knightni

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Dec 8, 2011 -> 07:22 PM) Thanks Ollie! Now to sports. The Marlins lost their 29th game in a row after manager Ozzie Guillen had Reyes bunt with 2 outs and no one on base. His only comment, "Yoo know I like the buntin'. I'm tha f***in' manager; I do what I want."

Is STL moving Berkman to 1B or would they be interested in Paulie?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 8, 2011 -> 06:11 PM) Well they do seem to like to overpay to get an established player... I ask because Alex Gonzalez is going to Milwaukee. Do the Braves have an in-house SS solution, or are they going to bid-up Jimmy Rollins/trade for Hanley?

How much would Atlanta pay to get Alexei?

Do the Braves have a replacement SS?

13. Ben Linus (Lost) (5 of 16 lists - 78 points - highest ranking #3 pittshoganerkoff) Benjamin "Ben" Linus is a fictional character portrayed by Michael Emerson on the ABC television series Lost. Ben was the leader of a group of island natives called the Others and was initially known as Henry Gale to the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815. He began as the antagonist during the second and third seasons, but in subsequent seasons, becomes something of an uneasy ally to the main characters; even so, however, throughout the series, he is persistently characterized by spontaneous coldblooded actions and the shroud of moral ambiguity. Other characters frequently describe him as loyal only to himself, though it is also often hinted that he may be driven by some higher purpose. As with most characters on Lost, Ben's history is revealed through flashbacks and episodes set in other time periods which are revealed slowly as the series progresses. Sterling Beaumon first portrayed a young Ben late in season three, in the character's first centric episode, "The Man Behind the Curtain". Ben's childhood is further explored in the fifth season of the series, partially set in 1977. Fifth season episode "Dead Is Dead" explores Ben's fragile state following the events of the fourth season, in which his loyalty to the island led to the death of his adoptive daughter Alex Rousseau (Tania Raymonde), and flashbacks show the audience Ben's original acquisition of Alex and his rise to leadership of the Others, after exiling his rival Charles Widmore (Alan Dale). Originally cast for three guest appearances in the second season, Emerson's role was expanded. As leader of the Others, Ben became a regular cast member from the third season onward. Reviews of the show would often focus on Ben's mysterious motives. Emerson's portrayal garnered many positive reviews, resulting in nominations for the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor year-on-year from 2007 to 2010, winning in 2009. In 2010, Ben Linus was ranked #24 on the TV Guide Network special, 25 Greatest TV Characters of All Time. Arc Prior to the crash Flashbacks during "The Man Behind the Curtain" show Benjamin Linus being born in the woods outside of Portland, Oregon, to Roger (Jon Gries) and Emily Linus (Carrie Preston). Emily dies after giving birth to Ben. When Ben is young, he and his father move to the Island, after his dad is offered a job working for the Dharma Initiative. On the Island, Ben begins to see visions of his mother, while Roger starts drinking heavily and verbally abusing him. Ben develops a hatred for the Dharma Initiative and one day runs away from the Barracks. He comes across Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell), one of the Island natives known to the Initiative as the "Hostiles", in the jungle, who agrees to Ben's request to join his group but tells him he needs to be very patient. Season five's "Namaste" shows a young Ben coming into contact with a captured Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews), who along with several other Oceanic Flight 815 survivors has been brought back in time from 2007. In the following episode, "He's Our You", he helps free Sayid under the impression Sayid was sent by the Others to bring him to Richard. Sayid instead shoots Ben and leaves him for dead. Fellow crash survivor Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) refuses to help the boy, so Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) and James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) take Ben to Richard, who informs them Ben will henceforth lose his innocence and always be one of the Others. In 1988, Charles Widmore, leader of the Others, sends Ben to kill French scientist Danielle Rousseau (Melissa Farman), who was marooned on the island. However, when Ben learns Rousseau has a child, he kidnaps the baby Alex Rousseau, warning Rousseau to never come looking for the baby if she wants either of them to live. Four years after this, it is revealed in flashbacks Ben kills his father with poison gas, then discovers every Dharma Initiative member dead, also from poison gas. He banishes Charles Widmore from the island and assumes his leadership role, as he is the only one who can allegedly interact with their real leader, Jacob, and communicate his will to the group. Two days before the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, Ben discovers he has a spinal tumor. After witnessing the crash, he sends Ethan Rom (William Mapother) and Goodwin Stanhope (Brett Cullen) to investigate. He chooses Goodwin in order to remove Ben's competition for the affections of Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell), a woman recruited to the island three years previously in order to help the Others with their fertility problems. After the crash Seasons two to four In the season 3 episode "Exposé", Ben and Juliet enter a Dharma station, the Pearl, and watch Jack on a monitor. Ben tells Juliet he will convince Jack to perform surgery on him. After Goodwin dies, Ben shows Juliet the corpse, so she knows she is Ben's and will be on the Island forever. Ben makes his first appearance in the season two episode "One of Them", where he is caught in a trap set by Danielle Rousseau (Mira Furlan). He pretends to be Henry Gale, a man from Minnesota who crashed on the island while traveling via hot air balloon. Rousseau turns him over to Sayid, who takes him to the Swan Station, where he is held captive and interrogated. Ben is exposed as a fraud when the body of the real Henry Gale is found, but he is set free by Michael Dawson (Harold Perrineau), a crash survivor whose son has been kidnapped by the Others. When Michael successfully brings Jack, Kate, and Sawyer to the pier, Ben gives him a boat so he can leave the Island with his son. Ben then takes Jack, Kate, and Sawyer to a smaller island nearby. In the beginning of season three, Ben gives Juliet the task of interrogating Jack, while Kate and Sawyer are kept in cages. He admits to Jack about having a tumor on his spine, and asks him to remove it in order for him to leave the Island. During the surgery he wakes up, where Jack refuses to finish until Kate and Sawyer are safely away from the Others. After they escape, Ben's operation is finished. He returns to the Barracks with the rest of the Others, and Jack in tow. When Locke comes to rescue Jack, he and Ben have a confrontation. Ben tells Locke of a "magic box" which can produce whatever someone wishes for and shows him his father, Anthony Cooper (Kevin Tighe), who they are holding captive and was brought to the Island because of the box. Ben offers Locke the opportunity to join the Others, but only if he kills Cooper; Ben knows he won't kill in cold blood, and so makes the offer as a way to humiliate Locke.[15] Locke returns a few days later with Cooper's corpse, having used Sawyer to do the deed for him, so Ben takes him to meet Jacob. When Ben discovers Locke can hear Jacob, he shoots Locke and leaves him for dead. He returns to the Others' camp, and tells Richard, now his second-in-command, to lead the remaining Others to the Temple. Ben takes Alex with him as he attempts to prevent Jack from sending a radio message to a nearby freighter. He reunites Alex with her mother, and claims if Jack contacts the freighter, every single person on the Island will die. Ben is beaten and taken hostage, and forced to watch as the freighter is contacted. In the first episode of season four, "The Beginning of the End", the survivors divide into two groups. Those who believe the people from the freighter to be dangerous, Ben among them, join Locke and head to the Barracks. After Ben confesses the freighter crew has come to capture him, Miles Straume (Ken Leung), a medium from the freighter, makes a deal with Ben, asking for $3.2 million in exchange for reporting Ben as dead to Charles Widmore (Alan Dale), the man who sent the freighter. Ben agrees after Miles rebuffs his claims such a small fortune is beyond him. Ben eventually gets his freedom when he tells Locke who sent the freighter. Once free, Ben urges Alex, and her boyfriend and mother, to travel to the Temple, for protection from the people on the freighter. However, they are ambushed en route by mercenaries from the freighter and all but Alex are killed. Alex is taken hostage after revealing herself to be Ben's daughter. In "The Shape of Things to Come", Martin Keamy (Kevin Durand), the leader of the mercenaries, threatens to shoot Alex if Ben does not come forward; Ben staunchly denies any attachment to her, which results in her execution. Ben claims Widmore has "changed the rules", then summons the smoke monster to attack the mercenaries. He then leaves with Locke and Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia) to communicate with Jacob. Locke enters Jacob's cabin alone, and returns stating they need to move the Island. They go to the Orchid, a Dharma station which allows them to do this. Ben sends Locke to become the new leader of the Others, then enters a secret level of the Orchid. He turns a large frozen wheel in the wall, which teleports the Island to a new location. Ben himself is transported to the Sahara Desert, specifically, Tunisia, which was formerly the ancient country of Carthage. The flashforwards in "The Shape of Things to Come" show Ben arrives in the Sahara Desert ten months ahead of when he left the Island. Ben finds Sayid at the funeral of his wife Nadia (Andrea Gabriel), and recruits Sayid as his personal assassin, telling him Widmore ordered the assassination of his wife. Ben provides Sayid with a list of targets, all of which he successfully kills over the next three years. At one point, Ben infiltrates Widmore's penthouse apartment in London to inform him of his intention to kill his daughter, Penelope (Sonya Walger), as retribution for the death of Alex. Seasons five and six When Locke leaves the island to bring the survivors back to the island, Ben tracks him down. He gets Locke to reveal what he knows about returning to the island, then kills him and stages it as a suicide. Ben visits Jack in the funeral home housing Locke's body, telling Jack he will help him return to the island, but the only way to get back is to bring everyone who had left it, including Locke's corpse. Ben boards Ajira Airways Flight 316 with the rest of survivors, which then crashes on the island. Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid are transported to 1977, while Sun and Ben remain in the 2007 with a resurrected Locke. The plane crash lands on the Hydra Island, so Ben attempts to take a boat to the main island. Sun strikes him in the back of the head and takes the boat with Frank, so Ben is left in the care of the other survivors, including Locke. After Ben regains consciousness and finds Locke to be alive, he convinces Locke he knew bringing him to the island would resurrect him, and he stopped Locke's suicide attempt merely to gain information. Locke travels with Ben, who is to be judged by the Monster. After they fail to find the Monster at the Barracks, they head to the Temple. As Ben and Locke travel through a series of tunnels beneath the Temple, Ben falls through the floor, so Locke leaves to get something that he can pull him up with. The Monster flows out of a grate below and surrounds Ben, showing flashes of decisions he made in his life involving Alex. The Monster takes the form of Alex and pushes Ben against a wall. She says she knows Ben is planning to kill Locke again, and if he does she will hunt him down and destroy him. She orders him to follow Locke and do whatever he asks, then disappears. They return to the Others' camp, where Locke gathers the group together and announces he is taking them to see Jacob. As they are walking, Ben relates his experience with the Monster and his promise to do whatever Locke asks, so Locke convinces Ben to kill Jacob. Richard leads them to the base of the statue, where Jacob lives. Within, they are met by Jacob (Mark Pellegrino). Jacob greets Locke and observes Locke has found a loophole. It is reveal that Locke was not resurrected, and is instead the Monster taking the form of Locke. Ben confronts Jacob about why he never revealed himself at any time during Ben's tenure as leader, but when Jacob is dismissive towards him, he stabs Jacob twice, killing him. After Jacob's death, the Monster tells Ben to fetch Richard, as he wants to speak to him. However, when Ben exits the statue, Richard throws him down beside the corpse of the real John Locke, which has been brought to the statue by survivors of the Ajira flight, led by Ilana Verdansky (Zuleikha Robinson). Ben is forced by Ilana's group to bring them to the imposter Locke. They start shooting at the Monster, but he disappears, then returns in its black smoke form, killing Ilana's group. The Monster returns to Locke's form and mockingly informs Ben of the real Locke's last thoughts, while being strangled by Ben. Afterwards, Ben comforts Ilana when he finds her crying in Jacob's chamber and sets off with her, Sun, and Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) to bury Locke before going to the Temple, where they believe they will be safe from the Monster. At Locke's funeral, Ben provides the eulogy, and expresses his sincere apologies for killing Locke. When they arrive at the Temple, the Monster is destroying the place. They return to the beach as a temporary shelter, and Ben attempts to make amends with everyone for killing Jacob. Ilana then forces him to dig a grave and explains she will kill Ben for murdering her father figure. Later, the Monster visits Ben, telling him to join him and then magically frees Ben. After Ben escapes, Ilana chases after him, and the two come face-to-face at the jungle when Ben points a rifle at her. Ben explains to her why he really killed Jacob, particularly grieving his daughter. Ilana understands and allows him to rejoin their group, which he does. Hurley, Jack, and Richard show up and join their group, then have a meeting, deciding what to do next. Richard suggests they should stop the Monster escaping by blowing up the Ajira plane. After Hurley destroys the available the dynamite from the shipwrecked Black Rock, Richard insists he will find other explosives. Ben and Miles join Richard, while the rest decide to go talk to the Monster. When Ben, Richard and Miles arrive at the Barracks, Widmore is there, and is soon joined by the Monster. Ben murders Widmore before he is able to make a deal with the Monster to spare his daughter. The Monster and Ben find Desmond and the Monster forces him to go destroy the Island. They run into Jack's group and they both go to the heart of the Island, where Desmond removes the cork of the Island, causing the Island to begin to collapsing. After Jack kills the Monster, Ben and Hurley volunteer to stay behind on the Island with Jack to assist him relighting the Island. Jack tells them he will die doing this and Jack gives Hurley the new position of being protector of the Island. Ben advises him to approach his Island duties with his kindness and helpful attitude. Hurley asks Ben to become his advisor, to which he is honored. After an undisclosed period of time, Ben, on orders from Hurley, arrives at the Dharma Logistics Warehouse in Guam. He speaks to the two workers there and instructs them that the facility is being shut down. Afterward, Ben arrives at the Santa Rosa Mental Hospital and visits Walt. Ben tells him that he is still special and that he can help his father, Michael, even though he is dead, and offers Walt a job to return to the island. The afterlife experienced by the surivors is shown during season six. In "The Substitute", Ben Linus is shown as a teacher of European History. In "Dr. Linus", Ben laments his life in general, particularly because his principal, Reynolds, does not care for the school. He is living with his father, Roger (Jon Gries), who is on life support. At school, he is shown to have a close relationship with his star pupil, Alex, and befriends a substitute teacher, John Locke. While studying together, Alex tells Ben that Principal Reynolds is having a sexual affair with one of the school nurses on campus. Ben attempts to blackmail Reynolds, threatening to reveal his affair and citing his position as principal as the demand. However, Reynolds swiftly retaliates by saying if he makes good on his threats, Alex's chances of going to Yale University will decrease substantially, as he is requested to write her a recommendation letter. Wanting to save Alex's educational future, Ben backs down. Days later, Ben notices Desmond Hume waiting outside the school in his car for an extended amount of time. Desmond runs over Locke, and swiftly drives off. As soon as the ambulance arrives, Ben gets in and sits next to the critically injured Locke, assuring him everything will be all right. When Locke returns to the school, Desmond does as well, and Ben catches him. Desmond beats Ben severely saying he was only trying to help Locke let go. Ben has a vision from his previous life during Desmond's beating. Ben believes him and relays Locke this information. When Alex sees how badly Ben was beaten, she invites him to her house where her mother, Danielle, fixes him supper. Danielle tells Ben that Alex views him as a father, and Ben begins to cry. Ben waits outside the chapel where the Oceanic survivors plan to move on together, and he sees Locke for the last time. Ben apologizes to Locke for killing him, and Locke forgives him. Hurley later comes out of the chapel and invites Ben in, but Ben politely declines saying he is not ready to move on, saying he "has a few things to work out". Personality "That's what my father does - he manipulates people. He makes you think it's your idea but it's his." Alex in "The Man from Tallahassee"Ben, although extremely well-mannered, has an impeccable ability to lie and manipulate the people around him, even when he is at a physical disadvantage. He can also be petty and vindictive, even to the point of murder, when he does not get what he wants. He claims to have been born on the Island, leading to him being thought of as a miracle by the Others, as pregnant women die on the island; but later confesses to Locke that he was lying. He unsuccessfully tries to convince the survivors he is Henry Gale, although succeeds in manipulating Locke to turn against Jack whilst held prisoner under this guise. While he claims he will not sacrifice innocent lives in order to accomplish his goals, he has been shown to do quite the opposite. In the third season finale, Ben is informed by Tom Friendly (M. C. Gainey), an Other, that they have captured three of the crash survivors: Sayid Jarrah, Bernard Nadler (Sam Anderson), and Jin-Soo Kwon (Daniel Dae Kim). When Tom tells Ben they are unwilling to reveal any information about the rest of the survivors, Ben quickly replies "Shoot Kwon... You want them to answer questions, kill Kwon - do it now". Conversely, Ben refuses to allow his spy on the freighter to destroy it long before it reaches the Island, as he would not kill anyone who "did not deserve to die". Furthermore, when Locke confronts Ben about causing the freighter to explode, Ben coldly replies, "So?" "I have full sympathy [for Ben]. I believe he has a mission and an agenda that he hasn't shared with us yet. The survival of the earth may depend on Ben's work, so it justifies his ruthless behavior. Maybe I'm just fantasizing or deluding myself." Ben's unclear motives have led to speculation about his possible status as a villain. Ben Rawson-Jones from Digital Spy describes Ben as a "supposed villain", pondering "Could he really have been the good guy all along" following the fourth season episode "The Shape of Things to Come". Actor Michael Emerson suspects where Ben's loyalties lie will always be ambiguous, making this a "wonderful role". He is rarely shown losing control of his emotions, but when he does, it is done in a big and childish way. Emerson explains "He's cold because any trace of warmth makes him vulnerable to his enemies". Ben is also known for his commitment to the island and doing whatever is necessary to protect it. He has no qualms with Locke attempting to kill Naomi (Marsha Thomason) and even Jack after the survivors begin to call the freighter. He undertakes the risky and unpredictable step of moving the Island to prevent the freighter crew, and thus Charles Widmore, from finding it. He always has a plan and is described by Kevin Thompson from The Palm Beach Post as a "know-it-all", which another reviewer thinks is because "[ben] talks quietly, in a menacingly measured drawl... with lots of pauses and emphases". Ben also appears to know Turkish, as he asks the bedouins on horseback "Türkçe biliyor musunuz?" late in season 4. Development Michael Emerson was cast on the show after receiving an Emmy for his role in The Practice. In 2001, American actor Michael Emerson won an Emmy award for his guest appearance as serial killer William Hinks on The Practice. The Lost producers liked his work on The Practice, so they were keen to cast Emerson in the role of Ben, then known as "Henry Gale", as they thought he would fit the character well. He was originally contracted to appear in just three episodes of Lost, making his first appearance midway through the second season, in episode "One of Them". The producers were so impressed by him that they contracted him for a further five episodes, citing the scene at the end of "The Whole Truth" where Ben asks for milk as the moment they knew he was a "keeper". He was then made a part of the regular cast from the third season. Had Emerson not worked out during his initial appearances a different actor would have been cast for the leader of the Others, but it was always intended the survivors would have the leader right under their noses and not realise it. During one episode of the Official Lost Podcast, the producers state they always knew Ben would be the "Big Bad". Emerson had no idea of his character's importance during his second season recurring role. He was told nothing about Ben's backstory and would only receive scripts at the last minute. He enjoys how the ambiguity of Ben's motives allows him to "paint it the way [he] please". Sterling Beaumon was cast to play Ben in the flashbacks of episode "The Man Behind the Curtain". Emerson's wife Carrie Preston was cast as Ben's mother following Emerson telling people at parties she was desperate for a part on the show. Referring to the scene in the third season where Ben seemingly fits Sawyer with a lethal pacemaker, Emerson comments "Sadistic may be the word, but he doesn't seem to take much relish in it. He's just sort of detached, he looks at it coldly. I sometimes feel like everything to him is a sort of scientific experiment and he is interested in a dispassionate way in how the experiment runs its course. I think some day if we ever find out what his parentage is, that his parents were people of science". Elizabeth Mitchell, who plays Juliet, did not think it was a "huge surprise for Juliet that Ben had feelings for [Juliet], but I still think it was... it was horrifying under the circumstances". She also thought "[Juliet has] this kind of wonderful mind, and I think that Ben probably has a tremendous respect for that. It's not because Juliet is so enticing, it's just the fact that she's got this amazing mind, she has this amazing, you know, intelligence, and I think that's what intrigues him, that's what draws him into her". During season four the producers deliberately left it ambiguous as to whether Ben was a part of the Oceanic 6 (six survivors of the plane crash that make it off the Island) after he appeared in one of Sayid's flashforwards. Reception Critical reception During the beginning of season three, Chris Carabott from IGN described Ben as "one of the best 'villains on television', due to his 'eerie manner' and 'methodical delivery'". Later in the season Carabott had a problem with Ben being so deceptive, as "anything he imparts must be taken with a grain of salt". Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly also noted this, saying "I don't trust Ben. I have no idea when he's lying and when he's telling the truth. The only thing I'm reasonably sure of is that everything he says is for the purpose of impacting a character — and the audience". Ben's father issues revealed towards the end of season three are described as "not the most original Lost character trait by any means but it is the thrust behind Ben's development into the genocidal maniac he eventually becomes". Following the penultimate episode of the season, Carabott stated "Even with his limited screen time, Michael Emerson's performance shines through and we hope that he survives the events of the finale because we love seeing his character every week." Erin Martell from TV Squad picked the Others as one of her season three highlights, partly due to the development of Ben, adding "I cannot even picture the final three seasons without Ben". Martell also gave six reasons to look forward to season four, one of which was Ben Linus. Aubry D'Arminio of Entertainment Weekly describes "savvy Ben" as a "captivating minor character". Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly praised Emerson's acting in the beginning of season four, calling him "a genius in [the] role". Alan Sepinwall from The Star-Ledger worried "the actor is so good and the character so popular that he's kept alive even though it makes all the heroes look like idiots". Following "Confirmed Dead", Entertainment Weekly's Jeff Jensen felt "Isn't the whole business of Ben manipulating Locke with the promise of Island secrets getting just a little bit old?" SyFy Portal's Dan Compora said that "The more I hate Ben, the more I realize that Michael Emerson is just a very fine actor doing his job". Don Williams of BuddyTV said "consider my mind blown again", referring to the flashforward in "The Economist" where it is revealed that Sayid is working for Ben. Oscar Dahl of BuddyTV called Emerson an acting "god". Chris Carabott from IGN found one of the best moments of "Eggtown", was the power struggle between Locke and Ben, because "Their scenes together are amongst the best in the series and the one that opens "Eggtown" is a perfect display of how well Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn work together. O'Quinn captures Locke's uncertainty perfectly in the opening scene and it's always fun to watch Ben prey on any weakness of character." Kevin Thompson of The Palm Beach Post wrote "with those big ol' eyes of his, [Emerson] could always say more with a lengthy stare than he could with twenty pages of dialogue.... [He has], once again, proved why he has become Lost's star as well as its heart and soul.... an Emmy should belong to [him]." Jennifer Godwin of E! wrote that "no one has ever done better work humanizing a supervillain." Matt Roush of TV Guide puts Ben in "The Shape of Things to Come" in the top 20 moments of the week, stating "Michael Emerson on Lost. It doesn't get better than that". Ben Rawson-Jones of Digital Spy describes Emerson's performance as "fantastic", with "many layers of intrigue and humanity". John Kubicek of BuddyTV also found his performance "fantastic", adding "he nailed it". Critic Kelly Woo, from TV Squad, placed him on second on her list of "Seven new characters that worked", ranking just below Desmond Hume, also from Lost. Awards In 2006, Michael Emerson was nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film, but lost out to Ugly Betty's Tony Plana. Following the third season in 2007, Emerson was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Program, losing to Masi Oka from Heroes. He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series but lost out to fellow Lost cast member Terry O'Quinn (Locke). Later in the year, he was nominated for Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - TV Series, Miniseries or TV film again, this time losing to David Zayas from Dexter. Emerson won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Program, beating fellow Lost actors Terry O'Quinn and Josh Holloway (Sawyer). Emerson was also nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Best Villain. In 2008, Emerson was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, but lost to Damages' Željko Ivanek, who has also appeared on Lost. In 2009, Emerson was nominated again for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards, this time winning. In 2010 he was again nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards, this time losing.

