The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series

that's number seven

Finding this a very pretty, silly & chill thing to watch (entry stance: cool on Tolkien generally, actively dislike his high style, don't much care about the lore).

Absolutely love Morfydd Clark, just hypnotically watchable or maybe listenable - surprising vowels and stresses and then so good at the trilled 'r's. Her expressions are good too, so it can't all be down to that, but I go a bit ecoutez-repetez when she delivers a line in a way I enjoy. Obviously do not watch this me, I am annoying.

otoh can't really get over the issue that's briefly mentioned upthread: is this thing (I'd assume unintentionally) saying that hobbits evolved from Irish/Irish Traveller primitive foragers into stout yeoman Middle Englanders? I'm not exploring ~the discourse~ outside this thread but are people generally ok with that, or happy treating it as mildly insensitive accident? I could probably swallow the oirish nonsense if that evolution didn't seem implicit.

if we turn to the EXTANT LORE *everyone screams*: the shire hobbits and the anduin-based harfoots are iirc already from distinct strains of some long-lost ur-halfling type?

ie the latter didn't migrate west and settle down to become the former, they simply dwindled (= eaten by orcs, ents, beorn, durin's folk, teleporno)

ok cool I'll take it

*pushes up glasses* The Shirefolk are a blend of strains, these being the Harfoots, the Stoors, and the Fallohides.

So presumably the show-Harfoots are meant to be the ancestors of Frodo & co. but only one branch. I'm a bit curious if we'll ever see the other branches.

so in fact some shire hobbits may be eligible for a harfoot passport. Thank you, this is becoming clearer.

Hey, applicability not allegory, buddy. (But I kid the etc.)

Shame a show trying so hard not to be racist is so weighed down with the concept of blood guilt.

We at the podcast couldn't agree more.

Absolutely love Morfydd Clark, just hypnotically watchable or maybe listenable - surprising vowels and stresses and then so good at the trilled 'r's. Her expressions are good too, so it can't all be down to that, but I go a bit ecoutez-repetez when she delivers a line in a way I enjoy.

well, there is a tempest in her and the tempest is always right

“three rings for the elven-kings under the sky,
seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
nine for mortal men, doomed to die,
and a wee one for the Dark Lord on his tiny tiny throne"

so sauron mistake was basically pissing off hobbits by not creating a ring for them which forced them to take his instead and then destroy it out of spite

Amazing. This was simultaneously the consistently best episode and the absolute dumbest fucking thing.

stoked for the pukelmen

Ned otm

So the sword hilt was basically a giant pair of scissors for the Mount Doom ribbon cutting?

why does the big goblin not simply eat the smaller arondir

stop just throwing him around you horrible doofus

watch out teleporno, theo is horny for galadriel

well this took a turn

i like it now

(if they have killed everyone except Galadriel I will tbh be pretty impressed - off Nori next week then "1000 years later: We've named you after Emperor Pharazon who we've excised from the history books")

Also finally a reason for that one significant Southlander!

We were talking earlier today about the fact that no-one is horny (which is kind of true to the Jackson films - horniness is the province of orcs, Wormtongue, Denethor (for cherry tomatoes) and at best Boromir for the ring (provided you feel guilty afterwards). Galadriel is properly horny for a good scrap, at least.

Also no-one is funny, which is obv more of a crime.

King Halbrand, ruled from the third day of Gwirith SA 1503, until half past 3.

eowyn was fairly horny iirc

anyway while i'm not remotely convinced they have the chops to work with it -- the writing in this ep was if possible the worst yet -- the introduction of the moriandor (and galadriel going mask off)* is potentially actually p fvcking interesting

*turns out she's number seven

I'm no geologist but I'm p sure that's not how volcanoes work

just stick in the key & rev up mt doom
i mean of course why not

My understanding (from the noises made by the planetary scientist next to me) is that dumping a load of water in will definitely kill the village next to it - going full Matrix on the skies for 1000 years, maybe not.

waldreg's cunning plan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Garita_Caldera

we literally see the water cascading into a caldera so i don't think the idea of a massive explosion is wrong even if the engineering seems a bit hopeful* -- and mount tambora in 1815 certainly caused the "year without a summer" round the other side of the world

(long-term atmosphere shift in mordor would be caused by orodruin not then being turned off again) (the engineering of a long-term plumbing control system more hopeful still tho as much of it is MAGIC as wood-built sluices)

*"we here at Sauron Devices don't just make pretty little rings!"

sorry this is wildly spoilery, i am excite (also amused)

hobbit-era peter jackson wd have made the key a wind-up and the machinery some comically clockwork chitty chitty bang bang shit

turns out i miss that guy :D

The initial "turn the key and the blocks move" reminded me of old-school over-respecter of ancient empires The Mysterious Cities of Gold.

durin's folk just raging at the IP theft going on here

dwarrowpunk

Series has kind of gone full on “Let’s just make up some wild s—-“ and I’m kinda still here for it. Galadriel actress and visuals are carrying this entire thing, let’s be real.

this ep was kinda gorey too with the whole eye thing

idk its all a bit naff but weirdly relaxing

I haven't seen a minute of this show but thanks to this thread I am confident I could summarise it for a fellow non-watcher:

1. Extended history of elves standing on boats
2. Some people get horny
3. Volcano blows up

i think u secretly are watching

A haunting familiarity.

Series has kind of gone full on “Let’s just make up some wild s—-“ and I’m kinda still here for it. Galadriel actress and visuals are carrying this entire thing, let’s be real.

I'd name a couple other actors too but that is about the size of it.

Our next episode is on Monday and we have some initial thoughts as of five episodes in. The full vivisection will yet follow.

I want to like The Rings of Power, I am a huge Tolkien fan, but this deathless guff is making me cheer for the Cockney Orcs pic.twitter.com/tHkqW34PHN

— Bill Bailey (@BillBailey) October 2, 2022

bill b not paying good attention this ep: galadriel is sauron #7

Boooooooooof I watched a single elf take town an entire Orc tower invasion and turned to bf and said "I'm getting off this train" and fell asleep on the sofa

Healthy approach!

This series is Tolkien's New Jersey

eh im tolkin' here

All you do to me is tolk tolk

^one Tolk over the line

Kemen's Gate

Tolkin’ on a doobie

Did I have a new vent thread? I did, though mostly on a point-of-comparison front...

Thanks again to all the responses to my previous _Rings of Power_ thread — some points brought up reminded me there was a further comparison I had wanted to make earlier illustrating a different way of adapting source material over a long amount of time. So, new thread!

— Ned Raggett (@NedRaggett) October 2, 2022

i just started rewatching breaking bad so i'm comparing it to that

ringing bad

ROP is a lot slower for starters