The Middle Earth Popularity Cup

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Groin Redbeard

Call it the dwarf in me, but I dislike the way you raise serious subjects and than dismiss them in a shroud of annoying silliness like some elf.

Nonsense! I haven't shown the slightest bit of seriousness in this whole thread! The nerve that I should be subject to such insinuation!

But as this is the holiday season, I shall ignore your prattle. In the immortal words of Foghorn Leghorn, "I come to bury the hatchet, but not in your pointed head."

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Hm. Both characters are not among my favorites, and I don't want to wear out the coin, so let's see if I can come up with another means of choosing.

Beleg: guy who sticks by a friend, gets mistaken for an orc by said friend and is killed; said friend repents only because he drinks Ulmo-blessed water and regains his grief-stricken insanity.

Boromir: guy who tries to stick it to a friend to grab the Ring, repents, and gets killed by orcs while defending relatively defenseless hobbits.

Tough call.

*flip*

++Beleg

[skip spence]

As much as I love the story of Túrin and Beleg I'm going with ++Boromir who is a more interesting character than his opponent.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

++Boromir

is the more interesting personality of those two. Besides, of all the remaining characters, he is probably the closest to poor old Saruman

Oh, and P.S.

Call it the dwarf in me, but I dislike the way you raise serious subjects and than dismiss them in a shroud of annoying silliness like some elf.

Groin, one more word about Elves from you and I am going to neg-rep you

[Lalwendë]

Beleg is nice and everything, but Boromir is much more interesting, and maybe the fact that he isn't all that nice and has this bad streak is exactly what makes him that little bit more interesting?

++Boromir

[the phantom]

I like both of them.

But because I identify with him, I shall choose-

++ Boromir

[A Little Green]

Honestly, this is way too hard since I love them both, but I'm going to go for

++ Beleg

if not for anything else than making the game slightly more even. Besides, though Boromir is lovely, Beleg is maybe even more so. Boromir's death moves me but Beleg's almost makes me cry. Enough said...

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Nonsense! I haven't shown the slightest bit of seriousness in this whole thread!

Oh, but you should, Morth. You've been too dazzled by the bright lights to notice the seedy underbelly of the so-called Middle Earth Popularity Cup. If ever a cup could be said to possess an underbelly, this cup does. Don't you think it a little strange when a rank outsider like the so-called Beleg keeps beating the favourites? What do you know of the money that's changed hands... the bribery and intimidation... the organised crime syndicates behind bookmakers like the so-called Bêthberry? Not to mention the fact that it's run by notorious underworld kingpin skip "Shady" spence?

It's rotten, I tell you! Rotten to the core!

[Nogrod]

Darn it!

That's just what I feared! When the going gets tough the LotR-idols will prevail...

Well one must try and hope for some kind of a miracle; in Middle-Earth things have been accomplished in the last moments before as well!

++ Beleg

So a final between Gandalf and Boromir... That's just an anticlimax! Like this was some movie-fansite! ... Oh, sorry... it would have been Legolas and Frodo then...

Maybe I'll just have to forgive you your conventionality.

[skip spence]

Alas, Beleg has finally run out of miracles and is eliminated by the score of 8 votes to 6.

Originally Posted by Nerwen

It's rotten, I tell you! Rotten to the core!

Hey now, that's a half-truth at best.

Don't you think it a little strange when a rank outsider like the so-called Beleg keeps beating the favourites?

The fact that Beleg is now out proves conclusively that you are wrong.

What do you know of the money that's changed hands... the bribery and intimidation... the organised crime syndicates behind bookmakers like the so-called Bêthberry? Not to mention the fact that it's run by notorious underworld kingpin skip "Shady" spence?

My unseemly wealth and affilation to organized crime has little or nothing to do with the results of the of the past month or the fair and generous odds provided by Betberry. Since your post contains libelous statements without any factual support, I advice you to delete it immidiately for everyone's best benefit (not least your own).

Semifinal 2:
Gandalf vs. Túrin

[Andsigil]

++Gandalf

I both like Gandalf and still dislike Turin.

I just don't understand all of the fascination with someone who poisons everything he touches, and then tries to rectify this by touching and poisoning more things. Oh, and feeling a lot of anguish about it.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Andsigil

I just don't understand all of the fascination with someone who poisons everything he touches, and then tries to rectify this by touching and poisoning more things. Oh, and feeling a lot of anguish about it.

That's called tragedy, a honourable literatury genre indeed which quite a many people have actually found quite fascinating... And a tragic hero carrying the curse of the gods and trying to fight against his fate beats a never-erring hero who's the favourite of the gods anyday!

++ Túrin

[Andsigil]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

That's called tragedy, a honourable literatury genre indeed which quite a many people have actually found quite fascinating... And a tragic hero carrying the curse of the gods and trying to fight against his fate beats a never-erring hero who's the favourite of the gods anyday!

++ Túrin

Look, there is tragedy, and then there is melodramatic self-sabotage. Turin shows too much of the latter.

[Gollum the Great]

++Turin

[Lalwendë]

++Gandalf

He's iconic, whereas Turin is just another guy with a sword.

He has a great name with an Old Norse heritage, whereas Turin is named after some Italian city and you feel like a plonker just saying his wispy name out loud, but saying the rich, meaty word 'gandalf' makes you feel all robust and manly...even if you are not a man

He's an Odinic Wanderer and an enigma, whereas Turin likes to abandon people. And kill them.

He doesn't let you down, whereas Turin is like the Frank Spencer of Middle-earth.

He's a hippy, and he can blow really cool smoke-rings.

[the phantom]

Originally Posted by Nog

That's just what I feared! When the going gets tough the LotR-idols will prevail...

It hasn't been finalized yet, Nog. There's still hope for a Silmarillion versus LotR final. First Age versus Third Age. Boromir versus Turin.

Here's my vote for it.

++ Turin

First off, he really is a decent chap deep down. Look at his boyhood friendship with Sador. He had all the makings of a good, wise, and kindly man at that time. And he took a band of no-good ruffians and turned them into a force against Angband. And he showed compassion to Mim when he lost his son. With the life that he lived it is a wonder he still had goodness within him, yet we can see that he obviously did.

He tried so hard, but everything turned out terribly for him. And whenever he thought things were going well, that's when disaster always struck him. Of all the things Morgoth did, his curse upon Hurin and his family was one of the worst.

I say that we vote Turin the victory. Through our actions, the curse of Morgoth can be defeated! He thinks he can doom someone to forever be a loser? I think not. We Barrow-Downers can undo Morgoth's dark curse! Vote Turin!

edit: xpost, good going Nog!

[mormegil]

Boromir in the finals? What an awful taste this has left in my mouth. Boro should have been eliminated in the first round.

++Turin

[Strongbow]

++Túrin

Because now I have a vendetta against popular characters.

Alas Beleg.