14. Sauron (The Lord Of The Rings) (4 of 16 lists - 75 points - highest ranking #3 balta1701) Sauron (pronounced /ˈsaʊrɒn/) is the primary antagonist and titular character of the epic fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. In the same work, he is revealed to be the same character as "the Necromancer" from Tolkien's earlier novel The Hobbit. In Tolkien's The Silmarillion (published posthumously by Tolkien's son Christopher Tolkien), he is also revealed to have been the chief lieutenant of the first Dark Lord, Morgoth. Tolkien noted that the "angelic" powers of his constructed myth "were capable of many degrees of error and failing", but by far the worst was "the absolute Satanic rebellion and evil of Morgoth and his satellite Sauron." Biography[edit] Before Creation of the WorldThe cosmological myth prefixed to The Silmarillion explains how the supreme being Eru initiated his creation by bringing into being innumerable spirits, "the offspring of his thought," who were with him before anything else had been made. The being later known as Sauron thus originated as an "immortal (angelic) spirit." In his origin, Sauron therefore perceived the Creator directly. As Tolkien noted: "Sauron could not, of course, be a 'sincere' atheist. Though one of the minor spirits created before the world, he knew Eru, according to his measure." In the terminology of Tolkien's invented language of Quenya, these angelic spirits were called Ainur (sg. Ainu). Those who entered the physical world were called Valar (sg. Vala), especially the most powerful ones. The lesser beings of the same race, of whom Sauron was one, were called Maiar (sg. Maia). In Tolkien's letters, the author noted that Sauron "was of course a 'divine' person (in the terms of this mythology; a lesser member of the race of Valar)". Though less mighty than the chief Valar, he was more powerful than many of his fellow Maiar; Tolkien noted that he was of a "far higher order" than the Maiar who later came to Middle-earth as the Wizards Gandalf and Saruman. As created by Eru, the Ainur were all good and uncorrupt, as Elrond stated in The Lord of the Rings: "Nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so." Rebellion originated with the Vala Melkor (Morgoth). According to a story meant as a parable of events beyond Elvish comprehension, Eru let his spirit-children perform a great Music, the Music of the Ainur (Ainulindalë), developing a theme revealed by Eru himself. For a while the cosmic choir made wondrous music, but then Melkor tried to increase his own glory by weaving into his song thoughts and ideas that were not in accordance with the original theme. "Straightway discord arose around him, and many that sang nigh him grew despondent ... but some began to attune their music to his rather than to the thought which they had at first." The discord Melkor created would have dire consequences, as this singing was a kind of template for the world: "The evils of the world were not at first in the great Theme, but entered with the discords of Melkor." However, "Sauron was not a beginner of discord; and he probably knew more of the Music than did Melkor, whose mind had always been filled with his own plans and devices." Apparently Sauron was not even one of the spirits that immediately began to attune their music to that of Melkor, since it is elsewhere noted that his fall occurred later (see below). The cosmic Music now represented the conflict between good and evil. Finally, Eru abruptly brought the Song of Creation to an end. To show the spirits, faithful or otherwise, what they had done, Eru gave independent being to the now-marred Music. This resulted in the manifestation of the material World, Eä, where the drama of good and evil would play out and be resolved. Eru allowed the spirits who so wished to enter into the new world of Eä and follow its history from inside. Many did so, Sauron among them. By granting free will to enter into Eä, Eru allowed great evil, as well as great good. First Age Entering Eä at the beginning of time, the Valar and Maiar tried to build and organise the world according to the will of Eru. Each of the Maia spirits was associated with one of the powerful Valar whom they served; for example, Ossë and Uinen, who were spirits of the sea, served Ulmo, the lord of the oceans. Sauron was prominent among the Maiar who served Aulë the Smith, the great craftsman of the Valar. As a result, Sauron came to possess great knowledge of the physical substances of the world, forging, and all manner of craftsmanship — emerging as "a great craftsman of the household of Aulë". Sauron would always retain the "scientific" knowledge he derived from the great Vala of Craft: "In his beginning he was of the Maiar of Aulë, and he remained mighty in the lore of that people." Sauron's original name was Mairon (the Admirable), but this name was changed to Sauron after he joined Melkor. However, during the First Age Sauron continued to call himself Mairon. Sauron's Fall Melkor opposed the other Valar, who remained faithful to Eru and tried to carry out the Creator's designs. Around this time, Sauron fell victim to Melkor's corrupting influence: "In the beginning of Arda Melkor seduced him to his allegiance." As for Sauron's motives, Tolkien noted that "it had been his virtue (and therefore also the cause of his fall ...) that he loved order and coordination, and disliked all confusion and wasteful friction." Thus "it was the apparent will and power of Melkor to effect his designs quickly and masterfully that had first attracted Sauron to him." This shows one of the great paradoxes of Sauron: he wanted order and industry, but followed Melkor's destructive and chaotic path to obtain it. For a while, Sauron apparently kept up the pretence that he was a faithful servant of the Valar, all the while feeding Melkor information about their doings. Thus, when the Valar made Almaren as their first physical abode in the world, "Melkor knew of all that was done; for even then he had secret friends and spies among the Maiar whom he had converted to his cause, and of these the chief, as after became known, was Sauron." Melkor soon destroyed Almaren, and the Valar established a new abode in the Uttermost West: the Blessed Realm of Valinor. They still did not perceive Sauron's treachery, for he too became "a being of Valinor". At some point, Sauron left the Blessed Realm and went to Middle-earth. In one text, Tolkien wrote of Sauron that "in Valinor he had dwelt among the people of the gods, but there Morgoth had drawn him to evil and to his service". Sauron deserted his service to the Valar and openly joined their great enemy: "Because of his admiration of Strength he had become a follower of Morgoth and fell with him down into the depths of evil." The Lieutenant of Melkor After joining his new master in Middle-earth, Sauron proved to be a devoted and capable servant: "While Morgoth still stood, Sauron did not seek his own supremacy, but worked and schemed for another, desiring the triumph of Melkor, whom in the beginning he had adored. He thus was often able to achieve things, first conceived by Melkor, which his master did not or could not complete in the furious haste of his malice." "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." In chapter 3 of The Silmarillion, Tolkien writes that by the time the Elves awoke in the world, Sauron had become Melkor's lieutenant and was given command over the newly-built stronghold of Angband. To protect the Elves, the Valar made war on Melkor and captured him, but could not find Sauron. Thus, "when Melkor was made captive, Sauron escaped and lay hid in Middle-earth; and it can in this way be understood how the breeding of the Orcs (no doubt already begun) went on with increasing speed." In the Blessed Realm, Melkor feigned reform, but eventually escaped back to Middle-earth, holding the Silmarils of Fëanor. By then, Sauron had "secretly repaired Angband for the help of his Master when he returned; and there the dark places underground were already manned with hosts of the Orcs before Melkor came back at last, as Morgoth the Black Enemy." Shortly after the return of Morgoth, the Noldorin Elves also left the Blessed Realm of Valinor in the Uttermost West, against the counsel of the Valar, to wage war on Morgoth, who had stolen the Silmarils. In that war, Sauron served as Morgoth's chief lieutenant, surpassing all others in rank, such as Gothmog, the Lord of Balrogs. Known as Gorthaur the Cruel, Sauron was at that time a master of illusions and shapeshifting; werewolves and vampires were his servants, chief among them Draugluin, Father of Werewolves, and his vampire herald Thuringwethil. When Morgoth left Angband to corrupt the newly-created Men, Sauron directed the war against the Elves. He conquered the Elvish island of Tol Sirion, so that it became known as Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the Isle of Werewolves. Ten years later, Finrod Felagund, the king of Nargothrond and former lord of Tol Sirion, came there with Beren. He battled Sauron and was defeated (in part because of the curse of Fëanor). Later, he died fighting a wolf in Sauron's dungeons to save Beren. Soon afterwards Lúthien and Huan the Wolfhound arrived, hoping to rescue Beren. Aware of a prophecy to the effect that Huan would be killed by the greatest wolf ever, Sauron himself assumed a monstrous wolf-like form and attacked him. But the prophecy actually applied to the still-unborn Carcharoth, and Sauron could not prevail against Huan. Eventually, Huan had Sauron by the throat. Lúthien gave Sauron two choices: either surrender to her the magical control he had established over Tol-in-Gaurhoth, or have his body destroyed so that his naked ghost would have to endure the scorn of Morgoth. Sauron yielded, and Huan let him go. He fled in the form of a huge vampiric bat, and Lúthien rescued Beren from the dungeons. Afterward Sauron spent some time as a vampire in the woods of Taur-nu-Fuin. Following the voyage of Eärendil to the Blessed Realm, the Valar finally moved against Morgoth. In the resulting War of Wrath, the Dark Lord was defeated and cast into the Outer Void beyond the world. But "Sauron fled from the Great Battle and escaped." Chastened, Sauron assumed his most beautiful form and approached Eönwë, emissary of the Valar, who nevertheless could not pardon a Maia like himself. Through Eönwë, Manwë as Lord of the Valar "commanded Sauron to come before him for judgement, but [he] had left room for repentance and ultimate rehabilitation." Unwilling to bow before the Valar, Sauron escaped and hid in Middle-earth. Second Age About 500 years into the Second Age, Sauron reappeared. "Bereft of his lord...[he] fell into the folly of imitating him." "Very slowly, beginning with fair motives: the reorganizing and rehabilitation of Middle-earth, 'neglected by the gods,' he becomes a reincarnation of Evil, and a thing lusting for Complete Power," eventually rising to become "master and god of Men." As for Sauron's "fair motives", Tolkien emphasized that at this time he "was not indeed wholly evil, not unless all 'reformers' who want to hurry up with 'reconstruction' and 'reorganization' are wholly evil, even before pride and the lust to exert their will eat them up". "[T]hough the only real good in, or rational motive for, all this ordering and planning and organization was the good of all inhabitants of Arda (even admitting Sauron's right to be their supreme lord), his 'plans', the idea coming from his own isolated mind, became the sole object of his will, and an end, the End, in itself. ... [H]is capability of corrupting other minds, and even engaging their service, was a residue from the fact that his original desire for 'order' had really envisaged the good estate (especially physical well-being) of his 'subjects'." The Rings of Power As part of a plan to seduce the Elves into his service, Sauron assumed a beautiful appearance as Annatar, "Lord of Gifts," befriended the Elven-smiths of Eregion, led by Celebrimbor, and counselled them in arts and magic. Sauron hinted that he was an emissary of the Valar, specifically of Aulë, whom the Noldor in Exile held in high regard. Some of the Elves distrusted him, especially the Lady Galadriel and Gil-galad, the High King of the Noldor. The Elves in Eregion, however, did not heed their warnings. With Sauron's assistance, the Elven-smiths forged the Rings of Power, which conferred great power upon their bearers. He then secretly forged the One Ring in the volcanic Mount Doom in Mordor. This "One Ring to rule them all" had the power to dominate the other Rings and enslave their wearers to Sauron's will. The Rings of Power were extremely potent, however; to create an instrument that could dominate even them, Sauron was forced to transfer a great part of his native power into it. Yet "while he wore it, his power on earth was actually enhanced". Sauron's plan would have succeeded had the Elves not detected his influence when he put on the One Ring. It was then the Elves saw him for who he really was, removed their Rings, and did not use them for as long as Sauron retained the One Ring. Enraged, Sauron initiated a great war and conquered much of the land west of Anduin. This began the Dark Years. He overran Eregion, killed Celebrimbor, leader of the Elven-smiths, and seized the Seven and the Nine Rings of Power that had been previously forged with his assistance. The Three Rings, however, had been forged by Celebrimbor himself without Sauron's help. These rings were saved and remained in the hands of the Elves, specifically Gil-galad, Círdan, and Galadriel. Sauron besieged Imladris, battled Moria and Lothlórien, and pushed further into Gil-galad's realm. The Elves fought back, however, and with the aid of a powerful army from Númenor, they destroyed Sauron's army and drove the remnant back to Mordor. The Númenóreans were descended from the Three Houses of the Edain who helped the Elves in their war against Morgoth. They lived on the island of Númenor in the seas between Middle-earth and Valinor, a reward for their service from the Valar, and theirs was the most powerful kingdom of Men at this time. Resurgence from Mordor From this time on, Sauron became known as the Dark Lord of Mordor. He completed the Dark Tower of Barad-dûr, already centuries in the building, and distributed the remaining rings of the Seven and the Nine to lords of Dwarves and Men. Dwarves proved too resilient to bend to his will, but the Men were enslaved by Sauron as the Nazgûl, his most feared servants. Sauron regained control over most of the creatures that had served Morgoth in the First Age (such as Orcs and Trolls). Sauron also gained power over most of the Men in the East and the South, becoming their god-king. The second Dark Lord was now at the height of his power, having become "almost supreme in Middle-earth. … He rules a growing empire from the great dark tower of Barad-dûr in Mordor, near to the Mountain of fire, wielding the One Ring."[29] Toward the end of the Second Age, Sauron assumed the titles of Lord of the Earth and King of Men. Destruction of Númenor Toward the end of the Second Age, Ar-Pharazôn, the last and most powerful of the Númenórean kings, came to Middle-earth with a large army. Sauron, realizing he could not defeat the Númenóreans with military strength, surrendered. Clad in a beautiful incarnation, he came to Ar-Pharazôn's camp to swear allegiance to the king, and allowed himself to be taken as a prisoner to Númenor. This was part of his plan to corrupt Númenórean civilization from inside. "Sauron's personal 'surrender' was voluntary and cunning: he got free transport to Númenor." When Ar-Pharazôn in his arrogance took Sauron hostage, he failed to realise with whom he was dealing: Sauron "was of course a 'divine' person ... and thus far too powerful to be controlled in this way. He steadily got Arpharazôn's [sic] mind under his own control, and in the event corrupted many of the Númenóreans." The Akallabêth, the account of the history of Númenor, does not specifically mention the Ring. In his letters, however, Tolkien noted that Sauron "naturally had the One Ring, and so very soon dominated the minds and wills of most of the Númenóreans. " Through the power of the Ring, Sauron soon became an advisor of the king, and he used his influence to undermine the religion of Númenor. He represented Eru as an invention of the Valar that they used to justify their decrees, and substituted the worship of Melkor, with himself as high priest, for that of Eru. The worship of Melkor, with human sacrifice, became mandatory in Númenor. But there was seen the effect of Melkor upon Sauron: he spoke of Melkor in Melkor's own terms, as a god, or even as God. This may have been the residue of a state which was in a sense a shadow of good: the ability once in Sauron at least to admire or admit the superiority of a being other than himself. ... But it may be doubted whether even such a shadow of good was still sincerely operative in Sauron by that time. His cunning motive is probably best expressed thus. To wean one of the God-fearing from their allegiance it is best to propound another unseen object of allegiance and another hope of benefits; propound to him a Lord who will sanction what he desires and not forbid it. Sauron, apparently a defeated rival for world-power, now a mere hostage, can hardly propound himself; but as the former servant and disciple of Melkor, the worship of Melkor will raise him from hostage to high priest. In the end, Sauron prevailed upon Ar-Pharazôn, fearful of his approaching death, to sail with a great armada upon Aman in order to seize immortality by force from the Valar. Sauron expected the Valar to respond by destroying Ar-Pharazôn and his naval might, thus removing Sauron's greatest obstacle to domination of Middle-earth. But the Valar had no direct dominion over the Children of Eru, so in the face of this challenge they laid down their guardianship of the world and appealed to Eru for a solution. Eru's divine intervention did indeed destroy the king and his armada; but Númenor itself was swallowed by the sea, and the Blessed Realm was removed from the physical world. Sauron had not foreseen this, and his body was destroyed in the destruction. Having expended much energy in the corruption of Númenor, he was diminished,[33] and lost forever the ability to take a fair form. Yet his spirit rose out of the abyss, and he was able to carry with him the one thing that mattered most. Wrote Tolkien, "I do not think one need boggle at this spirit carrying off the One Ring, upon which his power of dominating minds now largely depended." In the essay "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age", Tolkien wrote that Sauron "took up" the Ring after returning to Middle-earth. War against the Last Alliance The few faithful Númenóreans were saved from the Downfall. With Elendil as their leader, they escaped the cataclysm and founded the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor among the Númenórean colonists and the natives of north-western Middle-earth. At first they believed that Sauron had perished in the Downfall, but it soon became evident that the Dark Lord had returned to Mordor. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien wrote that Elendil and his sons forged the Last Alliance of Elves and Men with Gil-galad to fight Sauron. The Alliance won a great victory on the plain of Dagorlad and invaded Mordor, laying siege to Barad-dûr for seven years. Finally, Sauron was forced to emerge from his tower and fight against the Last Alliance himself. In the battle on the slopes of Mount Doom, Sauron killed both Gil-galad and Elendil, though he himself was destroyed in the process. When Elendil fell, his sword, Narsil, broke beneath him. Taking up the hilt-shard of Narsil, Elendil's surviving son, Isildur, cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand. "Then Sauron was for that time vanquished, and he forsook his body, and his spirit fled far away and hid in waste places." Elrond and Círdan, Gil-galad's lieutenants, urged Isildur to destroy the Ring by casting it into Mount Doom, but he refused and kept it for his own: "This I will have as weregild for my father's death, and my brother's. Was it not I that dealt the Enemy his death-blow?" A few years after the battle, Isildur's army, marching to Rivendell, was ambushed and overwhelmed by a band of Orcs in what became known as the Disaster of the Gladden Fields. Isildur put on the Ring and attempted to escape by swimming across Anduin, but the Ring — which had a will of its own and a desire to return to Sauron — slipped from his finger. He was spotted and killed by Orc archers. The Ring would remain lost beneath the water for thousands of years, with many believing there was no way Sauron could return or so long as the Ring was lost Middle Earth was safe. Third Age The traumatic loss of the Ring greatly weakened Sauron; he spent the first thousand years of the Third Age as a shapeless, dormant evil. The Necromancer of Dol Guldur Around the year 1050, a shadow of fear fell on the forest later called Mirkwood. As would later become known, this was the first intimation of Sauron manifesting himself yet again, but the Elves did not recognise him at first. As mentioned in The Hobbit, he was known as the Necromancer. He established a stronghold called Dol Guldur, "Hill of Sorcery", in the southern part of the forest. The Valar would not act to defeat Sauron in a massive intervention comparable to the War of Wrath that overthrew Morgoth, as they feared it could end in widespread destruction; rather, they sent five Maiar in the form of Wizards, the most prominent being Gandalf and Saruman. Around the year 1100, "the Wise" (the Wizards and the chief Elves) became aware that an evil power had made a stronghold at Dol Guldur. Initially it was assumed that this was one of the Nazgûl rather than Sauron himself. About the year 1300, the Nazgûl did indeed reappear, and their influence would have serious consequences for the nations established by the Númenórean exiles. Over the ensuing centuries, the Witch-king of Angmar (the chief Nazgûl, acting on Sauron's behalf) repeatedly attacked the northern realm of Arnor, first in 1409 and finally overrunning the realm in 1974. Six years later, the Witch-king entered Mordor and gathered the Nazgûl there. In 2000, the Nazgûl issued from Mordor and took the city of Minas Ithil (later known as Minas Morgul) in one of the mountain-passes. Thereby they also captured an object that would prove most valuable to Sauron: a palantír, one of the seven seeing stones that Elendil's people had brought with them from Númenor at the eve of the Downfall. As the power of Dol Guldur grew, the Wise came to suspect that the controlling force behind the Witch-king and the other Nazgûl was indeed their original master, Sauron. In 2063, Gandalf went to Dol Guldur and made the first attempt to learn the truth, but Sauron retreated and hid in the East. It would be almost 400 years before he returned to his stronghold in Mirkwood, and his identity remained undetermined. Sauron finally resurfaced with increased strength in 2460. About the same time, the long-lost Ruling Ring was finally recovered from the River Anduin, found by a hobbit named Déagol. His relative Sméagol killed him for the Ring, and was eventually corrupted into the creature Gollum. Banished by his family, he took the Ring, which he called his "Precious," and hid in the Misty Mountains. In 2850, Gandalf made a second attempt to spy out Dol Guldur. Stealing into the stronghold, he was finally able to confirm the identity of its lord, later reporting to the White Council of Elves and Wizards that Sauron had returned. Saruman, hoping thereby to acquire the One Ring for himself, dissuaded the Council from acting against him. Eventually, the Wizards and chief Elves combined to put forth their might, and drove Sauron out of Mirkwood in 2941. During the White Council's delay he had, however, prepared his next move, and was willing to abandon Dol Guldur. Just before Sauron fled Dol Guldur, the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, on an improbable adventure with a party of Dwarves, stumbled across the Ring deep within the Misty Mountains. After his quest was over, Bilbo brought the Ring back to Hobbiton in the Shire. Decades later, he passed it on to his heir, Frodo. Sauron's power had now recovered to the point that he was able to extend his will over Middle-earth. The Eye of Sauron, as his attention and force of will was perceived, became a symbol of oppression and fear. Following his expulsion from Dol Guldur, he returned to Mordor in 2942, openly declared himself nine years later, and started raising Barad-dûr anew. In preparation for a final war against Men and Elves, he bred immense armies of Orcs, augmenting them with Men from the East and South to create the monstrous Uruk-hai. The War of the Ring The three volumes of The Lord of the Rings tell the story of Sauron's last attempt at achieving world dominion, as the Third Age reached its climax in the years 3018 and 3019. