History Characters / MiddleEarthShadowOfMordorProtagonists

* OhCrap: When he faces Carnán, he knows he's dealing with an entity as powerful as Tom Bombadil.

* ArcherArchetype: The Wraith's a master archer, a skill he lends to Talion as a byproduct of his possession of the ranger, and he is a very cold and pragmatic voice in most matters.

* DropTheHammer: Tends to use one in his off-hand in ''Shadow of War''. You can claim it for Talion's use by completing the Shadows of the Past missions.

* HurtingHero: The pain of losing his family (and, to a lesser extent, his fellow Rangers) carries throughout his journey. He looks sad when Hirgon and Eryn happily reunite, and the Wraith has to tell him off when he starts projecting onto Lithariel.
-->'''Talion''': I had a family once, a wife and a son...and I buried them, along with ''everyone'' I've ever known.

** [[spoiler:This is technically his fate at the end of the ''Desolation of Mordor'' DLC as well, but it ends on a much more upbeat note.]]

* AnimateDead: The logical endpoint for Talion's abilities, considering his banishment from death and being bound to a Wraith that leaves him in a state of perpetual undeath with RessurectiveImmortality. [[spoiler:Ironically, he only gains this ability after Celebrimbor betrays him and gives his New Ring to Eltaeriel in ''Shadow of War''. Some of the Wraith's powers are replaced with powers typical of a Nazgûl that let him raise deceased Uruk-hai and Olog-hai to fight for him once more.]]

* AchillesHeel: The only thing stopping Talion from passing on is The Wraith. [[spoiler:When the Black Hand severs their connection, Talion's lethal wounds immediately re-open. ''Shadow of War'' shows that a Ring of Power (which has the life force of its creator inside of it) can also sustain him]].
* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: [[spoiler:After taking Isildur's ring, Talion becomes a Ringwraith himself and bound to Sauron's service.]]
* AnimateDead: The logical endpoint for Talion's abilities, considering his banishment from death. [[spoiler: Ironically, he gains this ability after Celebrimbor leaves his body in ''Shadow of War''. In his place are Nazgûl powers that let him raise deceased orcs to fight for him once more.]]
* AntiHero: Talion's primary motivation is avenging his and his family's murders and he's willing to do just about whatever it takes to accomplish that. While he still limits himself to orcs, his domination and slaughter of them takes a toll; one monologue in the ''Lord of the Hunt'' DLC is him questioning who is the real beast between Mordor's fauna, the orcs, and himself who hunts all of them.
* ArmoredButFrail: He remains as strong as a normal human throughout the game, only able to cause and receive more damage due to his armor and weapons.
* BadassCape: Has one, and it can never be removed in gameplay. ''Shadow of War'' reveals it to be a TragicKeepsake of his dead wife. [[spoiler:His wraith form also has one, like the other Nazgûl.]]

* BadPowersGoodPeople: Due to being Celebrimbor's host, he has his powers by proxy but he is still qualifies as TheHero. This trope becomes even stronger at the end of ''Shadow of War'' when [[spoiler:Talion pretty much becomes a Nazgûl himself after rejecting Celebrimbor's goal to replace Sauron, and then uses his powers to defy the Dark Lord, keeping his armies divided for as long as he can to defend Middle-earth from being invaded by him]].
* BarredFromTheAfterlife: His "undeath", as Carnán puts it, is due to Celebrimbor using his body as a host. [[spoiler:He's further barred from it when he takes the ring of Isildur and becomes a Ringwraith himself. [[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing The destruction of the One Ring]] finally allows him to pass on to Valinor.]]
* BarrierMaiden: [[spoiler:Among other things, in order for Middle-earth to recover enough to ultimately defeat Sauron, there needed to be a counterbalance to the Dark Lord to delay his campaign of conquest until the time is right. Tallion is that very counterbalance]].

* BigGood: Downplayed. Talion isn't the most morally correct hero in Middle Earth, but he is the co-leader of the army of Orcs and Ologs opposing Sauron [[spoiler:and gets promoted to supreme leader after Celebrimbor's FaceHeelTurn.]]
* BlackEyesOfCrazy: In ''Shadow of War'', [[spoiler:when he claims Isildur's Ring -- or when he just wears the Servant set, his sclera turn black to accompany his yellow irises. It becomes more fitting once he succumbs to the ring and joins the Nazgûl]].
* BowAndSwordInAccord: Plus his TragicKeepsake "dagger." The bow is technically the Wraith's, but given their bond together, that amounts to semantics. [[spoiler:After becoming a Ringwraith, he gets to have one, but canonically changes to a small hammer.]]

* CanonCharacterAllAlong: [[spoiler: He becomes one of the Nine Ringwraiths at the end of ''Shadow of War''. Specifically, the Winged Wraith that hunts the Ringbearer. It gives a little more weight to Gollum's fear about the "wraith on wings", because ''he knew him personally''.]]
* ChangedMyMindKid: All through ''Shadow of Mordor'', Talion's main objective is to break the curse that prevents him from being TogetherInDeath with his family. However, by the time he finally gets his chance, he's gotten a glimpse of Sauron's power and menace, which causes him to forgo death in favor of stopping him.

* TheChessmaster: His interactions with the Nemeses can easily become this, and this is in fact encouraged by the gameplay mechanics.
* CombatPragmatist: Talion does ''not'' fight fair, and given that he's raging a one-man guerilla war against the forces of Sauron, it's entirely justified. He's exploit the weaknesses of Captains, poison orc grog barrels, and turn as many orcs as possible to his cause. Even in direct combat, he'll gladly use stealth and surprise to his advantage, take hostages, and kick enemies in the groin.

