History YMMV / TheSilmarillion

* AmbiguouslyGay: Fans often read Maedhros and Fingon this way.

* HoYayShipping:

** Tar-Palantir, the last faithful king of Numenor. Though the narrative portrays him as [[HopeSpot the last chance the Numenoreans had to turn their society's decay around]] and blames the people for not immediately following him, he really doesn't do anything to reverse the corruption except hollow virtue-signalling, and despite claiming to be among the Faithful, he doesn't do anything to promote their side or refute the beliefs of the King's Men, even though he could easily have educated the people. Heck, the fact that Pharazon made his fame in the army conquering Middle-earth before he usurped the throne himself means that Palantir didn't even stop Numenor's most obvious corruption, its imperialistic conquest and subjugation of the Men of Middle-earth. Not even Amandil and Elendil seem to oppose this, only opposing the paganism and literal HumanSacrifice, so even the Faithful took part in some of Numenor's corruption.

** Tar-Palantir, the last faithful king of Numenor. Though the narrative portrays him as [[HopeSpot the last chance the Numenoreans had to turn their society's decay around]] and blames the people for not immediately following him, he really doesn't do anything to reverse the corruption except hollow virtue-signalling, and despite claiming to be among the Faithful, he doesn't do anything to promote their side or refute the beliefs of the King's Men, even though he could easily have educated the people. Heck, the fact that Pharazon made his fame in the army conquering Middle-earth before he usurped the throne himself means that Palantir didn't even stop Numenor's most obvious corruption, its imperialistic conquest and subjugation of the Men of Middle-earth. Not even Amandil and Elendil seem to oppose this, so even the Faithful took part in some of Numenor's corruption.

** Tulkas is described as being an immensely strong PhysicalGod with large muscles, ruddy skin, HairOfGold and a matching BadassBeard, who [[BarefistedMonk prefers hand-to-hand combat to using weapons]]. Who does that [[Wrestling/HulkHogan sound]] [[Creator/ChuckNorris like]]?

* CompleteMonster:
** [[SorcerousOverlord Melkor]], later known as [[GodOfEvil Morgoth Bauglir]], began life as one of the Valar, but his spite and arrogance precipitated his steady downfall into evil. Beginning by destroying the great lamps of Valinor and creating the pits of Utumno, Morgoth takes as many races as he can and personally enacts [[ColdBloodedTorture hideous, unspeakable tortures]] upon them until all that remains are grotesque perversions that he can use as his servants. Following his first defeat, Morgoth repays mercy with treachery, destroying the world trees, killing the king of the Noldor elves and stealing their treasures, leading to the deaths of thousands of elves when they pursue him, before setting up his base of operations in Middle-Earth. He delights in [[TheCorrupter corrupting men into darkness]], manufacturing and playing off corruption in their hearts to set them against each other and their allies. His "crowning achievement" is tricking and beguiling the first men into swearing an oath of eternal fealty to him, meant to enslave the race forever in body and spirit; mortality is considered a gift for Man, as normally souls of Men leave Arda and Morgoth's grasp. Morgoth launches brutal campaigns of slavery and genocide, including the destruction of Gondolin, the most beautiful and proud elven city, whose citizens are saved solely by the heroism of the city's warriors. He also tries to rape the elven princess Luthien out of nothing more than cruel lust. At one point, he condemns a man to horrible torture and then enacts a curse to see his children grow, suffer horribly and be rejected by both life and death, solely because the man dared to defy him.
** [[Characters/TheLordOfTheRingsSauron Sauron]], Morgoth's DragonWithAnAgenda, is a demonstration of how [[FaceHeelTurn those who were once noble can fall to great evil]]. Sauron was once a noble Maia who was swayed to Morgoth's side. Over time, Sauron's noble intentions for the world were replaced with vanity and lust for power. In the First Age, Sauron convinced a man to betray his comrades, showing him a vision of his beloved wife...once the man did what Sauron asked, Sauron revealed she was already dead and had his hapless pawn tortured to death as [[ExactWords he had promised to reunite them]]. Upon capturing the hero Beren and his companions, Sauron placed them in his dungeons where he allowed his werewolves to slowly pick the group off, one by one, to torment the survivors. After the defeat of his master, Sauron fled to Numenor, assuming the fair form of Annatar, the Bringer of Gifts and seduced Numenor towards darkness and evil until it was a Morgoth-worshipping theocracy that practiced HumanSacrifice. This was an act so unholy, Eru Ilúvatar, the equivalent of {{God}}, stepped in to destroy Numenor. Even then, Sauron was not done, and tricked the other races with the [[RingOfPower Rings of Power]], forging his [[ArtifactOfDoom One Ring]] to enslave all that lived. In the Third Age, he embarked on a genocidal war for conquest, seeking only to feed his lust for domination and megalomania.
** [[ImmortalityImmorality Ar-Pharazôn the Golden]] was the final King of Numenor. Forcibly marrying and [[VillainousIncest raping his own cousin]] even before he fell under the sway of Sauron, Ar-Pharazôn became [[TheCaligula a monstrous tyrant]] in his alliance with the fallen Maiar. Conducting HumanSacrifice in huge numbers to Morgoth, Ar-Pharazôn committed unspeakable atrocities on human kingdoms so terrible that even in the Third Age their descendants willingly sign with Sauron to revenge themselves upon Numenor's descendants, eventually attempting to invade Valinor to massacre the elves there and declare himself the ultimate ruler above even [[{{God}} Eru Ilúvatar]].