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf deduced that the Ring of Power that Bilbo had found in Gollum's cave was indeed Sauron's lost Master-ring. He informed Frodo about the true nature of the heirloom Bilbo had left for him, and its terrible potential if Sauron should ever regain it: "The Enemy still lacks one thing to give him strength and knowledge to beat down all resistance, break the last defences, and cover all the lands in a second darkness. He lacks the One Ring... So he is seeking it, seeking it, and all his thought is bent on it."[40] Gandalf went for advice to Saruman, but discovered that he had been corrupted by his long studies of Sauron. Using the palantír in the tower of Orthanc, Saruman was now in communication with the Dark Lord and acted as his ally, though he also secretly hoped to gain the Ring for himself and use its power to supplant Sauron. Gandalf was held captive atop Orthanc for a time, but soon escaped with the help of one of the giant Eagles of Manwë. Having captured and tortured Gollum, Sauron learned that the Ring had been found by a Hobbit named "Baggins." Sauron sent the Nazgûl to the Shire, Bilbo's home, but Bilbo had left years earlier. Frodo was likewise on his way out of the Shire (on Gandalf's advice). The Nazgûl pursued Frodo and his companions and nearly killed Frodo, but were defeated near Rivendell. In Rivendell, Elrond convened a high council of the peoples of Middle-earth to decide how to handle the crisis. The council determined that the Ring must be destroyed where it was forged, since it was utterly impervious to any other flame than the volcanic fires at its place of making. Frodo and his friend Samwise Gamgee joined the Fellowship of the Ring, accepting the council's mission to cast it into the volcano. In The Two Towers, Saruman used his own army on Sauron's behalf and invaded Rohan. Gandalf, Théoden King of Rohan and the Ents, led by Treebeard, finally defeated Saruman's forces. His stronghold at Isengard was overthrown and Saruman left trapped within the Tower of Orthanc. Thus, one of Sauron's most powerful allies was neutralized. During Saruman's confrontation with Gandalf, the palantír of Orthanc fell into the hands of the Fellowship. Gandalf handed it over to Aragorn, a direct descendant of Isildur and Elendil and hence the rightful owner of the Stone. In The Return of the King, Aragorn used it to show himself to Sauron (who still controlled another Seeing Stone, the one captured from Minas Ithil centuries earlier). Aragorn was leading Sauron to think that he now had the Ring and was preparing to turn its power against its maker. The Dark Lord was troubled by this revelation, and therefore attacked sooner than he had planned by sending an army to overthrow Minas Tirith, capital of Gondor. (See Battle of the Pelennor Fields) Immediately after the huge army left Mordor through the pass of Cirith Ungol, Frodo and Sam attempted to enter the Black Land the same way. They had been previously met by Gollum, whom Sauron had earlier released from captivity while letting him think that he escaped by accident. For a while, Gollum had acted as a guide for Frodo and Sam. However, he finally betrayed them to Shelob – a monstrous, spider-like creature that guarded the pass. In the end, Sam drove off both Gollum and Shelob, but Frodo had been stung by Shelob and appeared to have died from her venom. The Orcs found Frodo's body and stripped him of his gear, but Sam (thinking his master dead) had already secured the Ring. Frodo regained consciousness and was freed by Sam, and the two started the gruelling journey across the plains of Mordor towards Mount Doom. Aragorn marched on the Black Gate of Mordor with 7000 men. After a brief encounter with the Mouth of Sauron, the battle was joined and went very poorly for the outnumbered Gondor/Rohan armies. Now convinced that Aragorn had the Ring, Sauron apparently reacted just as Gandalf had thought he would: "I will crush him, and what he has taken in his insolence shall be mine again for ever." Even as the Captains of the West were about to be utterly defeated by the superior might of Sauron's grand armies, Frodo reached his goal, entering the fiery interior of Mount Doom. However, his will failed at the last moment; unable to resist the growing power of the Ring, he put it on his finger and claimed it for his own. Sauron was instantly aware of him, and his gaze turned immediately to the Door in the Mountain. Recalling his remaining Nazgûl from the ongoing battle, he commanded them to hasten to Mount Doom in a desperate attempt to secure the Ring. It was too late, however: Gollum attacked Frodo, bit the Ring from his finger, then lost his footing and fell with the Ring into the fire. With "a roar and a great confusion of noise", the One Ring perished along with all the power Sauron had invested in it – Gollum inadvertently achieving the quest after Frodo's failure. At the Ring's destruction, Sauron's power was immediately broken and his form in Middle-earth was destroyed. His departing spirit towered above Mordor like a black cloud, but was blown away by a powerful wind from the West (the direction of the Blessed Realm and the Valar). His vast empires collapsed, his armies lost heart and were easily overcome, the Dark Tower of Barad-dûr crumbled and the Nazgûl were consumed in a hail of fire from the Mountain. Sauron himself was crippled for all time. Thus, on March 25, Third Age 3019, the long reign of terror of the second Dark Lord finally came to its end. Gandalf had predicted what the destruction of the Ring would mean to Sauron: "If it is destroyed, then he will fall, and his fall will be so low that none can foresee his arising ever again. For he will lose the best part of the strength that was native to him in his beginning, and all that was made or begun with that power will crumble, and he will be maimed for ever, becoming a mere spirit of malice that gnaws itself in the shadows, but cannot again grow or take shape. And so a great evil of this world will be removed." Names and titles In some of Tolkien's notes, it is said that Sauron's original name was Mairon or "the admirable", "but this was altered after he was suborned by Melkor. But he continued to call himself Mairon the Admirable, or Tar-Mairon "King Excellent", until after the downfall of Númenor. The name Sauron (from an earlier form Thauron) originates from the adjective saura "foul, putrid" in Tolkien's invented language of Quenya, and can be translated as "the Abhorred" or "the Abomination". In Sindarin (another Elf-language created by Tolkien) he is called Gorthaur, "the Abhorred Dread" or "the Dread Abomination". He is also called the "Nameless Enemy". The Dúnedain (the descendants of the Númenóreans) call him "Sauron the Deceiver" due to his role in the Downfall of Númenor and the forging of the Rings of Power. In the Númenórean (Adûnaic) tongue he was also known as "Zigûr", The Wizard. His two most common titles, the "Dark Lord of Mordor" and the "Lord of the Rings", appear only a few times in The Lord of the Rings. His other titles or variants thereof include "Base Master of Treachery", the "Dark Lord", the "Dark Power", "Lord of Barad-dûr", the "Red Eye", the "Ring-maker" and the "Sorcerer". In the First Age (as detailed in The Silmarillion) he was called the "Lord of Werewolves" of Tol-in-Gaurhoth. In the Second Age he assumed the name Annatar, which means "Lord of Gifts", and Aulendil, meaning "Friend of Aulë", as well as Artano, meaning "High-Smith", with which he assumed a new identity and tricked the Elves into working with him to create the Rings. In the Third Age he was known for a time as the Necromancer of Dol Guldur because his true identity was still unknown. Russian historian Alexandr Nemirovsky suggests that the name Sauron is meaningful in the Hurrian language. He derives the name from the Hurrian sequence Sau-ra-n(ne), meaning "possessing the weapon" or "armed". Appearance Nowhere does Tolkien provide a detailed description of Sauron's appearance during any of his incarnations. According to The Silmarillion, Sauron was initially able to change his appearance at will. In the beginning he assumed a beautiful form, but after switching his allegiance to Morgoth, he took a sinister shape. In the First Age, Gorlim was at one point brought into "the dreadful presence of Sauron", but the only concrete hint about his appearance is a reference to his daunting eyes. As part of a plan to destroy Huan, Sauron took the form of the greatest werewolf in Middle-earth's history till then. When the plan backfired, he assumed a serpent-like form, and finally changed back "from monster to his own accustomed form". The implication is that his "accustomed form" was not, at least, overtly monstrous. It is understood to have been humanoid. Sauron took a beautiful appearance once again at the end of the First Age in an effort to charm Eönwë, near the beginning of the Second Age when appearing as Annatar to the Elves, and again near the end of the Second Age when corrupting the men of Númenor. One version of the story describes, in general terms, the impression Sauron made on the Númenóreans. He appeared "as a man, or one in man's shape, but greater than any even of the race of Númenor in stature... And it seemed to men that Sauron was great, though they feared the light of his eyes. To many he appeared fair, to others terrible; but to some evil." Like Morgoth, Sauron eventually lost the ability to change his physical form (his hröa). After the destruction of his fair form in the fall of Númenor, Sauron was unable to take a pleasing appearance or veil his power again. Thereafter, at the end of the Second Age and again in the Third, he always took the shape of a terrible dark lord. His first incarnation after the Downfall of Númenor was extremely hideous, "an image of malice and hatred made visible". Isildur recorded that Sauron's hand "was black, and yet burned like fire..." Gil-galad perished from Sauron's heat. Eye of Sauron A shield displaying the Red Eye of SauronThroughout The Lord of the Rings, "the Eye" (the Red Eye, the Evil Eye, the Lidless Eye, the Great Eye) is the image most often associated with Sauron. Sauron's Orcs bore the symbol of the Eye on their helmets and shields, and referred to him as the "Eye" because he did not allow his name to be written or spoken, according to Aragorn[47] (a notable exception to this rule was his emissary, the Mouth of Sauron). Also, the Lord of the Nazgûl threatened Éowyn with torture before the "Lidless Eye"[48] at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. In the Mirror of Galadriel, Frodo had an actual vision of this Eye: The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat's, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing. Later, Tolkien writes as if Frodo and Sam really glimpse the Eye directly, not in any kind of vision. The mists surrounding Barad-dûr are briefly withdrawn, and: one moment only it stared out...as from some great window immeasurably high there stabbed northward a flame of red, the flicker of a piercing Eye... The Eye was not turned on them, it was gazing north...but Frodo at that dreadful glimpse fell as one stricken mortally.[50] Gollum (who was tortured by Sauron in person) tells Frodo that Sauron has, at least, a "Black Hand" with four fingers. The missing finger was cut off when Isildur took the Ring, and the finger was still missing when Sauron reappeared centuries later. (Similarly, the injury to Sauron's throat in the much earlier battle with Lúthien and Huan is maintained even after his transformation.) In the third volume, The Return of the King, the heralds of the Army of the West call Sauron out before the Battle of the Morannon, telling him to "come forth", which would seem pointless if he did not have a body. In one of his letters Tolkien does state that Sauron had a physical form in the Third Age: ...in a tale which allows the incarnation of great spirits in a physical and destructible form their power must be far greater when actually physically present. ... Sauron should be thought of as very terrible. The form that he took was that of a man of more than human stature, but not gigantic. Tolkien writes in The Silmarillion that "the Eye of Sauron the Terrible few could endure" even before his body was lost in the War of the Last Alliance. J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator includes Tolkien's own drawing of Sauron, showing him as a humanoid with literally black skin. In the draft text of the climactic moments of The Lord of the Rings, "the Eye" stands for Sauron's very person, with emotions and thoughts: The Dark Lord was suddenly aware of him [Frodo], the Eye piercing all shadows... Its wrath blazed like a sudden flame and its fear was like a great black smoke, for it knew its deadly peril, the thread upon which hung its doom... ts thought was now bent with all its overwhelming force upon the Mountain..." Christopher Tolkien comments: "The passage is notable in showing the degree to which my father had come to identify the Eye of Barad-dûr with the mind and will of Sauron, so that he could speak of 'its wrath, its fear, its thought'. In the second text...he shifted from 'its' to 'his' as he wrote out the passage anew." Most adaptations of the story to visual media depict the Eye as visibly present; for obviously the Eye of Fire is visually effective, whereas references to Sauron's never-seen body are so few that even readers of the novel often overlook them. Concept and creation Since the earliest versions of The Silmarillion legendarium as detailed in the History of Middle-earth series, Sauron underwent many changes. The prototype or precursor Sauron-figure was a giant monstrous cat, the Prince of Cats. Called Tevildo, Tifil and Tiberth among other names, this character played the role later taken by Sauron in the earliest version of the story of Beren and Tinúviel in The Book of Lost Tales. The Prince of Cats was later replaced by Thû, the Necromancer. The name was then changed to Gorthû, Sûr, and finally to Sauron. Gorthû, in the form Gorthaur remained in The Silmarillion; both Thû and Sauron name the character in the Lay of Leithian. The story of Beren and Lúthien also features the heroic hound Huan and involved the subtext of cats versus dogs in its earliest form. Later the cats were changed to wolves or werewolves, with the Sauron-figure becoming the Lord of Werewolves. Prior to the publication of The Silmarillion (1977), Sauron's origins and true identity were unclear to those without full access to Tolkien's notes. In early editions of Robert Foster's The Complete Guide to Middle-earth, Sauron is described as "probably of the Eldar elves." Yet there were other critics who essentially hit the mark. As early as 1967, W. H. Auden conjectured that Sauron might have been a Vala, long before it became known that Tolkien had indeed described him as "a lesser member of the race of Valar" (see full quote above). Adaptations Unused imagery of Sauron as "Annatar" from Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.In film versions of The Lord of the Rings, Sauron has been portrayed as either a humanlike creature (as in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version, The Lord of the Rings) or a physical, disembodied Eye (as in the 1980 animated The Return of the King),[58] or both. This last option is shown in the 2001-2003 film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson. Here, Sauron is shown to have a large, human-like form during the forging of the Ring and up to his losing it, then being "limited" to the disembodied Eye form throughout the rest of the storyline. Though the 1978 animated film and the 2001 live-action film both contain a prologue featuring the forging of the Rings of Power, the War of the Elves and Sauron goes unmentioned and the films jump straight to the much later War of the Last Alliance. In both, Sauron does not have the form he wore as "Annatar" when he forges the One Ring, but rather the one reflecting his identity as Dark Lord, and he is defeated by Isildur alone. In Jackson's series, Sauron is originally portrayed as a towering "black knight" wielding a huge black mace (reminiscent of Tolkien's descriptions as well as conceptual artist John Howe's illustrations of Morgoth); in this form, he is portrayed by Sala Baker. This body disintegrates with explosive force after Isildur cuts off the Ring with the hilt-shard of the sword Narsil. After this defeat, he is thereafter portrayed as the Eye, which is presented as an actual physical manifestation. The ring is voiced by Alan Howard. Later in the first film, Saruman remarks that Sauron cannot yet take physical form, so the audience is apparently to assume that the flaming Eye of Sauron is his disembodied spirit. This Eye hovers between the twin horn-like spires above Barad-dûr. In the novel, Sauron was inside the tower, gazing out through "the Window of the Eye in [his] shadow-mantled fortress".[50] In the extended edition of The Return of the King, Sauron's humanoid form appears when Aragorn looks into the palantír. In interviews, Jackson repeatedly refers to Sauron as "just a giant floating eyeball". In the novel, even if one interprets the text as saying that the Eye exists physically, it is never clear whether it is disembodied or not. In the Jackson films, Sauron wears plate armour, but the author nowhere specifically discusses what kind of armour (or even clothing) Sauron may have worn during his physical incarnations. According to Saruman in the first film, the Eye of Sauron "sees all" — though this is somewhat clarified in the third film. Here, the Eye of Sauron is shown scanning Mordor rather like a searchlight, and can only observe one location at a time. The effect in Mordor is seen as a red beam that moves across the land, forever probing. A later statement regarding Sauron's observational powers shows they are akin to the novel, as Gollum says at one point that Sauron can see everything, but he cannot see everything all at once. It also seems to be visible to Frodo (and to see him in turn) any time that he is wearing the Ring. Pippin has a brief encounter with the Eye, after gazing into the palantír of Orthanc. In the book, Pippin indicates that he somehow perceived Sauron, but it is not made clear exactly what he saw, whether the Eye or some other manifestation of the Dark Lord. Curiously, before the Battle of the Black Gate, Aragorn says a line from the book, "Let the Lord of the Black Land come forth!" despite earlier references in the films that Sauron lacks a physical form. The Dark Tower crumbles with the destruction of the Ring, and as it does so the Eye appears to turn more yellow and the dark clouds of Mordor swirl in around it before finally being wiped from existence with a final massive explosive force, which in turn destroys anything under the control of Sauron (the Black Gate, the Ringwraiths, and the Orcs) In earlier versions of Jackson's script, Sauron would indeed "come forth" at Aragorn's challenge, and do battle with him: The extra materials published together with the extended DVD version of the third movie indicate as much. Scenes of the fight were shot, but later this idea was discarded and was replaced by a scene (in the extended version) where Aragorn kills the "Mouth of Sauron" (a representative of Sauron) before fighting a Mordor troll. In fact, the footage of the battle with the troll was the same footage of Aragorn fighting Sauron, with the CGI troll mapped over a painted-out Sauron, as seen in the DVD special features. Benedict Cumberbatch will portray Sauron in The Hobbit film adaptations. Sauron appears in merchandise of the Jackson films, including computer and video games. These include The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, The Lord of the Rings: Tactics and The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. He is also a playable character in the tabletop wargame The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game published by Games Workshop Ltd. Sauron also appears as a playable character in the game, The Lord of the Rings: Conquest. Allusions in other works The Eye of Sauron is mentioned in The Stand, a post-apocalyptic novel written by Stephen King. The villain Randall Flagg possesses an astral body in the form of an "Eye" akin to the Lidless Eye. The novel itself was conceived by King as a "fantasy epic like The Lord of the Rings, only with an American setting". The "Eye" is also used in The Dark Tower series (also inspired by The Lord of the Rings) as the "sigul" of the Crimson King, an analogous figure in King's mythos. The Eye of Sauron appears as a visual reference in the Waking the Dead episode "Double Bind". SPECT attenuation correction image resembles the Eye of SauronIn S.M. Stirling's Emberverse series, the Eye of Sauron is the emblem of one of the new polities arising in the wake of the "Change". In his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz repeatedly characterises Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo as "our Sauron." Multiple references appear throughout the novel. In the Marvel Comics Universe, the supervillain Sauron, an enemy of the X-Men, names himself after the Tolkien character. The "Eye" is mocked in the television show Family Guy, showing the eye scanning the ground, saying it has lost its contact lens. In the 2010 Nikita television show, Seymour Birkoff refers to the head of Division as Lord Sauron. A large red eye with a cat-like oval pupil is used as an image designed to inspire abject terror in the online motion-comic Broken Saints. An image resembling a fire-rimmed Eye of Sauron, is often seen in SPECT Myocardial perfusion studies utilizing an external radiation source for attenuation correction.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Dec 8, 2011 -> 02:33 PM) Haha, yes. Widger>All

