The Chieftest and Greatest of Calamities
has a more interesting personality, and may be
as mean as First/Second Age Sauron, so:

+ + Smaug the Magnificent

++Smaug

First of all, he's a dragon. And I also rather like his talk with Bolbo in the Hobbit.

Time extended for more voting.

Personally, I have to go for

++ Sauron

When it comes to dragons, I'm with Anne McCaffrey: the bad ones get all the press. And if came down to Melkor versus Sauron, I'd be interested in seeing who actually comes out on top.

voters?

Okay, okay.... As a fanatical ww player, I think I'll vote

++Sauron

...though how anyone can prefer those Pernese pet dragons to Smaug is beyond me.:confused:

By the way, Steve, who's Bolbo?:Merisu:

Smaug-4 Sauron-2

Next:
Glaurung vs. Mr. W. Huggins

++Glaurung

He would smoke Bill like a cheap cigar.

++Glaurung

Need I say more?

+ + William

Because he's (relatively) nice to
burrahobbits.

I like William, and I'd also like to see diversity in the final rounds (we already have a dragon through).

But... really...

++Glaurung

I just can't go the other way in this match up.

Voting time extended.

Votin for William wouldn't make much sense: he won't be a match against anyone from now on. Therefore...

++Glaurung

Poor old Bill is hardly a bad guy at all, well, apart from eating a Dwarf or two perhaps. I love the fella, but ++Glaurung is just bad to the bone.

That was just a test... yes, a test.... to see if anyone else is alert enough to vote properly. :p

Glaurung-5 William-1 (poor blighter)

Next: Grima Wormtongue vs. Morgoth

++Morgoth

Yeah. Also, Grima's not evil enough to move any further in this contest. ;)

++Morgoth

Hey, he's the Once and Future Evil. He'll be back for Tolkien's version of Ragnarok, and as Durelin said, Grima is only semi-evil or evil-lite.

++Morgoth

Poor Wormtongue is simply outclassed.

You've got to be kidding. Morgoth? He is not half as interesting as Gríma. Come on! Gríma:

1. Throws Palantír out of the window
2. Stabs Saruman
3. Looks at Gandalf like mad when he asks him whether he does not want to leave Saruman
4. Eats Lotho (okay, we didn't want to hear that)
5. Was a noble of Rohan (combine with the one above) and served his master honestly in the beginning
6. Was seen riding with a group of Orcs
7. is son of Gálmód, which just sounds too cool
8. was being picked up from the saddle by Treebeard and later, he was swimming to Orthanc.

And, eventually, in one version of the Hunt of the Ring, he was caught and intimidated by the Black Riders, WK himself, no less.

Morgoth was just a Dark Lord. We have seen many of those, he invented lots of interesting dragons and such, but then, that's just his job. Gríma is a MAN with a LIFE. He is very interesting.

++Gríma Wormtongue

Battling dragons...
 

Hey Tuor, why don't you pit Smaug and Glaurung against each other next round?

That would be cool.:cool:

Not necessarily. Smaug is the coolest dragon ev@, while Glaurung is just a witless worm.

Actually that may have been a misunderstanding in
translation from Rohirric.
Gandalf asked Grima if he liked hobbits and he thought
Grima replied: "If they're prepared properly."

For me, it must be

++Morgoth

who, in Middle-earth, is the root of all evil -- unlike our real earth, wherein it has been amply proved in recent times that the love of all money does indeed appear to be the wellspring (sigh). :(

++Gríma

Hey come one Morgoth's boring while Gríma truly is a character! Do you really want this game to have such really "basic" finalists as Glaurung and Morgoth? Blaah...

I'd hate to see Morgoth winning too, but Wormtongue even more so. I can't believe he's made it this far and for him to eliminate The Marrer himself just isn't right. He ain't worthy to kiss the soles of ++Morgoth's iron boots.

A tough choice, but I like a little moral ambiguity in my villains. Characters over archetypes.

++Grima

Yea, yea, good, go, go, go, Lommy, Rikae!!! And you, Skip, be ashamed of yourself and go bury yourself somewhere. Bah, voting in such a cliché-ish way... (And besides, obviously bandwaggoning. I think he voted Morgoth just to save a fellow Wolf.)

Oh, come on, he's just silly because he's Swedish... ;):p:Merisu:

+ + Grima Wormtongue

Since he didn't get the girl and didn't get the
chance to become a best selling vegan
author.

No it's the other way around: I'm Swedish because I'm silly.

And I would go bury myself if I only could figure out how to cover myself up with dirt and at the same time lie down in an open grave. Oh well...

:D:D I can lend a hand. ;)

So the ME popularity cup must be won by Gandalf or Frodo and the ME bad popularity cup must be won by Sauron or Morgoth?

Give me a break people! :)

++ Grima

Let's make this more interesting.

Velee interesting. With time running out for the
Marrer of Middle-earth he's trailing Wormy .
As Zero Mostel said to Gene Wilder in The Pruducers:

Also: Hmm. Anti-dragon sentiment? Now who wished that there might be no
border between Orthanc and Mordor so they'd go against each other?

And anyway, that would be interfering in the brackets. Of course, it
would probably help Wormy. Hmm...........!

Grima Wormtongue-5 Morgoth-4

Another upset to go with:
5) The Amazin' Mets 1969 World Series win against
the Baltimore Orioles

4) 3) 1980 Miracle on Ice U.S.A. over Russkies

2) Kim Cattrall upsets tennis fans: :D

1) Frodo does not win Middle-earth Popularity Cup !

On to the semi-finals!

Carcharoth vs. Smaug
Glaurung vs. Grima son of Galmod

Next: Carcharoth vs. Smaug

Hooray! Gríma rulezz!!! :cool: :D

I like the way it came out, even though we could have been a bit more original still, but good, good. Thanks to good master Noggins, we have neither Sauron nor Morgoth here. Just a pity no Orc made it through...

As for the current match:

++Smaug

I don't like Carcharoth.

++Smaug


Ps. Yes, it's that simple.

++Smaug

Wolves...they're so real world. This is a fantasy, after all.

An argument for The Red Maw could be
that he was the greatest wolf to ever live (and
took out the Hound of Valinor ) while it
would hardly be argued that Smaug the Magnificent
was the greatest dragon to ever live (and, after all,
he was taken out by one human archer).

Just saying...

Now, as for voting...um...(later).

I do like Carcharoth. :)

++Carcharoth