Rings of Power The Rings of Power show discussion - spoilers allowed for all aired episodes

[Richard Penna 3,687]

When we panned up to the volcano at the end, I was sort of waiting for Adar to say '..... Mordoooorrrrrrr' (McCreary BOOM) but when the subtitle appeared I quickly realised what they were going to do. I feel the verbal way would have been too fan-servicey.

[Chen G. 3,949]

2 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

too fan-servicey.

 

"too fan-servicy"?

 

In a show that literally gave Mordor a creation myth? 

[Faleel 5,347]

20 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

"too fan-servicy"?

 

In a show that literally gave Mordor a creation myth? 

You must think mentioning it over and over will undo it lol.

[Chen G. 3,949]

Just now, Roll the Bones said:

You must think mentioning it over and over will undo it lol.

 

Its just the most egregious example for me, but I can pick a whole host of others. Some of the recurring lines I like, others not so much. For instance, Bronwyn's pastiche of Sam's speech (moved in the film to Osgiliath) I think is really cheap.

 

And I would be more amneable to fan-service, if this really was a bona-fide prequel to the films. Its not: it occupies this weird no-man's land where its clearly trying to model its look on the films, but only so close that they can without being sued. Feels like a cynical attempt to leech off of the popularity of something other than the source material these showrunners are said to so revere.

[TolkienSS 407]

3 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

When we panned up to the volcano at the end, I was sort of waiting for Adar to say '..... Mordoooorrrrrrr' (McCreary BOOM) but when the subtitle appeared I quickly realised what they were going to do. I feel the verbal way would have been even more satirical than the already godawful ending.

 

Fixed that for you.

[Jay 37,355]

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power 1x06 Udûn

 

Wow, that felt like a season finale!  Actually, it kind of felt like the penultimate episode of a season up through Galadriel and Halbrand capturing Adar in the woods and sparing him - they could have smash cut to the end credits after that and it would have felt normal - followed by a season finale after that.  Well, sort of, since it didn't touch on many of the ongoing storylines, just a finale to the Southlands storyline.  But we have 2 whole episodes left?  I wonder how many other big events will happen this season!

 

The director of the individual episodes is really apparent.  The first 2 by JA Bayona are still a level above all the rest, I wonder if he had significantly longer time to prepare than the others.  Wayne Che Yip's 3 episodes slowly got better by the end, but man there are some really rough spots in his first two episodes.  And now Charlotte Brändström really gave us some stunning action sequences here with her first episode, I'm looking forward to see what she brings for presumably a more story-driven episode next week.  It's too bad Yip is back to direct the finale, instead of each of them getting 3 episodes!

 

 

First battle - In some ways this was my favorite one.  I loved that it was basically Arondir solo against some orcs, and he sniped a bunch and then toppled the freaking tower of Ostirith to take out the rest!  That was really cool!

 

Galadriel & Isildur - I'm still not really understanding Isildur's thoughts, drive, and motivation: He thinks Numenor is a sham, and the "real" Numenor is elsewhere?  What causes him to think this? Do others think this?  It was hilarious that Isildur said he couldn't see land yet, then after Galadriel lords over him how her superior elf-eyes saw it an hour ago, he sees it and its freaking huge!  How did no one see it until it was so huge on the horizon!?

 

Second battle - This was pretty gory and intense!  I didn't understand why the hell Bronwyn had so much issues lighting that fire, but damn Arondir and that one giant orc's fight was something!  And man, what a downer ending when they realized most of the attackers were the other half of their village Damn!  And then the orcs take that moment to reign arrows down on them drawing them into the tavern!  That was intense too!

 

Tavern time - Man the amount of blood they showed coming out of Bronwyn seemed really excessive, like we're beyond a PG13 rating in this show now I guess, for some reason?  She's going to have some GNARLY scars from that really rushed and crappy wound-sealing job (can you even seal a wound with burning wood anyway?  Why didn't they heat up a knife?)  Once Adar comes in and they just start slaughtering villagers, it was also really violent for a show like this!  Leave it to freaking Theo to reveal the location of the magic hilt; I think Arondir would have let Bronwyn and everyone else die to protect it!

