9. Gimli
Another great comic relief character that quickens the action and keeps the pace going. Gimli was fun, fire and bombast compared with Legolas' cold demeanor; they played off each other really well. Their paths could have crossed before, marking the dwarf as the character that Peter Jackson and company could have most realistically be brought back to spar with Legolas. Gimli has a giant personality/presence, unlike many of the generic dwarfs, differentiated only by their different hair/beard combinations in The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey. I felt like I was watching an Amazing Race challenge; I expected the competing couples to move in and be told they needed to emulate the beard of one of the actors to get their next clue. Humor naturally makes you connect with a character, of course, and most of the dwarfs in the first film had little humor - although I am enjoying Bofur and Balin.