Rather disingenuous as Fili is not my target today; Dwalin is. Can anyone give me a single solid reason why Dwalin should stay? His very name is merely generic "Dwarf". He might as well be called Dwarf No. 11. In action and in nomenclature he is entirely without interest.
As for the Master;
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Originally Posted by Eonwe
eh. wot's this?!
Machiavelli's darling, eh? hardly. i see no weeling or dealing, no backstabbing, treachery, pragmatic calculations, nor a brutal hold on power. all i see is some guy wandering off with everyone's gold to die a miserable, shivering death in the wild. Hardly the glorious example of high-handed dealings which make Machiavellian rulers so illustrious.
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Like Cesare Borgia, Il Duce Valentino dalla Romagna, the Master of Esgaroth was much maligned by those jealous of his great achievements, who took care to conceal the truth.
In fact, the Master (whose name was probably Don Fortunato da Esgarovino) rose from a childhood as the unwanted illegitimate son of a shipping clerk to be the greatest entrepreneur and politician of his time. His fall was quite different from its depiction in the Red Book.
Fortunato sold out nineteen lesser rivals and opened up a whole new market by exploiting the Dorwinese natives and the light-headed Silvan Elves, unused to strong wine and so captivated by it. He consistently commercially outwitted the Elvenking to receive as much commission as possible.
Fortunato used the gold he had purloined from Laketown to buy his way into the hierarchy of Rhun, and became Potentate of the East. His power and territory was prudently and gradually built up. He died from a surfeit of caviar at the grand old age of ninety-three. His descendants, the Esgarovini Potentates of Rhun, did not forget their heritage and wiped out Dale in a savage invasion early in the Fourth Age, having played a neutral game during the War of the Ring...