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

[Bellosh 3,941]

I mean I get it...but he's arguably the one character from the PJ films that is baked into our brains that actor = character 

 

But then again I don't really agree with anything in this show

 

That doesn't mean I'm a hater or think it shouldn't exist.  I just can't get onboard with a show that only has a few pages worth of licensed material 

 

Go big or go home.

[A. A. Ron 1,953]

In the series finale, the Stranger will be revealed as Saruman for maximum subversion of expectations!

[Nick1Ø66 6,064]

Dumbledore.

[Bellosh 3,941]

Nothing and I mean nothing will beat the first time I attempted and I do say attempted to read the Silmarillion

 

It was on the backend of October so very crisp and chilly at night.  I'd read it outside by a heater.  The places it took me mentally man, nothing can do that to me.  Combined with the Ted Nasmith illustrations, just incredible stuff.

 

At the time I thought this might be cool stuff to feature in a movie or a show...but maybe some stuff should just be left for the books and more importantly... imagination.

 

Reading The Sil makes you truly appreciate the LOTR so much more.

[Nick1Ø66 6,064]

20 hours ago, Bellosh said:

Combined with the Tex Nasmith illustrations, just incredible stuff.

 

Those illustrations are just amazing. Some of my favourite Tolkien-inspired art of all time.

 

They're just an illustration (no pun intended) of why, as much I love Lee, Howe & Jackson's vision of Middle-Earth, I'd love to see an adaptation with a completely different tableau (though to be fair, it's clear Nasmith inspired Jackson as well). Sadly, even most fan art you see these days looks like Jackson. There's so much great Tolkien art out there, and it's a pity his world seems to have now settled into one fixed "look". 

 

I mean...

 

 

[Doo_liss 6,640]

I read the Sil when I was... Just barely double digits at most. I could have still been single digits!

[Bellosh 3,941]

Lol I realized on mobile I misspelled his name as Tex 😂 def meant Ted

[Nick1Ø66 6,064]

And while we're on it, I've got to give a nod to the Brothers Hildebrandt. While perhaps their style has fallen out of favour a bit, I unabashedly love their work.

 

 

 

 

[Doo_liss 6,640]

Kinda feels like a better version of what Bakshi was going for, more warm and inviting.

[Chen G. 4,719]

Reminds me more of Walt Disney, but in a few places I see Bakshi: to the best of my knowledge, the Hildebrandts were the first to depict the Balrog as a bestial thing, which was summarily followed by Bakshi, Howe, Lee, Nasmith and Jackson.

[Schilkeman 1,331]

There's more than a little Hal Foster in those painting, too.

[Chen G. 4,719]

Meanwhile, Elrond getting it on with future-mother-in-law 'cause reasons:

 

[Doo_liss 6,640]

1 minute ago, Chen G. said:

Meanwhile, Elrond getting it on with future-mother-in-law 'cause reasons:

 

Gandalf: same dude same.

 

Celeborn: Uh, hello!? Husband over here!

 

 

Anyways this episode could have also been titled:

 

Spoiler

The Fall of Celebrimbor. Get it it? Because he falls several times in the episode, twice over the same railing it almost seems.

 

[Stark 566]

I almost wonder if Amazon said “we demand a kiss” and the writers said “what’s the least romantic way to do this”

[Chen G. 4,719]

I mean, the action scenes were fun and the Celebrimbor scenes are for the most part good stuff, even if Celebrimbor is played more as the Old Bilbo-type than the Faustian figure he should be.

 

But there's still way too much magic.

 

The kiss is unnecessary.

 

Both the Troll and the Legolas stand-in go down like punks.

[Nick1Ø66 6,064]

8 hours ago, Chen G. said:

Reminds me more of Walt Disney

 

I asked AI to do this.

 

 

[crocodile 8,611]

I have some issues with the episode but it was quite fun for the most part.

 

Karol

[Doo_liss 6,640]

Just now, crocodile said:

I have some issues with the episode but it was quite fun for the most part.

 

Karol

Tell us how you REALLY feel!

[crocodile 8,611]

Just now, The Great Gonzales said:

Tell us how you REALLY feel!

I feel tired. Didn't have much sleep and the day at work was very long. Early night for me, I think.

 

😉

 

Karol

[Doo_liss 6,640]

1 minute ago, crocodile said:

I feel tired. Didn't have much sleep and the day at work was very long. Early night for me, I think.

