The Middle Earth Popularity Cup

[Tuor in Gondolin]

Beleg-Boromir is intriguing, but Gandalf has
to be a humongous favorite and with Gollum and
Frodo gone it's doubtful the final is really competitive.

As they say in sports (like the ncaa basketball
tournament) it's all a matter of matchups.

[Strongbow]

Originally Posted by Tuor in Gondolin

As they say in sports (like the ncaa basketball
tournament) it's all a matter of matchups.

Beleg is Middle Earth's Davidson! And Boromir is Xavier!

[Groin Redbeard]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Bad analogy there Groin. Everyone knows that reading Lord of the Rings leads straight to any number of addictions (particularly pipeweed), and even worse, bouts of sanctimoniousness.

Originally Posted by Morthoron

You said it yourself, Gandalf is the original Rolling Stoner, and he exhibits many primary traits of a hippie, as already pointed out by Lal, who perhaps fit in well with the Carnaby Street crowd at one point in time.

You infuriate me with your lack of seriousness in the matter, and making a mockery of the subject in the process!

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Groin Redbeard

You infuriate me with your lack of seriousness in the matter, and making a mockery of the subject in the process!

Groin, please read the header of this forum. It is 'Middle-earth Mirth'. Mirth, by definition, indicates amusement, humor and wit. Please be indignant on a forum where such priggishness is more acceptable.

Oh, and Lord of the Rings is a book of fiction, not a holy text of biblical proportions. Take a deep breath, and...smoke some pipeweed for relaxation's sake.

[skip spence]

Semi-finals:

Eight has become four and now we are entering the late stages of the Cup. Soon we will know is worthy of the crown and who will have to go home empty-handed without the spoils.

The Players (Odds are from Betberry):

Beleg
Odds to reach final: 5/1
Odds to win final: 25/1
Previous matches: Maggot 5-4, Frodo 8-7, Sauron 8-6

Boromir
Odds to reach final: 5/4
Odds to win: 25/8
Previous matches: Beren 9-4, Saruman 8-7, Maedhros 8-6

Gandalf
Odds to reach final: 6/5
Odds to win: 2/1
Previous matches: Bombadil 10-8, Elrond 14-1, Galadriel 7-6

Túrin
Odds to reach final: 6/1
Odds to win: 12/1
Previous matches: Gimli 8-8, Beorn 10-7, Samwise 10-6

[skip spence]

Semifinal 1:
Boromir enters this bout as the strong favourite against Beleg Strongbow, the real surprise-package of the tournament. Can the great archer cause an upset once again?

Boromir vs. Beleg

Deadline is set at 12.00 Am tomorrow board-time.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by skip spence

Semifinal 1:
Boromir enters this bout as the strong favourite against Beleg Strongbow, the real surprise-package of the tournament. Can the great archer cause an upset once again?

Boromir vs. Beleg

Deadline is set at 12.00 Am tomorrow board-time.

++Boromir, who exhibits all the characteristics of a flawed hero of a Greek tragedy.

[Groin Redbeard]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Groin, please read the header of this forum. It is 'Middle-earth Mirth'. Mirth, by definition, indicates amusement, humor and wit. Please be indignant on a forum where such priggishness is more acceptable.

Call it the dwarf in me, but I dislike the way you raise serious subjects and than dismiss them in a shroud of annoying silliness like some elf.

Oh, and Lord of the Rings is a book of fiction, not a holy text of biblical proportions. Take a deep breath, and...smoke some pipeweed for relaxation's sake.

A holy book it might not be, but it is certainly not a hippie book. As for the pipeweed smoking I'll leave that up to for you to do.


++Boromir

He may not be as loyal or ethical as Beleg was, but he was dutiful and took pride in his deeds.

[Strongbow]

++Beleg

[mormegil]

++Beleg

Boromir is so boorish and banal.

[Andsigil]

++Boromir

I think he was as ethical as anyone. His problem was that he was like the vast majority of us. It takes a Gandalf, a Galadriel, or a Faramir to resist the call of The Ring. Had the overwhelming majority of anyone in ME been in Boromir's shoes, they'd have taken it, as well.

I'm one who thoroughly believes that mercy to the wolf is cruelty to the sheep. But I'd still accept the Temporary Insanity defense from Boromir's lawyer if he were on trial.

[Tuor in Gondolin]

++ Beleg

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Groin Redbeard

Call it the dwarf in me, but I dislike the way you raise serious subjects and than dismiss them in a shroud of annoying silliness like some elf.

Nonsense! I haven't shown the slightest bit of seriousness in this whole thread! The nerve that I should be subject to such insinuation!

But as this is the holiday season, I shall ignore your prattle. In the immortal words of Foghorn Leghorn, "I come to bury the hatchet, but not in your pointed head."

