| “ | You cannot hide. I see you. There is no life in the Void. Only… death. | „ |
| ~ Sauron taunting Frodo when he puts the One Ring on. |
Sauron, also known more commonly as the Dark Lord, is the main antagonist in Peter Jackson's Middle-earth film series. He is the overarching antagonist of the Hobbit trilogy and the titular main antagonist of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
After escaping judgment day during the first age with Morgoth's defeat, he becomes the second dark lord and rules over Mordor. He later forged the One Ring to Rule Them All in order to conquer Middle-earth. After his initial defeat and the loss of his physical form after losing the ring, he resurfaced in the Third Age when Frodo Baggins began his quest to destroy the ring, during which he amassed his army to continue his reign of terror. He is the archenemy of the Fellowship of the Ring, especially to Aragorn and the White Council, especially to Gandalf and Galadriel.
He was portrayed by Sala Baker and voiced by the late Alan Howard in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in The Hobbit trilogy, who also played Smaug in the same franchise and Dormammu in Doctor Strange.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- Although he wanted to be reunited with the One Ring, which is a possessed object and his own creation, it's only because he saw it as a tool to help him reconquer Middle-earth and remain undefeated, meaning that to him, it was merely an extension of himself.
- In addition, he went into a meltdown upon its destruction not because he cared about it as its own being, but because he knew it would mean his own destruction as well as he poured his life force into it when he created it.
- While he is no coward and has boldly scaled down an entire army with his mace, it does not make him honorable, as his underhanded methods and his bloodlust show that he is far past what minimal honor he could have had.
- He is the same race as Gandalf and Saruman (a Maia) and as he fights Galadriel atop Dol Guldur, there is a blink-and-miss-it shot of Sauron when he used to be a benevolent Maia, showing that he is capable of understanding good and evil yet chose to be evil for the sake of power and control, confirming his moral agency.
- He is unquestionably the most heinous villain in the entire saga, due to being behind the creation of the One Ring and thus the numerous wars to conquer the Middle-earth such as the War of the Last Alliance, the Battle of the Five Armies and the War of the Ring and therefore the entire conflict of the series, as well as being the overarching force behind most of the other major villains such as Smaug, Azog and Saruman and their crimes.
Background[]
- He deceived the Elves, the seven Dwarf-lords, and the kings of Men, with the Rings of Power, which would help them rule each of their races, hiding the fact that he was going to create the One Ring in Mount Doom to rule over the other Rings of Power.
- Upon its creation, he used the One Ring's powers to wage war upon the people of Middle-earth, conquering many of its kingdoms and killing thousands of people in his reign of terror.
- When the last alliance of Men and Elves made a final stand against Sauron's forces, he killed King Elendil of Gondor and dozens of soldiers who were standing in his way.
- Due to the One Ring's creation, he thereby corrupted the nine kings of Men who wore their Rings of Power into the Nazgûl and turn them into slaves to his will, which is a fate worse than death, and also indirectly caused the corruption of Isildur and Gollum, as well as Gondor's disgracing.
The Hobbit trilogy[]
- He became the Necromancer of Dol Guldur and formed an orc alliance with Smaug and Azog the Defiler to use them to reclaim Middle-earth, and polluted and poisoned the forests of Greenwood into Mirkwood by using evil creatures such as Great Spiders to plague the land.
- This caused Radagast to venture into Dol Guldur, where Sauron attacked him just for being worried about his precious pets.
- Sending Azog and his orc armies to conquer Erebor in order to reclaim the kingdom of Angmar and conquer the lands of Middle-earth.
- After Azog took Thráin II to Dol Guldur as his prisoner, Sauron tortured Thráin through his mind using witchcraft, leading him to be driven mentally insane and try to kill Gandalf after using Dol Guldur itself as bait, as Sauron knew that he would come to make him reveal himself.
- As Gandalf tried to rescue Thráin from Dol Guldur, Sauron sent Azog and his fellow Gundabad orcs to attack them both and taunted Gandalf about being unable to defeat him, making his point by personally killing Thráin right in front of him.
- He attacked Gandalf and broke his staff during their fight, before imprisoning him in a cage where he watched in horror as his forces were marching to Erebor to conquer it due to its strategic position, restore Angmar to help him in his conquests, and once again declare war on Middle-earth.
- He attacked Galadriel, Elrond, Saruman, and Radagast when they came to rescue Gandalf and tried to get Galadriel to stop fighting him by taunting her about being alone and showing her his might.