** [[Characters/TheLordOfTheRingsTheForcesOfSauron Sauron]], Morgoth's DragonWithAnAgenda, is a demonstration of how [[FaceHeelTurn those who were once noble can fall to great evil]]. Sauron was once a noble Maia who was swayed to Morgoth's side. Over time, Sauron's noble intentions for the world were replaced with vanity and lust for power. In the First Age, Sauron convinced a man to betray his comrades, showing him a vision of his beloved wife...once the man did what Sauron asked, Sauron revealed she was already dead and had his hapless pawn tortured to death as [[ExactWords he had promised to reunite them]]. Upon capturing the hero Beren and his companions, Sauron placed them in his dungeons where he allowed his werewolves to slowly pick the group off, one by one, to torment the survivors. After the defeat of his master, Sauron fled to Numenor, assuming the fair form of Annatar, the Bringer of Gifts and seduced Numenor towards darkness and evil until it was a Morgoth-worshipping theocracy that practiced HumanSacrifice. This was an act so unholy, Eru Ilúvatar, the equivalent of {{God}}, stepped in to destroy Numenor. Even then, Sauron was not done, and tricked the other races with the [[RingOfPower Rings of Power]], forging his [[ArtifactOfDoom One Ring]] to enslave all that lived. In the Third Age, he embarked on a genocidal war for conquest, seeking only to feed his lust for domination and megalomania.

** Thingol was a genuinely [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure reasonable]] king who cared about his people and his wife and daughter, but most of his detractors come from his bigotry towards Men, and specifically sending Beren on a suicide mission, even though he learned his lesson and got better after that.

*** Pouring his essence unto Arda, ensuring the world and the universe would be marred with evil until the end of it's existence.

** Readers will tirelessly insist the elves are completely incorruptible and all their wrong doing can be justified. Obviously their genocides, child killing, refugee butchering, and stealing the Petty Dwarves' land count for nothing. Those readers usually cite ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' more than ''The Silmarillion''.

** Eöl, of all people. Nevermind that he was a controlling {{Jerkass}} who deliberately got his wife lost (so she'd have to stay with him), or that he refused to let her leave the forest or ''go out in daylight'', or that the circumstances of their marriage are QuestionableConsent at best (the best the text can do is to say Aredhel was "not wholly unwilling", and that her life "was not hateful to her")...and that's ''before'' he tries to kill his son, and kills Aredhel instead. He (and his marriage) still have defenders.