Theo>KW ...?

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Dec 8, 2011 -> 12:33 PM) I don't know. I would like to keep the > aspect Alright. I'll think of something.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 7, 2011 -> 11:00 PM) Still, the Blackhawks have shown you can take a franchise from the dumps of despair back to the penthouse fairly quickly. The Blackhawks (and Bulls) would be nowhere without being the worst team in their league for multiple seasons and getting high draft picks that panned out.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Dec 7, 2011 -> 04:57 PM) Change my name To what?

So um... I missed #36. It's fixed now.

15. Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street) (5 of 16 lists - 74 points - highest ranking #6 GoSox05) Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams, ultimately causing their deaths in the waking world as well. However, whenever he is put into the real world, he has normal human vulnerability. He was created by Wes Craven, and had been consistently portrayed by Robert Englund since his first appearance. In the 2010 remake, however, Freddy is portrayed by Academy Award-nominee Jackie Earle Haley. Freddy is a vengeful spirit who attacks his victims from within their dreams. He is commonly identified by his burned, disfigured face, red and dark green striped sweater, brown fedora, and trademark metal-clawed brown leather glove on his right hand. Wizard magazine rated him the 14th greatest villain, the British television channel Sky2 listed him 8th, and the American Film Institute ranked him 40th on its "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains" list. Appearances Freddy is a child killer in a Nightmare on Elm Street, which revealed that he was set on fire, resulting in his infamous burns. The character was brought back in Wes Craven's New Nightmare by Wes Craven, who had not worked on the film series since the third film. The silver screen is not the only place Krueger has appeared; there are literary sources that have expanded the universe of Freddy, as well as adapted the films and adjusted various aspects of Freddy's backstory. The character has also hosted his own television show, Freddy's Nightmares, which was an anthology series similar to The Twilight Zone. Freddy also made several guest appearances on the syndicated puppet show DC Follies in 1988. In 2003, Freddy battled fellow horror icon Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th film series in the theatrical release Freddy vs. Jason, a film which officially resurrected both characters from their respective deaths and subsequently being sent to Hell in their respective 'last films'. The ending of the film is left ambiguous as to whether or not Freddy is actually dead, for despite being decapitated, he winks at the viewers. (A sequel featuring Ash from The Evil Dead franchise was planned, but never materialized on-screen. It was later turned into comic book form in Dynamite Entertainment's Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash). Films Freddy's first appearance was in A Nightmare on Elm Street. The story focused on Freddy trying to kill Nancy Thompson and her friends in their dreams, successfully killing all but Nancy. Krueger’s back-story is revealed by Nancy’s mother, who explains he was a child murderer whom the parents of Springwood killed after Krueger was acquitted of police charges on a technicality (he was discovered torturing a child by a police officer who entered his house after hearing the child's screams, but since the officer didn't have a valid warrant to enter the house all evidence was inadmissible in court). Nancy defeats Krueger by pulling him from the dream world into the real world, and setting up a series of booby traps, finally stripping him of his powers when she stops being afraid of him. Krueger returned in the sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge terrorizing the Walsh family, who had moved into Nancy’s old home. Krueger possesses the body of Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton), using his body to kill through his dreams. Jesse is saved by his girlfriend Lisa (Kim Myers), who helps Jesse fight Krueger's spirit. Wes Craven returned to give Krueger life for a third time in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. In the second sequel, Krueger is systematically killing the last of the Elm Street children. The few remaining children have been placed in the Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital, for attempted suicide. Nancy Thompson arrives at Westin Hills as a new intern, and realizes the children are being killed by Krueger. With the help of Dr. Neil Gordon (Craig Wasson), Nancy helps Kristen (Patricia Arquette), Joey (Rodney Eastman), Taryn (Jennifer Rubin), Kincaid (Ken Sagoes), and Will find their dream powers, so they can kill Krueger once and for all. Neil meets the spirit of Krueger’s mother, Amanda Krueger (Nan Martin), who instructs him to bury Krueger’s remains in hallowed ground in order to stop him for good; however, he is unaware of her connection to Freddy until the end of the film. Neil completes his task, but not before Freddy kills Nancy. The character’s fourth appearance in film came with A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. This time, Kristen (Tuesday Knight) unwittingly releases Krueger, who immediately kills Kincaid and Joey. Before Kristen is killed she transfers her dream power to pull others into her dreams to her friend Alice (Lisa Wilcox), who begins inadvertently providing victims for Krueger. Alice, who has taken on the traits of the friends who were murdered, confronts Krueger and uses her power as the Dream Master to release all the souls Krueger has taken; they subsequently rip themselves from Krueger’s body, killing him in the process. A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child picks up shortly after the events of The Dream Master. It involves Krueger using Alice’s unborn child, Jacob (Whitby Hertford), to resurrect himself and find new victims, as Jacob has the same power as his mother. The spirit of Amanda Krueger (Beatrice Boepple) returns, revealing that Krueger was conceived when she, a nun working in a mental asylum, was accidentally locked in a room and raped hundreds of times. Alice is able to convince Jacob to use the powers he was given by Krueger against him, which gives Amanda Krueger the chance to subdue Krueger long enough for Alice and Jacob to escape the dream world. Freddy made his sixth appearance in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. The film reveals that Krueger has a daughter, Kathryn (Cassandra Rachel Friel), who was taken away from him during his trial. Krueger sends the sole surviving teenager of Springwood to bring his daughter back to him. Krueger needs Kathryn (now named Maggie Burroughs) (Lisa Zane), who is unaware that she is his daughter, so that he can leave Springwood and create new "Elm Streets" to begin his killing spree again. Maggie, utilizing new dream techniques, uncovers Krueger’s past—child abuse, cruelty to animals, murdering his own wife, the moment the Dream Demons prior to his death at the hands of the Springwood parents. She uses a pipe bomb, embedded in his chest, to blow him up, leaving the Dream Demons unable to resurrect him in reality. Freddy's clawed hand appears at the end of the film Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, the ninth installment of the Friday the 13th film series. His hand is seen bursting from the ground to drag Jason Voorhees' iconic hockey mask into Hell. This would kill his victims. Wes Craven's New Nightmare focuses on a real life setting, where Craven, Langenkamp, and Englund all play themselves, and where the character of Freddy Krueger is an evil entity that has been trapped in the realm of fiction by all the Nightmare films. When the films are stopped, the entity, which enjoys the form of Freddy Krueger, tries to escape into the real world. The only person in its way is Heather Langenkamp, whom the entity sees as "Nancy", the first person who defeated him. Langenkamp pursues "Freddy", who has kidnapped her son (Miko Hughes), into the dream world. There, she and her son trap Freddy in a furnace where he is finally destroyed. "Jackie is not big, and I think that Jackie’s size is gonna really work [...] One of the metaphors [...] I’ve used for Freddy is a little rabid dog that just bites your ankle and holds on. [...] And I think Jackie brings that, with his own physicality, to the role, without ever having to work it a little bit. [...] He brings that naturally with who he is, which I think is really part of the way I see it." — Robert Englund on Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger. Freddy's next appearance was in Freddy vs. Jason in which Freddy battles Friday the 13th's villain Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger), an undead mass murderer who uses a hockey mask to hide his facial deformities. In the film, Krueger has grown weak, as people in Springwood have suppressed their fear of him. Impersonating Pamela Voorhees, the mother of Jason Voorhees, Krueger resurrects Jason and sends him to Springwood to cause panic and fear. Jason accomplishes this, but refuses to stop killing. A battle ensues in both the dream-world and Crystal Lake. The winner is left ambiguous, as Jason surfaces from the lake holding Krueger's severed head, which winks and laughs.¨ Freddy appears in a 2010 remake of the original film, with Jackie Earle Haley taking over the role in Robert Englund's stead. In this film instead of a power plant worker and a child murderer, Krueger was the groundskeeper at Badham Preschool and a child molester (a recycled idea that was abandoned by director Craven himself while making the 1984 original). In this version, he has a more personal connection with the protagonist Nancy Holbrook (Rooney Mara); in life, he molested her and some of her friends, and thought of her as his "favorite". Though Freddy initially appears to have been wrongly accused, the parents, after observing slashes on their skin and clothes consistent with his trademark glove, burn him to death rather than turn him into the police to spare their children the trauma of having to testify against him in open court. During the climax, Nancy pulls Freddy into reality and apparently kills him by severing his gloved-hand and slashing his throat with a broken paper cutter blade, only to have him reappear and drag her mother into the mirror to some unseen horror. Television Robert Englund continued his role as Freddy Krueger on October 9, 1988 in the television anthology series entitled Freddy's Nightmares. The show was hosted by Freddy, who did not take direct part in most of the episodes, but he did show up occasionally to influence the plot of particular episodes. Further, a consistent theme in each episode was characters having disturbing dreams. The series ran for two seasons, 44 episodes, ending March 10, 1990. Although most of the episodes did not feature Freddy taking a major role in the plot, the pilot episode "No More Mr. Nice Guy" depicts the events of Krueger's trial, and his subsequent death at the hands of the parents of Elm Street after his acquittal. In "No More Mr. Nice Guy", Freddy's acquittal is based on the arresting officer, Lt. Tim Blocker, not reading him his Miranda rights, which is different from the original Nightmare that stated he was acquitted because someone forgot to sign a search warrant in the right place. The episode also reveals that Krueger used an ice cream van to lure children close enough so that he could kidnap and kill them. After the town's parents burn Freddy to death he returns to haunt Blocker in his dreams. Freddy gets his revenge when Blocker is put to sleep at the dentist's office, and Freddy shows up and kills him. The episode "Sister's Keeper" was a "sequel" to this episode, even though it was the seventh episode of the series. The episode follows Krueger as he terrorizes the Blocker twins, the identical twin daughters of Lt. Tim Blocker, and frames one sister for the other's murder. Season two's "It's My Party And You'll Die If I Want You To" featured Freddy attacking a high school prom date who stood him up twenty years earlier. He got his revenge with his desire being fulfilled in the process. Video games Freddy Krueger's first video game appearance was in the Nintendo's 1989 game A Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy Krueger later appeared as an extra downloadable character for Mortal Kombat in 2011. His design is not based on either actors (Jackie Earle Haley or Robert Englund); according to creator Ed Boon, "When I look at him, I think of the original Freddy: he’s got the striped sweater and is instantly recognizable. He’s Freddy in general, we don’t really identify him as one version or another". Freddy is featured with two claws. Characterization In New Nightmare, Freddy was depicted closer to how Wes Craven had originally intended, less comical and with more of an "organic" style to his claw. Wes Craven says his inspiration for the basis of Krueger's power stemmed from several stories in the Los Angeles Times about a series of mysterious deaths: All the victims had reported recurring nightmares beforehand about a man named Mr. K., thus the name Fred Krueger, and died in their sleep. Additionally, Craven's original script detailed Krueger as a child molester, which Craven said was the "worst thing" he could think of (this idea was later recycled for the character's background in the 2010 remake). The decision was made to instead make Krueger a child murderer in order to avoid being accused of exploiting the spate of highly publicized child molestation cases in California around the time A Nightmare on Elm Street went into production. Craven's inspirations for the character included a bully from his school during his youth, a homeless man who had frightened him when he was eleven, and the 1970s pop song "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright. In an interview, he says that (after hearing some noise): "When I looked down there was a man very much like Freddy walking along the sidewalk. He must have sensed that someone was looking at him and stopped and looked right into my face. He scared the living daylights out of me, so I jumped back into the shadows. I waited and waited to hear him walk away. Finally I thought he must have gone, so I stepped back to the window. The guy was not only still looking at me but he thrust his head forward as if to say, 'Yes, I'm still looking at you.' The man walked towards the apartment building's entrance. I ran through the apartment to our front door as he was walking into our building on the lower floor. I heard him starting up the stairs. My brother, who is ten years older than me, got a baseball bat and went out to the corridor but he was gone." In Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Freddy was more a symbol of something more powerful and ancient, and was given more stature and muscles. Unlike the six movies before it, New Nightmare shows Freddy as closer to what Wes Craven originally intended, toning down his comedic side while strengthening the more menacing aspects of his character. Throughout the series, Freddy's potential victims often experience dreams of young children, jumping rope and chanting a rhyme to the tune of "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" with the lyrics changed to "One, Two, Freddy's coming for you", often as an omen to Freddy's presence or a precursor to his attacks. Appearance Freddy Krueger's physical appearance has remained largely consistent throughout the film series, although minor changes were made in subsequent films. He wears a striped red and green sweater (with solid red sleeves in the original film, and red-and-green striped sleeves from the second film onwards), a dark brown fedora, his bladed glove (see below), loose brown trousers (blue jeans in the original film), and worn working boots, keeping with his blue collar background. His skin is scarred and burned as a result of being burned alive by the parents of Springwood, and he has no hair at all on his head as it was presumably all burned off; in the original film, only Freddy's face was burned, while they have spread to the rest of his body from the second film onwards. Additionally, his teeth are in rather poor shape; in the first three films, they are simply filthy and brown, but from the fourth film onwards, he is missing a lot of them, and in Freddy vs Jason his teeth are razor sharp to make him have a more monster-like appearance. His blood is occasionally a dark, oily color, or greenish in hue when he is in the Dreamworld. In the original film, Freddy remains in the shadows and under lower light much longer than he does in the later pictures. In the second film, there are some scenes where Freddy is shown without his glove, and instead with the blades protruding from the tips of his fingers. As the films began to emphasize the comedic, wise cracking aspect of the character, he began to don various costumes and take on other forms, such as dressing as a waiter or wearing a Superman inspired version of his sweater with a cape (The Dream Child), appearing as a video game sprite (Freddy's Dead), a giant snake like creature (Dream Warriors), and a pot smoking caterpillar (Freddy vs. Jason). In New Nightmare, Freddy's appearance is updated considerably, giving him a green fedora that matched his sweater stripes, skintight leather pants, knee-high black boots, a turtleneck version of his trademark sweater, a dark blue trench coat, and a fifth claw on his glove, which also has a far more organic appearance (see above). Freddy also has fewer burns on his face, though these are more severe, with his muscle tissue exposed in numerous places. In the remake, Freddy retains his iconic attire, but his burns are even more disfiguring than his 1984 counterpart, with misshapen facial features and portions of his face missing, including a sizable portion of flesh on his left cheek. Compared to his other incarnations, this Freddy's injuries are more like those of an actual burn victim. Glove Wes Craven claims that part of the inspiration for Freddy's infamous glove was from his cat, as he watched it claw the side of his couch one night. In an interview he said, "Part of it was an objective goal to make the character memorable, since it seems that every character that has been successful has had some kind of unique weapon, whether it be a chain saw or a machete, etc. I was also looking for a primal fear which is embedded in the subconscious of people of all cultures. One of those is the fear of teeth being broken, which I used in my first film. Another is the claw of an animal, like a saber-toothed tiger reaching with its tremendous hooks. I transposed this into a human hand. The original script had the blades being fishing knives." When Jim Doyle, the creator of Freddy's claw, asked Craven what he wanted, Craven responded, "It's kind of like really long fingernails, I want the glove to look like something that someone could make who has the skills of a boilermaker." Doyle explained, "Then we hunted around for knives. We picked out this bizarre-looking steak knife, we thought that this looked really cool, we thought it would look even cooler if we turned it over and used it upside down, we had to remove the back edge and put another edge on it, because we were actually using the knife upside down." Later Doyle had three duplicates of the glove made, two of which were used as stunt gloves in long shots. For New Nightmare, Lou Carlucci, the effects coordinator, remodeled Freddy's glove for a more "organic look." He says, "I did the original glove on the first Nightmare and we deliberately made that rough and primitive looking, like something that would be constructed in somebody's home workshop. Since this is supposed to be a new look for Freddy, Wes and everybody involved decided that the glove should be different. This hand has more muscle and bone texture to it, the blades are shinier and in one case, are retractable. Everything about this glove has a much cleaner look to it, it's more a natural part of his hand than a glove." The new glove has five claws. In the 2010 remake, the glove maintains its original look, but is metal brown and has four finger bars. Freddy's glove has appeared in the 1987 horror-comedy Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn above the door on the inside of a toolshed. This was Sam Raimi's response to Wes Craven showing footage of The Evil Dead in A Nightmare on Elm Street, which in turn was a response to Sam Raimi putting a poster of Craven's 1977 film The Hills Have Eyes in The Evil Dead. The glove also appears in the 1998 horror-comedy Bride of Chucky in an evidence locker room that also contains the remains of the film's villain Chucky, the chainsaw of Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the masks of Michael Myers from Halloween and Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th. At the end of the movie Jason Goes To Hell, the title character's mask is dragged under the earth by Freddy's gloved hand, thus setting up Freddy vs. Jason, played by Kane Hodder. Cultural references References to Freddy have occurred on three of The Simpsons' non-canon Treehouse of Horror episodes. These include "Treehouse of Horror VI": In a Nightmare on Elm Street parody, Groundskeeper Willie has become Krueger; "Treehouse of Horror IX": during the couch gag, Freddy and Jason sit on the couch wondering where the family is (Robert Englund supplying the voice), and "Treehouse of Horror V": after Homer makes a pact with Moe (now a ghost) he attempts to kill the family and Marge locks him in a pantry where an un-happy Moe and his ghoul friends come in and attack him, among the group was Freddy, Jason and Pinhead. Freddy's glove has also been featured in the episode, Cape Feare, in which a paranoid Bart is frightened by Ned Flanders as he leaps out at him brandishing his new "finger razors" for trimming his hedge. In The Critic, Jay's girlfriend Alice is taking her daughter Penny to "Elm Street Preschool" (A moved tree branch revealed it was actually "A Nightmare on Elm Street Preschool") After saying she did not want to nap the director turns into Freddy Krueger and says that she will nap or be swallowed by the worm from hell. The worm then shows up, after leaving he says "It was the worm from hell wasn't it. He's not that bad once you get to know him." Other references include an episode of Tiny Toons Adventures, Plucky Duck is seen watching a horror movie containing the villain "Eddie Cougar". Cougar then recites the line "how sweet, fresh meat" as heard in The Dream Master. In the end of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, Freddy sets up Freddy vs. Jason (released a decade later) by grabbing Jason's mask and dragging it underground to hell laughing manically, where Freddy currently is (portrayed by Kane Hodder, who had also portrayed Jason in the film). In the South Park episode "Imaginationland Episode II", he is seen with a group of evil imaginary characters, with each one claiming to be the most evil imaginary character of them all. Also, in the South Park episode "Insheeption", Freddy, who is shown as now being retired and living with a wife and kids in a log cabin deep in the woods, is persuaded to infiltrate Mr. Mackey's dream in order to rescue Stan, Randy, and several other people who are trapped inside the dream from a sinister man in an owl costume who molested Mackey as a child. In episode 70 of Robot Chicken, Freddy (voiced by Seth Green) appears alongside Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Ghostface, Pinhead, and Leatherface in the Big Brother show, where his sweater is shrunk by Ghostface, and he is later stabbed by Michael, which doesn't damage him but annoys him. In the Family Guy episode "The Splendid Source", Quagmire gives Freddy a joke to tell Peter in his dreams. Peter wakes up and paraphrases the line If you die in your dreams, you die for real from the 2010 remake. In another Robot Chicken episode, it is shown that Freddy made the claw glove to scratch an itchy sweater his daughter bought for him. His daughter later gives him a fedora, prompting her father to destroy the school bazaar where she got them. The adults mistake him as a child abuser, and attack him in an angry mob fashion. He is then consoled by spirits saying he can get out of it if he becomes a killer. He says yes but soon realizes he isn't able to take the sweater off. He sighs and states "well, at least I have my complexion" before a fire engulfs him and the school (a clear spoof of his origin). In an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Will scares Carlton dressed up as Freddy while in the back seat of a car, a game show from CBS in 2005 that ended up never airing called A Nightmare on Elm Street: Real Nightmares. As Robert Englund hosts, he makes contestants come face to face with their nightmares in an attempt to help them overcome their fears. In the Supernatural episode "Dream a Little Dream of Me", a killer is using dream root to invade people's dreams and kill them. Sam states "You take enough of it (dream root), with enough practice, you can become a regular Freddy Krueger". A comic magazine story featuring Mickey Mouse written by Carol Mcreal centers around one of Mickey's foes, who breaks into his dreams as a figure called "Teddy Sluger". "Teddy Sluger" closely resembles Freddy, but has claws on both hands. Krueger is also a musical topic. Eminem has mentioned Freddy numerous times in many of his songs such as, "Insane", "Underground" in which he says "Walked up Elm Street with a wiffle bat drew, fought Freddy Krueger and Edward Scissorhands too". For example, In 1985, "Freddy Krueger" by Stormtroopers of Death, 1988, "Freddy Krueger" on the album Kneipenterroristen by Böhse Onkelz, 1988, "Are You Ready for Freddy" by The Fat Boys (the video actually features Robert Englund dressed up like Freddy chasing the band around in his house), "Nightmare on My Street" by D.J. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, and an entire 1987 album, Freddy's Greatest Hits, by The Elm Street Group, where Freddy (voiced by Robert Englund) sings along on original songs like "Don't Sleep", "Obsession", "Dance Or Else" and "Down In The Boiler Room" as well as cover songs "Do The Freddy", "All I Have To Do Is Dream", "In The Midnight Hour" and "Wooly Bully". Freddy Krueger is also mentioned in a loose cameo in "Weird Al" Yankovich's parody, "The Night Santa went Crazy," which mentions that Santa killed Dasher the Reindeer by cutting him up "just like Freddy Krueger." The music video sports a shot of santa armed with Freddy's glove. In an episode of Everybody Hates Chris, Malvo is dressed as Freddy Krueger in Chris' dream after threatening Chris.

