Board 8 > Most Evil Fictional Character: Morgoth vs. Sauron

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Welcome to the 2023 edition of Most Evil Fictional Character, a single-elimination tournament to determine the most evil fictional character of all time!

Here's the bracket:

https://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=477621&tclass=

And here's the discussion topic:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80568652

And here are the rules:

-First and foremost, YOU MUST BOLD YOUR VOTE FOR IT TO COUNT. The reason for this is that these topics encourage a lot of discussion and debate, and it helps me to distinguish a vote from simple discussion if all votes are bolded. So, I state again, ALL VOTES MUST BE BOLDED FOR THEM TO COUNT. I reserve the right to be lenient in early topics if people just aren't getting it, but for the most part, IF YOUR VOTE ISN'T BOLDED, IT WON'T COUNT.

-You must vote for which of the two characters you honestly believe to be the more evil of the two. You can determine this via any method you like, use your own morals and judgement, read all the arguments made to determine your choice, or however you choose to make your pick, but you must only vote for the one you truly believe is the most evil. This isn't a death battle, or a popularity contest. You're voting ONLY for the most evil character out of the two choices presented.

-While on that subject, remember that because this isn't a death battle or a fighting tournament, do your absolute best to consider the two characters as if their power levels were equal (either the weaker character brought up to the level of the strongest, or vice versa, or both if you want to consider both possibilities). Therefore, just because, for example, one of the characters blew up a planet and the other one merely kicked a puppy, doesn't necessarily mean the planet killer is more evil than the puppy kicker. Consider the characters as if they have the exact same capabilities and what they might do in that scenario.

-You can make any arguments, debates, etc. you want in this topic. Discussion is STRONGLY encouraged, a fun debate about which of the two characters is most evil is exactly what these topics are for. Just don't make it personal, no insults or flaming, keep things civil even if you disagree. Also, no vote rallying, if you want to encourage people to vote for your character you need to at least make some semblance of an argument as to why, even if it's just "Character X did (really dastardly thing), I can't believe no one's voting for them!"

-Voting will continue for exactly 24 hours after the post is made. If there's a tie, there will be a new 24 hour topic. This will continue indefinitely until a winner is determined.

-YOU MUST BOLD YOUR VOTE FOR IT TO COUNT.

The following write-ups will contain untagged SPOILERS for The Silmarillion and The Lord Of The Rings. Proceed at your own risk!

MORGOTH

Morgoth is the primary antagonist of The Silmarillion.

Morgoth, originally Melkor, is the most powerful of the Valar but he turns to darkness and becomes the enemy of Arda. All evil in the world of Middle-earth ultimately stems from him. One of the Maiar of Aul betrays his kind and becomes Morgoth's principal lieutenant and successor, Sauron. Like Sauron, he has a host of other titles: Lord of the Dark, the Dark Power of the North, the Black Hand, and Great Enemy. The Edain, the Men of Nmenor, call him the Dark King and the Dark Power; the Nmenreans corrupted by Sauron call him the Lord of All and the Giver of Freedom. He is called "Master of Lies" by one of the Edain, Melkor holds dominion over Middle-earth from his fortress of Utumno in the North. Melkor captures a number of Elves before the Valar attack him, and he tortures and corrupts them, breeding the first Orcs. His fortress Utumno disperses deathly cold throughout Arda and brings on an endless winter in the north; for the sake of the Elves, the Valar wage a seven-year war with Melkor, defeating him after laying siege to Utumno. Later, he escapes imprisonment. With the aid of Ungoliant, a dark spirit in the form of a monstrous spider, he destroys the Two Trees of Valinor, kills the King of the Noldor, Finw, and steals the three Silmarils, jewels made by Finw's son Fanor, which are filled with the light of the Trees. Fanor thereupon names him Morgoth, "Black Foe", and the Elves know him by this name alone afterwards. Morgoth resumes his rule in the North of Middle-earth. Over the next several decades, Morgoth destroys the remaining Elven kingdoms, reducing their domain to an island in the Bay of Balar to which many refugees flee, and a small settlement at the Mouths of Sirion under the protection of Ulmo. During the War of Wrath, Beleriand and much of the north of Middle-earth is destroyed and reshaped. Morgoth summons many Men to his side during the fifty-year conflict, which becomes the largest, longest, and bloodiest conflict in Arda's history. In the end, Morgoth is utterly defeated, and his armies are almost entirely slaughtered. His evil remains, however, and his will influences all living creatures. Despite his overwhelming might, he was also known to be remarkably cowardly, reluctant to engage in battle himself even when victory was completely assured. Many of his most terrible deeds in Arda were achieved through treachery, manipulation, misdirection, and lies, and he seduced many Maiar to his service with false promises. However, as an utterly pitiless and merciless being, acts of compassion, mercy, or pity were entirely beyond his comprehension.

vs.

