Sauron


 *  NOTE: This page is only about his novel incarnation as the Rankin Bass, Ralph Bakshi and Peter Jackson incarnations of Sauron were not voted Pure Evil, and thus only the novel version of Sauron's info and crimes should be put here. 

"Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."

- The Poem of the One Ring. Sauron, once a noble Maia known as Mairon, is the main antagonist of the Middle-earth legendarium by J.R.R. Tolkien. He is the titular main antagonist of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic high fantasy epic novel, The Lord of the Rings, the secondary antagonist of the mythopoeic novel, The Silmarillion, a major antagonist in The Children of Húrin, the overarching antagonist of The Hobbit and the secondary antagonist of The History of Middle-earth.

He was the right-hand of the 1st Dark Lord, Morgoth, who was cast into the Timeless Void by the Valar at the end of the First Age. During the Second Age, Sauron became the 2nd Dark Lord of Middle-earth who resided in Mordor and created the One Ring, which he lost long ago. His goal was to reclaim the One Ring and rule Arda in darkness, but the Ring's destruction would ultimately be his downfall. He was also the archenemy of Aragorn, the King of Gondor; Frodo, the Ring Bearer; and Gandalf, the Grey (later White) Wizard.

What Makes Him Pure Evil?

 * Joined Morgoth and assisted him in his attempt to conquer Arda, wanting power and control.
 * Tricked a man into betraying his comrades by showing him a vision of his wife dying, only to reveal she was already dead and killing him through torture, "reuniting them".
 * Captured Beren and his companions, trapping them in dungeons and having his werewolves kill them off, one by one.
 * Deceived the races of Middle-earth with the Rings of Power.
 * Tortured Celebrimbor to death and used his corpse as a banner.
 * Attempted to conquer Middle-earth.
 * Corrupted the Nazgul into becoming his slaves.
 * Turned Numenor to darkness - having it worship Morgoth and carry out human sacrifices.
 * Killed King Elendil and Gil-galad.
 * Was responsible for corrupting Isildur and Gollum through the Ring.
 * Attempted to conquer Middle-earth once again.
 * Captured and imprisoned Thráin II in the fortress of Dol Guldur. There Sauron tortured him, took the last of the Dwarven Rings of Power from him, and left him to die in the dungeon.
 * Tortured Gollum.
 * Sent the Nazgul out to kill Frodo and claim the Ring.
 * Worked with Saruman, the latter of whom was ordered to wipe out the kingdom of Rohan, down to the last child.
 * Tormented Pippin when he looked into the Palantir.
 * Arwen's life was tied to the Ring and she began dying as his power increased. He would then torment Aragorn by threatening him with Arwen's life.
 * Attacked Gondor and Minas Tirith, intending on slaughtering all it's population, including the women and children.
 * Used his Palantir to drive Denethor II into madness and despair, causing him to commit suicide.
 * Fed his prisoners to Shelob.
 * Wanted to wipe out the races of Men and Elves.
 * Also wished to demolish the land and corrupt it to darkness, such as the Shire.
 * While Sauron started out as having good intentions, after the First Age ended, he allowed his pride to consume him due to how much his knowledge was admired from those around him and how much he can influence them, and he only cared about gaining power for himself ever since.

Trivia

 * The primary difference between Sauron and Morgoth - his fellow Pure Evil master - is that Morgoth wanted to destroy the world, which he would successfully accomplish in Dagor Dagorath, while Sauron wanted to rule it.
 * He is one of two Middle-earth villains from the novels to be Pure Evil, the other being Morgoth.
 * Only the book version of Sauron is Pure Evil, due to being a manipulative sadist, which was shown in The Silmarillion, his lack of personality and motives in both the animated and live-action movies renders him as not even close to qualifying in those versions. Had it not been for The Silmarillion and the following works, the book version of Sauron wouldn't have qualified as Pure Evil either.