16. Norman Bates (Psycho) (6 of 16 lists - 70 points - highest ranking #2 BigEdWalsh) Norman Bates is a fictional character created by writer Robert Bloch as the central character in his novel Psycho, and portrayed by Anthony Perkins as the main antagonist of the 1960 film of the same name directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The character was inspired by serial killer Ed Gein. Fictional character biography Both the novel and Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film adaptation explain that Bates suffers severe emotional abuse as a child at the hands of his mother, Norma, who preaches to him that sexual intercourse is sinful and that all women (except herself) are whores. The two of them live alone together in a state of total codependence after the death of Bates' father until Bates reaches adolescence, when his mother takes a lover, Joe Considine. Driven over the edge with jealousy, Bates murders both of them with strychnine. After committing the murders, Bates develops dissociative identity disorder, preserving his mother's corpse and assuming her personality to repress her death and escape the guilt of murdering her. He inherits his mother's house — where he keeps her corpse — and the family motel in fictional Fairvale, California. Bloch sums up Bates' multiple personalities in his stylistic form of puns: "Norman", a child dependent on his mother; "Norma", a possessive mother who kills anyone who threatens the illusion of her existence; and "Normal", a (barely) functional adult who goes through the motions of day-to-day life. Bates is finally arrested after he murders a young woman named Mary Crane (called Marion in the film) and Milton Arbogast, a private investigator sent to look for her. Bates is declared insane and sent to an institution, where the "mother" personality completely takes hold; he becomes his mother. In Bloch's 1982 sequel to his novel, Bates escapes from the psychiatric hospital by killing a nun and donning her habit. Picked up as a hitchhiker, Bates is overcome by the driver of the car as he tries to attack him with a tire iron. This in turn causes a fiery accident where the driver escapes, but Bates dies. Bates's psychiatrist, Dr. Adam Claiborne, discovers Bates' body and assumes his personality. In the next book, Psycho House, Norman appears only as a novelty animatronic on display in the Bates Hotel, which has been converted into a tourist attraction. Film sequels In the sequel to the original film, Bates is released from the institution 22 years after his arrest, seemingly cured, and he meets Mary Loomis — Marion Crane's niece — with whom he falls in love. However, a series of mysterious murders occurs, as well as strange appearances and messages from "Mother", and Bates slowly loses his grip on sanity. The mysterious appearances and messages turn out to be a plot by Lila Loomis, Marion's vengeful sister, to drive him insane again in order to get him recommitted. The actual murders turn out to be the work of his aunt — Norma's sister, Emma Spool — who shares the family's history of mental illness and claims to be Norman's real mother. Before Bates discovers this, however, Mary Loomis is shot dead by the police during a confrontation with Bates, and Spool murders Lila. When Spool tells Bates that she is his mother, he kills her and embalms her body while assuming the "Mother" personality once again. In the third film, Bates continues to struggle, unsuccessfully, against "Mother"'s dominion. He also finds another love interest named Maureen Coyle, who eventually dies at "Mother"'s hand. In the film Mrs. Spool's body is first discovered by sleazy musician Duane Duke, whom Bates kills when Duke tries to use the discovery to blackmail Bates. Tracy Venable, a reporter interested in Bates' case, finds out the truth about Spool. "Mother" orders Bates to kill Venable, but in the end he attacks "Mother"'s corpse violently, attempting to break free of her control, as well as getting revenge at "Mother" for killing Maureen. He is again institutionalized. During the last few minutes of the movie, Venable tells Bates that Emma Spool was his aunt, not his mother, and had killed his father. Apparently, she had fallen for Bates' father and, when Norma Bates had given birth to Norman, kidnapped the child, believing he was her son. Norman is then sent back to the institution. The final sequel, however, supplies that Bates' father was stung to death by bees, effectively retconning the revelations of Psycho III. In this film, Bates had been released from the institution, and is married to one of the hospital's nurses. When his wife becomes pregnant, however, he lures her to his mother's house and tries to kill her; he wants to prevent another of his "cursed" line from being born into the world. (The film implies that Bates' mother suffered from schizophrenia and passed the illness on to him.) He relents at the last minute, however, when his wife professes her love for him. He then burns the house down in an attempt to free himself of his past. During the attempt, he is tormented by hallucinations of "Mother" and several of his victims; he almost dies in the flames before willing himself to get out, apparently defeating his illness at long last. In the pilot episode of the failed TV series Bates Motel, Bates is never released from the institution after his first incarceration. He befriends Alex West, a fellow inmate who had murdered his stepfather, and wills ownership of the titular motel to him before dying of old age. Characterization The character Norman Bates in Psycho was loosely based on two people. First was the real-life serial killer Ed Gein, about whom Bloch later wrote a fictionalised account, "The Shambles of Ed Gein", in 1962. (The story can be found in Crimes and Punishments: The Lost Bloch, Volume 3). Second, it has been indicated by several people including Noel Carter (wife of Lin Carter) and Chris Steinbrunner, as well as allegedly by Bloch himself, that Norman Bates was partly based on Calvin Beck, publisher of Castle of Frankenstein. The characterization of Bates in the novel and the movie differ in some key areas. In the novel, Bates is in his mid-to-late 40s, short, overweight, homely, and more overtly unstable. In the movie, he is in his early-to-mid-20s, tall, slender, and handsome. Reportedly, when working on the film, Hitchcock decided that he wanted audiences to be able to sympathize with Bates and genuinely like the character, so he made him more of a "boy next door." In the novel, Norman becomes Mother after getting drunk and passing out; in the movie, he remains sober before switching personalities. In the novel, Bates is well-read in occult and esoteric authors such as P.D. Ouspensky and Aleister Crowley. He is aware that "Mother" disapproves of these authors as being against religion. Portrayals Bates was portrayed by Anthony Perkins in Hitchcock's seminal 1960 film adaptation of Bloch's novel and its three sequels. He also portrayed Norman Bates, albeit more lightheartedly, in a 1990 oatmeal commercial. Vince Vaughn portrayed Bates in Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake, while Kurt Paul took on the role in Bates Motel. Henry Thomas played a younger version of the character in Psycho IV: The Beginning. Comic books Norman appears in the 1992 three-issue comic book adaptation of the first Psycho film released by Innovation Publishing. Despite being a colorized adaptation of the Hitchcock film, the version of Norman present in the comics resembles the one from Bloch's original novel: an older, overweight, balding man. Comic artist Felipe Echevarria has explained that this was due to Perkins' refusal to allow his likeness to be replicated for the books, wanting to disassociate himself with Norman Bates. Reception Norman Bates is ranked as the second greatest villain on the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 film heroes and villains, behind Hannibal Lecter and before Darth Vader. His line "A boy's best friend is his mother" also ranks as number 56 on the institute's list of the 100 greatest movie quotes. In 2008, Norman Bates was selected by Empire Magazine as one of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters. Bates also ranked number 4 on Premiere Magazine's list of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

17. Verbal Kint/Keyser Soze (The Usual Suspects) (6 of 16 lists - 69 points - highest ranking #6 pittshoganerkoff) Keyser Söze (play /ˈkaɪzər ˈsoʊzeɪ/ ky-zər soh-zay) is a fictional character in the 1995 film The Usual Suspects, written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer. According to Roger "Verbal" Kint, Söze is a crimelord whose ruthlessness and influence have acquired a legendary, even mythical, status among police and criminals. The character was named the #48 villain in the American Film Institute's "AFI's 100 Years…100 Heroes and Villains" in June 2003. Background According to "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey), Söze was once a petty drug dealer beginning his criminal career in his native Turkey. The entity that is Keyser Söze is born when rival Hungarian smugglers invade his house while he is away, rape his wife and hold his children hostage; when Söze arrives, they kill one of the children to show him their resolve, then threaten to kill his wife and remaining children if he does not surrender his business to them. Rather than give in to their demands and to spare his family from having to live with the memory of what has happened, he murders them and all but one of the Hungarians, knowing that the survivor would tell the mafia what has happened. Söze goes after the mob, killing dozens of people including the mobsters' families, friends and even people who owe them money as well as destroying their homes and businesses. He then goes "underground", never again doing business in person and remaining invisible even to his henchmen, who almost never know for whom they are working. One of the most famous lines from the movie, spoken by Kint, is: "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." This is a paraphrase of a phrase in a story by Charles Baudelaire, as translated from the original French. Neither McQuarrie nor Singer realized this at the time and they "borrowed it from people who were quoting Baudelaire themselves." Söze's ruthlessness is legendary; he is described as having had enemies and disloyal henchmen brutally murdered, along with everyone they hold dear, for the slightest infractions — and as having personally murdered people who have seen and can identify him. Over the years his criminal empire, including the drug trade and the smuggling of weapons and materials flourishes as does his legend; he becomes, as Kint says during his interrogation, "a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night." Film revelations The film The Usual Suspects consists mostly of flashbacks narrated by Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey), ostensibly a con artist with cerebral palsy. Verbal has been granted immunity from prosecution provided he assists investigators, including Customs Agent David Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) and reveals all details of his involvement with a group of notorious criminals that are assumed to be responsible for the destruction of a ship and the murder of nearly everyone aboard. While Verbal is telling his story, Kujan learns the name Keyser Söze from FBI agent Jack Baer (Giancarlo Esposito) and demands Verbal tell him what he knows. Verbal describes how he and a small group of career criminals are blackmailed by Söze, through Söze's lawyer Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite), into destroying a large drug shipment belonging to Söze's Argentinian rivals. All but Kint and a Hungarian are killed in the attack. Baer believes there were no drugs and the true purpose of the attack was to eliminate a passenger on the ship who could identify Söze. Kujan confronts Kint with the theory that Söze is one of the criminals that Verbal had worked with: a corrupt former police officer and professional thief named Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne). Kujan's investigation of Keaton is what involved him in the case. In the final sequence of the movie, it is revealed that Verbal's story is a fabrication, made up of strung-together details culled from a crowded bulletin board in the messy office of the police detective where Kujan conducted Verbal's interrogation. The methods used to persuade the audience of this included a buzzing montage of voices from the movie, cut and pasted with pictures and text from the bulletin board, as well as the "KOBAYASHI" manufacturer's logo printed on the bottom of Kujan's coffee cup. The surviving Hungarian, severely burned and in hospital, describes to a sketch artist a man he saw during the attack that he believes is Keyser Söze: none other than Verbal Kint. Kujan realizes the truth too late, as Verbal has already walked out on bail, his limp suddenly gone. He uses a gold cigarette lighter similar to one Söze was seen carrying at the beginning of the film to light a cigarette with a steady hand and climbs into a car driven by the character we used to know as Kobayashi. As they drive away, Kujan desperately looks around the crowded streets for Verbal, having realized too late. Since almost everything Roger "Verbal" Kint told during his interrogation is unreliable, Kint may be Söze or he could be Söze's agent or that Keyser Söze never existed, being a legend modified by Kint to deceive Kujan. In popular culture Since the release of the film, the name Keyser Söze has gained two popular uses in Western culture: the first is as a description of a legend, usually of underworld crime, which is a result of the character's Satanic presence in The Usual Suspects. For example, in the video game Max Payne, the titular character refers to Rico Muerte as "a regular Keyser Söze." In the video game Warcraft_III, "KeyserSoze" is a cheat code that gives you a desired amount of gold. The second use of the name in popular culture is a shorthand reference to being fooled, by an actual villain, into believing in a villain who does not exist. This use of the name is owed to the film's twist ending. One such reference can be found in "The Puppet Show," an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where upon discovering the disappearance of a possessed dummy that had convinced the heroes it was on their side, Xander Harris asks, "Does anyone else feel like they've been Keyser Sözed?" In his 1999 review of Fight Club, film critic Roger Ebert commented, "A lot of recent films seem unsatisfied unless they can add final scenes that redefine the reality of everything that has gone before; call it the Keyser Söze syndrome."

Try Mutsu apples.

QUOTE (kwolf68 @ Dec 7, 2011 -> 12:03 AM) Why is Viciedo penciled in at RF? I'd rather have Dayan in LF. He probably got starts in RF because Pierre was playing the only position he could reasonably play (LF). And Lillibridge is a utility guy. He isn't a full time RF Reddick is a guy you put in RF and you'll get excellent defense and can play most every game (except perhaps against really tough lefties). If CQ is moved, then we either get someone back who can play RF, put a less than steller defensive player there or Rios enters the lineup (with De Aza moving to RF)....De Aza isn't much of a power bat so I'd rather have him in CF, but if Rios can (choking snort) rekindle his 25homer magic then we could carry a softer stick in RF. Just throwing stuff out there. I doubt Reddick is even in the picture with CQ, although I can absolutely see why the BoSox would like CQ. Viciedo's arm is made for RF. De Aza will be LF or come off of the bench.

Viciedo and Lillibridge are RFs.

QUOTE (Soxnfins2256 @ Dec 6, 2011 -> 06:51 PM) That and Dunn. It's the same thing will my Dolphins jerseys, I have Marino, Ricky Williams, Culpepper, Chris Chambers, Ronnie Brown, Zach Thomas, and I'm really regretting getting my Brandon Marshall jersey this week. You should just buy Dan Marino or Larry Csonka, then.

18. Jack Torrance/The Overlook Hotel (The Shining) (5 of 16 lists - 67 points - highest ranking #7 Cali) Jack Torrance is a fictional character, the antagonist in the 1977 novel The Shining by Stephen King. He was portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the 1980 movie adaptation of the novel, and by Steven Weber in the 1997 miniseries. The American Film Institute rated the character (as played by Nicholson) the 25th greatest film villain of all time. In 2008, Jack Torrance was selected by Empire Magazine as one of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters. Premiere Magazine also ranked Torrance on their list of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. Biography In novel Jack Torrance is a writer and former teacher who is trying to rebuild his and his family's life after his alcoholism and volatile temper costs him his teaching position at a small preparatory school. Having given up drinking, he accepts a position maintaining the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado for the winter, in the hope this will salvage his family, re-establish his career, and give him the time and privacy to finish a promising play. He moves to the hotel with his wife, Wendy, and young son, Danny, who is telepathic and sensitive to supernatural forces. Danny receives guidance from an imaginary friend he calls "Tony." It is later revealed that Jack's father, also an alcoholic, was abusive towards his family. A flashback scene in the novel shows his father pretending to be drunk so as to brutally bash Jack's mother with a cane. Danny finds out that the Overlook Hotel is haunted from cook Dick Hallorann, who is also psychic (in fact, it is he who coins the term "the shining" to describe the powers he and the boy possess) and who teaches Danny to use his gift to defend himself and his family from the evil forces at work in the old building. However, Jack succumbs to both cabin fever and his drinking problem, and allows the hotel to convince him to hate his own wife and child (in fact, a good part of Jack's insanity is caused by the hotel's demonic entity, which uses its supernatural powers to psychologically torture them). Jack has encounters with ghosts of previous staff of the hotel, who insist he had always been working there, and must kill his family so he can be promoted to a managerial position. In fact, the Hotel is not only haunted by the ghosts of those who died violently within it, but the entire Hotel is itself host to a being of unknown origin, who wishes to coerce the father into killing the boy. Apparently, the souls and, perhaps, special abilities of those killed in the building belong to the entity, and the Hotel believes that if it can harness the boy's "shining" (a recurring supernatural ability in the Stephen King universe coined for those individuals who simultaneously exhibit clairvoyant and psychic abilities), then it can gather enough power to "break free" of the building in which it has somehow become trapped. Jack pursues Wendy, who knocks him out as he tries to kill her. She locks him up in a storage room, and realizes that she is stranded there at the hotel (Jack had cut off all radio communications and also sabotaged the hotel snowmobile, their only means of transport). Jack is later helped out of the food storage room by the ghost of the previous caretaker, who murdered his own family before committing suicide. Jack then brutally attacks Wendy with a roque mallet he found, although she escapes. He is interrupted with the arrival of Hallorann, whom he almost beats to death. Jack finds and confronts Danny and is about to kill him when his son reaches through the hotel's power and redeems his father moments before the hotel's boiler explodes, demolishing the building. Wendy, Danny and Hallorann escape, but Jack dies inside. In film Jack Torrance is portrayed in a less sympathetic manner in the 1980 film. In the novel Jack is a tragic hero whose shortcomings lead to his defeat, while the film implies that he is insane from the start. It also omits his traumatic childhood. The film's first major deviation from the source material occurs when Jack attacks Hallorann. Instead of merely injuring him with the mallet, Jack brutally kills Hallorann with an axe wound to the heart. In the film, Jack hears Danny scream, and chases his son to a hedge maze outside the hotel (in the novel topiary animals come to life and threaten Danny). Danny walks backwards in his own footprints to mislead Jack, then jumps to a side path and slips out of the maze. While Wendy and Danny escape the hotel in Hallorann's Snowcat, Jack gets lost trying to pick up Danny's tracks, sits down to rest, and quickly freezes to death. While Jack redeems himself in the book, in the 1980 film, he succumbs to his demons and is ultimately damned (much to Stephen King's chagrin). The film ends featuring an old photograph of a dance at the hotel from the 1920s that shows Jack in the event. In the miniseries Author Stephen King was unhappy with some liberties that the 1980s film director Stanley Kubrick took with the novel, and decided to produce a three-part miniseries of his vision of the story. While well-received by King fans, it received mixed reviews from critics. In King's film version, Jack Torrance is presented more sympathetically than in Kubrick's film. Torrance in the King miniseries is similar to the character in the novel, but the ending is changed. In the book, Jack redeems himself, and the boiler explodes due to the hotel's negligence. In the miniseries, Jack sacrifices himself by causing the boiler to explode in order to destroy the hotel. The miniseries ends with a scene not in the book: Danny graduates from high school, while his spectral father looks on. It is revealed that Danny's imaginary friend "Tony" is, in fact, Danny from the future communicating with his past self, a point briefly touched upon in the book but totally omitted from the Kubrick film. . . . The hotel has a personality in its own right, and acts as a psychic lens: it manipulates the living and the dead for its own purposes, and magnifies the psychic powers of any living people who reside there and makes them more sensitive to its urgings. Danny has premonitions of the hotel's danger to his family and begins seeing ghosts and frightening visions from the hotel's past, but puts up with them in the hope that they are not dangerous in the present. Although Danny is close to his father, he does not tell either of his parents about his visions because he senses that the caretaking job is important to his father and the family's future. Wendy thinks about taking Danny away from the Overlook to leave Jack there to finish the job on his own, but Danny refuses, thinking his father will be happier if they stay. Danny soon realizes, however, that his presence in the hotel makes it more powerful and enables it to make normally harmless objects and situations dangerous, such as topiary animals that come to life. The hotel has difficulty possessing Danny, so it begins to possess Jack, frustrating his need and desire to work. Jack becomes increasingly unstable, and the sinister ghosts of the hotel gradually begin to overtake him. One day he goes to the bar of the hotel, previously empty of alcohol, and finds it fully stocked. As he gets drunk, the hotel attempts to use Jack to kill Wendy and Danny in order to absorb Danny's psychic abilities. Wendy and Danny get the better of Jack, locking him into the walk-in pantry, but the ghost of Delbert Grady, a former caretaker who murdered his family and then committed suicide, releases him. Wendy discovers that they are completely isolated at the Overlook, as Jack has sabotaged the hotel's snowmobile and smashed the CB radio in the office. Jack strikes Wendy with one of the hotel's roque mallets, breaking three ribs, a kneecap, and one vertebra in her back. Wendy stabs Jack in the small of his back with a large butcher knife, then crawls away to the caretaker's suite and locks herself in the bathroom, with Jack in pursuit. Jack tries to break the door with the mallet, but before he unlocks the door she keeps him back by cutting him with some razor blades. Hallorann, working at a winter resort in Florida, has heard Danny's psychic call for help and rushes back to the Overlook. Jack leaves Wendy in the bathroom and ambushes Hallorann, shattering his jaw and giving him a concussion with the mallet, before setting off after Danny. Danny distracts Jack by saying "You're not my daddy," having realized that the Overlook has completely taken over Jack by playing on his alcoholism. Jack temporarily regains control of himself and tells Danny, "Run away. Quick. And remember how much I love you". Soon after, Jack is quickly possessed by the hotel again. He violently bashes his own face and skull in with his mallet so Danny can no longer recognize him as his father. Danny, realizing that his father is now gone forever, tells Jack that the unstable boiler is going to explode. In response, Jack rushes to the basement. Danny and Wendy reunite in the lobby and they flee the Overlook with Hallorann. Though Jack tries to relieve the boiler pressure, it explodes, destroying the hotel. The building's spirit makes one last desperate attempt to possess Hallorann and make him kill Danny and Wendy, but he shakes it off and brings them to safety.

