The balrogs were fire maia that were corrupted by Melkor into beings of fire cloaked in shadow. I interpret that to mean they're primarily beings of fire that "wear" shadow over themselves (which composes their wings)

That's a really interesting point. Ungoliant kind of exists outside the established power structure of the Ainur, considering she came from outside Arda, but was never mentioned as participating in the first music of the Ainur (there's no real established origin for Ungoliant, other than "evil spirit from outside the bounds of Arda"). No matter who you are, being called to fight "unknowable ancient Eldritch spider deity" is a pretty horrifying task, and Melkor was even known to have fear when facing much smaller enemies.

One interesting point is how much emphasis Tolkien puts on Ungoliant's powers being focused around darkness and "unlight". Balrogs, being spirits of fire, seem like a natural enemy to a creature of pure darkness, so that might have boosted their comparative power against Ungoliant despite their low numbers.

Another thing to consider is that Melkor was never known to show understanding or mercy to his servants who failed him. I would have to think that any balrog who failed to come to his aid would have been killed (or worse as you postulate) as soon as Morgoth was freed.

It's been a few years since I've read the foreword to the Silmarillion, but I'm glad I'm consistent with Christopher's analysis 😁

It's similar to searching for consistencies amongst any mythology, which is what Tolkien was attempting to create. Tales will always change over time, and they'll always shift focus to what the teller determines is important. As focuses of a society shift, so do the focuses of its related mythology. In this way, I think Tolkien did an excellent job creating a united mythos for England in all the different versions of his legendarium. As the tales evolved, consistencies emerged elements which were formerly key, were discarded, and internal references became more commonplace than external references (see Tolkien's influences from William Morris and Icelandic, Celtic, Germanic, and Anglo Saxon epics)

In the Second Prophecy of Mandos (present in most versions of Tolkien's Quenta Silmarillion, but omitted from the final Silmarillion due to a perceived incompatibility by Christopher Tolkien), it's mentioned that Melkor will emerge from the door of night after the world and it's powers grow old and weary (the powers being the Ainur, which includes the Balrogs). This indicates that even the gods will grow old and fade as the elves do, which could imply that Durin's Bane is actually just faded and weakened from age and inactivity, since the balrog was sleeping under the mountain for ~5400 years (assuming it participated in the final battle of the war of wrath and hid itself under Khazad-dûm immediately after Melkor's expulsion). Also, there were no more than 3 or 7 balrogs ever according to later writings by Tolkien, which indicates that no balrog was weak or cowardly.

In regards to Melkor's wailing and summoning of the balrogs: Ungoliant ensnared Melkor in Lammoth, which is described as being near the ruins of Angband where the balrogs awaited Melkor's return. It is said that the balrogs rushed swiftly to Melkor's aid, but there is no indication that the wailing was short. In fact, Lammoth is also known as the land of "the Great Echo" where the wailing of Melkor could still be heard ever after, which to me indicates that the wails were prolonged and intense rather than a swift "yelp" followed by a rescue. With this interpretation, it makes sense to me that the balrogs marched quickly, but still took time to rescue Melkor, which would eliminate the possibility of teleportation or sonic the hedgehog running.

Another interesting writing to note is the involvement of balrogs riding flying fire drakes in the Fall of Gondolin. Now, the Fall of Gondolin is definitely an unfinished tale, and was "neglected" more than the other two great tales/lays of Tolkien's later focus, but there are still consistencies between versions that indicate a certainty of specific elements in Tolkien's mind. In each version, there is mention of balrogs riding to battle atop flying fire drakes to assail the city while orcs and trolls attempt to break the walls. This would indicate to me that balrogs could not fly unaided, which would make any wings they have vestigial (unlikely since they are divine), or more a "cloak" of fire.

That was something I actually really liked about old Twitter: with only 140 characters (or whatever the original limit was), you really couldn't add the extra fluff to soften your opinion. You just said what you meant as succinctly as possible and let the masses react as they will.

I'd like to think it forced more people to go "mask off" with their opinions and stop hiding behind fluff, but it also perpetuated an attitude of toxicity that made Twitter ripe for extremist exploitation

I've never done it and now I feel bad :(

It's a nightjar ninja who comes in during the cutscene

This is one interpretation of the story, but definitely not the accepted interpretation amongst the varying sects of Christianity.

