Balrogs

Could have her with a saber-like weapon. Should it have a curved blade or straight?
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that would speak for a cutlass like weapon.the falmari could have such blades for work purposes.

oh dear we're again so far away from balrogs...
 
Haerangil said:
oh dear we're again so far away from balrogs...
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Ha! Might be a sign that none of us really have a firm picture of balrogs in battle, other than "big and scary".

But I do think their weapons should not only be unlovely, but also rather crude. There is very little finesse in our balrogs, they're the toughs, and bullies who don't think long-term or strategically (at least as I interpret our depictions).

So I'm thinking we don't even give them swords. More like clubs, hammers, and maces: things that are just one step above "a stick with a rock tied to it". Maybe a scythe?

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Well, the balrog in Moria was described as wielding a sword alongside his whip.

Maybe we could throw in something like this?
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i'm not sure about this...

they are maiar and fire spirits and morgoth would have sophisticated smithies at angband.he probably was able to corrupt a few more of aules servants than just sauron...

so why would the balrogs wield crude weapons? in fact i think their weapons should be exceptionally well made!

but i like the design of the club and the sickle!
 
Haerangil said:
i'm not sure about this...

they are maiar and fire spirits and morgoth would have sophisticated smithies at angband.he probably was able to corrupt a few more of aules servants than just sauron...

so why would the balrogs wield crude weapons? in fact i think their weapons should be exceptionally well made!

but i like the design of the club and the sickle!
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The crudeness, in my mind, isn't because of any lack of skill, per say, but lack of care. They don't need fancy-smancy weapons to bash someone's skull in -- that's for weaklings like Sauron!

Also, we had the balrogs be Maiar who have been with Melkor since the music. "Balrog" isn't an generic term for "Maiar on Morgoth's side", but rather is the type of Maia who was with Melkor from the beginning and was corrupted by their destruction of the Lamps. So no, I don't think any of our balrogs were among Aule's people originally.
 
what about giving them a bizarre or damaged look instead of crude?

as if the weapons are well made but the balrogs violence is transforming them?
 
I think that would be a fine compromise! I could see Balrogs wielding weapons that were well and perhaps even beautifully made, but that they haven't bothered to care for, and so have rusted or bent or otherwise become damaged very easily.
 
Of course we have to remember the fact that evil beings seem to lose some of their power to change form, which should probably include the power to create weapons that are an extension of the body. So, just like Morgoth has lost the power to take a beautiful form, the balrogs could have lost their power to create weapons in the way we're discussing.
I think it depends on how we portray them; when we say that they are beings of shadow and fire, I think we must show them as that - pretty far from having actual bodies perhaps. A whip or a swordlike formation that also is made of shadow and fire should be acceptable in the 'hands' of such a demon, while a clearly physical object in the hands of a large troll-like being is something else, something less scary - and less logical, actually.
 
Perhaps trolls wield something like your average club (doesn't require much thought to use) or we use ideas like the troll with flails on the stumps of its arms from Battle of Five Armies.
 
My point is that the Balrogs should be beings not of this world. I used trolls as an example of beings that, while fantastic, are alive because of a biological system like the one humans and elves have. They are children of Iluvatar. Balrogs are supernatural entities of shadow and fire. Their fall have constrained them and limited their power to change shape and create things at all and they have become purely destructive.
So maybe they create their weapons in the way we said Eönwë does, and they do it when attacking the Lamps. Their last act of creation is the expression of anger to shape shining, burning swords, whips and whatever, which then remain their weapons but just like them turn to shadowy, burning and deformed things.
 
Ange1e4e5 said:
Perhaps trolls wield something like your average club (doesn't require much thought to use) or we use ideas like the troll with flails on the stumps of its arms from Battle of Five Armies.
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Yes, some trolls could have clubs, no, I cannot see us using the body horror of BotFA. It was gross and unnecessary.
 
Haakon said:
My point is that the Balrogs should be beings not of this world. I used trolls as an example of beings that, while fantastic, are alive because of a biological system like the one humans and elves have. They are children of Iluvatar. Balrogs are supernatural entities of shadow and fire. Their fall have constrained them and limited their power to change shape and create things at all and they have become purely destructive.
So maybe they create their weapons in the way we said Eönwë does, and they do it when attacking the Lamps. Their last act of creation is the expression of anger to shape shining, burning swords, whips and whatever, which then remain their weapons but just like them turn to shadowy, burning and deformed things.
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Yes, I like this. remember, Glamdring basically shattered the balrog's sword in FotR.
 
was that really glamdring in the book? i believe it was symbolically a contest of might between gandalf and db..
 
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