- He also threatened her with the thorough obliteration of the Elves. Nothing listed was even self-defense against trespassers with so-called violent intent, even if they didn't initially know he was the Dark Lord of Mordor returned, as Sauron had molested Radagast's animals, and Gandalf was his friend, and Galadriel was a friend of Gandalf. All in all, this means he was merely trying to ravage people who stood up to his continued acts of animal cruelty.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy[]
- After he was banished back into Mordor alongside the Nazgûl, he successfully convinced Saruman that he would prevail against the forces of goodness, thus leading Saruman to become his servant.
- He had his servants capture and torture Gollum to find out where the One Ring is. Upon extracting Baggins' name, the Dark Lord sent the Nazgûl to find and kill Frodo and reclaim the Ring, which led to the Witch-king wounding Frodo with a Morgul Blade.
- When Frodo puts on the One Ring for the first time, Sauron attempts to pin him on the spot by showing him a vision of himself as the Eye so that Frodo couldn't flee.
- He ordered Saruman to send an army of over 10,000 Uruk-hai soldiers to attack Helm's Deep and slaughter everyone living there, including the women and children.
- Once Pippin accidentally used Saruman's palantír to contact him, Sauron shows him a terrifying vision of the White Tree of Gondor burning. He also goes on to mentally torture the Hobbit merely because Pippin refused to share his name to the Dark Lord.
- He sent a powerful army of orcs, led by the Witch-king of Angmar and Gothmog, to destroy Minas Tirith and eradicate its inhabitants. Its destruction was sought so that the free peoples of Middle-earth would be unable to stand against him under one banner.
- He intended to grow stronger to make Arwen grow weaker and kill her, due to her fate being tied to the One Ring.
- He even showed Aragorn visions of Arwen's death to mentally torment him out of petty spite once he provoked him with the sword Narsil, as its original owner was Elendil and Isildur used it to sever his finger wearing the Ring 3,060 years ago.
- He sent the Mouth of Sauron to taunt Frodo's friends and allies at the Black Gate by lying to them about him being tortured to his death. When that failed, he had his armies surround and attack the remnants of Gondor and Rohan's armies.
- When Frodo was possessed by the One Ring and put it on, Sauron sent the Nazgûl to Mount Doom to murder Frodo so he can reclaim the Ring to use it to conquer Arda.
- He is responsible for all the mental torment and trauma Frodo suffered from, resulting in the latter never fully recovering and eventually leaving Middle-earth.
The Lord of the Rings: Conquest ("Rise of Sauron" campaign)[]
- It is shown that had Sauron reclaimed the One Ring, he would have:
- Massacred the Orc rebels.
- Had Frodo killed.
- Destroyed Minas Tirith and had its population cannibalized by his orc armies.
- Conquered Moria.
- Ordered the Balrog to kill Gimli.
- Attacked Weathertop and killed Aragorn.
- Attacked and conquered Rivendell, murdering Elrond and Legolas.
- Taken Elrond's ring for himself.
- Attacked the Shire and had countless innocent Hobbits murdered just to lure Gandalf and Treebeard out to kill them.
- Killed Gandalf.
- Enslaved the Hobbits.
- Killed Treebeard and set his corpse on fire to use it to burn alive any Hobbits that resist his rule.
- Conquered all of Middle-earth and eventually Arda itself.
Trivia[]
- He is the only Pure Evil character in the Middle-earth film franchise to also be Pure Evil in the novel franchise.
- This version of Sauron's role in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit is expanded over that of his novel counterpart, as he is given more personality and shown doing more acts, such as mentally abusing Aragorn and Frodo. The novel version of Sauron was made Pure Evil due to his role in The Silmarillion.
- Despite being Pure Evil like in the book, due to the absence of his actions in The Silmarillion, as well as the absence of Morgoth, his underlings Azog, Smaug, Saruman , and Gothmog also qualify as Pure Evil in the Peter Jackson films due to their actions being comparable to his.
External Links[]
- Sauron on the Villains Wiki
- Sauron at Wikipedia
- Sauron on the Vs Battles Wiki
- Sauron on the Black Knights Wiki
- Sauron on the Middle-earth Cinematic Universe Wiki
- Sauron on the Lord of the Rings Wiki
- Sauron on the Tolkien Gateway
- Sauron on the The Ultimate Evil Wiki
External Links to Videos and Sounds[]
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