and he NEVER was affected.

Frodo is the most revolting, pathetic, boring and uninspiring little turd I've ever seen in the entire trilogy! I mean seriously all he does is nag, then drops dead, then gets up without a scratch, nags, drops dead again and the story continues... has the habit of taunting all the enemies by showing them the ring and then standing in the exact spot motionless for them to take it(it got me to the point of thinking that he's actually on their side! )... trusts deformed freaks over his best friend and kinsman... and at the very end in some moronic and awkward way he decides to keep the ring...
Now contrary to Frodo's incompetence and aggravating character, The character of Sam was the true hero as he did almost all the work, even carrying Frodo while he nagged about the ring being such a tremendous burden(sigh). Sam will always be my most favorite character in LOTRs.

3 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...

This guy is as ugly asf, is lustful after Eowyn, who he could never get, and is just a servant of Saruman. He killed Saruman as well, which pissed me off, because I actually kind of like Saruman.

4 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 Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, he is portrayed via motion capture by Andy Serkis.

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

He's creepy. In general all the lotr characters are good. Plus everyone should stop hating on Frodo because his job was very hard.

5 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.

She is ' awesome and pretty, though did she really have to choose Aragorn? Like, cereal?

6 Galadriel Galadriel is a character created by J.R.R. Tolkien, appearing in his Middle-earth legendarium. She was one of the greatest of the Eldar in Middle-earth, and surpassed nearly all others in beauty, knowledge, and power. She was also the bearer of Nenya, one of the three Elven rings of power. In film, the character has been portrayed by the Australian actress Cate Blanchett.

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.

7 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.

Boromir is one of the very few kind of "human" characters, at least in the movie trilogy. He is my favourite character. As someone else said, he is not much more than a soldier, a human, not some kind of superhuman half-god warrior.

He's not necessarily bad, but I never really liked his character that much. When he died, I was actually glad that it was him and not someone I cared about.

8 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?

People say they hate him because of the arwen situation, but actually, he was pretty cool about it, if a normal dad found out his daughter was gonna die over someone, well he would hack him apart witha, a machete

I wish Elrond was my dad!

9 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!

First of all, they did not replace Glorfindle with Eowyn. They replaced him with Arwen. They really shouldn't have. She killed the Witch King of Angmar of Pellinor Fields. If it wasn't for her, nobody else would've been able to kill him and they probably would lose the battle.

That THING makes me want to claw my own eyes out. It's disgusting. All it ever does is slut up to Aragorn and try to get laid. It even looks annoying with those bambi eyes and disgusting attitude. It tries to be tough and really it's just pathetic and I wish it died a painful death in battle, but no, because the creators want to suck up to feminists, they just make it defeat the witch king and try to look cool. "I am no man"? NO, BUT THAT DOESN'T MAKE YOU SPECIAL, YOU LITTLE SLAG>

10 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.

Although it could be argued that he never meant any harm, all his antics in the earlier part of the story cost his friends dearly every time. They're not small boo-boos that can be dismissed as childish mischief. They're fairly big missteps that have real, life threatening, potentially apocalyptic consequences for everyone.

He's and idiot, in the first movie, 99% of the trouble was because of Pippin, I.E. letting people know who Frodo is when they were supposed to be discrete, throwing stones in the water bringing the Kraken, dropping a skeleton to bring forth a demon...

The Contenders
11 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. Morgoth was later defeated and Sauron fled. He later came back to Middle Earth and took over as the new Dark Lord by using a Ring of Power. He was later trapped by having his Ring of Power cut off his finger. He lived in a shapeless form. Sauron was remanifested as a necromancer and after being banished by a group of elves and wizards, Sauron took over the mind of Saruman. They went out and searched for the Ring. Sauron was finally defeated in the War of the Ring.

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.

Sauron wasn't even a character in the trilogy. He was just a long range outdoor surveillance camera. He did nothing else than sometimes giving Frodo some LSD to keep him permanently high.

I don't really hate any character so I'm voting for Sauron because he's evil. Hehe.

12 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!

He would have been the best character in the book if it weren't for the fact that because of his name I didn't know he was male until chapter four! MERRY IS A GIRL NAME, ACTUALLY SO IS PIPPIN! If Tolkien wanted to give them those names he should have made them girls

I wasted s vote on this to share some information. Merry's full name is Meriadoc Brandybuck, Merry is a nicname. Pipin's is the same way, his is Peregrin Took

13 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.

I'm kinda just neutral about this dude.

14 Bilbo

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

15 Eomer

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

He is ugly and useless

What is the problem with him?

16 Mrs. Sackville-Baggins
17 Sam

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

18 Otho Sackville-Baggins
19 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.

Honestly, he was kind of pointless in the books and I almost stopped reading it because of him.

20 Legolas Legolas is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He is a Sindarin Elf of the Woodland Realm and one of nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring. He has been portrayed by Orlando Bloom in the live action movies.

I'm not kidding when I say that I want legolas out of the movies. He doesn't change the story in any way, he's just useless. Not obeying fysics while fighting does not make a good character. Unlike good character's should legolas doesn't change, accomplish or learn anything in the entire trilogy.

I don't dislike Legolas, but I am really annoyed at the people who treat him like the best character ever. He can shoot arrows. I can't really list many other character traits.

All he does is spin around in the air shooting arrows into the sunset. He has no character traits or personal goals. He's just there and has an easy time killing orcs.

He doesn't just shoot arrows. Id say he is a better swordsman than the rest as well. Plus he is the most agile and can accomplish physical feats none of the others can

21 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. In the film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he was portrayed by Sir Christopher Lee.

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.

22 Deagol

The only thing he does is to die!

23 Gothmog

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

He is ugly, very ugly

24 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.

Hey buddies, here I am. The only person in the entire world who likes Tauriel.

;-;

I don't see the problem will her.

Y'all are just probably sexist.

Okay gbye

What did she ever do?!

Was not in the books and was just used to make teenage girls squeal over the romance

25 Fatty Bolger
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