You could make them snivelling weasels nobody would like quite easily. But it would be less appealing to part of the audience. The choice to write them as strong and cool is a profit driven one.
Hence why Tolkien wins (in this very narrow thing, the rest is a bit ) Grima Wormtongue is an absolutely detestable low-level villain that nobody thinks is cool, but he's also the reason Saruman, one of the "cooler" villains, dies, both in the book and in the movies.
Gotta throw down a mostly unrelated fact cause I saw Wormtongue mentioned. I've seen meme being like "Tolkien, master of language, names a traitorous dude Wormtongue. And yeah, the rohirrim speak ango saxon and worm comes from warm as in dragon and tongue from tong as in sword. He's Grima dragonsword in universe. The Rohirrim literally speak Anglo Saxon
they only kinda-literally speak anglo-saxon, because everything is "translated"
in reality they speak a language related to westron.
but yeah, the translation conceit came later, the rohirrim became what they are cos tolkien went "what if anglo saxons but with horses! wouldnt that be coooooool?"
Hence why Tolkien wins (in this very narrow thing, the rest is a bit
) Grima Wormtongue is an absolutely detestable low-level villain that nobody thinks is cool, but he's also the reason Saruman, one of the "cooler" villains, dies, both in the book and in the movies.
Gotta throw down a mostly unrelated fact cause I saw Wormtongue mentioned. I've seen meme being like "Tolkien, master of language, names a traitorous dude Wormtongue. And yeah, the rohirrim speak ango saxon and worm comes from warm as in dragon and tongue from tong as in sword. He's Grima dragonsword in universe. The Rohirrim literally speak Anglo Saxon
they only kinda-literally speak anglo-saxon, because everything is "translated"
in reality they speak a language related to westron.
but yeah, the translation conceit came later, the rohirrim became what they are cos tolkien went "what if anglo saxons but with horses! wouldnt that be coooooool?"
God Tolkien was such a fucking nerd. I love it.
Rohan is evil confirmed.