Why was the Balrog in the wrong? Wasn't he just defending his home from intruders?

Why was the Balrog in the wrong? Wasn't he just defending his home from intruders?

Why didn't this retarded faggot demon just fly?

He doesn't belong on Middle Earth

>it has wings therefore it can fly

Just like ostriches and emus!

He is a big guy

Lol. Those useless shits don't have real wings.

He tried to hurt the good guys!!

But isn't he basically made of fire?

The fire rises

BALROGS DON'T HAVE WINGS REEEEEEEE

fun fact
it was a balrog that came back and disguised himself as Gandalf the White

>his home
Oh yeah, did the balrog carve out Moria all by himself?

Gandalf and co were in violation of the NAP. Balrog did nothing wrong.

friendly reminder that the balrogs are a kind of maia in service of morgoth, exiled valar. they literally just kill anything that isnt a friend of sauron, saruman, morgoth, yknow, the big baddies.

What?

They're literally just evil, that's it.

Fo' Eru.

>be an angel chilling in heaven vibrating sweet tunes all day
>some archangel can't vibrate worth a shit and gets royally buttmad
>decide to create a sandbox game out of boredom
>buttflustered archangel decides to literally fuck up the sandbox with edgy shit and also fuck around with the character creation parameters so everyone is ugly
>tell him to knock his shit off, but I'm having a genuine giggle over it
>decide to start playing the game as a fucking awesome demon made out of fire and shit
>wreck hundreds of puny NPCs
>can't log out, now I'm stuck as this demon
>NPCs are suddenly fucking me up
>they literally fucked up the archangel who was playing the game too
>hide in a dungeon to fast-forward time in the game until I can log out or something wtf
>some other angel disguised as an old geezer finds me and fucks me up (sweet battle tho)
>all my leveling wasn't worth shit since he was imba as fuck, he even respawned later
>I just wanted to vibrate again

I want my valve refund.

>morals are black and white

>" … suddenly it drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall …"

Because he was in one of the dullest franchise in the history of movie franchises. Seriously each episode following Frodo and his fellowship as they kill assorted orcs has been indistinguishable from the others. Aside from the gloomy imagery, the series’ only consistency has been its lack of excitement and ineffective use of special effects, all to make magic unmagical, to make action seem inert.

Perhaps the die was cast when Tolkien vetoed the idea of Spielberg directing the series; he made sure the series would never be mistaken for a work of art that meant anything to anybody, just ridiculously profitable cross-promotion for his books. The Lord of the Rings series might be anti-Christian (or not), but it’s certainly the anti-Narnia series in its refusal of wonder, beauty and excitement. No one wants to face that fact. Now, thankfully, they no longer have to.

>a-at least the books were good though
"No!"
The writing is dreadful; the book was terrible. As I read, I noticed that every time a character almost reaches a place, he stops, says the place's name, and continue on his way.

I began marking on the back of an envelope every time that action was repeated. I stopped only after I had marked the envelope several dozen times. I was incredulous. Tolkien's mind is so governed by cliches and dead metaphors that he has no other style of writing. Later I read a lavish, loving review of Lord of the Rings by the same Stephen King. He wrote something to the effect of, "If these kids are reading Lord of the Rings at 11 or 12, then when they get older they will go on to read Stephen King." And he was quite right. He was not being ironic. When you read "Lord of the Rings" you are, in fact, trained to read Stephen King.

Can someone do a creature power level list?
Smaug, Balrog, Shelob, etc.

A bold synthesis.

Who the fuck said about him being in the wrong? He was not in the wrong, he was just trying to kill them. If someone goes after you trying to kill you, you don't go "hurr but he is not in the wrong!". Gandalf didn't go "oh no, a balrog, he is so wrong about the crossing moria policy agreement" he just went "run you fools, its a balrog trying to kill you"

underrated post

It's a metaphor.

>Atlas Shrugged, Les Miserables in God-tier
>Ulysses that low
>Hamlet that low
>1984 above Brave New World

I will never not fall for this bait

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

> the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings
>like...wings

NOT ACTUALLY WINGS REEEEEEEEEEEEE

why didn't Elrond shank Isildur and throw the ring in the volcano when he had the chance?

