The Silmarillion Survivor

[The Saucepan Man]

I notice that Eonwe, presumably lacking a firm hand from Manwe, has also turned to the dark side ...

[Lalaith]

So he is...

or rather so he has. Sorry.

[Anguirel]

Eonwe's treachery lends a perfect excuse to be rid of him. Morgoth's armies are massively strong, but at least without the ex-Herald the Eldar and Edain will have a hope...

++EONWE

[Lalaith]

if he becomes king over the city, he will marry Idril. thereby preventing the birth of Earendil and the intervention of the Valar.

Why really, Alcarillo. Are you saying the princess of Gondolin, the woman who fought Maeglin "like a tigress" on the battlements of the burning city, is just part and parcel of the inheritance, a passive flower ripe for the picking? That she has no free will or choice of her own?
Pshaw. Idril Celebrindal will fall in love with and marry Tuor no matter who is king.

[Anguirel]

Unless, of course, a certain Maeglin fan who's doing the write-ups finds any possible excuse to make her fall in love with Maeglin instead. In which case, well...who needs Earendil anyway?

[arcticstorm]

I would like to say that the most logical choice to prevent the raveging of the lands of men is to get rid of the one who is doing the raveging, in seems like the biggest raveger in the entire game is none other than the illustriius dragon Glaurung.
so for now I will vote for him, and may change it later.
++Glaurung
but we need to be careful, soon some exile Valar from the war in Valinor may join with Melkor, in that case we will need to watch otherwise the elves and men will be doomed.

[Lord Melkor]

Hmmm, an interesting challenge: To protect the lands of Men we need military power and lots of it, I'd say! Therefore it is imperative that we remove those Elven lords who'd prefer to sit in their marble halls and drink expensive wines while watching young elf ladies dance before them, while the poor Edain are being slaughtered in their mud hovels. Therefore I'd say we should remove either Turgon or Thingol, the two prime isolationists of Middle-Earth. This would also allow their daughters (either Idril or Luthien) to ascend to the throne, giving the male-dominated Elven society a much needed feminine touch. I'm sure these powerful, strongwilled and active ladies will waste no time in sending military forces to protect the Edain. Therefore I'd say:

++ Thingol

Though Turgon is fine with me as well.

[The Saucepan Man]

In this case, and contrary to my previous voting pattern, I would prefer to go straight for the organ grinder rather than bothering with his various monkeys.

There is one "person" with whom the ravaging buck ultimately stops, and that is Morgoth. We may try to take away his means of ravaging, but he will undoubtedly come up with alternative, possibly more deadly, means. If, however, we strike for the central command centre and succeed, all of his agents of ravagement will be thrown into disarray.

No doubt, in time, a new dark lord will emerge. Quite possibly another of the Valar will be tempted to evil and take command of Morgoth's forces. But that will take time, and buying the Men and Elves sufficient time to organise their resistance is vital here.

So no messing about from me. My vote goes straight to the heart of the enemy:

++ MORGOTH

Originally Posted by arcticstorm

... we need to be careful, soon some exile Valar from the war in Valinor may join with Melkor, in that case we will need to watch otherwise the elves and men will be doomed.

Quite so. The last thing that they need is two renegade Valar on their case. Taking out Morgoth substantially reduces the chances of that happening.