Post #1 My top 5 non-Fellowship LOTR characters


Welcome to Elliott's Quarantine Quintet!

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at around noon (Central Time) until the point at which we can all frolic together again, I will share a list of my top 5. These lists will cover everything and anything.

The three movies of the Lord of the Rings trilogy are all in my top ten favorite movies. I have seen each of them multiple times (I have spent more time watching Lord of the Rings movies than I care to think about). I actually re-watched all three early on in my quarantining. Also, I thought each of The Hobbit prequel movies fell far, far short of the standard of the original trilogy.

So the first EQQ post is of my top five non-Fellowship of the Ring Lord of the Rings characters. 

I do want to come clean about one thing. I have not read any of the Lord of the Rings books. So these rankings are based on the original movie trilogy with the addition of the extensive background research I have done about the Third Age of Middle-earth, specifically the time during which the trilogy takes place.

Not every post will be as detailed as this one, but I wanted to start out strong.
    1. Eowyn By far the most badass non-Fellowship of the Ring character (and more so than at least one Fellowship member; looking at you Boromir). She disguised herself to ride into battle with the men and killed the Witch-king seconds after delivering one of the most memorable one-liners in the entire trilogy. Her complete badassery alone gives Eowyn the clear top spot.     2. Faramir

Speaking of Eowyn and badassery, the bravery and devotion that Faramir showed when he obeyed his father’s command to lead the near-suicidal mission to try to retake Osgiliath was one of the more poignant scenes in the entire trilogy (side note, I think Denethor my least liked character in the entire trilogy, which says a lot considering that it includes Sauron and the Nazgul, among others). Also, though not shown in the movies,  Faramir ended up marrying Eowyn, which certainly enhances his reputation.     3. Treebeard


As if a walking, talking tree weren't cool enough, he led the Ents in destroying Isengard, the land of one of the titular Two Towers. Furthermore, Treebeard has multiple extremely quote-worthy quotes. While it is hard for me to pick a favorite Treebard quote, if I had to pick one, I would go with, "You must understand, young Hobbit, it takes a long time. to say anything in Old Entish. And we never say anything unless it is worth taking a long time to say."
  

    4. Elrond I agree with the popular take that Elrond could have saved Middle-earth a whole lot of trouble if he had just “accidentally” pushed Isildur (who held the one ring of power) into the fires of Mount Doom when he had the opportunity following the victory at the end of the War of the Last Alliance. And, though it came from a place of love and concern, he doesn’t score any points for trying to keep his daughter Arwen from marrying Aragorn. Nonetheless, I admire Elrond for his majesty, wisdom, and devotion to the elvish race.     5. Bilbo
He certainly plays a minor role in the trilogy at best, but Bilbo Baggins is one of the first characters we are introduced to at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring. He comes across as extremely fun and likeable. More than any other character in the LOTR trilogy, Bilbo is the one who I would most like to sit down and share a pint with and let him regale me with stories of his adventures. 

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
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