19. Annie Wilkes (Misery) (4 of 16 lists - 67 points - highest ranking #4 kyyle23) Anne Marie Wilkes Dugan, usually known as Annie Wilkes, is a fictional character and the antagonist/main villain in the 1987 novel Misery, by Stephen King. In the 1990 film adaptation of the novel, Annie Wilkes was portrayed by Kathy Bates, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal. The American Film Institute included Annie Wilkes (as played by Bates) in their "100 Heroes and Villains" list, ranking her as the 17th most iconic villain (and sixth most iconic villainess) in film history. Character background The novel provides Wilkes' backstory, stating that she was born in Bakersfield, California on April 1, 1943 and graduated from the University of Southern California nursing school in 1966. After several years of working in hospitals across the country, she settled in a remote portion of Colorado's Western Slope. Wilkes rescues the protagonist, Paul Sheldon, after he breaks both of his legs in a car accident, and takes him to her home to convalesce. She fawns over Sheldon, a writer of romance novels starring her favorite literary character, Misery Chastain; she professes to be his "number one fan" and even says she loves him. This, and the fact that she is not in a hurry to take him to a hospital, makes Sheldon uneasy. Sheldon has studied psychological disorders as part of his research for the Misery series, and suspects early on that Wilkes is mentally unstable. Wilkes is enraged when she discovers Sheldon killed off Misery at the end of his latest novel. She tells him she has not called a hospital or told anybody about him, saying if she dies he dies. She holds him captive in her home and subjects him to a series of physical and psychological tortures. She forces him to burn the only copy of a novel he felt would put him back on track as a mainstream author, and then makes him write a new novel bringing Misery back to life. Sheldon writes the book as Wilkes wants, but chafes under her torture. In the film, he tries to kill her by spiking her drink with a massive overdose of the painkillers she gives him. However, that attempt goes awry when she accidentally spills it. Sheldon gradually develops an addiction to the painkillers. While looking for them, he finds her old scrapbook and learns from the newspaper clippings inside that she is a serial killer whose spree dates back to her childhood in Bakersfield. Among her victims were a neighboring family, her own father, her college roommate, and a hitchhiker with whom she had a brief fling. While serving as head maternity nurse (at a Boulder hospital in the book and a hospital in rural southern Colorado in the film), 11 infants in her care died under mysterious circumstances. She was tried for their deaths, but acquitted for lack of evidence. Sheldon also learns that she killed several patients at other hospitals where she worked, but no one noticed because they were either very sick or suffered debilitating injuries beforehand. Sheldon also finds that Wilkes was formerly married to a physical therapist named Ralph Dugan, who later divorced her citing "mental cruelty." The last picture is an article about Sheldon's own disappearance, leading him to fear that he is Wilkes' next victim. Sheldon doesn't know it, but Wilkes has known all along that Sheldon has been sneaking around her house. This sets off one of the film's most infamous scenes, in which she breaks his ankles with a sledgehammer to stop him from escaping. In the book she chops off his foot with an axe and cauterizes it with a blowtorch, and later cuts off one of his thumbs with an electric knife when he complains about a missing letter on his typewriter. In the book, Wilkes brutally kills a Colorado state trooper who sees Sheldon in her house by stabbing him with a wooden cross and running him over with a lawnmower. In the film, the local sheriff comes to Wilkes' farm to investigate Sheldon's disappearance. Wilkes drugs Sheldon and hides him in her basement before subsequently killing the officer with a double-barreled shotgun as he hears Sheldon's cries for help. Wilkes then says they should "celebrate" the new novel in a murder-suicide. Sheldon pretends to go along with it, telling her he needs a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne and a cigarette, as per his usual practice after finishing a book. He soaks the manuscript with lighter fluid he picked up in the basement and sets it ablaze. While Wilkes tries to put the fire out, Sheldon overpowers her by cracking her over the head with his typewriter and choking her. In the film, he chokes her with pages of the burnt novel. In the novel, he chokes her with blank pages which she believes to be the book; the real novel was hidden from sight and was later published. She ultimately dies of a fractured skull; Sheldon is then rescued by police. In the book, she fractures her skull when she slips and falls on the mantle of the guest room bed. When the police go in to search the bedroom where Wilkes is believed to have died, they find it empty. It is later revealed that, despite being mortally wounded, she managed to escape the bedroom and died in her barn with her hands on a chainsaw, which she presumably intended to use on Sheldon. In the movie, Sheldon kills her after her apparent death by ramming a metal statue of her pet sow pig — named Misery after his stories — into her head. Personality King characterizes Annie Wilkes as a cunning, brutal and dangerously disturbed woman who hides her psychosis behind a cheery facade. Both the novel and the film portray her as extremely paranoid, and also suggest that she may suffer from bipolar disorder. In the novel, she has day-long bouts with depression, during which she is seen maiming herself. She has an unhealthy obsession with romance novels, particularly Sheldon's Misery series. She abhors profanity, to the point that she will fly into fits of rage if it is used in front of her. She instead expresses anger with childishly strange words and phrases like "cockadoodie," "mister man" "dirty bird," "dirty birdy," "oogie," and "rooty-patooties." In the novel, however, she lets more conventional profanities slip on occasion, most notably when she calls Paul "a lying cocksucker" after Paul sets the new Misery book ablaze. The film is also consistent in depicting Wilkes' behavior towards profanity. She frequently has unexpectedly violent tantrums over insignificant matters. For instance, when Sheldon complains that the packet of Eaton's Corrasable Bond paper she bought for him is smudge-prone, she smashes his still-healing knee (with her bare hands in the novel and with the packet of paper in the movie). In a special feature on the collectors' edition DVD, forensic psychologist Reid Meloy said that Wilkes' personality (as portrayed by Kathy Bates) is a virtual catalog of mental illness. According to Meloy, Wilkes suffers from bipolar disorder, a severe personality disorder and sadomasochism. He also believes her profile is typical of people who stalk celebrities. In his commentary on the film available on the DVD, director Rob Reiner notes that Wilkes' killing spree is loosely based on that of Genene Jones, a nurse who is believed to have killed as many as 50 children who were in her care over a two-year period. Other appearances The fictional version of King that appears in The Dark Tower discusses Annie Wilkes. Annie Wilkes is mentioned in Kim Newman's novella, The Other Side of Midnight. Set in his alternate history crossover Anno Dracula series, it is mentioned that she was the murderer of John Lennon, telling the press that she loved him but that he had to die for splitting up the Beatles. Kathy Bates reprised her role as Annie Wilkes in a 2008 commercial for DirecTV, with the setting being the infamous scene where she cripples Paul Sheldon. In the Family Guy episode "Three Kings", which parodies works by Stephen King, Wilkes' role is taken by Stewie Griffin. An episode of the Comedy Central cartoon series Drawn Together, is a reference to the novel. In the episode Wooldoor Sockbat suffers an injury after Princess Clara tries to drown him, and she takes care of Wooldoor until he heals. She soon becomes addicted to the attention and admiration she receives as Wooldoor's caretaker, and so tries to keep him sick by giving him chemicals such as toilet soap and cleaning water; she finally breaks Wooldoor's ankles with a piece of wood and a sledgehammer. French and Saunders parodied Misery with Dawn French in Bates' role. She holds her comedy partner, Jennifer Saunders, captive in her home in the woods until she writes her a decent script. When Jennifer eventually escapes it takes a lot to kill Dawn, reflecting the number of injuries Annie Wilkes endured while Paul Sheldon was escaping in the film.