 

😉

 

Karol

[Nick1Ø66 6,064]

16 hours ago, A. A. Ron said:

In the series finale, the Stranger will be revealed as Saruman for maximum subversion of expectations!

 

No, the stranger will be Aruman from the Bakshi film.

[A. A. Ron 1,953]

11 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

No, the stranger will be Aruman from the Bakshi film.

 

Oh good! I was wondering when they'd start bringing in variants from Across the Tolkien-verse.

[Richard P 4,269]

I thought this episode was fun - the Celebrimbor scenes were remarkably acted and in general the battle so far is well staged. Bear's music has to jump all over the place so Bear had his work cut out to make the episode album play as well as it does.

 

The credits music though... my word, those vocals don't work. Perhaps an instrumental version or maybe even a reprise of part of Light of Celebrimbor so the give the episode a more fitting end.

[Chen G. 4,719]

39 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

No, the stranger will be Aruman from the Bakshi film.

 

I mean, evil wizard who wants to ally himself with Sauron....

[Romão 2,323]

19 hours ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

 

Those illustrations are just amazing. Some of my favourite Tolkien-inspired art of all time.

 

They're just an illustration (no pun intended) of why, as much I love Lee, Howe & Jackson's vision of Middle-Earth, I'd love to see an adaptation with a completely different tableau (though to be fair, it's clear Nasmith inspired Jackson as well). Sadly, even most fan art you see these days looks like Jackson. There's so much great Tolkien art out there, and it's a pity his world seems to have now settled into one fixed "look". 

 

I mean...

 

 

 

 

Another fan of Nasmith here. I adore how he paints landscapes:

 

 

I also vastly prefer his more "horizontal" depiction of Minas Tirith, that makes much more sense than the excessively vertical version of the fims:

 

 

I also prefer how much more subtler and credible militarily his depiction of Mordor architecture is:

 

 

 

 

[Chen G. 4,719]

Of the Tolkien triumvirate - Lee, Howe and Nasmith - the latter is perhaps the most gifted for landscapes. They're sensational.

[Nick1Ø66 6,064]

Gandalf Riding to Space Mountain (1990)

Ted Nasmith

 

[Chen G. 4,719]

Somehow, his Minas Tirith makes me think of the Titanic...

[Doo_liss 6,640]

6 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

Somehow, his Minas Tirith makes me think of the Titanic...

I can see it.

[Nick1Ø66 6,064]

10 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

Somehow, his Minas Tirith makes me think of the Titanic...

 

If only Bernard Hill played Denethor...

[VenomVeVenom 88]

This episode had the potential to be the best one yet, IMO, with lots of scenes of Annatar and Celebrimbor and action scenes.

Though what kind of ruined it for me was Elrond and Galadriel's kiss. Super unnecessary and anticlimatic. Why did they even feel the need to put that scene in?

Also, I thought the big troll would have more screen time. IIRC one of the showrunners said the troll's character was inspired by Mike Ehrmantraut from Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul, so I thought he would be a developed character and... nope.

The action scenes are good. Not so well staged and fun as the Siege of Gondor from PJ's trilogy, but it's fine. What is really bothering me is the Rings' storyline, they're a mess. Why the hell would Sauron just leave Celebrimbor alone? Only so that he could take the Nine and escape? I felt this was very contrived.

Mírdania's death was too out of place for me too.

 

Potential for the episode: 9/10. Actual episode: 7/10.

[Richard P 4,269]

I was leafing through the cast on wikipedia and found that not only is Maxim Baldry (Isildur) the kid in Mr Bean's Holiday but he was born in my hometown! 

[Doo_liss 6,640]

Just for those who might not have caught/understood it:

 

When Adar says "You have forgotten your Rúmil" he is referring to the Elven poet Círdan mentioned in Episode 2.

[Jay 39,764]

The Rings of Power 2x06 Where Is He?

 

I was happy to see Arondir at the start of the episode, the way he took out those random orcs was pretty sweet.  I had no idea what we were supposed to learning from the map he takes off one of the orcs.  I guess its meant to say that Arondir has just learned that the orcs are marching towards Eregion?