Final battle - man, once the Numenors show up, the battle is really won pretty handily!  I am actually glad this particular pack of orcs was no match for them; I think as the seasons go on the battles are going to be much more evenly matched.  Galadriel had some amazing tricks on her horse, I love the way she slid down to avoid arrows than just absolutely wrecked orcs with her sword - she's a total badass.  The chase that her and Halbrand give to capture Adar was pretty good, and in retrospect clever of Adar to give Waldreg time to escape back to Ostirith with the real hilt

 

Adar - Huh, so this guy is an elf that was twisted evil by Morgoth, who eventually killed Halbrand's family, and killed Sauron too?  And he says Sauron was actually trying to "heal" Middle Earth, but couldn't figure out the evilest, darkest magic needed to do so?  Yet Adar figured it out?  Is making the volcano erupt this magic, or something unrelated?  Was the volcano eruption Adar's plan, or Sauron's plan?  Because Galadriel found that paper that made it seem like Sauron's sigil was actually the map of the Southlands?  So many questions...

 

The Volcano - Holy hell, that was crazy. So the tunnels Adar was having the orcs dig was not for travel all along, but canals for crazy amounts of water to flow through.  How did a structure get put in place that could unleash the dam without the men of the Southlands realizing it?  How did the magic hilt turn it on?  And damn, when those lava bombs starting reigning down on the village (how close are they to the volcano anway?) I thought we were going to lose some main characters, and then when the giant cloud headed their way to end the episode, they really made it seem like everyone was going to die!  Intense!

 

One question though: How did the Numenor squad know where to go?  Isn't The Southlands like, a country?  Or at least a state?  Containing many many different mountains, valleys, and villages?  How did they know which specific village to ride to?

[Richard Penna 3,687]

1 hour ago, TolkienSS said:

 

Fixed that for you.

 

Hah 

 

On which note, is there anything you actually like about this show? Either you're still watching it because you're hoping it gets better or you've decided it's crap and you just want to moan about Tolkien having been desecrated.

 

When I decide I don't like something, I stop watching it.

 

For the record (again), I still think the writing is utter shit and it's mainly been saved so far by some exciting action and good visuals, and a huge amount by the score.

 

1 hour ago, Jay said:

One question though: How did the Numenor squad know where to go?  Isn't The Southlands like, a country?  Or at least a state?  Containing many many different mountains, valleys, and villages?  How did they know which specific village to ride to?

 

[Faleel 5,347]

2 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

Its just the most egregious example for me, but I can pick a whole host of others. Some of the recurring lines I like, others not so much. For instance, Bronwyn's pastiche of Sam's speech (moved in the film to Osgiliath) I think is really cheap.

 

And I would be more amneable to fan-service, if this really was a bona-fide prequel to the films. Its not: it occupies this weird no-man's land where its clearly trying to model its look on the films, but only so close that they can without being sued. Feels like a cynical attempt to leech off of the popularity of something other than the source material these showrunners are said to so revere.

The leaf healing was cringier.

[jpmatlack 29]

1 hour ago, Richard Penna said:

 

Hah 

 

On which note, is there anything you actually like about this show? Either you're still watching it because you're hoping it gets better or you've decided it's crap and you just want to moan about Tolkien having been desecrated.

 

When I decide I don't like something, I stop watching it.

I’m convinced he’s just trolling us at this point. 

[Edmilson 7,439]

I'm watching the show with my mom (she loves medieval/fantasy shows like GoT, Vikings, etc), and she's pissed now that she knows that there's only 2 episodes left (we haven't watched the seventh yet). Actually, she got even more annoyed when I told her that we'll need to wait for 2 years for the next season. 

 

Netflix really made people more prone to binge an entire show at once, instead of just waiting months for the next 8-10 episodes.

[jpmatlack 29]

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

I'm watching the show with my mom (she loves medieval/fantasy shows like GoT, Vikings, etc), and she's pissed now that she knows that there's only 2 episodes left (we haven't watched the seventh yet). Actually, she got even more annoyed when I told her that we'll need to wait for 2 years for the next season. 

 

Netflix really made people more prone to binge an entire show at once, instead of just waiting months for the next 8-10 episodes.

I totally agree. The two year wait is going to be extremely hard to recover from. 