20. Jigsaw (Saw) (5 of 16 lists - 65 points - highest ranking #6 kyyle23) John Kramer (commonly referred to as Jigsaw) is a fictional character and the central character of the Saw franchise. Jigsaw made his debut as the primary antagonist in the first film of the series, Saw, and he's later portrayed as an antihero in Saw II, III, IV, V, VI and 3D. He is portrayed by American actor Tobin Bell. In the series' narrative, Kramer is a former civil engineer dying from an inoperable frontal lobe tumor that had developed from colon cancer. After a failed suicide attempt, Kramer experienced a new respect for his own life and set out to force others through deadly trials to help them appreciate their own lives by testing their will to live through self-sacrifice. The tests were typically symbolic of what Jigsaw perceived as a flaw in each person's moral character or life. The Jigsaw name was given by the media for his practice of cutting puzzle pieces out of the flesh of those who failed their ordeals and perished, symbolic of their missing survival instincts, but Kramer never took or used the name to refer to himself. Saw The Jigsaw Killer character was introduced in the 2004 film Saw through the character Dr. Lawrence Gordon's recounting of his first killings. Jigsaw is described as a mysterious person who kidnaps people he sees as wasting their lives and attempts to "save" them. This is accomplished by administering various inhumane tests consisting of mechanical devices rigged to maim or kill the subjects or other victims if not completed within a certain time period. As opposed to other killers, Jigsaw does not actually intend to kill his subjects; the purpose of his traps is to see if the subject has the will to survive, and thus inflict enough psychological trauma for the subjects to appreciate their life and save themselves from their own demons. As his victims increase, the media dubs him The Jigsaw Killer, or simply Jigsaw, because of the jigsaw puzzle-shaped piece of flesh that he cuts from unsuccessful subjects, a practice explained in Saw II as reflecting each subject "was missing a vital piece of the human puzzle; the survival instinct". Throughout the first film, his identity remains uncertain; the unstable ex-cop David Tapp suspects that he may be Dr. Gordon, one of the film's two protagonists, and near the end of the film Dr. Gordon and fellow protagonist Adam are led to believe it is the hospital orderly Zep Hindle. Only at the end of the film is it revealed that the Jigsaw Killer was in fact a terminal cancer patient of Dr. Gordon's, John Kramer, who spent the entire time posing as a corpse on the floor of the bathroom Adam was trapped in. Saw II Much of the character's backstory was revealed in Saw II, revealing that he had become sick and had gone in for a medical examination, where he learned from Dr. Lawrence Gordon that he was dying of colon cancer, with an inoperable brain tumor. At this point, he stated that he began to see how many people took their lives for granted. He drove himself off of a cliff but survived the suicide attempt, and subsequently began his "work" to save people from themselves. Though he never claimed nor encouraged the name, Kramer's work eventually earned him the nickname The Jigsaw Killer, in spite of the circumstances and intentions he had while conducting his work; he did not consider himself to be a "killer" or "murderer". This is because rather than killing his victims outright, he trapped them in situations which he called "tests" or "games", in order to test their instinctual will to live versus physical or psychological torture. In Saw II, Jigsaw leaves a hint in one of his traps that leads police to apprehend him. There, he puts police Detective Eric Matthews through a test by showing him Matthews' son Daniel trapped in a house filled with nerve gas, along with people whom, though far from innocent, Matthews had framed for crimes they did not commit. Jigsaw offers to let the younger Matthews survive if the Detective sits and talks to him, which ends with Eric brutally beating Jigsaw and forcing him to lead him to the house. Upon their arrival, Jigsaw is rescued by Amanda Young, one of his victims (introduced previously in Saw) who, having survived her trap and seeing her captor as a savior, has become his apprentice. Saw III By Saw III, a dying Jigsaw is hospitalized and extremely concerned over Amanda Young's failure to allow her subjects a fair chance to survive her tests. In his desperation, Jigsaw administers a final test to Young, in order to see if she was truly capable of successfully carrying on his work. Being kept alive by Dr. Lynn Denlon, a test subject who is forced to perform brain surgery on Jigsaw at the risk of dying by her own trap, Jigsaw attempts to keep Young from failing her test. However, after she breaks down, Young shoots Dr. Denlon. Witnessing this, Jeff Denlon, Dr. Denlon's vengeful husband who is also being tested, kills Young with a gunshot to her neck. After explaining the rules of a final game to Jeff, Jigsaw is mortally wounded when Jeff slices his throat with a power saw. As he dies, Jigsaw pulls out a tape player and plays a recording explaining that he is responsible for the abduction of Corbett, Jeff's daughter, and that if he wants her back he'll have to participate in another game. Saw IV While Jigsaw appears as a corpse in the present at the beginning and end of Saw IV, a tape found in his stomach during his autopsy assures Lieutenant Mark Hoffman that his games have just begun. During the autopsy, it was revealed that Kramer was 52 at the time of his death. Saw IV also explored Jigsaw's history, more so than previously done in Saw II, rendering some of the content in Saw: Rebirth (a one-shot comic published in 2005) non-canon, instead showing a new back story. From the story given in Saw IV, Kramer was a successful civil engineer who got into property development, and was a devoted husband to his wife Jill; she ran a recovery clinic for drug users, to which he gave his belief, "Cherish Your Life". However, after a robbery and the reckless actions of a clinic patient named Cecil Adams resulted in the loss of the Kramers' unborn child, John became detached and angry, which eventually caused their divorce. After being diagnosed with cancer as first seen in Saw II, and trying to kill himself, Kramer began his work as Jigsaw, hunting down Cecil as his first test subject. Saw V Jigsaw reappears in Saw V, in flashback meetings with Hoffman, attacking and kidnapping Paul Leahy, then setting up and later watching his razor wire trap from Saw, as well as setting up the house of Saw II. He is shown on his deathbed talking to Hoffman about setting up a test, which leads Hoffman to exit the room as Young enters with Dr. Denlon, which occurs near the beginning of Saw III. Jigsaw also appears in a video will to his ex-wife Jill Tuck, leaving her a mysterious box. His deceased body is shown several times during the start of the movie, which was also the end of Saw IV, an opening scene in which Peter Strahm receives his first cassette tape, and a flashback which occurs to Strahm later in the film. Saw VI Jigsaw appears in flashbacks in the film. One flashback set prior to the events of the first film showed that it was Amanda Young who sent Cecil to Jill (Tuck) Kramer's clinic to steal drugs for her. This resulted in Jill's miscarriage, and thus Young was revealed to be an indirect cause of John Kramer's transformation into Jigsaw. Further flashbacks set prior to the events of the first film reveal that Jigsaw targeted William Easton for one of his games because he had insensitively denied Kramer health coverage after he had developed cancer. In the present time of Saw VI, Kramer shows himself on video twice to Easton instead of the Billy Puppet (the method Kramer usually used to speak to his subjects), so Easton could look in the eyes of someone he let die. In another flashback, this time set between the events of the first and second film, Jigsaw explains to his ex-wife that his "rehabilitation" works, showing Amanda Young as supposed evidence of this. A flashback set just before the events of the third and fourth films explores the group dynamic between Jigsaw, Amanda Young and Hoffman. Jigsaw criticises Hoffman for not seeing the test subjects as human beings and also critiques his approach to setting up Timothy Young's trap. It was also shown that Jigsaw seemed to have had a closer emotional attachment to Amanda Young than Hoffman. Shortly afterward, Jigsaw gave his ex-wife the key which she later used to open the box he gave her in his will in Saw V. In the present time of Saw VI, it is revealed that the box contained six envelopes (marked 1 through 6), a thicker envelope, and an updated version of the "Reverse Bear Trap". She gave Mark Hoffman envelopes 1 through 5, but hid everything else from him and later delivered the thick envelope to an unknown person. Envelope 6 was meant only for Tuck-Kramer, instructing her to trap Hoffman and put the "Reverse Bear Trap" on him so he could be "tested". This fulfilled the promise made, via the audio tape discovered in the stomach of Jigsaw's corpse, that Hoffman would not go untested. Saw 3D Bell reprised his role as John Kramer/Jigsaw in Saw 3D, though his role was extremely minimal compared to previous films. He is seen in a flashback meeting Bobby Dagen at his book signing, subtly calling him a liar. He then mocks him while getting his own copy signed, which is then used in the path of Bobby's game to remind him of their encounter. He appears at the end of the film, where it was revealed that after Dr. Gordon escaped the bathroom, Jigsaw dragged him away and gave him a prosthetic foot, and congratulated him for surviving. He then made Gordon his final accomplice, considering him to be his greatest asset. Gordon assisted Jigsaw in traps which required surgical knowledge. The contents of the package Jill left at a hospital in Saw VI was shown to be a video tape for Gordon, in which Jigsaw told him that should anything happen to Jill, he would have to "act on [Jigsaw's] behalf". It is implied that John knew Hoffman would go rogue and start straying from his ideals and wanted him to be punished. After Jill is killed by Hoffman, Gordon fulfills this request by assaulting Hoffman and sealing him in the bathroom from the first film. In other media Saw: Rebirth The character of John Kramer is also featured in the comic book, Saw: Rebirth, which is set prior to the events of the first movie. It filled in some of his history, showing him as a toy designer at Standard Engineering Ltd. who was too lazy to do much with his life, ultimately ending his relationship with Jill. Saw: Rebirth also reveals Kramer's discovery that he had terminal cancer and outlined how his subsequent failed suicide attempt impacted his train of thought. His relationships with Dr. Lawrence Gordon, Zep Hindle, Paul Leahy, Amanda Young, and Mark Wilson were explored, along with his transformation into Jigsaw. Rebirth's continuity was ultimately contradicted by the backstory presented in Saw IV. "SAW – The Ride" Jigsaw's dead body can be seen on the floor on Thorpe Park's SAW - The Ride. Upon exiting, his head can be seen hanging from a high ceiling. Saw: The Video Game Tobin Bell reprises his role as the voice of Jigsaw in the Saw video game. He is shown on television screens dressed in his signature robes setting up traps for people and preaching his lesson of life appreciation to them. He frequently advises and taunts Detective Tapp as he traverses through an abandoned insane asylum, usually by way of the Billy puppet. Saw II: Flesh & Blood Tobin Bell reprised his role as the voice of the Jigsaw Killer in the Saw: The Video Game sequel Saw II: Flesh & Blood. Tobin Bell also sold his likeness for the Jigsaw Killer, who actually appears in the game. Jigsaw tests Detective Tapp's estranged son Michael, who is wanting to get to the bottom of his father's death. Jigsaw personally taunts Michael throughout the game, always being out of reach. Via case files, we also learn that he built nearly half of the city (explaining his numerous hideouts in the series). He appears to seek the destruction of the drug cartel run by corrupt cops. In the ending, he faces either Michael (tempting him onto becoming another apprentice) or Campbell (giving him freedom but getting attacked in retaliation). Characterization The producers of the Saw films have fought to differentiate the Jigsaw Killer from other horror film killers. Darren Lynn Bousman, the director of Saw II, III and IV, has stated on the character's role "He's not Jason or Freddy. He's not even Hannibal Lecter. He's a person with extreme beliefs and he really thinks he's making a difference. He's a vigilante if anything. He thinks he's making a difference." Tobin Bell, the actor who plays Jigsaw, describes his character's role as being more of a scientist or engineer and "he thinks very specifically and very pragmatically". About Jigsaw's games being detail oriented, Bell said: "My sense is that Jigsaw is so detail oriented that I think he thinks in terms of worst case scenario. I think he’s a very good judge of character, so his sense that, for example, that Detective Matthews was going to play right into his trap, which he did, was right on. Now, it seems to me that he's always got a second plan in place. And there's probably been a number of second plans. I mean, we've only seen three movies. Maybe there are six more somewhere where he failed, where something didn't play out". Bousman mentioned that Saw III was intended to contain a scene in which Jigsaw showed remorse for his actions after seeing the results: "For the first time, we actually see him break down and cry. Imagine your entire life's work. You're on your deathbed. You know there's nothing else you can do and here's how you'll be remembered: as a killer, as a murderer. Not as someone who helped people. Not as someone who changed lives. Someone who took away lives. The one thing he didn't want to be and, as he's on his deathbed, he's realizing this." As a result of his cancer and a failed suicide attempt, John decided to dedicate the rest of his life to teaching people to appreciate their own lives. The producers of Saw III and director Darren Lynn Bousman see Jigsaw, not as a serial killer, but a "scientist" who is determined to initiate the survival instinct in his "subjects", believing that humanity no longer uses its instinct of survival. While the character's discovery that he has cancer is acknowledged to be the "final straw" that drove him to his actions, Bell has stated in an interview that "His terminal cancer is one of the elements of his life but he's as angry over the fact the world is going to hell in handbasket because it's no longer the survival of the fittest; it's the survival of the mediocre. That drives him as much as anything else. He doesn't just talk about his frustrations, he does something about them, and he puts himself on the line. His cancer was about one element in about 130 elements that caused him to create the world that he's created." Jigsaw is depicted in the Saw films as being extremely intelligent in the areas relevant to his actions. In Saw: Rebirth he is depicted doing extensive study in multiple fields to gain knowledge for designing his tests, and recurring director Bousman himself has described Jigsaw as being "extremely educated" in an interview. Symbolic representations Traps In the series, Jigsaw usually builds deadly traps for his subjects, which are often a symbolic representation of what Jigsaw perceives as a flaw in the person's life. Jigsaw calls these tests "games", and tells the person the "rules" of the game usually by audio or