I will have to question that result. Or is this not a democratic board where each member's vote carries the same weight?

Nerwen, Morthoron, Durelin, Ibrin and yours truly voted for Morgoth. See, there's five of us! Has Grima payed off the judges or what?

Oh, dear. Canine/lupine breath or dragon breath (or Worm breath, in Grima's case). Don't care for either, so I'm bowing out of the voting. Have fun, all. :)

Skip Spence is quite correct. I missed his
vote because it was at the end of his post
(not seperate before or after the body of the post).
That means that my posted results were incorrect,
since Morgoth wins on a tiebreaker. :o

Results shoul;d have been
Morgoth-5 Grima Wormtongue-5 .

So corrected final four are:
Carcharoth vs. Smaug
Glaurung vs. Morgoth

Sorry, everyone. especially Grima fans
like Legate for the error.

Gosh. In that case, Morgoth is already dead. :(

Bwahaha *evil laugh*

This is just the kind of victory old Morgy will relish.

But Gríma almost won in such an admirably traitor-ish way. :(

Grima earned his victory just looking at the way it did almost happen... it's his character that won! Now this is ME Bad Popularity Cup! Do you really think something as fair as "rules" should apply here? I'm very disappointed with the final decision and hope the evil powers will twist the ending for real (like the Downs getting down just as a less known baddie is in the lead and then we can protest if someonwe wants the obvious and foreseen winner to have more time to be voted for or something). :p

So Morgoth seems to win... how lame indeed. :(

I thought people would have had some sense of sportsmanship here.

Okay. I need to wait to see which one could beat Morgoth in the final! Speak up people! Let's form a conspiracy against Morgoth and gather our banners behind the one we would be happier to see meeting Morgoth; forgetting our differences between the great werewolf and the keeper of the lonely mountain! Our enenmies just love to see us split in our ranks.

I'd go for Carcaroth but I'll be ready to vote for Smaug if it would get the better hand in the final...

And for sure I will vote for Glaurung in the next semifinal...

Very well done, Nogrod! I suggest we forge several Rings and make all the voters wear it, while we are going to secretly forge one more to rule them all. (And I will of course forge another for myself to rule that one.)

I think Smaug, if anybody, deserves victory over Morgoth and he is far likely to gather support than the wolf, I'd presume. To vote Glaurung is without question, even though I might like Melkor more in some ways, but he just does not deserve to win. That'd be truly too dull outcome of all this voting.

Exactly!

It's time for meta-reasoning up here! So take your time.

I'm ready to vote for Smaug if it's the one you would think that would be able to challenge Melkor. And let's join forces to beat Morgoth on the next round already. That would be our safest option... :D

And Legate & the subject of the rings... you just try your magic but don't be too confident with it... there may be forces stronger than that - and we need to count that in as well! Jut look what happened to Sauron with his obsession with Rings... :rolleyes:

It's a shame Sharky isn't here...

++Carky

Because I don't want the final to be between two dragons - boring. :rolleyes:

Welcome to the world of politics. :D

Actually, my "favorite" baddie wasn't even in the running to begin with. Where was Gollum? :confused:

That's a case in point! But still I think getting rid of Morgoth is our task number one right now... and I'm not so sure Glaurung will beat Melkor even if we try to rally people to see the reason behind the badness here.

So where are your affinities Rikae on the next round? Are you trying to lure people into not-voting dragons to pave way for voting Melkor? Or will you stand by Carcaroth to the end?

:D
Exactly...

But happily this doesn't affect our daily income, prospects or general possibilities as politics do. :rolleyes:

Trying to convince people not to vote for a known wolf? Cobbler! :D

I'm not sure which way I would go in the case of a Carcaroth vs. Glaurung final, but I share your commitment to knocking Morgoth out of the running.

I mean, sure, he's kinda cool, but if you think about it, his original claim to evilness amounts to singing off-key. I can't help but think of him as a teenage boy who annoys his father with his death metal garage band. :p

The vote so far (I Hope)
Smaug-3 Carcharoth-2

Hey, my first year in college I failed a math course. :)

I then switched majors to History.

+ + Smaug

Because he's no Morgoth acolyte
and could take him out on sarcasm alone.

Vote so far
Smaug-4 Carcharoth-2

++Smaug

for being considerably more interesting and a more likely candidate to beat Morgoth.;)

Oh dear. I do hope we can find a better use for your pretty little hands.:p

++Smaug

And yeah, hail Morgoth, Giver of Freedom and Lord of All!