IMMA STAND MUH GROUND!!! BURACK HOOSAIN OBAMER CAN HAVE MY GUNS WHEN HE PRIES THEM FROM MUH COLD DEAD HANDS!!1 FUGGIN FEDURAL GOV'MINT BETTER NOT TREAD ON ME I TELL YOU WUT.

Are you saying go on to read Stephen King like it's a bad thing? Can you elaborate more on that point?

I appreciate he's not the best writer but you can't argue he's written some of the best and most influential horror of the last century.

Delusional idealistic shit

This is the least convoluted yet still accurate explanation of Tolkien's lore I've ever seen.

>best
you're entitled to like him as much as you want but that's just wrong
he's the equivalent of B movies

overrated post

...

>Are you saying go on to read Stephen King like it's a bad thing?

Yes, it is. And there's no need to elaborate on that, Stephan King is a terrible writer and if you like him, you're a pleb.

>IMMA STAND MUH GROUND!!!
Kanye?
>BURACK HOOSAIN OBAMER CAN HAVE MY GUNS WHEN HE PRIES THEM FROM MUH COLD DEAD HANDS!!
Heston?
>1 FUGGIN FEDURAL GOV'MINT BETTER NOT TREAD ON ME
Alex jones?
> I TELL YOU WUT.
British farmer?

The Shining
IT
Misery
The Mist
Carrie
Pet Cemetery

Pretty comprehensive list of universally acclaimed books and films.

It seems like you're confusing books and films.

The Fellowship violated the NAP by entering Moria without consent. All bets were off.

kek

Aragorn executed an ambassador. He's a war criminal.

Nobody denies his ability to construct a good story. Old school literary critics like to bash him because they hate genre fiction and think all writers should be Ernest Hemingway.

>Why was the Balrog in the wrong?

He sided with Melkor in the First Age, waged war on the Valar, and then refused to submit for judgement after the defeat of Melkor, choosing to hide in the deep places of the earth instead, and then to cap it all he stood in the way of the Valar's emissary (Gandalf).

i didn't say he was bad, just not "great" like great, great
and to be fair, it's not his writing that i think is lacking, it's the stories themselves

>they literally just kill anything that isnt a friend of sauron, saruman, morgoth, yknow, the big baddies.

No, they considered themselves the equals of Sauron and refused to recognise him as their master after Melkor got BTFO. Even during the War of the Ring, the Balrog in Moria chose to remain hidden rather than siding with Sauron or Saruman, he was only drawn out by the presence of Gandalf.

Gatsby isn't god tier material. You're out of your mind.

>Eru tier
Eru
>POWERGAP
>Valar tier
Melkor
Shelob
Tulkas
Manwe
>>>other valar
>Maia tier
Sauron
Melian
Gothmog
Saruman
Gandalf

>Superman tier
Feanor
Faenor's Sons
>>>other noldor
>>>other sindar
>>>dark """elves"""
>>>Numenoreans
>>>other high men
>>>rohirrim
>>>orcs
>>>low men
>>>hobbits

I see you've moved on to fresher fish

underrated post

>no HEY DOL MERRY DOL tier
get the FUCK off this lotr thread RIGHT now, casual.

I like the fan theory that he's a maia of fear, a peer of Sauron, in hiding from both the Valar and Sauron in his self-appointed fiefdom of evil tree-men and barrow wights.

Thanks. Is Shelob really that high? What about dragons?

That list has gatsby over p&p. Come on.
>watched he DiCaprio adaptation recently and all the bad memories came flooding back
Wew

The dragons are maia-tier, mostly lower than Gothmog but higher than the other balrogs and the werewolves and vampires. Ancalagon /might/ be stronger than Gothmog, as Lord of the Dragons he was notably stronger than his kin, just as Gothmog was stronger than "regular" balrogs.

Shouldn't it be Ungoliant instead of Shelob

>Shelob
Oh I thought you meant Ungoliant. Shelob is much lower, Superman tier, below dark elves but above numernorens.

Just made the Balrog's backstory sound better than Westworld.

