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Of the nine members of the fellowship, who had the highest onscreen kills?

Rules:

  • Only the three LotR trilogy films count
  • Any individual creature counts as 1 (eg. when Legolas kills enemies on top of and including the oliphant, each of those are individually counted)
  • Accidental deaths do not count (eg. in the extended RotK, Gimli 'bumps' Legolas' bow to slay Peter Jackson)
  • The Helm's Deep contest is ignored
  • The member has to have personally killed the enemy, not getting others to do it for the member himself.
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    What about Frodo and the Ring killing thousands of Orcs?
    – Wad Cheber
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 21:02
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    @user35594 - Gandalf is basically a god.I'm not entirely sure there's much difference between him hitting someone with a stick and him getting someone to hit someone with a stick.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 21:02
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    @user35594 - Do you get more HP for a boss battle?
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 21:09
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    According to Gimli, the Oliphant and crew should only count as one.
    – PoloHoleSet
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 21:31
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    @Mattson Gimli cheats. Although he wins the contest due to off-screen kills in the book.
    – Bellerophon
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 21:32

5 Answers 5

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Assuming that the death was on screen and clear (ie not from being knocked down):

Character FoTR   TT RotK Total
Aragorn     23    3    1  27+?
Legolas     20    8    1  29+?
Gimli        6    3    0   9+?

These breakdowns for FoTR and TT are detailed.

Currently lacking a detailed breakdown for Return of the King. Using the above numbers for the first two movies (note that most of the fellowship kills in Two Towers are at Helms Deep, which you are ignoring) my assumption would be Legolas given the lead he has after the first two movies. Much more of the combat scenes in RoTK follow him than Aragorn.

Sources:

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  • If people find a better breakdown for RotK I can edit to include that information.
    – enderland
    Commented Jul 14, 2016 at 0:03
  • Since the bulk of the kill comes from FoTR, Boromir can contest with them. He killed as much as Legolas and Aragon in Moria and maybe more before he died.
    – user65648
    Commented Jul 29, 2016 at 15:13
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    @C.Koca Boromir only killed 17 on screen in Fellowship.
    – enderland
    Commented Jul 29, 2016 at 15:49
  • Is this extended or theatre cut?
    – IG_42
    Commented Sep 19, 2018 at 16:41
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Frodo. Gollum was pushed by Frodo. We do not perfectly know if it was his intention to push him or he just wanted to take the ring back. If it was intentional he killed way more than anyone else.

Legolas, if Frodo caused Gollum to fall by accident. I do not know what Helm's Deep contest is ignored means. If it means we shouldn't take Legolas claiming he killed 17 without being shown or if it means that we should not directly take the 43-42 score in the book, Legolas killed about 50 or more by making the ladder fall in Helm's Deep. Aragon kicked a ladder as well, but there was only one orc on top of it.

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I am not certain but I think it was Legolas. It was none of the hobbits. Frodo killed practically no one. Sam killed a few including Shelob but no where near as many as the rest of the Fellowship. Merry and Pippin both killed a few in the last 2 films but not as many as the fighting members. Gandalf missed half a film and since he rarely fights low level enemies he doesn't rack up a high kill count. Boromoir got the most kills in the first film but the others overtook after he died. This leaves the three main fighters. Gimli kills a lot but loses the counting contest and is unlikely to have caught up at other times. Aragon killed a lot of enemies but Legolas I think killed roughly the same during battles and overtakes by occasionally sniping enemies at a distance.

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    Sam didn't kill Shelob (at least, death wasn't on-screen, and in the book she didn't die)
    – David Roberts
    Commented Jun 25, 2018 at 7:25
  • @DavidRoberts The book leaves it open: "Shelob was gone; and whether she lay long in her lair [recovering], this tale does not tell".
    – Paul Johnson
    Commented Dec 16, 2020 at 11:16
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Legolas is the only logical answer. By Two Towers he was at seventeen already, while Gimli is only at two by then. The ladder, the shield-surf, Legolas is always in action, shooting arrows while retreating, he's got his two elvish blades and a sword and uses all of his weaponry and even is riding out in the end when Gimli is blowing the Horn.

The numbers in the book make no sense and for what we see in the movie, these numbers also don't make sense. Way too small in general and Gimli definitely didn't catch up to Legolas to win by just one. Just doesn't make sense for what we see. I don't know the exact final tallies, but 113 for Legolas and 87 for Gimli or something like that would be more plausible.

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    Hi, welcome to SF&F. Did you note in the question that the contest at Helm's Deep wasn't part of the count? You should redo your count without that, and provide details of how you are counting. (Only onscreen counts, so if Legolas fires an arrow offscreen then it doesn't count.)
    – DavidW
    Commented Dec 16, 2020 at 4:25
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Gollum did. When he fell into the fires of Mount Doom with the ring legions of the enemy were decimated. The OP said accidents don't count however was this an accident? Gandalf knew from the beginning that Gollum had a role to play, he just didn't know what it was. Now he knows.

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    Golumn was not a member of the fellowship. The Fellowship is Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Borormir, Gandalf, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin.
    – Bellerophon
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 21:27
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    If we're just gonna count random non-Fellowship characters, I nominate Eru.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 21:48
  • Gollum was not picked randomly, he was acting as guide to a portion of the fellowship. He may not have been am ideal companion but he did provide a needed service to the fellowship and Frodo took him willingly as a companion.
    – homer150mw
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 21:55
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    @Bellerephon - Morgoth?
    – Valorum
    Commented Jul 13, 2016 at 22:33
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    @TGar In the question it specifically states the 9 members of the Fellowship. Gollum may have been a member of Sam, Frodo and Gollum's trio but he was not a part of the original 9 who made up the fellowship.
    – Bellerophon
    Commented Apr 26, 2017 at 21:30

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