The Lord of the Rings (film)/Characters: Difference between revisions

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== The Fellowship ==

[[File:180px-Frodo_sting_5089.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[The Corruption]]: One of the major themes of the story.

* [[Determinator]]

* [[The Hero]]

* [[Hidden Depths]]: This applies to all the hobbits. Frodo in particular is very well educated.

* [[Hitchhiker Heroes]]

* [[Hobbits|Hobbit]]

* [[I Just Want to Be Normal]]: Laments that he wished the Ring had never come to him at one point (before he's anywhere near his darkest hour), [[Discussed Trope|prompting Gandalf to respond that all who live to see such times wish this]], and that all he has to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to him.

* [[The Messiah]]: Shares this role with Aragorn.

* [[Parental Abandonment]]: His parents drowned in the Brandywine River.

* [[The Power of Friendship]]:

* [[Pretty Boy]]: For the movies at least, he's young and beautiful; in the books, hobbits are more friendly-looking than handsome.

* [[The Quest]]

* [[You Can't Go Home Again]]: Frodo realises at the end of his [[The Quest|quest]] that he is irreversibly changed.

 

[[File:220px-Sam_8022.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: Did a hobbit just kick the crap out of a [[Giant Spider]]? [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Hell yes.]]

* [[The Everyman]]

* [[Frying Pan of Doom]]: Sam uses this to whack some goblins in Moria.

* {{spoiler|[[Happily Married]]}}: At the very end.

* [[Hidden Depths]]

* [[Hobbits|Hobbit]]

* [[Hollywood Pudgy]]: Sure he's heavier than the skinny waif that is Frodo, but he's hardly as fat as Gollum says.

* [[I Just Want to Be Normal]]

* [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]]: Just about the only character in the story who the Ring cannot tempt.

** [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]

* [[The Power of Friendship]]

* [[The Reliable One]]

* [[Sidekick]]: [[Breakout Character|Ascended]] to hero.

* [[Tender Tears]]: More prominent in the movie adaptation, though.

* [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]]

* [[Undying Loyalty]]: Sam almost defines this trope.

 

[[File:200px-248px-0006AC40-2CAA-1FD7-8DAB80C328EC0000_7317.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[The Straight Man]]: When he and Pippin are left alone, Merry is shown to be very capable and sensible, even wise, at times.

* [[Those Two Guys]]: With Pippin.

* [[Trickster Archetype]]: With Pippin, especially since Merry is the one who starts trouble.

 

[[File:220px-Pippin_5118.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Plucky Comic Relief]]

* [[Those Two Guys]]: With Merry.

* [[Trickster Archetype]]: An innocent version, with Merry, though this toned down as they make their transition to [[Badass Normal|badasses]].

 

[[File:180px-Gandalf_4125.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Robe and Wizard Hat]]: One of the most memorable.

* [[The Strategist]]

* [[Weapon of Choice]]: Staff and Sword.

* [[You Shall Not Pass]]: [[Trope Namer]]

 

[[File:150px-Aragorn_3_1906.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Iconic Characters]]

* [[King Incognito]].

* [[The Medic]]: He has [[Healing Hands]] and other special healing powers due to his lineage.

* [[Memento MacGuffin]]: The Ring of Barahir. Not explained in the films but he is shown wearing it as an [[Easter Egg]] or [[Mythology Gag]] for readers.

* [[Older Than They Look]]: Thanks to Numenorean descent, he is at his prime at 87.

* [[Older Sidekick]]

* [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]] - Well, eighty-seven, anyway.

* [[Requisite Royal Regalia]]

* [[Weapon of Choice]]: Sword.

 

[[File:220px-1Legolas_3832.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Bishounen]]: In the movie, oh so '''very''' much.

* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni|Blue Oni]]: In the Peter Jackson film.

* [[Elves vs. Dwarves]]: Averted, eventually.

* [[The Fair Folk]]

* [[Weapon of Choice]]: Bow and [[Dual-Wielding|long knives.]]

 

[[File:180px-Gimli_at_the_siege_of_moria_3253.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Weapon of Choice]]: Axe.

 

[[File:220px-Seanbean_boromir_6600.jpg|frame]]

 

 

== Men ==

[[File:180px-Screen_shot_2011-10-30_at_5_01_02_PM_2093.png|frame]]

 

* [[Battle Cry]]

* [[Big Damn Heroes]]

* [[Foil]]: To Denethor. Where Denethor went mad from grief from Boromir's death, Theoden managed to pull himself out of his despair and find the courage to save the day. He's also a lot more noble than the more devious Denethor.