[A24 4,331]

Episode 7 was pretty bad, kept fighting sleep the whole time. The heated disagreement between the dwarf King and his son was the only scene I liked. The show suffers from mediocre writing and an overall sense of datedness.

[TolkienSS 407]

On 08/10/2022 at 2:03 AM, jpmatlack said:

I’m convinced he’s just trolling us at this point. 

 

I'm really sorry, but how big (or thin) does an ego need to be in order to perceive any other opinion than one's own as trolling, as if nothing but one's own opinion can possibly have merit?

 

I don't think I'm meant to be for long here, there are some seriously toxic people.

 

Astoundingly, it's the people who don't really have a deeper affection for Tolkien, who want to tell the actual Tolkien fans how the Tolkien show should be looked at.

 

I mean, it's clear by now that casual viewers will swallow just about anything as long as it has the proper labels attached, so my suggestion would be: if you don't really give a crap about source material, and take the source material in whatever form it is presented to you, let the people who actually do care about it speak up about adaption flaws, so it MAYBE gets better, and if it does, fans are more happy, and you still take whatever is given to you. Because you are absolutely entitled to having no standards, while others are entitled to have some.

But what do I know, I'm just a troll.

[jpmatlack 29]

12 minutes ago, TolkienSS said:

 

I'm really sorry, but how big (or thin) does an ego need to be in order to perceive any other opinion than one's own as trolling, as if nothing but one's own opinion can possibly have merit?

 

I don't think I'm meant to be for long here, there are some seriously toxic people.

 

Astoundingly, it's the people who don't really have a deeper affection for Tolkien, who want to tell the actual Tolkien fans how the Tolkien show should be looked at.

 

I mean, it's clear by now that casual viewers will swallow just about anything as long as it has the proper labels attached, so my suggestion would be: if you don't really give a crap about source material, and take the source material in whatever form it is presented to you, let the people who actually do care about it speak up about adaption flaws, so it MAYBE gets better, and if it does, fans are more happy, and you still take whatever is given to you. Because you are absolutely entitled to having no standards, while others are entitled to have some.

But what do I know, I'm just a troll.

On 07/10/2022 at 6:03 PM, Richard Penna said:

 

Hah 

 

On which note, is there anything you actually like about this show? Either you're still watching it because you're hoping it gets better or you've decided it's crap and you just want to moan about Tolkien having been desecrated.

 

When I decide I don't like something, I stop watching it.

 

For the record (again), I still think the writing is utter shit and it's mainly been saved so far by some exciting action and good visuals, and a huge amount by the score.

 

 

I don't think any possible reading of the conversation suggests we think you're trolling for having a different opinion...

[Edmilson 7,439]

Just saw episode 7, and I can't get rid of the feeling that this entire season has been just a prologue for the next seasons or even for LOTR itself. It'll be tough to watch an 8-hour prologue just to wait for two years for the actual story to kick into high gear.

[Pellaeon 593]

Indeed, surely, no matter what, it can only get better, between rings actually getting forged and Númenor actually falling. I wonder if part of the point of The Fall of Númenor book which is coming out is to simplify licensing. In other words, if Amazon can just license that book, it would suddenly have access to its 320 pages of story material. Between that and having gotten their asses handed to them by HotD, Amazon might just step up its game.

[JohnTheBaptist 57]

11 minutes ago, Pellaeon said:

Indeed, surely, no matter what, it can only get better,

The implication of this statement is that you've never seen a worse show than RoP, and I find that extremely hard to believe. 

[Bilbo 3,709]

I’m in a group here in Ireland of Tolkien fans. We meet up once a month to have a drink and talk Tolkien and there’s obviously a WhatsApp group. Nobody in the group is still watching this show. Some didn’t bother others watched a couple of episodes out of morbid curiosity. Everyone thinks it’s daft. 
 

If you’d told me two years ago I’d prefer a GoT prequel to a new LotR show I’d have called you insane but here we are! HotD gets better and better every week and RoP sounds like a parody. 

[Richard Penna 3,687]

I chatted to 2 acquaintances at the weekend who were watching the show purely from an entertainment perspectice, i.e. knowing nothing about Tolkien like me. They were really enjoying it - the spectacle, the visuals, and even liked the storyline I haven't been liking that much some of the time (Durin/Elrond).

