[the phantom]

The amount of whining that I see makes it quite clear that you guys are really really taking this game seriously. Curious, seeing as you are quick to point out that this is the "Mirth" forum.

You all should be goofing around and being over-dramatic like me. It's more fun than being a stick in the mud.

As far as the complaining about the way the votes were counted, allow me to demonstrate the way I would've counted the votes for Elrond and Oropher.

Now don't try to argue with me about any of my judgments. Don't tell me "Well, I wouldn't have counted it that way!" That doesn't matter.

I'm just trying to show you the thought process that could lead to the results we got. In other words, showing that Formy probably had certain things in mind for counting votes and didn't just decide to count some and not others on a whim.

morm votes for Elrond:

Agent Elrond must go. He's not that wise yet, he's not funny, he's has limited personality. He's just not working out and it's time to let you go.

As you can see, morm said nothing that is justifiable within Tolkien's literature and didn't even attempt to justify it.

- - NO VOTE

Spawn votes for Elrond:
Her argument was that Elrond's refuge, Rivendell, only thrived because of Vilya. Now, why this is a reason to cast out Elrond I don't know (and I fought her quite nicely with quotes, I think ), but I imagine her vote got counted because she at least used some Encyclopedia of Arda quotes. Then again, the Encyclopedia of Arda online wasn't written by Tolkien, so it's not a guarantee.

+ + PROBABLY A VOTE FOR ELROND

Diamond18 votes for Elrond:
She voted for Elrond because she thought I was being mean. So quite obviously-

- - NO VOTE

(btw, I wasn't being mean to anyone, Diamond, I was simply being overly fanatic for the purpose of entertainment, people who've seen me in werewolf games are very familiar with my "hysterical phantom routine", as I believe Kuru called it, and generally find it amusing- I'm sure Spawn knows good and well that I don't honestly think she is stupid )

Eonwe votes for Oropher:

Firstly, who is the guy? What are his qualifications? Any cool thing he's done?

This vote counts. Why? Because Eonwe is clearly demonstrating a very Tolkien based argument for Oropher's eviction- Oropher was not mentioned much in Tolkien's books.

Had Elrond been running up against someone other than Oropher, he probably would've been voted off, but Oropher is extremely easy to cast a Tolkien-based vote for by virtue of the simple fact that Tolkien didn't say much about him.

This is why it was so easy to include the Oropher votes in the final tally. At least that is my theory. Please do your best to understand this.

+ + VOTE FOR OROPHER

TORE votes for Elrond:

Is where I'm leaning at the moment...there are good points for & against him of course & I might change my mind but at the moment I'm leaning towards Spawn's course of action

Do you see any reason given for why Elrond should be gone? Didn't think so.

- - NO VOTE

Celuien votes for Oropher:
First, she quotes Eonwe-

Firstly, who is the guy? What are his qualifications? Any cool thing he's done?

And then she answers-

Can't think of a thing. How dull...

+ +Oropher

For contributing little, if anything, to the history of Middle-earth.

This vote counts the same way Eonwe's does.

+ + VOTE FOR OROPHER

Elu Ancalime votes for Elrond:

I swear he's a sissy.

Hmm... For some reason I don't think Formy counted this one.

- - NO VOTE

Kuru votes for Elrond:
He at least points out something from Middle-Earth- the fact that Elrond was the herald of Gil-galad. However, the conclusion that he draws from this is that Elrond "didn't do a thing" in the battle. He certainly doesn't give anything to support that, but perhaps his vote gets counted because he gave exact information from Tolkien's book (that Elrond was Gil's herald)?

+ + PROBABLY A VOTE FOR ELROND

Gil votes for Elrond:

I expect your vote for Anarion in the future Kuru

I don't think that qualifies.

- - NO VOTE

the phantom votes for Oropher:

There's a reason a lot of people don't know the name Oropher where as everyone knows Elrond. Oropher isn't worthy of recognition, and thus is unworthy of staying in this game.

Here I am, using the same line of thinking as Eonwe and Celuien. I am using the fact that Tolkien did not write much about Oropher to prove that he was not a character worthy of standing among the greats. If he was as great as Elrond, Tolkien would've written more about him.

Not only that, but Formy might've been persuaded to count my vote simply because of my many quality Tolkien based defenses of Elrond. I was obviously trying as hard as anyone to keep the game Tolkien based, so it makes sense to count my vote.

+ + VOTE FOR OROPHER

lord votes for Oropher:

I haven't seen any decent defensible textual reason why Elrond should leave right now, particularly before Oropher, who most of you probably had to look up to find out about.

I agree with those before me that there is a reason Oropher is not well known- he didn't do anything worthy of keeping him alive in this game.

Once again, we see the argument that Oropher is an obscure character within the legendarium and thus does not belong with the big names.

+ + VOTE FOR OROPHER

Firefoot votes for Oropher:

He's pretty much useless, and Elrond deserves to stick around to the end more than he does. I don't know that Elrond should win, but Oropher definitely should not.

Firefoot calls Oropher "useless", which is likely referencing his lack of deeds and general no-name status, but since it isn't clear I won't count this vote.

- - NO VOTE

And so the final tally is...
Elrond: 2
Oropoher: 4

There! Now that you have seen a vote count demonstrated, perhaps that will put an end to these charges of vote "rigging".

For those of you with this attitude- "My person didn't win so I'm not playing any more"...

You need to smack yourself on the head and tell yourself "It's just a game."

Then you need to smack yourself again, and tell yourself "As Phantom demonstrated, I suppose it is actually possible that Form's final vote tally is somewhat justifiable."

After that, smack yourself once again and say "To be safe I'm going to come up with real reasons to vote for characters from now on." (I know I'm going to be trying harder just in case)

And, no doubt, a few of you think I'm only saying all this because my candidate didn't get voted off. If that's what you think- whatever.