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[Coalwalker]

Also, it makes you think: Gandalf the Grey was just even with a Balrog. Gandalf the White was exponentially more powerful. The most suspenseful scene in all three books (IMO) was where Gandalf the White is about to cut loose against the Witch-King, and...

The duel never happens.

Agreed completely. All throughout, you hear only allusions to 'great power' belonging to Galadriel, Gandalf, Sauron, etc. but see very little of it. Just when you think you're going to see what it truly resembles...that.

I suppose we see Bombadil sing a barrow-wight into submission, though. And Gandalf has a few displays, as well.

I wonder this, as well: It is implied that Gandalf in his proper Maia form would have power to match Sauron's. Just how close would Gandalf the White be to that? He is still in the form of an old man. (I'm not as well-versed in lore as I'd like to be.)

[simonthedwarf]

Come on guys. The dwarves of ME are fairies compared to the dwarves of DF.

[Loud Whispers]

Come on guys. The dwarves of ME are fairies compared to the dwarves of DF.

I'm not sure about that. They seem to be Dwarves without an overseer, building and crafting but with no real insanity. They fell to a monstrous attack and that's about it. Plus Gimli martial trance. The Dwarves in ME are pretty cool guys who doesn't afraid of moria.

[TopHat]

Well, although it seems that the thread has far derailed from its intended purpose, I'm going to post my first (and favourite) tantrum spiral.
This was in a fortress whose name is long forgotten, and whose works long lost.
It was my first fort to reach the point where it had a mayor, the first to be attacked by gobbos, the first to reach 80 dwarves, and the first where I had a go at building above ground.
All was going well. There was a surplus of food and booze, I had a steel industry starting, and the ground floor walls of my 'castle' entrance were done (complete with water filled moat and drawbridges). I had a bunch of cage traps protecting the inner part of the drawbridge, a courtyard with trade depot and a beginning military, with steel plate and helmets, which had completely obliterated a goblin ambush.
And thus started the decline.
It began with the goblins, it always did. Shortly after my military's rather easy victory over the ambush, another one popped up, getting the drop on a hunter and a child who was playing outside the moat. By the time my soldiers got there, it was too late. Unfortunately, as my soldiers advanced to exact revenge, they triggered another ambush. With a marksgoblin in.
It was then that I found out that steel plate only covers the chest. That goblin shot EVERY SINGLE ONE of my ten-man military in the left leg. The wimps then proceeded to pass out from the pain, and we're duly murdered by the meleegoblins.
I promptly ordered my miners to form up into a scratch squad to make a last stand. The goblins chose that exact moment to run into the cage traps.
With that crisis over, nothing much happened. Oh, sure, someone starved themselves to death, but nothing much to worry about.
My fort would probably have recovered had corpses mysteriously drained of blood started to turn up.
Foolishly, I ignored the signs. Bad move.
Another couple of corpses later, and my fort was still, somehow, happy. (thank you, legendary dining room). And then a child was the next victim.
People started tantruming. Tables started being thrown, statues began to be toppled, two dwarves went nuts, and another three went berserk and had to be put down by my war dogs and the miner militia, who were, on the whole, content.
I immediately ordered the still sane dwarves to begin dragging as much booze and food downstairs as possible, in preparation to lock off the remaining sane dwarves.
While all this is going on, my expedition leader/mayor made my favourite artifact ever, in what I like to think of as a desperate attempt to reclaim order:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"this is a large, serrated, dwarf bone disk. It menaces with spikes of dwarf bone."

To this day, I have no idea what dwarf was made into that. It could have been a smith, it could have been a cheesemaker. Heck, it could have been the vampire!
This was just before I dug into the moat from below.

Preview EDIT -apologies, I've just realised how long this is. I could break it into spoilers if it takes up to much space.

[Hungry Elephant]

I think that DF dorves are far much more capable of stadard LOTR dorves (and much more suicidal) so no comparison can be even made.
For example, no dorf in LOTR will be able to stop a entire goblin siege in his track with a single, well place section of wall made out of soap or glass.
No dorf in LOTR will be crazy enough to release gozzilion of molten lava pumped up with a epic stacks of pumps,  powered by a system defying the second law of thermodynamic.
No dorf in LOTR will willing close his comrade in a room full of wooden spears in order to speed up is proficiency in combat.

If a DF fort was facing a Balrog, they will dispose of the issue in a quick and efficient way and then spiralling into Tantrum after UristmcFriendwitheveryone that was aimlessy wandering in the theater of operation got accidentally killed in the process of removing the Balrog for the face of earth.