SAURON

Sauron is the primary antagonist of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

Sauron is the title character and the primary antagonist, through the forging of the One Ring, of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, where he rules the land of Mordor and has the ambition of ruling the whole of Middle-earth. In the same work, he is identified as the "Necromancer" of Tolkien's earlier novel The Hobbit. Tolkien, while denying that absolute evil could exist, stated that Sauron came as near to a wholly evil will as was possible. About 500 years into the Second Age, Sauron reappeared, intent on taking over Middle-earth and ruling it as a God-King. To seduce the Elves into his service, Sauron assumed a fair appearance as Annatar, "Lord of Gifts", befriended the Elven-smiths of Eregion, led by Celebrimbor, and counselled them in arts and magic. With Sauron's assistance, the Elven-smiths forged the Rings of Power. Sauron then secretly forged the One Ring, to rule all other rings, in the volcanic Mount Doom in Mordor. The Elves detected his influence when he put on the One Ring, and removed their Rings. Enraged, Sauron initiated a great war and conquered much of the land west of Anduin. Sauron overran Eregion, killed Celebrimbor, and seized the Seven and the Nine Rings of Power. The Three Rings were saved by the Elves, specifically Gil-galad, Crdan, and Galadriel. Sauron besieged Imladris, battled Khazad-dm and Lothlrien, and pushed further into Gil-galad's realm. The Elves were saved when a powerful army from Nmenor arrived to their aid, defeating Sauron's forces and driving the remnant back to Mordor. Sauron fortified Mordor and completed the Dark Tower of Barad-dr. He distributed the remaining rings of the Seven and the Nine to lords of Dwarves and Men, respectively. Dwarves proved too resilient to bend to his will, but he enslaved Men as the Nazgl, his most feared servants. Orcs and Trolls became his servants, along with Easterlings and men of Harad. Sauron bred immense armies of Orcs and allied with and enslaved Men from the east and south. He gathered his most terrifying servants, the Nazgl, or Ringwraiths, each wearing one of the nine rings designed for mortal men. He adopted the symbol of a lidless eye, and as he exerted his will over Middle-earth, the Eye of Sauron became a symbol of power and fear. After Gollum was captured, Sauron had him tortured and learned that he once had a magic ring, and, from him, he heard the words Shire and Baggins. He deduced that Gollum's ring was the One Ring, and in TA 3017 he sent his servants, the dreaded Nazgl, to find Shire and search for Baggins, so that the One Ring might be found and returned to him. Meanwhile, Sauron lured Saruman the White, one of the Istari, into his service, and used him to try to destroy Rohan, one of the major obstacles to Sauron's conquest of Gondor and the remaining Elves. Fearing that his enemies would use the Ring against him, Sauron sped up his plans and attacked the city of Minas Tirith in Gondor sooner than he had planned, seeking to raze the city and crush the last human resistance to his rule before his enemies could fortify it, and to prevent the Men of the West uniting under one king.

While both of these characters are written in the same style of an almost mustache twirling basic as can be villain, the early parts of The Silmarillion show Morgoth as constantly getting played. Every single thing he tries to ruin ends up being part of Eru Ilvutar's overall plan. He doesn't just get played, he plays himself constantly. Even when he sort of got his shit together on being evil, he failed pretty hard. He oversaw a massively destructive, multi-generational war, but he gets his ass so thoroughly kicked that no one seems to remember his name by the third age.

Sauron

Like...isnt it canon that Morgoth was the worse / more evil of the two?

In subjective terms I guess it comes down to which of their approaches one finds more "evil". Sauron is more devious and manipulative with his dickery while Morgoth is more of a brutal hammer. Sauron is also a control freak who ultimately still sought order while Morgoth just wanted to kill everyone else.

Plus Morgoth was kind of the OG Evil and basically invented it in that setting while Sauron became corrupted by him (Morgoth didnt need any corrupting)

Sauron is a better character but in terms of evil it feels like Morgoth is above him here. I'm not the biggest Tolkien buff but is that the right idea when it comes to the two?

Morgoth

Morgoth

All evil stems from him, which would include Sauron yes?

Pirateking2000 posted...

Sauron is a better character but in terms of evil it feels like Morgoth is above him here. I'm not the biggest Tolkien buff but is that the right idea when it comes to the two?

Ironic because Morgoth gets way more screen time and development in The Silmarillion then Sauron gets in The Lord of the Rings.

Isn't Morgoth just fantasy Satan?

I think you have to go Morgoth here. Sauron demands absolute control and will go to any lengths to achieve it, but he isn't "pure evil," he's evil-lite.

Morgoth

Morgoth
This is the worst possible match-up for Sauron, having to face off against his own boss. At least if other characters from the same franchise had faced each other, like Voldemort vs Umbridge or Dio vs Cioccolata, one doesn't directly serve the other.

Lol, sorry Sauron, but the creation of the orcs alone puts Morgoth ahead.

"In all the deeds of Melkor the Morgoth upon Arda, in his vast works and in the deceits of his cunning, Sauron had a part, and was only less evil than his master in that for long he served another and not himself."

Kinda a hard counter here >_>

Morgoth

Obviously Morgoth

Well then yeah. I could see arguments if this was a similar situation just between characters from different series (former underlings can become worse or be viewed as worse based on how they approach stuff). This however is literally a case where both characters are from the same work and author WOG basically said "this guy is the worse between the two". Sauron got fucked by the bracket.

Morgoth

Margon

Oof

morgoth lmao

Morgoth