10 Most Hated Lord Of The Rings Characters

Most of the characters on this list, albeit with the exception of Wormtongue, have at least some redeeming feature. Isildur defeated Sauron, Boromir saved Merry and Pippin, and Treebeard helped take down Saruman. Denethor, son of Ecthelion, Steward of Gondor however, has none.

He was a proud, petty, and paranoid man, which would ultimately be his own undoing. His, and the many of his people he let down. Boromir once described him as a noble man, but in spite of claiming to see the demise of Middle-earth and Minas-Tirith, he did nothing about it.

Even worse than his failed rule, that ended in a war and countless deaths that could have been avoided had he acted earlier, or his mistrust of Théoden, Gandalf, and Aragorn, Denethor was a horrible father. After the death of Boromir, he went so far as to tell Faramir, his second son, that he wished it was he who had died, rather than his older brother.

When Faramir was forced to fall back from Osgiliath after being overrun by Orcs, Denethor sent him back in there despite it being a death sentence. His son was lucky to escape with his life, as no one else did on this ill-advised attack, yet that didn't stop him from trying to burn Faramir alive.

Even after Pippin told him his son wasn't dead, Denethor still tried to set him alight on a pyre of wood and oil.