He's the physical manifestation of middle earth.
They hint at it by virtue of him being the oldest since creation (middle earth is the oldest along with him) and in the council when they wonder if tom could withstand sauron. "No one knows of that's possible unless the earth has that power".

I like to think he doesn't because the ground can be corrupted by evil.

I'd argue that Fingolfin and possibly his sons should be in superman tier, also Melkor's power varies with time as he sinks his strength from himself into corrupting Arda and its inhabitants, and Sauron's power also depends on whether or not he possesses the Ring

When he wrote Shelob he probably meant Ungoliant

That sounds fair

>He's the physical manifestation of middle earth.

He's a transcription error, an inside joke for Tolkien's academic friends. Lord of the Rings pretends to be a real ancient book that Tolkien merely "translated" into English. Bombadil is an example of the kind of weird random insertions of unrelated fairy tales that you get in such ancient texts, the "joke" being that Tolkien "translated" this out-of-place Hobbit fairy tale into his "history" of the war of the ring.

>Fingolfin

He's Faenor's Sons tier, even tho he was Faenor's kid brother.

> also Melkor's power varies with time as he sinks his strength from himself into corrupting Arda and its inhabitants

His personal power yes, this is how Tulkas was able to thrash him at the end of the War of Powers. His absolute power didn't change, it just became a "property" of "nature" the so-called "Morgoth Element"). Likewise with Sauron and his ring, his power wasn't reduced by the creation of the ring, only by its destruction. But yes.

I much prefer my physical manifestation idea better.

Besides Tolkien had ideas of other characters before he did lotr.

Galadriel or the idea of her existed before he wrote lotr, in a short story.

>physical manifestation
Trouble is, this doesn't make sense in LotR's metaphysics. Elrond might conceivably believe in such a thing, but Gandalf has been in Valinor and studied at the knee of the Gods Themselves, there's no way he could not know who Bombadil is, IF he's meant to "be" anyone.

Gandalf does know tom though. They all know of him. Gandalf even goes to speak with him at the end.

Toms never fleshed out though so we don't know much more.

>Shelob

I'll assume you meant Ungoliant and no, Ungoliant was only able to overpower Morgoth while it was locked in his Dark Lord form. Morgoth, who I might add, that was a cowardly shit.

And a just bunch of Balrogs was enough to scare her ass and make her flee to the mountains in the north of Doriath.

I guess it depends on what exactly we take as the definition of power levels in regards to that particular list.

>and the werewolves and vampires

There are werewolves and vampires in Middle Earth? Is the Silmarillion worth reading? Where is Beorn on the list? I assume Tom Bombadil is Maia tier.

Bombadil is unknown. Beorn is essentially a Rohir, although of course when he turns into a giant bear he punches well above a typical "middle man". Silmarillion is much more like a collection of poetry and mythology, it doesn't have a coherent narrative as such but there are many weird and amazing stories and if you enjoyed the novels you'll probably find it interesting if very "dry".

It's another:

>evil edgy character literally did nothing wrong
>I always look for ways to absolve the evil characters while looking for was to demonize the good characters

Thread

Thanks.

You can see in the scenes where they are falling that he is unable to spread his wings because the cavern is too narrow. There are times when his wings actually scrap the side of the cavern walls.

Lol. You'd have to explain how it's bullshit and you'd get btfo to be honest.

>gandalf? Oh yeah yeah yeah, that was my name.

Would you fuck a Sauron?

He dindu nuffin!

It's not gay if the guy is cute. Mairon is 10/10 qt trap

>they're bishonen
no wonder based noldor kept wrecking their pussy asses

this pastas really been doing the rounds this week

Wouldn't the Noldor be bishonen too?

god-teir is middle-teir u a pleb this list is as always shit, also you fucked up the pasta

The Noldor accomplished nothing.

If ungoliant>morgoth
and morgoth > balrogs
why not ungoliant >balrogs?

Morgoth was only a weak pussy from spreading his power too much, you can think of it like:
Morgoth + balrogs + dragons + werewolves + orcs + every other evil thing Morgoth created = original Melkor power levels.

so were the balrogs stronger than him and bound to him?