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

6. Denethor Sends Faramir To Certain Death, Along With A Large Chunk Of Gondor's Army - The Return Of The King

Denethor, Steward of Gondor, is an emotionally unstable lunatic. Grieving over the death of his oldest son, and resenting the very existence of his younger son, his entire role in The Return of the King is to sit around and make irrational and judgmental decisions. When Faramir looses Osgiliath to the armies of The Witch-King, Denethor's punishment of his son is not only cruel, but also quite stupid. He sends his only remaining son in a suicidal charge to retake Osgiliath, along with a sizable complement of soldiers. Sending Faramir to certain death is an emotional and spiteful decision, but the decision to send a large chunk of Gondor's standing army with him is an outright stupid one. In a city facing certain annihilation by orc army, they need every soldier they can get their hands on, no matter how resentful the steward is at his son. Not exactly a master tactician, this one.

5. Gollum Turns Frodo Against Sam, Sabotages His Own Plan - The Return Of The King

Let's look at Gollum's plan to get the ring back. On paper, it is pretty straightforward; win the trust of Frodo and Sam, then lead the two of them into Shelob's lair, where the Giant Spider devours both of them and he can take the ring for himself. It seems like a fairly straightforward plan, except Gollum overthinks it quite a bit on the way. As Sam gets more and more distrustful of Gollum, Gollum begins to turn Frodo against Sam to separate the two of them. This plan works on its own, but it directly contradicts his other plan and allows both Frodo and Sam to survive. If Gollum had committed to leading both Frodo and Sam to Shelob's lair, there is no way they would have been rescued. However, because Sam is turned back by the disillusioned Frodo, he can then catch Shelob by surprise - something that is theoretically impossible when Shelob isn't occupied with her prey. This can all be attributed to poor planning on Gollum's part. He out-schemed himself, and paid quite the price for it.