[Pellaeon 593]

12 hours ago, JohnTheBaptist said:

The implication of this statement is that you've never seen a worse show than RoP, and I find that extremely hard to believe. 

 

Talk about damning with faint praise.

 

But I implied no such thing, as you would know if you read to the end of my sentence. I would guess everyone, no matter how they’re received Season One, can see ways the show might improve. Don’t you?

[JohnTheBaptist 57]

Yes but that's different than saying it can't get any worse.

[eitam 364]

I thought episode 7 was the best one yet, by which I mean, legitimately good. The Elrond/Durin drama was utterly engrossing, Elendil and Miriel had some poignant moments, even Theo and Halbrand are on the verge of being interesting (I liked the latter's minute reactions to Theo and Galadriel's interaction and to the cheer on their departure). Even the Harfoot had their share of tragedy with the burning of their caravan and had to stop being so cutesy. 

Part of the merit probably goes to director Charlotte Brändström, I hope the show doesn't regress when they go back to Wayne Che Yip for the last episode. 

[Chen G. 3,949]

11 hours ago, eitam said:

I hope the show doesn't regress when they go back to Wayne Che Yip for the last episode. 

 

It does, as it happens.

[Nick1Ø66 4,714]

1 hour ago, Chen G. said:

 

It does, as it happens.

 

Have you gazed into a Palantir?

 

My guess is that the answer to all the "mysteries" are going to be exactly what we think they are...Meteor Man is Gandalf, Halbard is Sauron, and Celibrimor's Mithril story is in fact true (apparently a lot of people think it's a trick by Sauron, which...no). I suspect the eponymous Rings of Power will be created from the shard of Mithril Elrond retained.

 

Of course, I could be completely wrong, in which case, I won't care.

[Chen G. 3,949]

We know Yip directed four episodes, and Brandstrom two, so that leaves the final episode to Yip (whose work on the show I actually liked).

 

8 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

My guess is that the answer to all the "mysteries" are going to be exactly what we think they are...Meteor Man is Gandalf, Halbard is Sauron, and Celebrimor's Mithril story is in fact true (apparently a lot of people think it's a trick by Sauron, which...no). I suspect the eponymous Rings of Power will be created from the shard of Mithril Elrond retained.

 

 

People thinking the Mithril story is a hoax remind me of he-who-shall-not-be-named saying The Rise of Skywalker was a hoax to set-up Episode X. Its just trying to find convoluted explanations predicated on the assumption that the writers would know better than to do something like this.

 

I personally think whatever Celebrimbor's forging in this last episode is also  going to use Galadriel's dagger and I can't wait to hear what convoluted backstory they're going to attach to that.

 

But, really, unless the episode does something unexpected with Adar and co. the structure of this season is so off-kilter: we start with a six-episode buildup to the battle in the southlands which is then done within an episode and a half and the rest is basically some extended denoument.

[toothless 963]

That first season is neither bad nor good. Some awesome highlights, some cringeworthy moments but overall I'm still enjoying it. I will watch season 2 as I think what needs to be fixed is actually the simple thing to fix: uninteresting characters and plot (sometimes). And I'm not talking about it with regard to Tolkien material. Never read any Tolkien book so I don't care. But here is a quick example with episode 7.

 

How on earth, in a post-GoT world, can you have a volcanic eruption and conveniently have no main characters die? I'm not asking for a GoT-like bloodbath but I want to feel like characters are heroic BUT can sometimes fall. I want to feel like there is a real danger and risk. When the episode started I said out loud "I "hope" someone relatively important dies to show what's at stake and how the creation of Mordor was a pivotal moment.". But I had a feeling no one would die, not even characters badly wounded in prior episode…

 

And that's my issue with this show. It's not "realistic" to me. Of course it happens a lot in movies and TV shows, of course things don't need to be realistic. But when you are telling a story of battle against good and evil I expect casualties in the good camp, and not just from random characters, because it's a hard fight.

