The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series

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

That would be nice, now that you mention it.

terrible picture of elrond in the library (numenor art is worse than elf art)

My cohost Jared was VERY nonplussed about that art.

i know this is just bcz it's how my dad said it when he read me the hobbit 50+ years ago but it shd be warg to rhyme with war not warg to rhyme with car :(

agreed, even though the second pronunciation implies the potential existence of "wargio"

when i read the trilogy aloud to my kids i found myself apparently unable to settle on galADdriel or gaLADEdriel, a uncertainty that i will surely pass on to my kids, as i suspect it was passed on to me

gaLADriel bible

this is some cheesy shit

Yup

Looks great, though!

Everything in this, particularly the sound design and junior high dialogue, feels 110% like playing Baldur’s Gate

there is something deeply reassuring about the fact that even if you’re jeff bezos and even if you have an unlimited budget it’s very very hard to engineer a hit show

i mean you can market the hell out of it and get its initial numbers looking respectable but making a show that has a long tail, that is loved and returned to again and again - very difficult. there is an element of witchcraft involved

i said above that all the name characters except galadriel were insufferable (one of the choices i like): well galadriel was also being a spoiled PITA this ep so 👍🏽 🚀

loved the weird-shit harfoot ceremonies even tho the actual front-of-stage story and harfoot dialogue is still (and i suspect will remain) a bit will-this-do (i.e. doesn't advert to the ceremonies)

also making yung sauron a peaky blinders type lol: charming, lethal, capable sailor, knows which end of a mattock is which

the theory I saw that seems plausible is that the seafaring king isn’t Sauron, he’s the king that becomes the lord of the Nazgûl

holding out for yung ren the unclean (the only rpg nazgul name i can ever remember, for obvious reasons)

yung stimpy

yung ren the unclean's latest mixtape was decent

I like the idea that Halbrand is the future Witch-King. That could be a compelling arc. Even though I don't like his character, he seems to be one of the only ones who is written to *show* you who he is, rather than telling you. This show would be 10% better without all the "let me tell you what kind of person I am" dialogue.

Also, I like that it turns out the Númenoreans seem to be mostly ordinary folks, rather than a race of supermen, as the lore seems to indicate.

Halbrand as Witchking is an interesting idea but the demi-meet cute deal with Galadriel unfolding is a clunker.

TBF Numenorean armies rather than everyone in general are the ones seen as most supermen like, and Tolkien's sounding out of a continual resistance/rejection of that approach in the society is one of his best choices. (Highly recommend "Aldarion and Erendis" if you've not read it; they don't have the rights for adaptation but honestly it's the story I'd love to see someone finally do at some point.)

show title shd have been ringwraiths assemble tbrr

A maverick elf who drives her bosses crazy but gets results (not yet but at some point)

— Fleetwood MacRib (@JimHenleyMusic) September 10, 2022

I'm liking that the king of the southfolk is in fact from Manchester.