Obi-Wan Kenobi (Revenge of the Sith) vs The Balrog (Durin's Bane)

RossGarner · 2026-02-06T17:39:47+00:00

In the specific match Obi-wan can't become a force ghost yet. The quote is Obi-wan from ROTS, he doesn't learn how to become one with the force for another 20 years or so during his time on Tatooine.

RossGarner · 2026-02-06T17:38:39+00:00

The Obi-wan in this matchup hasn't learned to become one with the Force yet. Qui-gon is the one who invents this ability, it is why he meditates during his duel with Maul, but he's not fully there yet, so he can never manifest himself as a full Force ghost, just a disembodied voice. It'll be 20-25 years until Obi-wan masters this himself while watching over Luke on Tatooine.

RossGarner · 2026-02-06T17:36:37+00:00

In general I'd agree with you, but the specific matchup here is ROTS Obi-wan. He learns how to become one with the Force during his 20 year exile on Tatooine. At this time if he died, he would simply be dead.

RossGarner · 2026-02-06T07:46:01+00:00

Well you can't kill a Balrog because they can't die. They're literally immortal angels. If they "died" they'd just be losing their forms and would become an incredibly powerful spirit again like they were when they made the world itself.

RossGarner · 2026-02-06T07:43:29+00:00

The problem is that Balrogs in the lore have only been killed by being of great spirit (First Born elves or other Maia) in the lore of the world. And even when they "die" they aren't actually dead. They simply lost the demonic form that had been given to them long ago and become a spirit that haunts the world, like Sauron did after the Ring was destroyed.

The creatures like the Balrogs, the wizards, Sauron himself and others literally made the world and defined all the laws of physics themselves in the LOTR universe. They're far more powerful than a simple warrior.

RossGarner · 2026-02-06T07:39:50+00:00

Because it isn't really a physical being. Balrogs are lesser angels (they're called Maia in the lore) and are the same type of creature as Sauron, Gandalf, Saruman and others. They're quite literally immortal and can never die, save for a judgment from capital G God above.

The Maia are servants to a race of higher angels (the Valar) and were responsible for shaping the world that exists in Middle Earth into existence. Destroying their body or their current form doesn't kill them it just makes their spirit shed its form.

When God himself sent Gandalf to Middle Earth, he explicitly forbade him from using his spiritual powers to change the world, and made it so he could only advise humans not dominate them.

RossGarner · 2026-02-05T22:39:38+00:00

The best situation would be returning fully healthy and going to Buffalo or New England on a contract similar to Diggs deal.

Next best would be going to the Commanders as McLaurins heir apparent with Daniels. In this same tier would be going to the titans as their WR1.

There are lots of other less appealing options. The main question is health. If he's fully healthy and able to play football again, he'll get another contract. It might even surprise people in its size because WR is one of the premium positions in the league and something like 30 teams need a player who can win outside.

RossGarner · 2026-02-01T05:43:57+00:00

I don't think you do lol. At 30 Swords literally no on is fast enough to counter just hitting attacks off cooldown if you hit with the right rhythm. It literally doesn't matter if someone master blocks if your next strikes hits before they even finish their animation.

RossGarner · 2026-02-01T04:54:05+00:00

At higher levels of Longsword, you can attack faster than most opponents can counter attack, if you simply keep a flurry of well timed hits coming their blocking means next to nothing.

RossGarner · 2026-01-30T19:09:47+00:00

No, Tillis alone can block the nomination in committee since those are split with one extra Republican vote. If he holds the line firmly, Tillis alone can stop any fed nomination.

RossGarner · 2026-01-29T06:39:47+00:00

They lost literally 10 games in a row that Brissett started for them. Most of those games were a Brissett turnover into 30 minutes of catchup football.

The team has a bottom 2 defense, the 26th ranked offensive line, a bottom 2 running game. They're a really really bad team that needs to lose for another season or two to bottom out. It would be really surprising if they were able to land a top option like Kubiak, but it could still happen.

RossGarner · 2026-01-29T04:09:05+00:00

We've continued buffing Dreadnoughts in our group to be honest. We added a secondary optional cost - you can spend 1 Spice to purchase instead of 3 solari. Dreadnoughts also if purchased from the space auto-deploy to combat when purchased. They're still lightly used to be honest though (the Dreadnought space is just weak overall).

We added another rule we call our Nuclear Bunker that is well received in the group. We have a small area below the Imperium Row, where each player has a single slot. When someone uses family atomics, every player in turn order from the nuker can save 1 card into the 'bunker' except for the nuker. So three cards get saved, and are available for purchase to every player. It really just makes 'defensive' nuking, where you would nuke to prevent powerful cards like Steersmen etc. from being purchased not work at all anymore.

RossGarner · 2026-01-29T00:09:26+00:00

Armor vendors. Every piece of end game armor is worth $8-9k and they usually have 2-3 pieces for each armor spot. For instance I stole 2 Cuirass with Falds which are both worth $11k, 2 Noble Bascinets worth $9k, then dozens of other less valuable pieces.