 

When Theo started looking for his mother I said out loud to my friends "Wait for a "Theo!" scream in 1 minute". Sure enough, it came. From a magically alive, not injured and perfectly fine Bronwyn. Given it was a main character but not the most important one, I think it would have made sense for her to have died in the volcanic eruption. It would also have created a great character arc for Theo where he could feel guilty of having given the sword "for nothing". But nope, all characters are mostly fine. Then isildur… how on earth can they pick ISILDUR to play the "will he be alive" card when it's the one character we're SURE won't die now…

 

Is it bad? No. Was I expecting something different? yes.

 

 

[Nick1Ø66 4,714]

 

25 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

People thinking the Mithril story is a hoax remind me of he-who-shall-not-be-named saying The Rise of Skywalker was a hoax to set-up Episode X. Its just trying to find convoluted explanations predicated on the assumption that the writers would know better than to do something like this.

 

Yeah. It would have been like making "The Tale of the Three Brothers" in Deathly Hallows one big lie made up by Voldemort. You just don't make it that integral to the plot, and spend that kind of time and money on an effects sequence just as a feint. Sometimes a character is in on a lie and the audience isn't, or vice versa, but in either case, this isn't how deception in cinema works. 

[Chen G. 3,949]

Just now, Nick1Ø66 said:

You just don't make it that integral to the plot, and spend that kind of time and money on an effects sequence just as a feint.

 

Quite. If you do a lie in a film, its not usually gone into in such detail: its a "true" or "untrue" situation: Either Girion's arrow did hit Smaug, or it didn't, for instance.

 

Also, you don't introduce something that ups the stakes only to then reveal it was a lie and lower the stakes back down. That would be like Frodo arriving to Rivendell and Elrond going "good news, everyone! Turns out this isn't Sauron's Ring after all! Funny, ainnit?"

[blondheim 1,157]

The show definitely has writing problems that have nothing to do with the show as an adaptation but just the show as a show.

[mstrox 6,651]

I’m of the opinion that the “nobody knows whether it is true” thing with the Mithril and the Balrog is a bit of narrative handwaving in attempt to appease the lot of Tolkien Dweebs.  If you say “this is what happened,” the dweebs push up their big nerdy glasses and “actually” you to death.  If you say “here’s a theory!” It gives the dweebs an out to say “of course that’s not what happened!!”

 

They should know better than to think you can appease Dweebs!

 

In the end, it doesn’t matter why the Mithril is magical to the elves - it’s a maguffin!

[Chen G. 3,949]

Episode eight is called "Alloyed". 

 

Variety released a clip of Gil-galad being an arse and Celebrimbor "scientifying" the process of Ring-making. "If its circular the light can bounce off of itself yada yada..."

 

 

Oi gevalt.

 

And Isolde isn't coming to the Fellowship of Fans event in the morning! 

[jpmatlack 29]

3 hours ago, Chen G. said:

Episode eight is called "Alloyed". 

 

Variety released a clip of Gil-galad being an arse and Celebrimbor "scientifying" the process of Ring-making. "If its circular the light can bounce off of itself yada yada..."

 

 

Oi gevalt.

 

And Isolde isn't coming to the Fellowship of Fans event in the morning! 

I really dislike Gil-Galad. And Celebrimbor is a bit petulant. This is an extremely odd clip... I hope the overall episode is better than this clip...

[Edmilson 7,439]

Wait, what does "Alloyed" mean? Is it a Tolkien word? Or were the screenwriters trying to write "Allowed" but typed it wrong?

[Jay 37,355]

Alloy is a verb meaning to temper or mix together

 

So if something is alloyed, it's two things mixed together

 

I'm guessing Celembrimbor will make the rings of power by alloying some mithril with something else - maybe Finrod's dagger

[JohnTheBaptist 57]

 

[Chen G. 3,949]

I need a drink!

[TheUlyssesian 2,478]

They played Galadriel for a total sucker. Like holy cow.

 

First, she's this petulant little brat shouting and pulling out her sword at the first opportunity.

 

Spoiler

And now she is literally responsible for the destruction and ruin of all middle earth and all its people for several ages in a row by directly aiding the bag guy.

 

Sheesh!

[Chen G. 3,949]

It seems she's a slow reader in this one. She clearly found reading material on the King of the Southlands in Numenore,

 

Spoiler

but she didn't read far enough to know he's not Halbrand.