 

I continue to like all the scenes of Annatar manipulating Celebrimbor and everyone that works for him.  I like that he kicked it up a notch and now has powers to rule the city itself so Celebrimbor can focus on the rings... yikes.  I don't understand why Adar had some orcs kill an Eregion elf, carve "Where Is He" into his corpse, and drop him off at the gates.  Wouldn't that tip their hand that they are heading towards them?  Then again, in a previous episode Elrond and the best elves of Lindon didn't hear a legion of orcs a few yards away, so I guess Eregion scouts won't realize the entirety of the Mordor orcs are approaching until its too late either....

 

I found it interested that Adar thinks combining the power of one elvish ring with the crown of Morgoth he has (that he thought he killed Sauron with the first time) will be what it takes to kill Sauron for good.  I wonder if he's right?  Kind of funny how he sort of tricks Galadriel into revealing where her ring is, though I don't know if that knowledge really affected any of his plans at all?

 

I think this episode finally gave us good, solid Númenor scenes that made total sense and I liked a lot.  Elendil refusing to pledge loyalty to Pharazon gave me Ned Stark vibes, but I still dug it, the scene was well acted.  The scene with his daughter was kind of heart breaking, because she seems like she really doesn't get it?  Like she thinks he's being prideful instead of sticking up for his true beliefs.  I wonder if we are going to find out Pharazon and her are being influenced by Sauron through the Palantir.

 

Then, I just loved the trial where the Valar will decide Elendil's fate via sea beast.  The scenery there was gorgeous, the dark rocks juxtaposed with the cool blue color of the water.  Miriel coming in to take his place was another good scene, and the sea beast looked really cool.  Was this meant to be the same sea beast from the first episode that attacked the ship Halbrand was on?  If so, is it picking sides in the Sauron vs every else battle on behalf of the Valar, or doing things for other reasons?  Hmm.

 

The people of Númenor are so funny. "Miriel's great!  Oh wait, the Eagle is near Pharazon?  Pharazon's great!  Oh wait, a sea creature spared Miriel's life?  Miriel's great!"  I loved when Pharazon went running to the palantir and touched it, the visual look of it taking over the screen was so cool!  I genuinely have no idea how all this Númenor stuff is going to conclude this season, but it feels like its more closely tied to to the main story than the Nori/Stranger stuff....

 

Speaking of that, I was dissapointed in their scenes this episode.  Nori and The Stranger are too of my favorites, but this episode really felt like treading water for them.  What are Nori and Poppy doing with the Stoors?  And other than the fact that we have kind of learned how the Harfoots and Stoors will come together in hundreds of years to form The Shire, what else is happening here?  On the other hand, I quite liked all the Stranger/Bombadil scenes in episode 4, it was a lot of fun, and made me feel like things were finally heading somewhere.  But in this episode, I really didn't like what they did with Bombail AT ALL.  No singing, no real fun or cleverness, no Goldberry.  Instead, they just shamelessly aped The Empire Strikes Back, with Bombail now being this Yoda figure who tells The Stranger he has to either choose his friends (after he has a vision of them in danger) or his training, but can't do both.  How did the writer's room and the producers who approve their scripts not tell them they can't ape Star Wars so directly like this?  I also feel like the show is spending a ton of time on this guy's staff, but I am no invested in that at all and I'm not sure why they thought that would play as something cool and interesting to follow ALL season long.  Yikes.  I hope that Bombadil just disappearing into thin air doesn't mean he's gone for good.  I had such high hopes for his character after episode 4, and I hope this episode isn't the only other time we see him!

 

I thought it was neat to see Annatar visiting the dwarves and asking for more mithril, it was nice to get him out of the forge for a bit.  Durin III played the smart salesman role perfectly, knowing that by denying what he wants, he'll eventually come back offering more.  Boy, that ring sure is making him greedy; I loved that Sauron saw the balrog in the fire and was like "whatever, you guys are doomed, see ya!".  I was extremely confused by how he ended up having mithril anyway at the end of the episode, but I guess since it was inside an illusion it probably isn't really mithril?  Either that or he's had mithril the whole time, but visiting the dwarves to ask for more anyway?  But then again, if it isn't mithril because he doesn't need it, then why did he visit the dwarves at all?  Hmm.

 

Durin IV separating from his father again was well done, and I really liked Disa's trick of using her singing to launch a bunch of bats out to protect the deep mine that's too close to the Balrog, but that won't work again so I wonder what will happen next.