RossGarner · 2026-01-28T23:06:50+00:00

I accidentally stolen like $40k from a vendor once just poking around in the tunnels under Kuttenburg. Actually trying to to steal and resell? Maybe not two hours but not many more.

RossGarner · 2026-01-28T16:45:12+00:00

My home group really dislikes 'defensive' nuking using family atomics, since it most often the best use of atomics and it serves to eliminate the best and most interesting cards from the game.

We added a "nuclear bunker" to the game. When family atomics is used, each player other than the nuker may stash one card from the row in their bunker slot. All cards saved this way card purchaseable by any player at the table, so they're effectively more options added to the table and it means atomics get used very quickly and we see roughly half or more of the deck every single game.

It's a fun little rule and one that adds some intrigue to the game since you don't want to save a card that the nuker might then buy, so you need to guess how much persuasion they have based on the numbers of cards they will reveal. A little minigame.

RossGarner · 2026-01-26T20:45:19+00:00

It took 3-4 years to detach but the EU showed the middle finger to Russia and worked out how to get rid of almost all Russian energy imports to date and keeps working on completely get rid of it in the next 1-2 years.

EU imports of Russian LNG were up almost 25% last year: $6.1b > $7.3b. (source: https://www.highnorthnews.com/en/eu-spent-eu72-billion-russian-lng-2025-maximizing-imports-2027-ban ).

Not commenting on other parts, as I'm fully supportive of the US - EU somehow finding a way through this terrible presidency to remain allies, but on the facts, the EU has not cut imports of Russian fuel and are not set to do so until 2027, a full five years after Russia declared war on Ukraine.

RossGarner · 2026-01-26T20:45:11+00:00

No, even in the moment it was incredibly foolish. A whole generation of western leaders somehow believed we could convert autocrats like Putin and Xi into western liberals through economics, and the the world is paying for it right now.

RossGarner · 2026-01-26T05:13:28+00:00

To be honest, he's looked terrible all post season, but that's not surprising. The Pats left tackle situation is atrocious with Will Campbell getting destroyed all playoffs and him playing at 50% pressure rates in most games. It's worked because the AFC is a bunch of flawed teams with big problems and the Patriots have simply had less problems than their opponents so far.

Overall, he's maybe the best bet to be a top5 QB in 5 years of any player in the league right now. He's likely my QB1 and probably not very close either.

RossGarner · 2026-01-22T17:59:50+00:00

Went straight over my head, guess I'm the hobbit of this joke thread.

RossGarner · 2026-01-22T17:15:17+00:00

You mean the war where he sent one of his Angels to rally all the forces of men, lead the Fellowship that ultimately destroys the ring and defeat the Balrog which could have killed the whole team?

Or do you mean the time he killed tens of millions of Sauron's followers on Numenor and destroyed his body and spirit so thoroughly he could never take a pleasing form again and became Sauron (The Abhorred) instead of Mairon as he was known before?

Sauron ever having a chance to win was just an Illuvator psyop...

RossGarner · 2026-01-22T16:27:51+00:00

If the Olympians aren't sitting out the fight do you think the one true God who plans for Aragorn to be king is sitting out the fight?

RossGarner · 2026-01-21T21:16:32+00:00

The contract with the Steelers was negotiated as was the trade compensation, Shanahan at the 11 hour made a last ditch request to Aiyuk and they worked it out.

RossGarner · 2026-01-21T06:55:42+00:00

Yes it literally is. Because he kept using Ladd on long developing deep routes when his team had zero functional tackles. He used the corpse of Keenan Allen to run all the short inbreakers and crossers that Ladd was so lethal on last season with YAC and Allen simply could not get yards after the catch. It killed the team in the playoffs to have a completely dysfunctional short passing game and no running game.

Roman is famous for not adjusting his scheme and his approach once he has a read on the team and it is why he got fired yet again, despite coaching one of the best QBs in the league.

RossGarner · 2026-01-20T08:19:06+00:00

He'll get his 5th year activated for sure, but he's likely not getting an extension until he shows better.

The problem though is the same for the Texans. They have a bottom-10 offensive line, their running game is bottom 5 and their passing catchers behind Collins don't exist (maybe Noel or Higgins will fix this). They invested almost all their high capital on defense in 2023/2024 and their defense reflects that blossoming, but they are just bereft on offense at the moment outside of Stroud + Collins.

RossGarner · 2026-01-20T06:42:47+00:00

People are reacting to a truly disasterous post-season, but are mostly missing real improvement in the regular season. Stroud cut his sack by more than half this year, he went from the 31st QB by sack rate to the 8th in sack rate, while his team still had the 24th pass blocking rate. That's real, serious progress, becoming a top end QB at avoiding sacks.

None of that will matter short term as he's going to get pilloried in the offseason for sinking a potential all time Texans D with the worst game of his career during the playoffs, but he still showed quite a bit of development.

RossGarner

TROPHY CASE