The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series

xpost Depends on if they feed

watched the first ep. it was enjoyable, and well-made. as a tolkien nerd, i'll never truly enjoy it like it's meant to be enjoyed. i was never so pedantic to get caught up in the differences between book and film in the jackson trilogy, but it's getting to me here.

probably because the whole thing feels like it was re-written by a team of lawyers redlining what the show does and does not have the rights to

Hahahah a very apt summary!

it was kind of incredible how they yadda-yadda’d through like, thousands of years in that intro! i was like, whoooaaa slow down or is this gonna be set like 5 years prior to LOTR

Which makes it all the more surprising that the way they showed the death of the Trees was actually...great? Like not even showing/talking about Ungoliant they pretty much showed what happened, representing Morgoth as a looming shadow was a smart touch, and the whole visual of the Trees going out and the leaves falling off, and did all that in just five or so seconds! (Then they fucked everything else up.)

So it sounds like if I'm someone who has never read a jot of Tolkien nor seen any of the PJ films (shut up, thats why), I might enjoy this more with nothing to compare it to?

Or I might not have a tinker's clue whats going on? I just kept thinking of the Dwemer city in Skyrim in the dwarven scenes.

as ned says, they've evidently somewhat taken the line "ok *fvck* the silmarillion then" (which i am fine with tho some are not): this to the extent that all the pre-existing name characters (exception: galadriel) are insufferable when they're not already THE GREAT FOE(S)

all you need to know really is that the warrior elves sailed from the west to complete some gangsta business and most of them think they did and it's time to go home but it's lookin like they actually didn't uh oh

not knowing who the nudie fireball beardo is = you are currently in exactly the same place as those who actually like remember there are two minas tiriths etc (i mean we do know but some ppl are insisting no it can't be bcz blee blee bloo)

Who is it? I’m assuming a wizard/Istari but not sure which one.

its nudo the problematic wizard

“Is Teleporno here?”

it was still a tiny bit thrilling for me to see finrod felagund on screen, finally! his characterization seemed pretty close to the source (considering he was one of the few silmarillion characters with zero flaws whatsoever…and he kinda was killed by sauron, wasn’t he?), tho they obviously didn’t have the rights to the things that made him interesting

is he the one who explained why boats float but stones sink?

in conclusion elf science is even worse than elf art (which is terrible)

leave the science to celebrimbor amirite

has Middle Earth been turned into a sphere yet at this point, or is it still flat?

Finrod and boats, a sometimes untrusty combination.

It wasn't *bad* as a characterization but maybe a little more spark. And strictly speaking -- and they elided this verrrry carefully -- no, he wasn't killed by Sauron specifically; rather, he, Beren and some others were captured by Sauron, who threw them in a dungeon and sent a werewolf to eat one at a time. It was down to Finrod and Beren left, the wolf went for Beren, Finrod broke his bonds and killed the werewolf but at the cost of his life.

Suffice to say there's nothing about a bad tattoo job or sigil or ANYTHING like that, not to mention what -- again, they elided this etc. -- is a timeline slip; the prologue makes it seem a bit like Morgoth gets defeated, Sauron steps up, Finrod confronts Sauron and is killed, and then Galadriel decides to fulfill a quest for vengeance or whatever. This is...not the timeline or an accurate series of events, even in the fluid timeline that Tolkien never quiet nailed down.

In Tolkien, it's very much still flat at this point.

(And indeed one reason why I really did like the transition to Valinor sequence as it stands is that the idea of the Sundering Seas still has a separation imposed by the Valar where there are various islands and weather confusions and the like to prevent people from drawing near. Numenor in canon is the sort of exception where you can from the top of the Meneltarma see Tol Eressea and Avallone in the Bay of Eldamar without interruption. But the point being -- the idea that you couldn't get nearer than that anyway makes sense, and when the Downfall happens the Akallabeth indicates that the Valar essentially didn't resist Ar-Pharazon's approach, basically so he could screw himself up. Which he rather did.)

ah yes, i remembered that sauron captured them but i thought sauron battled finrod one on one

we'll wait until someone is inevitably brave/stupid enough to attempt a beren & luthien mini-series

i thought sauron battled finrod one on one

Quite literally a rap battle (which Sauron won, and then threw him etc into the dungeon for devourment purposes):

Thus befell the contest of Sauron and Felagund which is renowned. For Felagund strove with Sauron in songs of power, and the power of the King was very great; but Sauron had the mastery, as is told in the Lay of Leithian:

He chanted a song of wizardry,
Of piercing, opening, of treachery,
Revealing, uncovering, betraying.
Then sudden Felagund there swaying
Sang in answer a song of staying,
Resisting, battling against power,
Of secrets kept, strength like a tower,
And trust unbroken, freedom, escape;
Of changing and of shifting shape,
Of snares eluded, broken traps,
The prison opening, the chain that snaps.
Backwards and forwards swayed their song.
Reeling and foundering, as ever more strong
The chanting swelled, Felagund fought,
And all the magic and miht he brought
Of Elvenesse into his words.
Softly in the gloom they heard the birds
Singing afar in Nargothrond,
The sighing of the sea beyond,
Beyond the western world, on sand,
On sand of pearls in Elvenland.
Then the gloom gathered; darkness growing
In Valinor, the red blood flowing
Beside the Sea, where the Noldor slew
The Foamriders, and stealing drew
Their white ships with their white sails
From lamplit havens. The wind wails,
The wolf howls. The ravens flee.
The ice mutters in the mouths of the Sea.
The captives sad in Angband mourn.
Thunder rumbles, the fires burn –
And Finrod fell before the throne.

finrod resin up your bow and play your fiddle hard

I want to see a fully slapstick version of the fight between Beren/Lúthien and Celegorm/Curufin (with The Leap of Beren repeated three times from different angles).