** Gwindor.

* AngstAversion: Coming off of the lighter tone of ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'', the more darker tone of the various ''The Silmarillion'' may be off-putting to some readers. A number of notable stories are outright tragedies (such as the War of the Jewels and the Children of Hurin), and the defeat of Morgoth comes at a high cost, with the setting of the stories sinking into the ocean, a large chunk of the world's beauty perpetually destroyed, and magic being much more diminished than before. And even then, Morgoth's influence will [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil continue to "mar" Arda until the end of time]].

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earendel "Earendel"]] is an old Northern European name for a god or a star or something along those lines. It seems to be one of those words that stick in people's heads: names like Earendel/ Horwendill crop up in the oddest places, including the works of Creator/JamesBranchCabell and John Fowles's ''Literature/TheMagus'', and ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'', for that matter.

** [[Characters/TheLordOfTheRingsTheForcesOfSauron Sauron]], Morgoth's DragonWithAnAgenda, is a demonstration of how [[FaceHeelTurn those who were once noble can fall to great evil]]. Sauron was once a noble Maia who was swayed to Morgoth's side. Over time, Sauron's noble intentions for the world were replaced with vanity and lust for power. In the First Age, Sauron convinced a man to betray his comrades, showing him a vision of his beloved wife...once the man did what Sauron asked, Sauron revealed she was already dead and had his hapless pawn tortured to death as [[ExactWords he had promised to reunite them]]. Upon capturing the hero Beren and his companions, Sauron placed them in his dungeons where he allowed his werewolves to slowly pick the group off, one by one, to torment the survivors. After the defeat of his master, Sauron fled to Numenor, assuming the fair form of Annatar, the Bringer of Gifts and seduced Numenor towards darkness and evil until it was a Morgoth-worshipping theocracy that practiced HumanSacrifice. This was an act so unholy, Eru Ilúvatar, the equivalent of {{God}}, stepped in to destroy Numenor. Even then, Sauron was not done, and tricked the other races with the [[RingOfPower Rings of Power]], forging his [[ArtifactOfDoom One Ring]] to enslave all that lived. In the Third Age, he embarked on a genocidal war for conquest, seeking only to feed his lust for domination and megalomania

** StoicWoobie: Maedhros. Bein opg tortured at the hands of Morgoth and Sauron, losing a hand, most of his family (including Fingon, who meant a lot to him), and being the ''only'' known Elf to ever commit suicide qualifies him for woobie status. Letting absolutely ''nothing'' of this show through (aside from a few instances) got him the stoic part.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: Eöl, being one of the Dark Elves who chose to remain behind in Middle-Earth rather than sail West to the Valar, hated Fëanor and the Noldor who fled Valinor and invaded Middle-Earth, and in doing so killed Elves of Eöl's kin. Let's face it; a lot of the Noldor are blatantly racist, xenophobic and dismissive of pretty much all of the races who either stayed behind in Middle-Earth or awoke after the majority of the Elves left for Valinor. Thus, Eöl refuses to cooperate with Gondolin or the other Noldor states, and allies with the Dwarves and (presumably) the Green and other Dark Elves.

* AngstAversion: Coming off of the lighter tone of ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'', the more darker tone of the various ''The Silmarillion'' may be off-putting to some readers. A number of notable stories are outright tragedies(such as the War of the Jewels and the Children of Hurin), and the defeat of Morgoth comes at a high cost, with the setting of the stories sinking into the ocean, a large chunk of the world's beauty perpertually destroyed, and magic being much more diminished than before. And even then, Morgoth's influence will [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil continue to "mar" Arda until the end of time]].

