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Originally Posted by Formendacil
I'm just as willing to irritate SPM as I am Anguirel, should the circumstances be right.
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I think that you might find that difficult in this game. With a few exceptions, I remain equally attached to all of the remaining contestants. My main concern is to maintain variety. Hence my current drive to cut down on the ratio of Dwarves to others.
The voting currently stands as follows:
Elrond – 2
Belladonna Took – 1
The Elvenking – 4
Dori – 5
Thrain – 5
So, unless things change radically, the only real contenders for today are Thranduil, Dori and Thrain.
I have no objection to saying goodbye to Thranduil. It is a poor host who magically moves his party in order to avoid having to cater for a group of travellers lost in his lands and nearing starvation. Then, he locks them up simply for being in his realm. And finally, to add insult to injury, he mobilises his army and rides out with it with the sole purpose of taking by force the booty which rightfully belongs to said travellers. Rude, inhospitable, overbearing dictatorial and greedy. Hardly characteristics that we should be looking for in the winner of this competition. No, he must go at some point in the near future.
Then we have two Dwarves. I would point out that the current competitor roster comprises the following:
7 Dwarves
1 Warg
1 Dragon
2 Trolls
1 Werebear
2 Elves
1 Eagle
1 Raven
2 Hobbits
It seems to me that it remains our duty, as loyal fans of this show, to continue thinning out the Dwarves over the coming days. It would hardly be fair if the final were to comprise solely Dwarves. The viewers want variety and that is what we should give them.
Kuruharan seems quite content to rail against the agendas (hidden or otherwise) of others here, while it is quite clear that his own agenda is to work towards a final comprising only contestants of his own kind. Well, I am afraid, my dear Dwarf, that you will have to accept the inevitable. Some more Dwarves are gonna have to go before the end if this contest is not to become a farce. I would like to do so in a fair manner, which retains those worthy of being in the final while dispensing with the dross.
I would prefer to keep Dori, being that he was one of the few Dwarves in Thorin’s company who bothered to actually try and look after their esteemed burglar (without whom they would probably all have been either burned to a crisp or massacred by the combined armies of Bard and the Elvenking). Balin I like too, for the friendliness that he showed towards the little fellow. And Gloin, despite insulting Bilbo, is after all Gimli’s father and therefore deserves respect. He is also the firestarter, twisted firestarter.
Fili and Kili bravely gave their lives in defence of their Lord and therefore deserve respect too, although there is little to distinguish between them so I would advocate retaining one of them for the time being and letting the other go. I don’t really mind which. And I am reluctant to pick on Bombur just because he is fat. And his laziness combined with the demands he puts on the weekly food budget give rise to tensions and disputes, and therefore encourage good viewing figures.
That leaves Thrain who is, to my mind, the least interesting of the remaining Dwarves. However noble he may have been (which is largely a matter of speculation), I have difficulty working up any enthusiasm for him. He allowed himself to be captured by the Necromancer and driven mad in his dungeons over the loss of Erebor, a circumstance which he was unable to rectify himself, and that hardly speaks in his favour. And it remains an inescapable fact that he is dead and therefore uninteresting from the viewers’ perspective and malodorous from the perspective of his fellow contestants.
So my choice for today remains Thrain. I will have to give thought to which of the other Dwarves I would be willing to see go at this stage, although I do have some affection for all of them. Frankly speaking (and assuming Thrain goes) it gets quite difficult for me from here on in.