Yes I was a little nonplussed when old Smaugie was killed off, there is nothing as dreadful as a dragon to fire the hearts of the gallant while causing mayhem to the innocent.
Shelob was a fine character but didn’t have the gravitas of the harvester of gold.
These fine fictional baddies are on a par in my view with those mythical biblical ne-er do wells satan, Beelzebub and the host of devils.
The bible ones have led to more interesting movie plots however.
I still remember being transfixed at my first viewing of Linda Blair turning her head completely around.
Charlie Daniels has the right idea…
The Devil went down to Georgia. He was lookin’ for a soul to steal.
He was in a bind 'cause he was way behind. He was willing to make a deal
Satan’s job is to have greater numbers behind him at the end of time. So, in that sense, the battle of good over evil isn’t over yet.
“The Devil Went Down To Georgia”
Working within a traditional Christian context, I think we should hear from the big guy himself:
This is Satan (quoted from here), responding to a Christian proselytizer while laying claim to Mormons, Catholics and Jews. From what he said, it does seem to be a numbers game.
And while we have this thread, allow me to touch upon my many years of concern that Satan posted on this board. Extensively. And then was banned (of course). By Ed (of course). And that people at the time were surprised and even dismayed at the banning. Of Satan! Clearly, corruption still lingers.
Actually, Dante shows Satan fully occupied in making eternity very unpleasant for Judas.
Remember that story is a parable. It’s about the Pride of thinking that it’s you/us who know/define what is Good and what is Bad (it’s written in the context of Magical Thought, where to name something and to know it are one and the same - in magical thought, if a mighty mage looks at a rose and calls it ‘dahlia’ its genome goes “oops” and it changes species). And according to the storyteller, the first evil to come out of Pride was Censorship 
I thought it was a parable about not letting as serpent babysit the kids when there’s a loaded gun sitting on the dining room table with the safety off.
They don’t have kids yet at that point, promise.
They were the kids in this parable. They were innocents that didn’t know right from wrong, and had absolutely no experience dealing with deception. God left them in the hands of the Serpent knowing full well what the outcome would be.
Zeus?
because he shot through politicians before actually setting up shop.
Because - not unreasonably - Satan’s a big fan of the BBQ Pit.
Honestly, it’s not unlike my own South Carolina these days.
Go wild, people.
We’re pitting Satan now? In the Pit? Isn’t that like … isn’t that like … damn it to hellfire and back, I can’t think of anything remotely comparable.
Look, I’d be the first to say Satan has done a lot of bad stuff and all. But he did take in a three-headed dog. That should count for something.
It sort of goes both ways I think.
As I understand cultures that did have a “names are Important” component, it’s true that by naming a table table Man shapes it into a table ; but at the same time the fundamental nature of the object (or person) is what supernaturally or implicitly directs the naming process - Man calls tables “table” rather than “rumplefoo” because they’re chock full of tableness but only present with token rumplefoodom. And so calling a table a rumplefoo would be fundamentally Wrong, and possibly break the universe.
Of course, “table” is really just the common word for tables, which is why changing it doesn’t do squat. You gotta know the object (or person’s) True Name to be able to affect things, change their nature. The tribe’s shaman knows them. But he won’t say the secret names because he’s a wise man, wiser than us. That is why we must feed him, even though he does fuck all around the village :).
God also created the serpent. And the tree. With full foreknowledge of what everyone would do and what was going to happen.
The strangest part of all is that God did this despite knowing at the time that he would later regret having done this and would seek to undo what he had done.
if he gets only 100 more souls, he gets a free toaster oven.
The thing is, after 7.5 billion for the toaster over, he needs another 15 billion for the microwave.
What regret? I thought he had The Big Plan?
Also kept his word to the kid with the fiddle. Gotta give credit where it’s due.
While we’re at it, what does God want with a starship?