* CrusadingWidower: Talion's goal is as much to avenge his wife and son's murders as his own.

* MultiMeleeMaster: He's skilled in both longsword and dagger combat, and while he only wields one at a time, he can alternate between them on the fly. In the sequel he gets to use a [[BladeOnAStick glaive]].

* BladeOnAStick: In ''Shadow of War'', he can manifest a spectral glaive for Talion to take on groups of enemies, and is seen having wielded it himself in flashbacks (especially when mounted on caragors). Notably, [[AllThereInTheManual the Appendices]] reveal that this glaive is none other than [[NamedWeapons Aeglos]], the spear wielded by the Noldorin High King Gil-galad during the War of the Last Alliance.

* BadassBaritone: Courtesy of Creator/TroyBaker.

* BadassBaritone: Comes with being voiced by Ike Amadi.

** As revealed by Shelob, [[spoiler: him abandoning Talion after he refuses to brand Isildur was what doomed him. Had he still possessed Talion, Celebrimbor ''would'' have won and enslaved Sauron.]]

** As revealed by Shelob, him abandoning Talion after he refuses to brand Isildur was what doomed him. Had he still possessed Talion, Celebrimbor ''would'' have won and enslaved Sauron.

* LuckyTranslation: His name in Sindarin means "Silver Hand," which in retrospect draws an easy parallel with the White Hand of Saruman, another FallenHero and [[BigBadWannabe would-be Dark Lord]] with a LightIsNotGood motif who brands his Uruk servants with a hand-print. The only reason it's this and not a MeaningfulName from the start is because of his expanded role compared to the books.

* CasualDangerDialog: Baranor is pretty laid back most of the time. When Talion (who mistook him for an orc) grabs him, throws him to the ground and puts a blade to his sternum, he simply gives a mild (and possibly slightly dazed) "Ho there."

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: [[AllThereInTheManual His backstory]] reveals that he rapidly rose through the ranks of Minas Ithil's army due to his bravery and superior skill in combat.

* GoodCounterpart: More like [[spoiler: less evil counterpart, as he's the Bright Lord to Sauron's Dark Lord. [[SubvertedTrope Shelob actually sees him as worse since he can win the war and rule over Middle-earth unlike Sauron who is still too weakened]]]].

* KickTheDog: [[spoiler:Abandoning Talion for Eltariel can at least fall into the excuse that it was for his plan. Then he decides to twist the knife and dismisses Talion as nothing more than a replacable vessel.]]

* [[BigDamnHeroes Big Damn Hero]]:

* SoleSurvivor: Of the band of surviving Gondorian soldiers on the expedition to Lithlad. The were-wyrms actually [[KillEmAll get all of them]], but Baranor survives thanks to [[BigDamnHeroes Torvin's timely intervention]].

* ScarsAreForever: In his case, they really are. Despite being nothing but a soul, his face still has the scars he received when [[spoiler: Sauron bashed his face in.]] By ''Shadow of War'', his condition has worsened due to him putting almost all of his life force into the New Ring.

* SociopathicHero: He starts off as a fairly well-intentioned AntiHero, but as his war drags on, he slides more and more into sociopathy thanks to a generous helping of MotiveDecay. While he's always considered orcs to be completely disposable (and Talion always has as well, for that matter), he's the one who comes up with the idea of [[MindRape shaming captains, with the stated intent of breaking them]], and he [[TheCorrupter eventually persuades Talion to come around to his point of view]] (although it should be noted that their target [[spoiler:Brûz]] is practically encouraging such sentiment with his antics). Most importantly, in ''Shadow of War'''s climax, he reveals that [[spoiler:he also considers ''Talion himself'' to be nothing more than a way to reach and defeat Sauron. Until he reveals this, he is arguably a hero. Afterwards, not so much.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: He died an IronicDeath [[spoiler:when Sauron killed him by beating him to death with his own smithing hammer.]]

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:Face it, ending up being merged with Sauron after trying to Brand him is pretty appropriate.]]

* GoodCounterpart: To the Nazgûl, since Talion is also an undead Man brought back to life with special powers, but he fights to protect Middle-earth from the Shadow and its minions. Taken UpToEleven in ''Shadow of War'', where Talion wields a Ring of Power just like the Nazgûl and actually encounters and fights them on a regular basis. [[spoiler:It's taken UpToEleven ''again'' at the end of the game, where Talion becomes a Ringwraith himself, albeit a [[DarkIsNotEvil renegade one]] waging war against the Dark Lord's forces to protect Middle-earth until his eventual fall]].

* LimitedWardrobe: He is never seen without his blue & grey armor. He had it on when he stole the One Ring, was wearing it when he died, and still has it on as a wraith hundreds of years later. Taken UpToEleven -- or perhaps to the point of parody -- with the playable skin added to ''Shadow of War'' in July 2018, which is the only skin in the game whose appearance is completely unaffected by swapping out gear.

* TheQuietOne: [[spoiler:Originally, he had no new[[note]]He keeps most of those that he already had, such as when he meets with someone he's sent a death threat to[[/note]] lines whatsoever during Act IV and beyond, with the exception of speeches when his army captured a fortress, and just grunted when dominating orcs. He was later given more lines with a patch.]]

* DarthVaderClone: [[spoiler:In the endgame of ''War''. After he's left to die and undergoes an EmergencyTransformation, he's got SupernaturalYellowEyes and wears [[InTheHood a black cloak]] -- which the player can replace with a black, face-concealing mask. His status as an OneManArmy with access to an invisible force is doubled down upon since Celebrimbor is gone. And then there's his [[EvilSoundsDeep new voice]]]].