 

[TheUlyssesian 2,478]

For the greatest wisest elf in middle earth character that Tolkein created, we have a really pretty but a really pretty dumb broad in this show.

[Chen G. 3,949]

At least its finally the kind of episode one watches drunk and has a lark at the expense thereof. Its the The Rise of Skywalker of Middle Earth!

[Faleel 5,347]

Well now Jay can carrying on about there not being any Rings

[Bilbo 3,709]

Sounds like an absolute dumpster fire 

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2022/10/14/the-rings-of-power-season-1-finale-review-a-dreadful-mess/?sh=271c9c2d5aef

 

I feel sorry for anyone who wasted 8 hours of their lives watching this crap. 

[Chen G. 3,949]

37 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

I feel sorry for anyone who wasted 8 hours of their lives watching this crap. 

 

9 hours and 7 minutes of footage!

 

And its...yeah. They literally had the "Galadriel, join me, and together we can rule the galax Middle Earth as hubby and wife!"

 

Also, the great Faustian tragedy of the overambitious Celebrimbor, who pushes forward with the Forging of the Rings against his better judgement and the advice of his fellow Elves? Its about a two minute scene of Halbrand being vaguely complementary to him and by the end of the episode, three Rings!

[Bilbo 3,709]

I think it’s clear at this point that the Tolkien Estate just wanted the money and didn’t give a damn about what the show did. It’s about as closely related to the Tolkien’s work as your average game of D&D.

[Chen G. 3,949]

I'd be fine with it, were it good television.

 

Its not, really.

[Nick1Ø66 4,714]

 

2 hours ago, Chen G. said:

I'd be fine with it, were it good television.

 

ROP deserves to be judged more harshly than other genre shows because of its pedigree. Not only its (albeit loose) origins in Tolkien, but the unprecedented amount of money spent on it.  

 

Take someone whose life was a disappointment, and who squandered the opportunities they were given. If that person came from a great family, had been raised in privilege and wealth, and given the best possible education and every advantage in life, you'd judged him more harshly than one who came from a disadvantaged background. And rightly so.

 

There's simply no excuse, given the type of writers and showrunners they had access to and could have brought in, for the show to have ended up like this. Bear's score and stunning visuals (and the latter are expected in a production like this) can't make up for the amateurish writing, poorly written characters, awful pacing and nonsensical plot. It's an incredible waste of time, talent and resources, and frankly, yes, an insult to Tolkien. 

 

With great power comes great responsibility!

[Chen G. 3,949]

3 hours ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

stunning visuals (and the latter are expected in a production like this)

 

I have some bones to pick with the visuals, too.

 

Early on, the whole $1 billion dollar tag got so much buzz and, with fan-screenings of footage, the kind of noteriety that reached my ears regarding these visuals was off the charts.

 

This is going to sound terrible, but early on Fellowship of Fans said that the Tirion reveal over the brow from episode one was possibly the best visual he's ever seen. "Better than anything in the [Middle Earth] films." Naturally my mind raced to other movie reveals, like the Wadi Rum reveal from Lawrence of Arabia. "What's that?" he asked. I sent a link. "My man, its just a big rock."

 

Well, as it turns out, this show's budget wasn't $1 billion. It was more in the balpark of $350 million. That is, the budget of one big movie, only spread across nine hours. And so yeah, the Khazad Dum reveal is very impressive, but most of the scenes either use the very same CGI wideshot OR take place in closed-off, square, grey rooms.

 

And I'm bringing this up because this recent episode was among the most egregious in this regard because in episode one we had this:

 

 

which is not only mighty pretty, its actually something different to what we've seen before: an actual Elven city; which in itself is what Lindon should have been, except they made it Lorien-lite because "is it really Middle Earth without Elves living amid golden trees?"

 

Well, pretty though this realization of Eregion may be, we see it for two wideshots and then we cut...to a rather cavernous interior set. For all one would know from the scene, it could take place in someone's house rather than some opulent Elfin metropolis.

 

Then we see the wideshot again for a few seconds in episode 5 before into the cramped set we go; and now in this episode, much of which takes place in this setting...we're again mostly greeted to pretty but rather small interiors, a little corner of a courtyard and a little riverbank on-location.