 

So Galadriel realizing at the end of the episode that Sauron wants Adar to attack Eregion made a lot of things click into place for me.  I think she's right and that he DOES want to take over this army because he doesn't have one of his own.  But ALSO, I think that Sauron has purposely been denying the last ingredient (or technique, or whatever) to make the rings until now because he wants the rings to be made at the last possible moment, right before the siege possibly destroys the forge.  I think that he is worried that if he left, the elves would be able to make their own new magic rings that counter the powers of the rings he is making now, so he WANTS the forge to be destroyed.  And he'll take what he learned there to eventually make his own One RIng in Mordor.

 

One of the coolest parts of the episode was Sauron kicking up his magic game into using blood magic to create a massive illusion to make Celebrimbor think the city wasn't under siege.  I loved this.  The acting was good, and Bear's music with the lovely Eregion theme really sold the moment.  The effect of it turning from bright peaceful times to dark times was cool, and I loved the final shot of catapults launching fiery contents right into the screen!

 

[Doo_liss 6,640]

Possibilities on ulterior motives why he visited Durin:

 

1: to check on the progress of the Rings effect

2: to stoke his greed further

[Stark 566]

It should be noted that, in both the books and the show, the rings do not have the desired effect of bending the dwarves to Sauron’s will - they just amplify dwarven greed.

[Chen G. 4,719]

1 hour ago, Stark said:

the rings do not have the desired effect of bending the dwarves to Sauron’s will - they just amplify dwarven greed.

 

Well, its not quite played like that here. Durin III - and Peter Mullan is still a most majestic Dwarf king - goes all Old Bilbo on the thing!

[Jay 39,764]

The Rings of Power 2x07 Doomed To Die

 

So did anybody else notice that this episode had no main title sequence at all?  After the Previously On, it just jumps right into the first scene.  I was expecting some big dramatic moment to lead to a late arrival of the main title sequence, which they did once in season 1 (episode 8).  But when eventually we got a commercial break (I HATE these on Prime), I realized it was just never coming.  That lead to the end credits being longer than usual, to fit in all the credits that usually go in the opening titles, meaning we had to endure more of the Ballad of Damrod concert arrangement than we would have otherwise.  So, lose-lose, really.  No Shore and more Jens Kidman...

 

Overall, I mostly liked the episode, and the depiction of the siege.  It's amazing how far we've come now that with a big enough budget, we can get a weekly TV series that puts on screen a medieval siege complete with a variety of weapons, artillery, prosthetics, huge sweeping shots, top notch CGI, etc that rivals any big budget Hollywood movie.  At many times throughout the episdoe, it was just a way to watch these production values on screen.

 

Some of the logistics of the siege were a little funny.  I feel like the bit where they launch rocks at a mountain until it tumbles down enough broken-off mountain bits to dam a river was completely implausible, unless they could keep at it for weeks without hindrance and had some kind of magic help or something.  But beyond that, it was ridiculous how FAST the river dried up; It would take a VERY  long time for a river bed to be ready for horses and heavy equipment to be brought over that thing.  But niggles like that aside, most of the action was pretty fun to watch.

 

I like how along with this siege, we got a lot more Sauron and Celebrimbor scenes.  I liked that Sauron's blood magic wasn't so perfect that Celebrimbor didn't eventually notice cracks in the illusion.   It was also interesting to see that it was in fact not mithril that Sauron gave him to make the rings, but his own blood.  RIP Mirdania, the show seems to need to keep its hot actress quantity at a certain level by season's end every year I wasn't sure what finishing work was left on the rings when Sauron had him imprisoned back up there to finish them, when I thought he had already made them at the beginning of the episode.  I like that he tried to destroy them by putting them in the fire, which didn't do anything.  Speaking of that shot, why was THAT of all things chosen for the season 2 album cover?  They could have gone with SO many better imagery from the season....

 

The dwarf story this episode I was a bit underwhelmed by.  I loved that we got another Elrond/Durin scene, as short as it was.  It was just great to see them together again.  And I loved Durin IV rallying the troops and getting everyone ready to battle.  I was so looking forward to seeing an army of dwarfs on the field attacking orcs!  Then it all falls apart because of... Durin III's greed?  I guess this is exactly what Sauron wanted, but its such a bummer to see, and a little confusing why it wasn't possible to send MOST of the dwarves to the battle, and just take a small subset to go stop Durin III from mining too deep?

 

The meeting halfway through the siege between Elrond and Adar was kind of strange.  It seemed like Adar had the upper hand, and probably could have taken the ring off Elrond here. And he seems less intelligent to not realize that the kiss was  a cover to give her something to help her escape - especially when Elrond takes the pin off his cloak right in front of everyone.  Just strange all around.

