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"Akallabeth" was surprisingly somber. Ar-Pharazon seems so bombastic and zealous in Angband, but the original character was just a weak man who succumbed to his fear of his own mortality. Sauron's role was great, though. He definitely stole the show.
Ah well, just one age left to read, now. I suppose this is the one where Isildur has his infamous moment of weakness.Comment
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You haven't mentioned the films, but they're a lot less subtle with the cheap-tricks and foreshadowing than the books were, so if they're playing into your memory at all, that would definitely add to these feelings.
I do think that's part of it, too. If you don't already love the books, it's harder to ignore how much they appear in everything since.Comment
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I tried to avoid the films as much as I could. For all that seeing Magneto going all curly mustache on the Infector of Souls while Lord De Seis tries to hunt down Kevin from Sin City sounds rather awesome, there wouldn't be too much sense in wanting to see movies of books that I didn't like, they were too likely to be dumbed down to make them more Hollywood, and the very nature of the mediums just about always makes movies inferior to books. That having been said, I did watch "Return of the King" (I was at a gathering at someone else's house and didn't want to be a wet blanket when everyone else wanted to watch it), so there might be some subconscious influence from that.
Incidentally, it's kind of funny that Blizzard ended up making a whole different archetype for orcs, considering how much they ripped off from Tolkien and Games Workshop, but that's a story for another thread.Comment
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Fair enough! Compared to the books they were mildly offensive, but compared to most other fantasy films they were first-rate.
I got a couple of these references, and I sort of wish I hadn't!
Weren't the Blizzard orcs just drawn from D&D? I don't know enough about Warcraft to know the difference there.Comment
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This link talks about the differences. Short version, Warcraft orcs were originally like Warhammer/D&D orcs, but around the time of developing Warcraft 3, they got characterized as being sort of like medieval klingons. It wasn't only Blizzard that did it (Bethesda did pretty much the exact same thing in Morrowind, which happened to be released in the same year), but they're usually given credit for it due to the greater popularity of Warcraft.Comment
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Maybe you just weren't creative enough. Vacuum tube punchcard Angband might've been the best Angband
Incidentally, I finished reading Silmarillion (took a while to do that since I do most of my recreational reading during my lunch break at work, and I'd taken a decent vacation from that for the winter holidays). The Third Age part seemed rather half-assed. Like, it wasn't bad by any means, but compared with the rest, it seemed like Tolkien was glossing over just about everything because he expected people to read LotR to fill in the rest of the content.
Saruman being an istar makes me wonder why he's a "p" instead of an "A" like Radagast, though. I can just tell that that's going to keep bothering me now
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IMO Radagast should not be there just like Gandalf and other "good" non-destructive critters. Huan is another "does not belong to angband" monster. I know that Huan is there to "balance" Carcharoth, but it's angband, the balance should be in side of chaos and mayhem anyway.Comment
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Remove Radagast.
Change Saruman to an 'A', pretty much equivalent to Radagast. Maybe reflavor his description to refer to his time as Curufin instead to justify him not being evil.
Remove Huan.
Give trampling and all of Huan's breaths to Carcharoth; reflavor Carcharoth's description to say that he's on a rampage after consuming a Silmaril.
Add Kas the Destroyer as a high level 'p'; evil undead creature, tanky melee enemy (maybe similar to Atlas), attacks to lower experience, can cast haste self and brain smash (if possible, maybe also give him a spell to reduce @'s saving throw by 20% to mimic the -4 saving throw penalty against his charming in D&D), invisible/cold blooded/walks through walls, increased chance to spawn together with Vecna.
Not sure what could be done about Arien, Maia of the Sun. I can't think of any named ainur who joined Morgoth aside from Sauron, Gothmog, and (briefly, sort of) Osse. Maybe just remove Arien and add another unique elsewhere that fits the "immune to all slays and has fire/plasma attacks" mold?
Not entirely serious, but also not completely opposed to actually doing some of these, either
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Yes, please, a thousand times yes. Either that or make good uniques non-hostile until hit by the player.
Do we even need Arien? There's already Vargo and The Phoenix. Certainly one of them could be beefed up if necessary to make up for Arien's absence.Comment
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“We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see.”
― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are DeadComment
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Honestly, I think Huan and the ainur (which sounds like a cool name for a band, now that I say it like that, but I digress) being in Angband makes sense regardless of whether @ is "good" or "gray". It was a mentioned point in The Silmarillion that after fleeing to Angband, Morgoth began a campaign of deception and manipulation to spur in-fighting between various "good" factions, including how people who came out of the fortress were impossible to trust afterwards because others couldn't tell if they had escaped or if they were spies.
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Radagast being in Angband doesn't make sense. Huan perhaps, hunting Carcharoth and generally not liking mass-murderers like @ that kill everything that moves and most things that don't move. Radagast isn't just "good", he is pacifist. As such he would get as far out of Angband as he could get. Good violent chars I understand in angband, but not someone who is clearly against all sorts of violence. Even Gandalf would be better than Radagast. Actually Gandalf would fit nicely to current Radagast role.Honestly, I think Huan and the ainur (which sounds like a cool name for a band, now that I say it like that, but I digress) being in Angband makes sense regardless of whether @ is "good" or "gray". It was a mentioned point in The Silmarillion that after fleeing to Angband, Morgoth began a campaign of deception and manipulation to spur in-fighting between various "good" factions, including how people who came out of the fortress were impossible to trust afterwards because others couldn't tell if they had escaped or if they were spies.Comment
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Not everyone plays @ as good, but the logic doesn't follow to say therefore good enemies should always attack @. It kind of spoils the immersion for anyone who DOES play @ as good.
Plus, whether or not the player plays @ as good, good-aligned enemies would not attack someone who was not a servant of Morgoth. Even the argument that good enemies "aren't expecting anything but evil monsters" or that they get "taken off guard" and "attack @ by accident" sort of fall flat, because they persist in attacking @ just as viciously as if they were evil.
Still this only applies to certain styles of play. Even though not all @s may be "good," also not everyone plays @ as trying to exterminate everything it sees. Besides, Huan is unaware of anything @ has done until they first meet, at which point all he'd see is that @ is also fighting Morgoth's minions. Even an ordinary dog would recognize someone like that as an ally, and certainly Huan would.Comment
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