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Hm. Both characters are not among my favorites, and I don't want to wear out the coin, so let's see if I can come up with another means of choosing.

Beleg: guy who sticks by a friend, gets mistaken for an orc by said friend and is killed; said friend repents only because he drinks Ulmo-blessed water and regains his grief-stricken insanity.

Boromir: guy who tries to stick it to a friend to grab the Ring, repents, and gets killed by orcs while defending relatively defenseless hobbits.

Tough call.

*flip*

++Beleg

[skip spence]

As much as I love the story of Túrin and Beleg I'm going with ++Boromir who is a more interesting character than his opponent.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

++Boromir

is the more interesting personality of those two. Besides, of all the remaining characters, he is probably the closest to poor old Saruman

Oh, and P.S.

Call it the dwarf in me, but I dislike the way you raise serious subjects and than dismiss them in a shroud of annoying silliness like some elf.

Groin, one more word about Elves from you and I am going to neg-rep you

[Lalwendë]

Beleg is nice and everything, but Boromir is much more interesting, and maybe the fact that he isn't all that nice and has this bad streak is exactly what makes him that little bit more interesting?

++Boromir

[the phantom]

I like both of them.

But because I identify with him, I shall choose-

++ Boromir

[A Little Green]

Honestly, this is way too hard since I love them both, but I'm going to go for

++ Beleg

if not for anything else than making the game slightly more even. Besides, though Boromir is lovely, Beleg is maybe even more so. Boromir's death moves me but Beleg's almost makes me cry. Enough said...

[Aganzir]

++BOROMIR

Boromir is one of the characters who are not ultimately perfect. He didn't believe Gandalf and others right away when they claimed the Ring could not be used for anything good but questioned their judgement, which was actually quite a sensible thing to do - why should you believe something a random wizard says when you don't see any sense in it? A bit like Greenie and phantom in WW.

Boromir is sweet. He's proud. He's funny. He's human. He's grumpy. He's honest - he has the guts to admit he has been wrong, which is a quality too few possess.

The bad thing with having a certain most favouritest character ever is, I've talked about his superiority so much that I forget to mention about half the reasons why I like him as to me they are so self-evident nowadays.

[Nerwen]

++Boromir

for reasons already expressed by others before me.

Although I do like Beleg... and he's certainly had an amazing winning streak so far.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Nonsense! I haven't shown the slightest bit of seriousness in this whole thread!

Oh, but you should, Morth. You've been too dazzled by the bright lights to notice the seedy underbelly of the so-called Middle Earth Popularity Cup. If ever a cup could be said to possess an underbelly, this cup does. Don't you think it a little strange when a rank outsider like the so-called Beleg keeps beating the favourites? What do you know of the money that's changed hands... the bribery and intimidation... the organised crime syndicates behind bookmakers like the so-called Bêthberry? Not to mention the fact that it's run by notorious underworld kingpin skip "Shady" spence?

It's rotten, I tell you! Rotten to the core!

[Nogrod]

Darn it!

That's just what I feared! When the going gets tough the LotR-idols will prevail...

Well one must try and hope for some kind of a miracle; in Middle-Earth things have been accomplished in the last moments before as well!

++ Beleg

So a final between Gandalf and Boromir... That's just an anticlimax! Like this was some movie-fansite! ... Oh, sorry... it would have been Legolas and Frodo then...

Maybe I'll just have to forgive you your conventionality.

[skip spence]

Alas, Beleg has finally run out of miracles and is eliminated by the score of 8 votes to 6.

Originally Posted by Nerwen

It's rotten, I tell you! Rotten to the core!

Hey now, that's a half-truth at best.

Don't you think it a little strange when a rank outsider like the so-called Beleg keeps beating the favourites?

The fact that Beleg is now out proves conclusively that you are wrong.

What do you know of the money that's changed hands... the bribery and intimidation... the organised crime syndicates behind bookmakers like the so-called Bêthberry? Not to mention the fact that it's run by notorious underworld kingpin skip "Shady" spence?

My unseemly wealth and affilation to organized crime has little or nothing to do with the results of the of the past month or the fair and generous odds provided by Betberry. Since your post contains libelous statements without any factual support, I advice you to delete it immidiately for everyone's best benefit (not least your own).

Semifinal 2:
Gandalf vs. Túrin

[Andsigil]

++Gandalf

I both like Gandalf and still dislike Turin.

I just don't understand all of the fascination with someone who poisons everything he touches, and then tries to rectify this by touching and poisoning more things. Oh, and feeling a lot of anguish about it.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Andsigil

I just don't understand all of the fascination with someone who poisons everything he touches, and then tries to rectify this by touching and poisoning more things. Oh, and feeling a lot of anguish about it.