 

I did like that after escaping, Galadriel is able to make her way through the orc camp, meet up with Arondir, and the two of them are able to sneak into Eregion.  It was a little strange, though, that once there, even though she's able to convince the guards that Celebrimbor has been deceived and it is Annatar who is the bad guy, that she doesn't go to confront him herself.  But I guess it makes it more exciting to save that confrontation for the next episode, and they wanted to get the rings away from him anyway.

 

I was also pretty dissapointed by the Damrod scene.  I really liked his first appearance in episode 3 and was bummed we didn't see him again until now... then bummed all over again that he was only in one scene, and was defeated so easily!  He only got to kick ass for a short while before he was getting his ass handed to him by Elrond and Arondir.  It would have been way better to cut this scene up and spread it through out more of hte episode, so it would have seemed like he was causing some real, good damage before being killed.  Oh well.

 

The ending was genuinely shocking to me.  I wasn't expecting them to kill off Arondir (ok, maybe he'll survive somehow I suppose), nor that Adar would kick Elrond's ass so easily and get the ring!   It makes you wonder why Elrond brought it at all.

 

Boy, there's a lot to wrap up next episode, with this episode omitting so many running storylines!

 

[Doo_liss 6,640]

Clearly (IMHO) Adar getting Nenya is gonna have something to do with Sauron can get the 9 back.

51 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

Well, its not quite played like that here. Durin III - and Peter Mullan is still a most majestic Dwarf king - goes all Old Bilbo on the thing!

So it's not played like that, by being played exactly like that?

 

 

[Chen G. 4,719]

10 hours ago, The Great Gonzales said:

So it's not played like that, by being played exactly like that?

 

Not the "WHERE IS IT? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH IT!?" bit, certainly...

[Jay 39,764]

So am I the only one that noticed that episode 7 omitted the main title sequence entirely?

[Tydirium 1,402]

I noticed as well; I’m curious to see if the season finale is the same way.

[Jay 39,764]

The strange was that in both season premieres, they also omitted the title sequence and Shore's music with it, but at least those two episodes got a title card, scored by Bear, that put the name of the show on screen. 

 

In this episode, it never even said the name of the show until the end credits

[Chen G. 4,719]

6 hours ago, Jay said:

So am I the only one that noticed that episode 7 omitted the main title sequence entirely?

 

Oh yeah! I resent that, actually!

 

I think they have very strict quotas on length, and so that was their way to accomdate it.

 

There's a special place in purgatory for people who cut out of Shore Tolkien music.

[Jay 39,764]

But the end credits were longer than usual to fit in the credits normally shown in the opening, so I'm not sure how much time they actually saved!

[Jay 39,764]

So what does everyone else think of my theory I posted above that Sauron purposely delayed giving Celebrimbor the "mithril" because he wanted the rings to be forged during the siege, so the forge would be destroyed immediately after so they can't make their own rings to counter his?

 

Also, I assume Galadriel is right and Sauron does want to take over Adar's army, but does anyone have any idea how he would go about doing that?  Other than that one second in command guy who was kind of giving Adar the side-eye last episode, is there any reason to think they'd just pledge allegiance to him after the siege is over instead of just going back to Mordor and doing whatever they wanted?

[Chen G. 4,719]

4 minutes ago, Jay said:

Also, I assume Galadriel is right and Sauron does want to take over Adar's army, but does anyone have any idea how he would go about doing that?

 

No idea. The show is big on mysterious magic and so I assume there will be something magical to do with how Sauron subjugates the Orcs, perhaps involving the crown. Alas!

 

4 minutes ago, Jay said:

So what does everyone else think of my theory I posted above that Sauron purposely delayed giving Celebrimbor the "mithril" because he wanted the rings to be forged during the siege, so the forge would be destroyed immediately after so they can't make their own rings to counter his?

 

 

I think you're reading just a wee bit too much into things here. 

[Jay 39,764]

s?

[Chen G. 4,719]

I pressed "submit" prematurely... 

[Jay 39,764]

16 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

No idea. The show is big on mysterious magic and so I assume there will be something magical to do with how Sauron subjugates the Orcs, perhaps involving the crown. Alas!

 

Oh right, I forgot about Morgoth's crown.  That'll probably be it