Unless of course you organize in the fort some cat launching entertaining events just in the middle of the main meeting room in order to strenghten the dorves heart aganist grief (and this is also another sign of DF dorves superiority and complete insanity) .

[Ieb]

I rarely get good tantrum spirals going. Usually takes about 3 dwarves to die in rapid succession for any tantruming to start, and even then the fort is usually in such condition that there's legendary dining halls everywhere and some really nice metal statues for dorfs to admire and forget all about their dead kids and friends.

Last time it took the death of 7 military dorfs to spark a spiral, how those fuckers had time to make friends I will never know, but a 210 dorf fort whittled down to 30 after it was all over with.

On the other end of the spectrum, a succession game me and a few people have going on went under a major spiral by year 3. All because some guy wanted to make an artifact splint in the one craftshop that had been set to crank out rock pots forever. End result, ran out of empty pots and barrels, brewers stopped working, and by the time the player noticed the problem there was 3 booze left and already dorfs were dehydrating.

Then one of the starting seven died, and the tantrum spiral blossomed in a beautiful manner. From 110 dorfs to 15, 2 of which are insane.

[Dunamisdeos]

I suppose we see Bombadil sing a barrow-wight into submission, though. And Gandalf has a few displays, as well.

To clarify this to the uninitiated, Bombadil Kool-Aid-Man'ed through the wall of a viking-type burial mound (singing merrily all the time) and told an ancient evil undead sorceror known as a barrow wight to die. So it has to. The ceiling collapses on it. Because Tom Bombadil is a boss.

Seriously, someone at the Council of Elrond brings up "lets just give it to Bombadil" and Galdalf states that he would forget about it and lose it. Not because he's stupid, but because he is simply above all this Sauron business. He doesn't even understand why it is a big deal.

[Lich180]

And that is why Bombadil was so awesome, kind of like that were-bear guy from the Hobbit.

I'm not that familiar with LotR lore, but I did just finish rereading the whole trilogy + prequel. Haven't done that since the movies came out, and I forgot how many details were changed between the two.

[Xantalos]

I suppose we see Bombadil sing a barrow-wight into submission, though. And Gandalf has a few displays, as well.

To clarify this to the uninitiated, Bombadil Kool-Aid-Man'ed through the wall of a viking-type burial mound (singing merrily all the time) and told an ancient evil undead sorceror known as a barrow wight to die. So it has to. The ceiling collapses on it. Because Tom Bombadil is a boss.

Seriously, someone at the Council of Elrond brings up "lets just give it to Bombadil" and Galdalf states that he would forget about it and lose it. Not because he's stupid, but because he is simply above all this Sauron business. He doesn't even understand why it is a big deal.

Azathoth: Tolkein style.

[flabort]

And that is why Bombadil was so awesome, kind of like that were-bear guy from the Hobbit.

I'm not that familiar with LotR lore, but I did just finish rereading the whole trilogy + prequel. Haven't done that since the movies came out, and I forgot how many details were changed between the two.

It makes me so upset that they left such a character OUT of the movies. And also how they made Sam abandon Frodo before the spider scene. I don't have many gripes about the middle book, though. Except maybe Mister Brown Wizard, I... I actually think he was first book, nevermind. Yeah, it's been a while since I read them, too. (Radagath the Brown...? No, doesn't seem quite right)

[Orange Wizard]

And that is why Bombadil was so awesome, kind of like that were-bear guy from the Hobbit.

I'm not that familiar with LotR lore, but I did just finish rereading the whole trilogy + prequel. Haven't done that since the movies came out, and I forgot how many details were changed between the two.

It makes me so upset that they left such a character OUT of the movies. And also how they made Sam abandon Frodo before the spider scene. I don't have many gripes about the middle book, though. Except maybe Mister Brown Wizard, I... I actually think he was first book, nevermind. Yeah, it's been a while since I read them, too. (Radagath the Brown...? No, doesn't seem quite right)

Radagast, I believe.

...

Anyway, tantrum spirals! I had a good one. Some cheesemaker got a fell mood, and murdered my militia commander. Then the rest of the militia (who were all close friends because of living/training in the same room) started slaughtering each other and generally just throwing hissy fits.
The militia, who often defended Amberfrost against necro sieges, had to be replaced. I recruited some new dwarves from the migrant waves, and the next time a necro decided to attack, instead of ~15 spearmasters marching out and cutting their way through the ranks of corpses, my 20-odd migrant speardwarves sauntered out to the gate and got their asses handed to them on undead platters.
Now, the the gates are raised, undead keas are raining hell down on my (open) courtyard area, about five beserkers are running around on my (now isolated) bedroom wing, there is miasma everywhere, and my new legendary bonecarver has an artifact dwarf bone figurine sitting on his mantelpiece.

