20 Idiotic Decisions Made By Characters In The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy

8. Saruman Invents Gunpowder, Only Uses It Once - The Two Towers

When informed of Helm's Deep's weakness, Saruman developed a simple, yet effective, method of dealing with it: By using some magical form of Gunpowder (which Tolkien ambiguously referred to as "some devilry of Orthanc" in the source material). Saruman's bomb is quite a contraption, but it is only employed at one point in the The Two Towers - to break the walls of Helm's Deep. It was good strategy on its own, but imagine what other sorts of things Saruman could have accomplished if he'd used it for more purposes other than a siege weapon. All logistical concerns about developing gunpowder aside, would it not have come in handy to Saruman when Isengard comes under attack from the Ents? Instead, his orc workforce attempts to use flaming arrows and small axes to take down the giant Treelike beings, and that doesn't quite cut it. Saruman would have been wise to keep some of this material back at Isengard in case such a need arose again to use heavy ordinance.

7. Everyone Relies On Blind Faith That Frodo Will Destroy The Ring - The Two Towers

Ever since Frodo and Sam are separated from the rest of the fellowship, none of the remainder of the Fellowship even pause to consider going after Frodo and Sam and continue the task they set out to do. Instead, they opt to sit around and wonder about whether Frodo actually is going to make it without any sort of information. True, it would be a logistical impossibility to track down Frodo and Sam at this point, but they get to easily wrapped up in their own struggles until the end of Return of the King, when they realize that they should probably take some affirmative action to assist Frodo on his quest. Gandalf makes a habit of constantly saying, "All our hopes lie with two young Hobbits." For a wise and ancient wizard, Gandalf's faith in Hobbits as a species capable of great things may be a tad excessive at times.