Vote to date
Smaug-6 Carcharoth-2

Obviously. However, you see, it could not have resorted to this had people not voted so carelessly the "cliché" guys like Morgoth or Sauron in the earlier rounds already... it's the same as in the previous popularity cup, where you end up with Gandalf and Frodo, or what was it... come on...

Yes, I thought about that as well - but you (all people) should have thought about that in the earlier rounds!

Well, for example I don't consider Gollum a baddie... certainly not of the same sort as the Dragons, the Nazgul, Sauron... you name it. (Although there were some even in this contest, true... like the Master of Lake-Town... but with him, still, he is somewhat "plain negative" in some aspects, he is more of a baddie than Gollum, who is just too... complex to be classified as mere baddie.)

I say we bury him also with you, since you are so good friends...

I did consider Smeagol, but especially book Gollum
is really more tragic then irredemably evil. One of the
ways PJ messed up was (and he and Andy Serkis actually
bragged about this) making Smeagol's almost turning away from
thralldom to the Ring be always idisingenuous in their version of
ROTK. Still, Gollum with the Precious would have
been a formidable candidate.

A short off-topic rant, if you don't mind
 

This might seem petty but I have to note
This Tuor fellow's lines are oddly short
at first I thought there might be something more;
but scanning them revealed uneven feet.
While posting in blank verse can be quite fun
such arbitrary breaks can disconcert
and interrupt the flow and reading ease.
;)

Smaug-6 Carcharoth-2

Next: Glaurung vs. Morgoth

++Morgoth

I have to go for the creator over the created.

++ Morgoth

Still gotta go for the guy, since Gollum wasn't considered bad enough to compete. :( Orcs and dragons were bred to be bad. For me, it's worse when someone has a choice to do otherwise, but still chooses bad.

This time I'll vote

++Glaurung

I still want to see a dragon vs dragon battle in the final!:smokin:

++Glaurung

I have more respect for him because his default tactic wasn't to cower and hide.

Although I've championed Morgoth I still got to vote for

++Glaurung

who's the baddest dragon ever.

Ok, Morgoth destroyed the lamps and chased the Valar to Valinor, which is pretty cool, but after the Valar came back and gave him a proper beating, he either uses stealth or doesn't come out of his hole voluntarily at all.

Glaurung fought in several major battles of Beleriand and did all the dirty work that Morgoth should have done himself.

As a matter of fact, Glaurung also didn't get shot off the sky the one and only time he goes into action within the story. ;)

++Glaurung

++Morgoth

Who needs Glaurung when you have Smaug?;)

++ Glaurung

A self-evident choice.

There's something about Glaurung which is just much more bad to the bone than there is in Morgoth, probably because he nixes Turin and his lady friends. ;) But then Morgoth's deeds are darker and more sinister - hints of nastier things than we are used to in Tolkien...and of course it's Morgoth who creates (or at least enlists and thus empowers) all these weird and wonderful dark creatures like Dragons.

++ Glaurung

Voice of Saruman, Eyes of Glaurung... pretty close.

I was going to vote for Glaurung, but:

++ Morgoth

Because discordant music is actually pretty cool, and because he seems to be the underdog all of a sudden.

There's no way I'm not going to vote for...
 

Morgoth-4 Glaurung-8

Grima's Revenge! ?

Time for the all-dragon final

Smaug the Magnificent vs. Glaurung the Deceiver

At least two days to vote. Which should be time aplenty for
Gandalf the "good" popularity person winner to
scuttle back to Aman in terror from either worm.

++Smaug

Something about Glaurung's personality just seems... Oh, I don't know... slimy? Seriously- setting up a Greek tragedy with Turin and his sister? What else does he do for sport- pick the wings off of flies?

Not to mention the fact that Glaurung, for all of his supposed cleverness, isn't very bright. He crafts this rather Bond-esque plan which leaves Turin alive so he can, umm, delight in Turin's suffering(?). Leaving Turin alive in turn leads, ultimately, to Glaurung's own death. If you think about it, Glaurung's plan belongs on failblog.org: "Epic Evil Plan Fail", or something.

Smaug would have just incinerated Turin and moved on to the next opponent.

Drat, missed the vote...not that it would have made a jot of difference (a bit like a real UK election then ;)).

Is Smaug really more clever than Glaurung? After all, he manages to let slip to a teensy Hobbit where his vulnerable part is. Would Glaurung have done that?

I really, really do not like the idea of a wyrm on wyrm fight though. You cannot have enough dragons...:cool:

Hmmm....I withhold judgement at the present time in order to consider the choices further.