video tape. The rules are tasks that the person must perform in order to pass the test and survive; however, the tasks often involve extreme self mutilation (although there have been occasions where it is possible for the subject not to harm themselves if they are clever enough, such as the Hand Trap). On occasion, Jigsaw has used psychological torture for the subject's test. Many of the games involve clocks, counting down timers or other measured time constraints provided to the victims. Jigsaw elaborated in Saw II his appreciation of "time", outlining the importance of savoring every moment. He also stated his belief that telling someone the time in which they may die would awaken an alertness for every moment of existence. Jake Huntley wrote of the complexity of Jigsaw's character in the Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies. Huntley described the intention behind Jigsaw's actions, and evaluated the extent to which they can be analyzed to fit into the philosophies associated with Deleuze, Darwin and Nietzsche: "The subject of one of Jigsaw's games is therefore always presented with an opportunity, the aim of which is to reinvigorate the potential of the subject, jump-start the survival instinct and instill a celebration or "savouring" of life. In Deleuzian terms, it is the potential of life that is at stake... It is this that gives Jigsaw's games their Deleuzian tone, the urgent revitalisation of life occasioning new experiences to be learnt and assimilated: such as the perverse, singular and aberrant situation of waking to find a man-trap secured around your neck. There is then the instruction to live or die, to make your choice, to survive the encounter with affect, or the affection-image... There is no thrill, sadistic or otherwise, in setting these games; they are throws of the die by the subjects, aleatoric opportunities... As Jigsaw makes clear to Detective Matthews during their conversation in Saw II, where Jigsaw's motivation and philosophy are most comprehensively explored, "I've never murdered anyone in my life. The decisions are up to them." Whilst it probably wouldn't stand up in court, he is at least correct in his usual, carefully literal sense. The decisions, the choices, the selection of a potential, are in the hands of the subjects of his games and he only intervenes in order to keep the game within its rules so a decision can be reached. The subjects are faced with a shocking choice that forces them to acknowledge what Deleuze identifies as the virtual – that is, the unacknowledged aspects of our experience with reality. This, in effect, is the particular game that Jigsaw himself plays; one where the organism might be failing but the flow of desire succeeds and endures. Jigsaw might resort to discussing Darwin's "little trip to the Galapagos Islands" to provide a theoretical underpinning for his project and echo Nietzsche in talking of the will to survive, but this merely misdirects investigators and witnesses in the same way that the gruesome traps and freely flowing gore earn him his unsettling serial killer soubriquet. Jigsaw's games are designed to crack open the world of their respective players: the challenges are nearly always relevant to the subject's lifestyle in a symbolic or literal way, bringing them to painful self awareness, prompting a reappraisal of their squandered potential." Jigsaw intends through these traps to force his victims to prove to him that they are "worthy" and "deserving" to continue living, and also for them to learn to abandon what he perceives to be their vices. Jigsaw often expressed a desire for his victims to succeed, but stressed that their fate was always in their own hands. The video and audio tape instructions for his games often echo this idea: "Live or die. Make your choice." Billy Billy, a puppet, is an icon of the Jigsaw character. Jigsaw often used it for the purpose of delivering messages to his victims via a television screen, but at times it has also been physically present with the victims during their tests. He provided the (disguised) voice for Billy when it delivered its messages. It is shown in Saw IV that the original puppet was created by Kramer as an intended toy for his unborn child. Jigsaw is shown constructing the more menacing Billy puppet in Saw III for the purpose of its inclusion in his 'games'. Microcassettes Another of Jigsaw's trademarks is his use of microcassettes to deliver instructions to his victims, disguising his voice as on the Billy videotapes. A flashback in Saw IV reveals that he accomplished this by speaking into a reel-to-reel tape recorder, then slowing down the playback. Often, a victim would find a microcassette recorder left for him/her with a tape already loaded in, while at other times the tape would be found separately in an envelope marked with the victim's name or the tape on its own reading "Play Me". One tape was found in Jigsaw's stomach during his autopsy at the beginning of Saw IV. Both of his apprentices, Amanda Young and Mark Hoffman, eventually began making their own microcassettes, but without altering their voices as he did. An exception is the tape for Seth Baxter's trap, for which Hoffman did disguise his voice in order to avoid detection. Huntley remarked that Jigsaw's voice recordings operated for a specific purpose as part of Jigsaw's M.O. Huntley stated that it allowed Jigsaw to be present there not as "a participant or even a spectator but instead as a referee, observing the rules pertinent to that particular subject rather than salaciously enjoying the ‘victim’s agony’." Pig mask The pig mask is a thematic prop worn by Jigsaw and his accomplices throughout the Saw film series to conceal their identities while abducting their "test subjects". As the series continues, the purpose of the pig mask is explored in detail; it is explained to be a tribute to the "Year of the Pig", the year in which Jigsaw started his work. The origin of the pig mask was shown in Saw IV, revealing the first known pig masks to have been latex strap-on masks used at a Year of the Pig Chinese New Year festival. Jigsaw had snatched them and donned one, while using the other one to hold his chloroform-soaked rag. The second mask was then used to knock out his first test subject, Cecil, by placing the mask over his head with the chloroform rag still inside. When working on the original Saw film, writer Leigh Whannell and director James Wan wanted their antagonist to have some sort of mask. After some discussion, the idea of Jigsaw wearing a rotting pig's head was chosen to symbolize his pessimistic view of the world and the disease that he was "rotting" from. Nevertheless, the mask given to them from production (a rubber Halloween mask) was considered by them to be less than satisfactory. A number of things were added to make it look more gruesome, including long black hair and pus running from its eyes and nostrils. Whannell has still admitted to being disappointed with its final appearance compared to his intended one, but has admitted that the mask has since become one of the "staples" of the Saw franchise. Along with Billy and perhaps Jigsaw himself, the mask has since become one of the more iconic symbols of the franchise. It has appeared on both the posters for the first film and the fourth. The mask has also been featured on many forms of merchandise. Officially-licensed pig mask accessories have been sold for Halloween. In addition, the mask has been featured on numerous Jigsaw action figures. NECA has released two Jigsaw figurines with the pig mask; the original was Jigsaw wearing the mask in his black cloak, and a Saw III variant of Jigsaw wearing it in his red cloak. In addition, the Be@rBrick line has released a "bear" version of Jigsaw wearing the pig mask. Medicom has also released a figurine of Jigsaw wearing his infamous pig mask in the "Real Action Hero" line. On the commentary track of Saw IV, several discussions occur about Jigsaw's decision to use references to pigs. In the series, the producers explained that Jigsaw was a spiritual person; however, it has never been revealed what religion he follows. In Saw IV, Jigsaw's ex-wife Jill explains Jigsaw's organized and planned lifestyle, stating that she had conceived their miscarried son Gideon, with Jigsaw planning for him to be born in the Year of the Pig. On the commentary track, the producers explain that in the Chinese Zodiac, the pig stands for fertility and rebirth. Jigsaw is seen several times throughout the series with figurines of clay soldiers and buddhas, further symbolizing his reference to various Asian cultures. Jigsaw puzzle pieces Cut outs were made, in the shape of jigsaw puzzle pieces, from the flesh of Jigsaw's deceased victims who failed to pass their test. John Kramer received the nickname "Jigsaw" from the police and the press stemming from his tendency to perform such a ritual; however, he never encouraged that name or used it to refer to himself. Huntley argued that the jigsaw pieces that John cut out of the flesh of his failed test subjects was not intended as a mere stylized signature, but rather that it had a much deeper philosophical reflection. He stated that: "Far from being a stamp of final approval, a post-(mortem)-script to the game, the jigsaw piece represents the admission of the subject's missing survival instinct, the corporeal body's non-relational or 'snagged' desire. Those marked with jigsaw pieces are the ones that got away, left inert, reduced to the zero intensity of death. It would seem strange that Jigsaw – surely the last figure ever to be deemed sentimental – should choose to extract this symbolic jigsaw piece from these subjects, except that Jigsaw is linguistically consistent in explaining how he 'takes' or 'cuts' the piece of skin. The jigsaw shape marking those who 'fail' is the adding of a subtraction – in effect, the removal of their inability, their unfulfilled potential or their lack – the excision that leaves the whole of the body that is not the closed, inert corporeal body but is, instead, the 'body-without-organs', that is, the nexus point where energy pools amid the flow and fold of forces and durations, existence beyond the living organism." A hand-drawn jigsaw puzzle piece was also present on the back of a photograph in Saw as part of a clue for one of his games. Apprentices Throughout the Saw series, Jigsaw developed a tendency to recruit "apprentices" to carry on his perceived mission. Amanda Young, Lieutenant Mark Hoffman, Dr. Lawrence Gordon, and two masked men named Pighead (Saw: The Video Game) and Pighead II (Saw II: Flesh & Blood) are the only known Jigsaw apprentices. Huntley analyzed Jigsaw's intentions in taking in protégés as stemming from the terminally ill character's desire to overcome death itself, and argues that this is further evidence of his thought process being characterized by Deleuzian philosophy. Huntley argued: "Jigsaw decides that the answer is to achieve immortality through a legacy, having a successor to continue with his work. The impulse is Deleuzian. Jigsaw remains calm, neutral and impassive throughout the Saw films (not least because of his terminal condition) yet his only expressed wish, concern or desire, is that his legacy is maintained – the work of testing the fabric of humanity should go on. "Jigsaw" – as the intensive site of being, a locus of desire, the body-without-organs – can survive the death of the organism John Kramer... What seems to be consistent thematically through the Saw films is that "Jigsaw" is a part for various players, an identity composed of pieces..." John was also assisted by Obi Tate in the kidnapping of the victims of the nerve gas house, shortly before the events of Saw II, and Zep Hindle throughout the first film. Kevin Greutert, the editor of Saw's I-V and the director of Saw VI and Saw VII, stated that Amanda, in particular, is "such a peculiar aspect of the Jigsaw character", citing the fact that Kramer had developed genuine "tender feelings" for her. The term "apprentice" was used in the official plot synopses for Saw III and Saw IV. Theatrical robe Jigsaw is usually seen wearing a black theatrical robe with a large hood and red lining when running traps or abducting victims. On the commentary track for the first Saw film, it was explained that the producers originally wanted Jigsaw to have the red robe with black interior. Thinking that the red robe was too vibrant for the film, they reversed the robe to make it black with red interior. Amanda wore a similar robe in Saw III in an attempt to symbolically emulate her mentor. Although Hoffman, while wearing the pig mask, always wore the dark blue rain parka he'd worn since the murder of Seth Baxter, further illustrating the gap between him and Jigsaw. Also, both Pighead and Pighead II wear similar robes to Jigsaw, the only difference being that the Pighead robe is red. Tobin Bell Speaking about his character, actor Tobin Bell says: "My wife mentioned to me that she read an interview with Jeffrey Dahmer's mother about his childhood. And she said he was a perfectly normal child. He had friends like everyone else, he participated in the same kind of activities. In terms of your question about icons, if you begin to think of people like that, it's a deadly thing to do. You have to think of someone like Jigsaw from a very specific point of view. He doesn't view himself as some kind of diabolical psychotic. You know there's a little bit of evil in everyone. It just gets carried further. Most of us have some sort of moral fiber that restricts that. Some framework. And then others because of their lives and what happens to them, the thing develops in some other way. You know, I've played a lot of different kind of guys. Jigsaw's a fascinating person. And it's up to the filmmakers to do what ever they want to do with where he's coming from and to shape it and make it something meaningful that fits into the picture." Reaction Critical reception A review of Saw II in the San Francisco Chronicle praised Tobin Bell and Jigsaw as being "more terrifying than the movie villains in Hollywood's last five horror films put together; even though he's in a wheelchair and hooked up to multiple IVs." Don Summer, a writer for Best-Horror-Movies.com, stated that "the villain, in Jigsaw, is brilliant and formidable" and that actor Tobin Bell has done a "fantastic job" in his recurring role. Neil Smith, a film reviewer for the BBC, described Bell's Jigsaw as "creepy", describing the character as adding "a palpably sinister charge" to the scenes he appeared in. Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, a reviewer for the Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, remarked that Tobin Bell's Jigsaw had become such an entrenched staple of the Saw franchise, that the character's reduced appearance in Saw V was drastically felt. Ní Fhlainn also commented that Jigsaw's unique character was not successfully compensated for by his apparent successor in Saw V, Mark Hoffman. Ní Fhlainn went to the extent to remark that the character of Jigsaw is so central to the Saw franchise, that it should have ended as a trilogy considering Jigsaw's death at the end of Saw III. Similarly, several critics who reviewed Saw 3D lamented Bell's minimal screentime in the film, with Eric Goldman of IGN writing that he found it "impossible not to be bothered by how little time was spent" with the character. Tobin Bell was nominated for a Spike TV Scream Award three times in the category of "Most Vile Villain" for his portrayal of Jigsaw in 2006 for Saw II, in 2007 (alongside Shawnee Smith's portrayal of Amanda) for Saw III, and in 2008 for Saw IV.

QUOTE (Lemon_44 @ Dec 5, 2011 -> 10:00 PM) why ask her for 30 minutes when you'd only need 2. BURN!