Catholicism espouses that Mary was without sin, and Protestants generally disagree (Lutherans being the notable exception). They also believe that the trinity is intertwined yet separate (God is the father, Jesus the son, and the spirit a procession of both)

Most protestant sects generally believe that Mary was not without sin, but did indeed become pregnant without sex. They consider Jesus the biological son of God, and therefore fully human and fully divine (this is supposed to be a paradox and not make sense). Jesus is affirmed to be God's actual son in all 4 gospels and several of the Epistles.

There doesn't need to be a "logical" explanation free of contradictions and impossibilities in Jesus's origin, simply due to the fact that he is God, and therefore above human understanding.

Source: I grew up in the church and was surrounded by theologians against my will. I got out, but the knowledge is still knocking around in my head.

Don't give up hope! Both Bilbo and Frodo were called to adventure by Gandalf at 50, and Bilbo left the shire for more adventure at 111.

Of course not, don't be foolish.

Inserting oneself into another's bubble without thought or tact can make one come off as creepy or threatening.

All it takes is thinking with your eyes, ears, and brain rather than your dick.

#!/usr/bin/env bash for better compatibility

What would be a good method to minimize gaming addiction in kids?

I agree that time limits aren't ideal, but is there a better solution besides vetting every single piece of media a child wants to consume? I grew up with both, and it just taught me to be sneaky, which then ended up with me exposing myself to some truly awful stuff on the internet

Regardless of how much any teen cares about their after school job, it's just that: an after school job.

This opinion of service work expressed in the OP doesn't seem to realize that if we restricted these jobs to only the people who don't "need" a living wage, then there would be no fast food for lunch, no quick trips to the store during school hours, and no starbucks in the morning on the way to work during the school year. If you want the convenience of near instant food and services at any time of the day, then you need to pay the price of giving the workers a living wage (or we end up where we are today)

I agree, a good pocket knife is a great purchase!

One thing for readers to keep in mind is that unless you know how to fight with a knife (and know that the assailant doesn't have a firearm), then it's a very bad idea to brandish a knife even as a threat. If the assailant is able to disarm you, then you'll be in a much worse situation than if you didn't have the knife at all.

I think it's worth a try if you haven't played in several years! There isn't a lot of gameplay if you don't have a ship geared towards combat/mining/cargo, but those contracts are pretty fun (there wasn't a huge amount of variety, but still several hours of gameplay). I will admit that all my evidence of player enjoyment is anecdotal, but it was a bit shocking to me to hear about how much fun friends were having when I keep seeing so much hate towards the game online. I've gotten a couple ships as gifts from friends/family, but my PC hasn't ever been beefy enough to run the game at a stable frame rate (I've since upgraded so it's probably time to try it again ¯\(ツ)/¯)

I agree that the project has fallen victim to arguably the worst example of scope creep to ever plague the gaming industry, but it's much further along than "barely beyond a tech demo". I know people who play several hours a week and say they're having a great time. There's definitely a full game in the alpha, but it's far from polished or finished.

To your point about feeling different about the slow development if it were funded by a single investor rather than crowdsourcing: what's the difference? Every person I know who's spent money on star citizen seems happy with their RoI. Isn't that all that matters with an investment? I'm not sure why it would be better if it was just a single investor being happy rather than a million investors being happy, even if it is all just delusion.

That was a pretty funny read!

I'm guessing this could be a common use case difference? Maybe touring in smaller stints makes the goldwing seem like way too much overkill, but if I were to do a bike trip across the US, I'd much prefer riding on a goldwing vs a smaller and more "functional" bike. Several thousand miles can be a real killer without all those comfy bells and whistles.

What are you talking about? The goldwing has been consistently hailed as one of the best touring motorcycle for almost 40 years. Every long distance rider I've spoken to says the goldwing is their favorite bike for cross country rides, and the ones who have sold theirs for a BMW or Harley touring bike have expressed regrets about changing.

Just because something has a lot of features, doesn't mean it's bad.

Arch is incredibly stable... As long as you know what you're doing. The majority of people who would move from windows to Linux expecting a similar experience won't find that in Arch, unless they're willing to become enthusiasts.

This is the OS version of "it works on my machine"