[Dunamisdeos]

my new legendary bonecarver has an artifact dwarf bone figurine sitting on his mantelpiece.

Priorities^

I want to nerd talk about LOTR, but I also want to keep on track, so....

My favorite tantrum spiral was my first.

1: Strike the earth
2: *One Season Later*
2: A crocodile bites the leg off of the jeweler
3: The Expedition Leader immediately gets attacked by the same crocodile
4: The crocodile and expedition leader tumble into the nearby river
5: The jeweler bleeds to death
6: The Expedition Leader begins to drown, while being further eaten by the crocodile
7: Temperature happens. Expedition Leader dies by encasing in ice
8: Shortly thereafter, driven mad by the horror, the farmer goes berserk and murders everyone else before dying of thirst

Also, if they ruin Beorn in the Hobbit part 2, I'm lighting myself on fire in the parking lot. He's pretty much Superman in bear form.
Been waiting to see him do his thing since I was like... 8

He should be

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I am worried he will be

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And also how they made Sam abandon Frodo before the spider scene.

I WAS SO MAD.

[Eric Blank]

I had a miniature tantrum spiral within a small subsection of my population:

It all occurred because I made the sentient dingo people I'd bought from the elves, whom I'd let breed for a few years, actual members of the working population of the fortress via DFhack. Now, these dingo people were very small, and very naked. So, illogically, they got pissed and threw tantrums because they were naked and had no clothes to wear. It took months, and restricting the entire dingo man population to clothesmaking, to produce enough shoes, trousers, and cloaks for the majority of them, and in that time many died, went berserk, or otherwise went insane, some of whom were unhappy because they lost a child to tragedy. I found it all very ridiculous. They started some fistfights with dwarves, but other than that the dwarven segment of the population was entirely unaffected, apparently because they were racist bastards and didn't make friends with any of the now-dead dingo people.

The population as a whole survived well enough after being clothed properly.

[Dunamisdeos]

It all occurred because I made the sentient dingo people I'd bought from the elves, whom I'd let breed for a few years, actual members of the working population of the fortress via DFhack. Now, these dingo people were very small, and very naked. So, illogically, they got pissed and threw tantrums because they were naked and had no clothes to wear. It took months, and restricting the entire dingo man population to clothesmaking, to produce enough shoes, trousers, and cloaks for the majority of them, and in that time many died, went berserk, or otherwise went insane.......

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yeah I know it's old and played out. It's still relevant. 

[krenshala]

Also, it makes you think: Gandalf the Grey was just even with a Balrog. Gandalf the White was exponentially more powerful. The most suspenseful scene in all three books (IMO) was where Gandalf the White is about to cut loose against the Witch-King, and...

The duel never happens.

Agreed completely. All throughout, you hear only allusions to 'great power' belonging to Galadriel, Gandalf, Sauron, etc. but see very little of it. Just when you think you're going to see what it truly resembles...that.

I suppose we see Bombadil sing a barrow-wight into submission, though. And Gandalf has a few displays, as well.

I wonder this, as well: It is implied that Gandalf in his proper Maia form would have power to match Sauron's. Just how close would Gandalf the White be to that? He is still in the form of an old man. (I'm not as well-versed in lore as I'd like to be.)

Remember, Gandal is a Spirit of Fire just as the Balrogs were. I got the impression that he might as well have been its brother.  His fight with the Balrog in Moria was a duel of equals, which is why Gandalf had a tough time of it.  He was sent to Middle Earth specifically to help the people there against Sauron (as all seven of the Istari were). My take on it is that Sauron was only stronger due to the various rings he learned to make and took control of.

Even before he became Gandalf the White, he would have kicked the Witch-King's ass all over the field if he let loose and showed his true power (which he almost never did, preferring to help and encourage others to accomplish things on their own).  The fact that the sun came up when it did just made things worse for the Witch-King as Gandalf was ready to throw down at that point.

Oh, and Galadriel was one of the first of the elves.  I can't remember if its in the Silmarilian or one of the books published later (e.g., The Book of Lost Tales) but she mentions seeing the stars when they were new, after awakening next to the lake (can't remember the name).  The fact she has seen the light of the Two Trees just enhances how bad-ass she could be when needed, since all the elves that have see that light were able to kick some serious ass.