* [[He's Back]]

* [[Royals Who Actually Do Something]]

 

[[File:220px-Eowyn_3991.jpg|frame]]

 

** [[Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu]]: She literally broke her arm in the struggle, but she also nearly died from contact with the Witch King.

* [[Don't You Dare Pity Me!]]

* [[Go Through Me]]

* [[Hair of Gold]]

* [[Lady of War]]

* [[Loving a Shadow]]: Aragorn's response to her is the [[Trope Namer]].

* [[Sweet Polly Oliver]]

 

[[File:220px-Eomer_1812.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Warrior Prince]]

 

[[File:220px-Denethor_5123.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Sanity Slippage]]

* [[Self-Immolation]]

* [[24-Hour Armor]]: Seen as a symbol of his stubbornness and pride, but also redeeming values thereof.

 

[[File:220px-Faramir3_3072.jpg|frame]]

 

 

== Elves ==

[[File:220px-Elrond_8400.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|Really Sixty-Five Hundred Years Old]]

 

[[File:220px-100_beautiful_arwen_1490.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: She gives up her immortality to stay with Aragorn, but it's indicated that he eventually dies, and she follows him not long afterward.

* [[Composite Character]]: Takes over Glorfindel's role as the Elf who takes Frodo to Rivendell, and some aspects of Luthien.

* [[Heroic Lineage]]

* [[Hero's Muse]]: She functions in this role for Aragorn: the driving force behind his striving to regain his crown is his love for Arwen and the fact that he can only marry her once he is king.

* [[World's Most Beautiful Woman]]: Literally (after Luthien died).

 

[[File:220px-Galadriel04_1834.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Good Counterpart]]

* [[The Lady's Favour]]: Three [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|golden hairs]] from her head. Which is more than [[Ubermensch|Feanor]] got, [[Take That|incidentally]]...

* [[Large Ham]]: "You offer it to me freely? I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired this... {{spoiler|In place of a dark lord you would have a QUEEN! NOT DARK, BUT BEAUTIFUL, AND TERRIBLE AS THE DAWN! TREACHEROUS AS THE SEA! STRONGER THAN THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE EARTH! ALL SHALL LOVE ME, AND DESPAIR!"}}

* [[Leave Your Quest Test]]

* [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|Really Very Old]]: Galadriel was born in the Year of the Trees 1362, before the Sun, the Moon, and the waking of Man. A moderate estimate of Galadriel's age is 10,000 years old.

* [[Time Abyss]]

 

== Other Main Characters ==

[[File:220px-Smeagol_2890.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Foil]]

** [[Shadow Archetype]]: Gollum is a shadow to both Bilbo and Frodo. He is to some extent a shadow to Sam.

* [[Gollum Made Me Do It]]: [[Trope Namer]].

* [[Grey and Gray Morality]]

* [[Heel Face Revolving Door]]

* [[Hero Antagonist]]: [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Possibly]].

* [[Iconic Characters]]: Even people who haven't seen the book or film are familiar with Gollum, if only through [[Popcultural Osmosis]] or his role as childhood [[Nightmare Fuel]] in ''[[The Hobbit]]''.

* [[I'm Melting]]

* [[Monster Sob Story]]

* [[Not So Different]]: From a hobbit once, or from Frodo under the power of the Ring.

* [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|Really Five Hundred Years Old]]

* [[Reformed but Rejected]]: In the Jackson films, Sam never completely trusts him even when he's loyal to Frodo. [[Properly Paranoid|When he begins plotting in earnest, though]]...

* [[Sanity Slippage]]

* [[Serkis Folk]]: [[Trope Codifier]] (in the Jackson-films)

* [[Split Personality]]

* [[Starring Special Effects]]

* [[Sympathetic Murderer]]

* [[Trademark Favourite Food]]: Fisssh.

* [[Tragic Villain]]

* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]

 

[[File:248px-Treebeard_6197.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Badass Grandpa]]

* [[Constantly Curious]]

* [[Green Aesop]]

* [[Heroic Neutral]]

* [[Hidden Depths]]

* [[Plant Person]]

* [[Time Abyss]]: Perhaps the third-oldest physical creature ([[Our Angels Are Different|Maiar]] don't count) in Middle-Earth. Cirdan, having awoken with the first generation of Elves at Cuivienen way back in the [[The Time of Myths|Years of the Trees]], is older still, and Tom Bombadil is older than the world.

