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View Poll Results: Do balrogs have wings? | |||
Yes |
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114 | 58.16% |
No |
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82 | 41.84% |
Voters: 196. You may not vote on this poll |
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#1 | |
Wisest of the Noldor
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Let's try it out: "Ai!" wailed Legolas. "A dodo! A dodo is come!" Hmmm.
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"Even Nerwen wasn't evil in the beginning." –Elmo. |
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#3 | |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Ensconced in curmudgeonly pursuits
Posts: 2,515
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'Winged speed', ladies and gentlemen, 'winged speed':
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In addition, have any of you ever looked at the distance between Hithlum and Lammoth, and were you aware that Ered Lómin (the Echoing Mountains) separated Hithlum from Lammoth? To put it in context with the internal logic of the story, the balrogs 'arose', 'and they passed with winged speed over Hithlum' -AND- over Ered Lomin, and they alighted into 'Lammoth as a tempest of fire.' The Balrogs were called by Morgoth in an emergency, a life and death situation where minutes counted. They did not run like some cartoon characters -- feet whizzing in a cyclonic blur like Speedy Gonzalez or the Roadrunner -- and simply scaled Ered Lómin like some mega-hikers hyped up on meta-amphetamines, all in an appropriate amount of time to swiftly aid Morgoth. The very idea is absurd. The passage only makes sense if they had wings and flew over the mountain in time to save their master. As far as Durin's Bane, when was the last time he had a chance to fly in Moria? Would flight even be possible in such unlit caverns? Where would he fly to? That he fell when the bridge collapsed does not mean that he couldn't fly; on the contrary, there is such a thing as 'lift' in aeronautics. The Balrog was in free-fall, a nose-dive, and could not maintain sufficient 'lift' because of his great body mass. In conclusion, Balrogs have wings because it looks much cooler than a plain, old, wingless demon. How insipid! How dreadfully mundane! Argue amongst yourselves, I have all the data I need to make an informed decision. ![]()
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And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision. |
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#4 | |
Dread Horseman
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Behind you!
Posts: 2,744
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Ah (or should that be 'Ai'?), the Balrog Wars. I am fortunately comfortably retired from same, but this thread brings back memories, particularly this, Morth:
I deployed this same argument during a campaign over nine years ago (OMG). I think just about every scrap of Balrog information and evidence, no matter how tenuous or tangential, has been battled over here at one time or another, but it's nice to see one of the more obscure arguments independently confirmed, as it were. Ten years later and something I said back then seems even more true today -- arguing Balrog wings is like arguing religion or politics. The odds of actually converting someone to your way of thinking are practically nil. In fact, the ground is so tenaciously contested that this, from Kuru -- Quote:
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#5 | |
La Belle Dame sans Merci
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Nevertheless, I tend toward "just because they're made out of shadow doesn't mean they aren't real," combined with a healthy dose of "just because a body part exists doesn't mean it has to work: just look at wisdom teeth and appendices; not only are they not-useful, they seem to be designed specifically to make our lives WORSE." Try telling me shadows don't exist! Don't be hatin' just because them vestigial shadow appendages are dysfunctional in an enclosed subterranean environment. I like to think Gandalf's last words were a shrouded insult to Roggie. "Fly, you fools!" he yelled, but nobody heard his next muttered sentence: "Because the balrog can't. Suck it, balrog!"
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peace
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