[Monoverantus 363]

Well then, now that it's done, time to offer my 2 cents.

I should probably admit that I’m quite biased. I’ve been in the “for the love of god, stop milking Tolkien for money” camp for a long time, and up until at least a few months ago I was 100% certain it would be a shit-show. But I’m also allergic to bad faith criticism, and there has been A LOT of it. And I have enjoyed Corey Olsen’s Rings and Realms analysis series, where he’s consistently shown that there is often more to enjoy or trace back to Tolkien in every episode than I notice at first glance.

All that said, and trying to be as generous as possible, this was a disappointment. Better than expected, but still a disappointment. Much like GoT, all creative departments (actors, casting, costumes, sets, sfx, music) have given their A game, except the writers.

To put it in one word, it’s clumsy. I’m not opposed to a lot of what they were going for in general, but I can’t deny that I found something that bothered me about the execution in every episode. I'm not opposed to seeing Galadriel’s character development. In fact, to believe that there was even a risk that she would take the Ring for herself in FotR, I kinda need to see her more arrogant/darker side. However, all too often, she was just straight up dumb. I’m not opposed to see a fresh take on Sauron, where he isn’t just a conniving 1-dimensional mastermind, but someone with a flawed perception of right and wrong. However, why was everything about his plot - from the raft, to the pouch, to his wound - so contrived? I’m not opposed to seeing Gandalf or hobbits in the Second Age, and as expected they did add a balancing flavor against all the other plots. However, it dragged way too much, and left me constantly conflicted if we should consider their culture fascistic or caring (one episode it’s “They must be de-caravaned”, the next it's “Of all people’s in Middle-earth, we’re the best at taking care of each other”???).

I liked to see the “low men” of Middle-earth fleshed out, and it made sense to introduce new characters that the writers can have more freedom with. I found Arondir/Bronwyn/Theo surprisingly endearing as time went on, and was genuinely relieved that they all survived. I liked most of what they did with Númenor, except I’m surprisingly indifferent to Isildur and his relationships to his friends and family. I liked Elrond/Durin/Disa, although I could probably write an essay on why it should have been done with Celebrimbor instead (and for the love of me I don't understand what the point of the oath was).

Up until the final episode, I could at least say that the show hadn’t ruined anything yet. The upside of involving so many invented characters/plots is that they stayed clear of ruining parts we really want to see. Many of my favorite TV-series have rocky starts, like Breaking Bad – and that one had almost zero likeable characters! If this had just been a trial-and-error first season that then could improve before depicting the important stuff, I’d be a lot more lenient.

But now… ugh. Everything about the Ring-making plot is so contrived, haphazard and underwhelming. From the Mithril creation-myth, to the weird expedience of it all, to a several-hundred-year process being boiled down to a pass-by comment by Halbrand. The mystery, the significance of it all is just deflated. Even such a detail as letting the future Ring-bearer Galadriel be a part of the process feels weirdly rushed, as she gives up her brother’s dagger the same episode that she learns of the whole “Elves are dying/Mithril will save them” conflict. And where is Círdan? If Elrond’s inclusion in all of this isn’t already odd, Círdan's absence is even weirder.

 

I honestly think there's good reason to believe it will improve, but I'm afraid some damage done here is irreversible. The one thing that actually makes me angry is what they’ve done to Celebrimbor. Everything unique or remarkable about him is handed to Elrond (relationship to dwarves and mithril), Halbrand (idea for how to make the rings) or even Galadriel (the dagger and concept of three rings). This guy only has at most 2 seasons left before he's gonna die, and gets horribly sidelined in the one season that should have been about him.

[Chen G. 3,949]

20 minutes ago, Monoverantus said:

This guy only has at most 2 seasons left before he's gonna die

 

Seeing as how they forged the three this episode (WTF?!) and McPayne said next season climaxes with an "epic, two-episode battle", I think Celebrimbor is not long with us.

 

I must think the thought process was to put more emphasis on the events of the late second age - the fall of Numenore and the events people know from the prologue to Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring - over Celebrimbor's Faustian situation. Shame.

[mstrox 6,651]

Out of curiosity, why in the Tolkienverse is forging the the three elven rings at this point a WTF moment?