** Morgoth's BastardUnderstudy Sauron is a demonstration of how those who were once noble can fall to great evil. Sauron was once a noble Maia who was swayed to Morgoth's side. Over time, Sauron's noble intentions for the world were replaced with vanity and lust for power. In the First Age, Sauron convinced a man to betray his comrades, showing him a vision of his beloved wife... once the man did what Sauron asked, Sauron revealed she was already dead and had his hapless pawn tortured to death as [[ExactWords he had promised to reunite them]]. Upon capturing the hero Beren and his companions, Sauron placed them in his dungeons where he allowed his werewolves to slowly pick the group off, one by one, to torment the survivors. After the defeat of his master, Sauron fled to Numenor, assuming the fair form of Annatar, the Bringer of Gifts and seduced Numenor towards darkness and evil until it was a Morgoth-worshipping theocracy that practiced human sacrifice. This was an act so unholy, Eru Illuvatar, the equivalent of God, stepped in to destroy Numenor. Even then, Sauron was not done, and tricked the other races with the Rings of Power, forging his master ring to enslave all that lived. In the Third Age, he embarked on a genocidal war for conquest, seeking only to feed his lust for domination and megalomania

** Morgoth's BastardUnderstudy [[DragonAscendant Sauron]] is a demonstration of how those who were once noble can fall to great evil. Sauron was once a noble Maia who was swayed to Morgoth's side. Over time, Sauron's noble intentions for the world were replaced with vanity and lust for power. In the First Age, Sauron convinced a man to betray his comrades, showing him a vision of his beloved wife... once the man did what Sauron asked, Sauron revealed she was already dead and had his hapless pawn tortured to death as [[ExactWords he had promised to reunite them]]. Upon capturing the hero Beren and his companions, Sauron placed them in his dungeons where he allowed his werewolves to slowly pick the group off, one by one, to torment the survivors. After the defeat of his master, Sauron fled to Numenor, assuming the fair form of Annatar, the Bringer of Gifts and seduced Numenor towards darkness and evil until it was a Morgoth-worshipping theocracy that practiced human sacrifice. This was an act so unholy, Eru Illuvatar, the equivalent of God, stepped in to destroy Numenor. Even then, Sauron was not done, and tricked the other races with the Rings of Power, forging his master ring to enslave all that lived. In the Third Age, he embarked on a genocidal war for conquest, seeking only to feed his lust for domination and megalomania
** [[ImmortalityImmorality Ar-Pharazôn]] was the final King of Numenor. Forcibly marrying and [[VillainousIncest raping his own cousin]] even before he fell under the sway of Sauron, Ar-Pharazôn became [[TheCaligula a monstrous tyrant]] in his alliance with the fallen Maiar. Conducting HumanSacrifice in huge numbers to Morgoth, Ar-Pharazôn committed unspeakable atrocities on human kingdoms so terrible that even in the Third Age their descendants willingly sign with Sauron to revenge themselves upon Numenor's descendants, eventually attempting to invade Valinor to massacre the elves there and declare himself the ultimate ruler above even [[{{God}} Eru Ilúvatar]].

* AngstAversion: Coming off of the lighter tone of ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'', the more darker tone of the various ''The Silmarillion'' may be off-putting to some readers. A large number of notable stories are tragedies(such as the War of the Jewels and the Children of Hurin), and the defeat of Morgoth comes at a high cost, with the setting of the stories sinking into the ocean, a large chunk of the world's beauty perpertually destroyed, and magic being much more diminished than before. And even then, Morgoth's influence will [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil continue to "mar" Arda until the end of time]].

* AngstAversion: Coming off of the lighter tone of ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'', the more darker tone of the various ''The Silmarillion'' may be off-putting to some readers. A large number of notable stories are tragedies(such as the War of the Jewels and the Children of Hurin), and the defeat of Morgoth comes at a high cost, with the setting of the stories sinking into the ocean and magic being much more diminished than before. And even then, it's stated that Morgoth's influence will [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil continue to "mar" Arda until the end of time]].

* AngstAversion: Coming off of the lighter tone of ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'', the more darker tone of the various ''The Silmarillion'' may be off-putting to some readers. A large number of notable stories are tragedies(such as the War of the Jewels and the Children of Hurin), and the defeat of Morgoth comes at a high cost, with the setting of the stories sinking into the ocean and magic being much more diminished than before. And even then, it's stated that Morgoth's influence will continue to "mar" Arda until the end of time.