Why did the balrog of Moria fight Gandalf to death? It was an

>>9188442
Because plot required a christian anaology about defeating your inner demon.

>>9188447
are you retarded?

Because is it malevolent

>>9188442
It was grumpy because all the noise interrupted its beauty sleep.

Even monsters want to be pretty.

>>9188451
Why? Do you really want to analyze Lord of The Ring through the lenses of a common nerd, thinking it's its own little universe?

Tolkien wanted to write an Epic.

>>9188465
So being evil makes you more likely to risk your life for no reason?

>>9188468
They fought for days, it had plenty of time to calm down.

>>9188442
Balrogs are sworn servants to Melkor. Obviously his leader would have wanted him to kill an agent of the Valar.

>>9188442
>who was perfectly fine with avoiding the fight and fleeing

Before he was separated from his group and had no chance to go back catch up with them.

After they fell the Balrog was weakened and tried to escape and it was Gandalf who chased it down to kill it.

>>9188510
>'Long I fell, and he fell with me. His fire was about me. I was burned. Then we plunged into the deep water and all was dark. Cold it was as the tide of death: almost it froze my heart.'

>'Deep is the abyss that is spanned by Durin's Bridge, and none has measured it,' said Gimli.

>'Yet it has a bottom, beyond light and knowledge,' said Gandalf. 'Thither I came at last, to the uttermost foundations of stone. He was with me still. His fire was quenched, but now he was a thing of slime, stronger than a strangling snake.

>'We fought far under the living earth, where time is not counted. Ever he clutched me, and ever I hewed him, till at last he fled into dark tunnels. They were not made by Durin's folk, Gimli son of Glóin. Far, far below the deepest delving of the Dwarves, the world is gnawed by nameless things. Even Sauron knows them not. They are older than he. Now I have walked there, but I will bring no report to darken the light of day. In that despair my enemy was my only hope, and I pursued him, clutching at his heel. Thus he brought me back at last to the secret ways of Khazad-dûm: too well he knew them all. Ever up now we went, until we came to the Endless Stair.'

>>9188547
damn, goosebumps.

>>9188507
Partly this. Also, the (seven?) maia who became balrogs were all just devious and loved violence and torture/slaughter. Gandalf became weaker when he left Arda, why would one avoid being able to gloat or just relish in killing another maia in a weakened state?

If you really want to get into it, one could say that even if the balrog didn't have anywhere near up to date information from Sauron, he still obviously knew the big picture, and that he would want the sort of environment created by the total domination of Sauron over Middle Earth and the maia all knowing someone intimately of each other from Arda would know that Olorin would have been one of the only real threats to Sauron, even if they thought it was futile.