On Thu, 1 Jul 1999 MercutioV@AOL.COM wrote:
normal sword, so I would suppose Lina could thrash a Nazgul easy.
Noooooo, she did not. Eowyn was using one of those 3000 year old, Second Age,
whipass Numenorean things that were specifically designed to kill things like
the Nazgul.
Also important to remember that he died as the result of a prophecy.
They're badasses. It would be one serious fight.
Remember, both the energy of the Giga Slave and Laguna Blade spells is
drawn from the same source: the Lord of Nightmares, a powerful and chaotic
force. The Giga Slave was enough to destroy part of Shabranigdo, in an
incomplete form (the Giga Slave Lina uses in Slayers TV is not the 'true'
Giga Slave).
Interesting. One wonders if a Tolkienesque Giga Slave would take it's power
form Morgoth, or from Iluvatar. Melwe would be a possibility, but brute force
was always more the sort of thing they'd leave to Tulkas......
Morgoth. The Valar don't subcontract their power like that, generally.
Neither does Iluvatar. Or possibly Sauron in the Third Age, since Morgoth
has been thrust beyond the Wall of Night and can no longer touch the
world.
However, even the Laguna Blade couldn't defeat Maryuoh Gaav,
one of Shabranigdo's lieutenant monsters, so it's sort of up in the air. I
think the Laguna Blade "wielded" by a male spellcaster wouldn't do jack
(which is fine, since Lina's the only living being who knows it and can
actually cast it, save the potential exception of Xel); the "will not die
by the hand of man" clause in the Witch-King's destiny may make it
effective. Hard to say.
Remeber that prophecy, as anybody whose ever read a Robert Jordan novel
knows, is HIGHLY interprative. "Will not die by the hand of man" could just
mean that a man, using his hand, would be unable to kill Angmar. OTOH, a man
using his SWORD.........
The Witch King hacked a variety of kings of Andor into bacon bits because
they couldn't hurt him. And the Prophecy was that 'No man may slay me'.
Keep in mind that Gandalf is not low-key by CHOICE. Olorin (Gandalfs real
name), when he agreed to go into the East with the other Maier chosen, also
agreed to abide by certain power limitations, as did Radagast and Saruman and
those two unnamed blue guys. Technically, without any restrictions placed
upon him, Gandalf has as much or more raw power as Sauron; most people forget
that Sauron was a Maier himself before he threw in with Melkor.
So, would Lina be a Maiar? Now that's really scary :)
I think Gourry and his Sword of Light would make an interesting
addition to the Battle of Pelennor Fields. Another interesting plan for
the HARDCORE Slayers/Tolkein fanatic would be to put the Slayers crew in
the time of the Silmarilion, when they could REALLY do some damage.
Actually, they would be able to do LESS damage. Keep in mind that during the
first age, there was..... MORE of everything. In the Third Age, ONE Balrog
scares the bejeezus out of everybody; in the First Age, there are hordes and
hordes of them and nobody thinks much of it. In TA, you have to go out of
And Elves slap dragons and balrogs around in single combat. Or Hurin,
who was only beaten after killing 80 trolls by himself, and that only
happened because the bodies built up and he couldn't move. FA people are
tough. Luthien sings one of the Valar to sleep. Iya.
Sure, Lina and Gourry and Co. would be fine in the Silmarillion..... for
awhile. They'd go around toasting things, looting orc strongholds, messing
with the sons of Feanor (who suck) and basically getting in everybody faces.
But then she'd do something stupid, like try to recover a Silmaril, and the
Big M would sick Glaurung, Ancalagon, a couple legions of Balrogs, ten
thousand or so Orcs, Sauron, and his own bad self on her. I doubt Lina could
handle all that at once. Plus, assuming she gets her hands on one of the
gems, she then has to deal with the fact that half the elven leaders are
sworn to brutally slay her and take it from her corpse.
Which could be cool :) You know Lina would go ga ga for the Silmarils.
John Biles
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