That's called tragedy, a honourable literatury genre indeed which quite a many people have actually found quite fascinating... And a tragic hero carrying the curse of the gods and trying to fight against his fate beats a never-erring hero who's the favourite of the gods anyday!

++ Túrin

[the phantom]

Originally Posted by Nog

That's just what I feared! When the going gets tough the LotR-idols will prevail...

It hasn't been finalized yet, Nog. There's still hope for a Silmarillion versus LotR final. First Age versus Third Age. Boromir versus Turin.

Here's my vote for it.

++ Turin

First off, he really is a decent chap deep down. Look at his boyhood friendship with Sador. He had all the makings of a good, wise, and kindly man at that time. And he took a band of no-good ruffians and turned them into a force against Angband. And he showed compassion to Mim when he lost his son. With the life that he lived it is a wonder he still had goodness within him, yet we can see that he obviously did.

He tried so hard, but everything turned out terribly for him. And whenever he thought things were going well, that's when disaster always struck him. Of all the things Morgoth did, his curse upon Hurin and his family was one of the worst.

I say that we vote Turin the victory. Through our actions, the curse of Morgoth can be defeated! He thinks he can doom someone to forever be a loser? I think not. We Barrow-Downers can undo Morgoth's dark curse! Vote Turin!

edit: xpost, good going Nog!

[mormegil]

Boromir in the finals? What an awful taste this has left in my mouth. Boro should have been eliminated in the first round.

++Turin

[Strongbow]

++Túrin

Because now I have a vendetta against popular characters.

Alas Beleg.

[Groin Redbeard]

++Gandalf

Possibly the best out of all Tolkien's characters.

[Andsigil]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

That's called tragedy, a honourable literatury genre indeed which quite a many people have actually found quite fascinating... And a tragic hero carrying the curse of the gods and trying to fight against his fate beats a never-erring hero who's the favourite of the gods anyday!

++ Túrin

Look, there is tragedy, and then there is melodramatic self-sabotage. Turin shows too much of the latter.

[Gollum the Great]

++Turin

[Lalwendë]

++Gandalf

He's iconic, whereas Turin is just another guy with a sword.

He has a great name with an Old Norse heritage, whereas Turin is named after some Italian city and you feel like a plonker just saying his wispy name out loud, but saying the rich, meaty word 'gandalf' makes you feel all robust and manly...even if you are not a man

He's an Odinic Wanderer and an enigma, whereas Turin likes to abandon people. And kill them.

He doesn't let you down, whereas Turin is like the Frank Spencer of Middle-earth.

He's a hippy, and he can blow really cool smoke-rings.

[Gollum the Great]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Turin is just another guy with a sword.

That's bull. Turin is a dragon-slayer, a tragedy, and one of the most elite fighters in Middle-Earth. All rolled into one. And that's only for starters.

He has a great name with an Old Norse heritage, whereas Turin is named after some Italian city and you feel like a plonker just saying his wispy name out loud, but saying the rich, meaty word 'gandalf' makes you feel all robust and manly...even if you are not a man

What possible evidence have you that Tolkien based Turin's name off of that city? Even if he did- I haven't yet read all of the published Tolkien writings- what's wrong with it??? And about the origin of Gandalf's name, ever heard of castle Gandalfo? I imagine that the name "Gandalf" did come from old Norse, but what makes makes you think he wasn't just thinking of the castle in the first place?

He's an Odinic Wanderer and an enigma, whereas Turin likes to abandon people. And kill them.

Who has taught you these lies? Never in the CoH is it mentioned that Turin enjoys leaving behind his friends (or anyone else). He didn't want to forsake Finduilas or kill Beleg, destroy Nargothrond or let Gwindor down (except after Gwindor let his name out, but you can't blame him for that).

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Gollum the Great

That's bull. Turin is a dragon-slayer, a tragedy, and one of the most elite fighters in Middle-Earth. All rolled into one. And that's only for starters.

Come on, how many boys with swords are there in fiction? He's nothing special.

[Tuor in Gondolin]

+ + Gandalf

Gandalf overcame great temptations, wheareas
Turin's arrogance, as much as the curse, caused
him to fail.

[Morthoron]

++Gandalf, my favorite hippie. Party on, Gandyman!

[Eönwë]

++Good ol' Gandy

I can't back down on him now.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Tuor in Gondolin

Gandalf overcame great temptations, wheareas
Turin's arrogance, as much as the curse, caused him to fail.

C'mon. Gandalf was the fondling of the gods - possibly even that of Eru - and when he failed he was granted a second go with it with added powers! Now that's pathetic! Like you save your videogame before you die and then cheat yourself new abilities before continuing the game!

What would have happened if Túrin would have gotten a second chance after killing Glaurung? With added abilities (like redeeming him from the curse or someting)?

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

++Gandalf

Wouldn't even need to know who he's up against, and the answer would be the same. We never get over our childhood "crushes."