 

== The Forces of Evil ==

[[File:220px-Sauron-2_9655.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: "Sauron" is Quenya for "abomination". His less-often-seen Sindarin name, Gorthaur, means "terrible dread".

* [[Obviously Evil]]

* [[Out-Gambitted]]: He Out Gambits everyone, and then is in turn [[Out-Gambitted]] by Gandalf. See [[Unwitting Pawn]] below.

* [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|Red Eye Take Warning]]

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: His goal was once to establish order in Middle-Earth.

 

[[File:180px-TheOneRing_9587.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Ring of Power]]: THE Ring of Power.

* [[Soul Jar]]

 

[[File:220px-Saruman-the-white_6912.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Compelling Voice]]: Especially when played by [[Christopher Lee]].

** [[Most Wonderful Sound]]

* [[Evil Counterpart]]: To Gandalf. He even says that he is what Saruman should have been.

* [[Evil Old Folks]]

* [[You Can't Make an Omelette]]: Discussed. <small>[[Kirk Summation|"He who breaks a thing to discover what it is has left the path of wisdom."]]</small>

 

[[File:200px-Grima_4563.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Treacherous Advisor]]

 

[[File:179px-Witch_king_Sword_1992.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Prophecy Twist]]

* [[The Undead]]

* [[Weaksauce Weakness]]: Sunlight, fire, non-men.

* [[Was Once a Man]]

 

[[File:180px-Lord-of-the-rings-orcs_819.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[The Ageless]]: Like the Elves they were supposedly created from, but it isn't fully clear.

* [[Bad Boss]]: Any given orc in a position of power will probably be one of these

* [[Black Blood]]

*** Gothmog also appears in the book, but it's never specified whether he is an orc or a human.

* [[No Cure for Evil]]: Averted. Orcish medicine is among the most advanced in Middle-Earth but it tends to be very painful and has heavy scarring.

* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]: Uruk-hai only. "Standard" orcs are sneaks and cowards.

* [[Smug Snake]]: Grishnakh.

* [[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.

 

[[File:180px-Olog-hai_7231.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[All Trolls Are Different]]: Tolkien's trolls are giant-like monsters with rocky hides and beast-like intelligence. They permanently turn to stone when exposed to sunlight. The exceptions are Sauron's Olog-hai, more intelligent trolls that are immune to sunlight.

* [[Dumb Muscle]]

* [[Elite Mook]]: The Attack Trolls followed by the Olog-Hai.

* [[Smash Mook]]

 

 

* [[Ass in Ambassador]]: After meeting with Aragorn, he essentially demands his surrender.

* [[I Shall Taunt You]]: Pretty much his whole "negotiation" with Gandalf.

* [[Mouth of Sauron]]: [[Trope Namer]]

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]

* [[Slasher Smile]]

* [[Smug Snake]]

 

[[File:164px-Shelob_fighting_4756.jpg|frame]]

 

** The book emphasizes that unlike dragons, Shelob has no weak spots save for her eyes. Sam is only able to pierce her skin and tissue because she unwittingly slams on his blade with her own, massive strength.

* [[Casting a Shadow]]: Like her mother, she weaves webs of unlight that are perceptible to the Hobbits.

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: In spider-form, but an abomination nonetheless.

* [[Eye Scream]]: Sam stabs her in one eye with Sting during their fight.

* [[The Voiceless]]: The fact that she was able to work out a deal with Gollum implies she ''can'' speak, but she never does during her appearance in the text.

** Or just that she understands speech, and relented her attack when Gollum begged for his life and promised to bring her tasty things to eat.

 

[[File:s_Balrog_5113.jpg|frame]]

 

* [[Large and In Charge]]: Much larger than the orcs and trolls in Moria, and they seem to be almost as afraid of him as the Fellowship is. In the [[Peter Jackson]] films, Durin's Bane is nearly twenty feet tall.

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: A lot of the people will remember the scene where Gandalf sacrifices himself in order to save the Fellowship from the beast.

** And [[Casting a Shadow|shadow]].

* [[Rasputinian Death]]: Falls down a deep pit along with Gandalf, as they try to stab one another as they plummet down to the bottom. Once they land, they are immediately submerged, carried down the stream presumably, until they reached the base of a mountain, climb the [[Endless Corridor|Endless Stair]] to the peak of Celebdil, where they fought until Gandalf manages to pierce its heart, causing it to fall down to its death.

* [[Whip It Good]]: He uses a flaming whip [[Dual Wield|in conjunction with]] a [[Flaming Sword]].