The Lord of the Rings/Characters: Difference between revisions

* [[Action Girl]]: In her youth. According to one version in ''[[Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth]]'', she fought for the Teleri in the first Kinslaying. And ''that'' she was an [[Action Girl]] actually means a lot more than it sounds like -- the elves believed [[White Magician Girl|women had a special role as healers]], a task no less critical than that of warriors, most of whom were men. Women ''could'' fight (and certainly trained to know how), but it was believed that the act of fighting endangered their nature as healers.

A strange... ''person'' who lives in the Old Forest just outside the Shire. Tom is the forest's "Master" and nothing can harm him within its borders. His nature is a mystery--he was old even when the first Elves entered his part of the world. He lives in a little house with his wife, the river-spirit Goldberry. Tom was the first person the hobbits met after leaving the Shire and he provided them safe passage along the early part of their journey. He also gave them their swords after he rescued them in the Barrow-downs. He refuses to get involved in the War of the Ring and sits the whole thing out.

* [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]]: More like Incorruptible Pure Neutrality. The Ring has no power over him--possibly because he has no desires to speak of, even less than the Hobbits.

* [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]]: Before his physical body was destroyed in the fall of Númenor. Even afterwards he's implied to still possess the ability, though he never really gets a chance to use it--he just can't conceal his true nature any more, meaning it's no longer useful as a disguise.

The nine Nazgûl were kings of Men to whom Sauron gave nine Rings of Power in the Second Age. Seduced by power, they fell into evil, and eventually passed into a state of undeath. The Nazgûl, or Ringwraiths, are extensions of Sauron's will who exist only to do his bidding. They are his most terrible servants, and the greatest among them--known variously as the Black Captain, the Lord of the Nazgûl, and many other names--rules Minas Morgul as the Dark Lord's right hand.

* [[Always Chaotic Evil]]: All the orcs we see, although [[Word of God]] is that it may not be ''completely'' the case. In any event, Tolkien was good enough to give all named orcs distinctive (though [[Planet of Hats|still evil]]) personalities.

* [[Cold-Blooded Torture]]: Those orcs who aren't [[Blood Knight|Blood Knights]] are ''really'' into this.

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: They regard accusations of cannibalism (that is, eating other Orcs--eating other races is fine) as a grave insult. (Though whether or not they do it anyway is an open question...)

* [[Our Orcs Are Different]]: Actually, to a degree they ''are'', despite being the [[Trope Namer]]. Tolkien's actual orcs are much more advanced and intelligent, and not as physically powerful, than the crude barbarians [[Always Chaotic Evil]] orcs are generally portrayed as.

* [[Was Once a Man]]: The origin that made it into the books is that they were once elves. This is only one possibility, though, and [[Flip-Flop of God|it kept changing right up until Tolkien's death]]--he didn't like the implications that had for their eternal souls, even though he did not want evil to be capable of independent creation, which would have conflicted with his Christianity.

* [[Always Chaotic Evil]]: Though the standard Trolls (barring the trio from [[The Hobbit]]) are barely above animals in intelligence, it seems.

* [[One Steve Limit]]: Broken--there was another group of Men called Easterlings in ''[[The Silmarillion]]''. There's no indication they were related; it was probably just a generic term for "barbarians" from the east.

** Her mother Ungoliant in ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' could talk, as could her descendants in ''[[The Hobbit]]''. All told, makes Shelob herself being able to talk seem pretty likely--she probably just didn't have anything to say to her dinner.

[[Category:{{BASEPAGENAME}}]]