Character in The Lord of the Rings and the Wheel of TimeConventionally, characters in fantasy fiction develop very little, with almost no personal development expected in literature. They tend to be stereotypes of "good guys" and "bad guys", of handsome and brave heroes and cruel and ugly forces of evil. They embody the force for which they fight. In recent decades, very few writers of fantasy fiction have escaped this rut. The Lord of the Rings and the Wheel of Time are linked by the fact that neither of their main characters remains static. There are also very few stereotypical characters present in each text. The ways in which character development is achieved and what causes it will be explored in this essay. The characters who show the most development in Lord of the Rings are undoubtedly the hobbits. From being "absurd, helpless hobbits" at first, the members of the Company are "fearless hobbits with gleaming swords and grim faces" upon their return to the Shire. While "there was a note in the voices of these [hobbits] that they [the Shire bandits] had never heard before. It froze them with fear." Even Mr. Butterbur, who only sees them twice, says, "You came back changed from your travels, and you now look like people who can handle problems in an uncontrollable way." » Frodo's development begins when Gandalf tells him the story of the ring. He had never suspected that such evil could exist. How could he? In the Shire, there is no true evil due to the Ranger's ceaseless vigilance. Furthermore, Bilbo1's tales would have skimmed over the bad times and focused on what the hobbits wanted to hear, the Great People, dragons and mountains of treasure. The stench of the dead and the terror caused by Smaug the dragon would not have been mentioned. In the Wheel of Time, these are the three ta'veren that show the most change. They start out as simple village boys knowing almost nothing about the world beyond the two rivers. Perrin becomes a wolf friend, Mat commands the Band of the Red Hand (six thousand men) and Rand is the Reincarnated Dragon, destined to lead the Last Battle against the Shadow. Rand's ability to channel is what changes him the most. He "had been raised to fear any man capable of channeling, destined to go mad and, before the male half of the Source, contaminated by the Shadow, killed him horribly, spread terror around him..