Hoping to start watching this show tonight.

Look, I’ll try to make this happen, but you’re not giving me much time to work with!

I watched these whilst working from home, and I don't recall anything what u lot are talking about. So I'll watch properly again.

itt: just nerding, pure beautiful nerding.

I'll take that compliment!

I've watched both episodes now, and am warming to it a bit more from the second than the first. The Oirishness can jump in a lake of course, and take the prophecy with it - we weren't sure whether Lenny Henry was trying that accent or a West Country one (though, really, what is west of this country?)

Gil-Galad is who you get if you can't attract Michael Sheen, Elrond is who you get if you Matt Smith is busy somewhere else, but Galadriel is genuinely good (and better than her material a lot of the time). I wonder if someone told the creators that people liked the Morrrrrrdor pronunciation and asked if we could have more of that.

I was struck that the moral of the opening sequence was "kids are total dicks" - it should reduce Galadriel's desire to go back even more - you'll be there forever and those guys are probably civic leaders now.

I was wondering if Galadriel was pulling rank telling Thondir that she can still remember the light of the trees.

Something that I think is itching at me is that I'm still reading this as a LOTR-inspired story, like we're two hours in shouldn't we be getting to the going-forth? But it's seeming like it's as interested in the staying with community - Bronwyn got away into the yonder last week but is back warning her town of threats now, Nori is still bound into the Harfoots, though her impetus to move only really turned up this week - I'm loving the Iron Giant stuff there.

It was lovely to see Khazad-dûm - the stone smashing scene seemed a little odd to me - when Elrond got the new hammer it seemed like it lingered on the runes there, and he seemed to have a moment with Durin - was it just "give up so we can have a chat?"

This is probably a red herring, but we've notably not seen Theo's ears?

The annihilating light of Valinor was properly unsettling.

elves schmelves all these dudes look like relics from third-tier English boy bands ugh

Actually by law every English male band has to have at least one munter in it.

All that invoking some ancient rite to get into a house where they all hate you and consider you a wanker was pretty good.

I read this in between the episodes, and when he was giving it all the "Inform Lord Durin that his good friend Elrond is present..." I was hoping there'd be a "Ah I see, Celebrimbor, it says in script around the doorframe: Speak 'Alright, let us in, ye bawbags' and enter"

There's one significant dude at the human settlement, her got a shot when Brownyn tried to get people to leave, and the last look when she dumps the head in the pub - we were wondering if he was the one that owns the sword?

I like Lenny Henry’s book, agree that it’s an almanac not a prophecy

He’s checking how past events correlated w each other

xpost — Yeah I figure that one guy has some sort of role down the road, too many Significant Looks already.

does anyone get to be horny on this show or nah

There were dudes with weird antlers on their backs, does that count?

lol

Liked this a good deal, especially episode 2. Helped enormously by Bayona's directorial skill and flair. Loved the moment when Galadriel et al are on the way to Valinor and there's a burst of elven singing in front of the blazing lights. I'm not really a Tolkien reader, but her jumping ship feels like a big effing deal? Instead of eternity in their ancestral home she chooses untold thousands of years amongst mortals and potential peril. That shot of her adrift in the ink-black sea was wonderful.

What can she do, she's got one more case before she hands in her badge and dagger.

Those Lindon Quillpushers have told her the Mook's skipped town on a homicide charge and the case is dead, but something just doesn't feel right.....

In the context of the show, very much a big effing deal. But not exactly Tolkien. (Closest thing to it is when she is offered the choice to return to Valinor after Morgoth's defeated and turns it down; the whole 'Galadriel is a general in Gil-galad's army and he is the one who tells people when they can leave' etc. is invented out of whole cloth.)

the best kind of cloth

i like how gil galad is a total pill btw

pil galad

the question on everyone's minds: where is cirdan?

gimme cirdan. i want cirdan.

computer art provides the answer! (DALL-E doesn't appear to recognise the name círdan)

https://i.imgur.com/1YZOQjP.png

longish read but a really good primer on all things Galadriel: https://www.tor.com/2022/08/31/where-in-the-world-is-galadriel-in-the-second-age-and-for-that-matter-where-is-celeborn/

especially how her story differs between LOTR / Silmarillion etc and how this might affect her storyline on the show considering what they can use and what they can’t

3rd episode and....boy did I guess Halbrand, that's for sure.

Again, some solid moments and some other things that are just what-in-the-hell, and the overall 'here is the obvious arc of things' is not as engaging as they hoped.

time for the elf show!

good to know that orcs remain stoutly cockney (evil)

galardiel setting to sea in her nightie is a move

Was kind of a dull episode. I’m still enjoying it, I guess.

neither master nor commander

hoping we get to sail on the sea of núrnen as it seems to be nearby right now