Countdown to Rings of Power

[QuebecBagnet]

Anyone else excited.

oddly the daily Mail have totally changed their review of it overnight. Last night the article said it was a total turkey and would likely bankrupt Amazon studios. Poor acting, dire story lines, etc. couldn’t have been worse.

today it’s much more factual about what the show is about rather than really giving an opinion. I think Amazon have paid the DM off! 😂

Yes we were confused about this, did Adar manage to swap it out before he got on the horse I wonder?

We've given up here. Is it worth the effort? Thought the acting was pants, no-one was fit enough or otherworldly enough. Script inane. Plot dull.

I’ve given up.

Episode 6 is the last one I'll watch
Turgid, boring, poorly written, badly acted...

The nail in the coffin for me was the axe/hilt switch....not very powerful elves if they can't tell its not the uber evil sword hilt, eh?

Ugh. Infuriating.

DH and I reluctantly watched it on Friday. He's an even bigger Tolkien nerd than me e.g. he wrote a lot of his O Level revision notes in Elvish. Yes, really.

By the end we just didn't care if they all died. We were rooting for the Orks. The plot is just shit.

How did Galadriel and the Numenoreans know exactly which village in the Southlands to ride to and liberate?

So, the mysterious artefact wasn't a sword hilt, but was instead an enormous radiator key, yes?

Why can't Galadriel move her lips when she speaks? DH pointed it out and now it's all I can focus on when she's talking.

Why is Bronwyn clearly wearing a pair of Lucy & Yak dungarees?

I hadn't noticed Galadriel lips - I've been too fixated on her rolling Rrrrrs. Sometimes she really, really goes for a long, full-on rrrrrrrrrrrr - othertimes doesn't even bother at all.

Likewise with Bronwyn - the botox face and the awful fake Brummie (is it?) accent just jar, so I hadn't noticed her clothes.

Elrond's chin is also just odd. I wonder if the actor who plays him in the later films is disappointed anyone thought that was an acceptable younger version of him.

When Adar heard the cavalry coming he grabbed Waldreg and said he had some important to do, so I take it that's when he gave it to him.

On the face of it this was the best episode but still so many things wrong. Bronwyn managing to save the elf at the last minute even though the orc he was fighting couldn't be defeated by being stabbed through the eye. But she managed.
How did the Numenorians happen upon the correct village to save at exactly the right time?
Why did Gladriel not look at or ask about the hilt before handing it over to Adinor, despite them thinking it was a weapon of Sauron, the person she has been hunting for centuries? Why did Adinor hand it to a child who had already said he was tempted by it and handed it to the enemy not 24hours earlier?
Why is everyone accepting Halbrand as king when nobody knows who he is? Including Gladriel, she made a lot of assumptions based on the thing he is carrying (could it have been stolen), and the fact he saved her. Not even he explicitly said he was king but they've now got all the villagers bowing to him? I've seen a few theories about him but I won't say in case as it would be a big spoiler.

So many other stupid inconsistencies that have me rolling my eyes instead of enjoying the series. Unfortunately at this time Adar is the only character I like and I'm routing for him and his 'children'.

I’m sticking with it for now. I’m not a huge Tolkien-ista: read The Hobbit, tried (and failed) to read LOTR and watched all the films but that’s about it.

It’s not brilliant, but it’s not bad.

We've been quite enjoying it. Pace is a bit slow but I'm sticking with it. I feel like it sort of started at the wrong point, too much setting the scene and not enough story. I'm enjoying it way more than House of the Dragon - I've given up on that!

I love Tolkien but have stopped over analysing - enjoying hunky elf and fabulous effects last night. Hate Galadriel though (and Elrond's chin).
Enjoying House of Dragon more - better written and more tension.

Yes I'm the same. Love Tolkien but am just pretending this is some terrible spinoff with vaguely familiar faces and that feels a bit more acceptable.

I loved when Adar and the orcs started attacking out of the woods but, inexplicably, it took about 10 minutes for them to get to the house while the villagers all watched the miraculous recovery of someone who would almost certainly have died from internal bleeding.

This lacks a decent script with a strong narrative structure so not even the best actors would be able to make much of it. And I don't think any of the cast are that great apart from Joseph Mawle. He's the only one that commands my attention.

The effects at the end of episode 6 were incredible but I'd rather watch a papier mache mountain blow up if I was able to care about the characters and their emotions.

Joseph Mawle is indeed head and shoulders above the rest.

By the end we didn't care if they all died. We were rooting for the Orks.

I think that's the problem. The visuals are stunning. The plot is - finally - getting somewhere. I just don't care about any of the characters. They're either arrogant, annoying or useless or we don't see enough of them. I'm actively rooting for muppet Isildur to cop it. I might care about his dad though <fans self>

The way Galadriel pronounces R is annoying me too!

I’m still watching it as I can’t just quit part way through a season, but I don’t give a shit about it really. If there’s a season 2 I doubt I’ll watch it.

Did anyone watch today's episode? Things we already knew:

• Those pale elf people are bad news
• The volcano blew up to create Mordor
• Durin's dad doesn't want to mine for mithril

Did we actually learn anything new this episode? Anyone who's watched/read LOTR knows about the dwarves disturbing the thingy.

I think the main problem is we all know how it’s going to end, so we’re impatiently waiting for it to get there instead of enjoying the ride.

As I’ve said I’m no expert but I remembered the line from LOTR (film) about what the dwarves disturbed in Moria.

I thought Ep 6 was fab! But 7 is back to plodding. Frustrating really, so many great ingredients but not a great delivery.

I would give up if it had more episodes, I feel like it's getting worse. It contradicted itself so many times, we already know the harfoots are willing to leave their own behind without helping but all of a sudden they give a little speech about sticking together. Queen of Numenor doesn't want anyone to know she is blind but 2 mins later is wearing a blindfold, galadriel gave a whole bond villan speech about hunting down each last orc but she chides theo for wanting to kill them.

They also did the whole is bronwyn dead...no of course not. No main character can die. They've got Isildur's dad crying thinking he's dead but we know he's not. I can't even go into how anyone survived the eruption, they were covered in thick ash which would have suffocated them...not to mention the heat and flying debris but only Isildur's goofy mate died? OK.

I think there’s only one more episode left?

I honestly don’t give a damn enough to notice all the inconsistencies, but now you’ve pointed them out I can’t understand how they’ve managed to mess the story up quite so badly. With all the money at play, and with such a renowned franchise, surely they would have been able to attract and hire the best writers/storyliners/continuity people etc?!?

Visually it’s outstanding but that’s about it.

I agree - it's all style over substance. Getting the writing correct was essential - you would have think they would have made this a priority. A good script and everything else should fall into place. It's beautiful to look at but there's no tension and I don't care about the characters (although there are some who are quite easy on the eye).

@Rhaenys yes just the one episode left thankfully. If you look up the background of the showrunners / directors / writers they are, for the most part, very inexperienced. As you say with the amount of money poured in I would expect experienced award winning show runners or at least avid Tolkien fans, it's odd. If you watch any of the interviews it looks like some randoms have blagged their way into the most expensive TV production ever.

I can kind of understand hiring unknown actors (although I would say most are poor) but make sure your directors and writers know what they are doing!

I was really distracted by this the whole episode - I just kept saying there's no way this many people, if any, would have survived. I don't know why they didn't just move them back from the ash cloud in the scope of the story to make it more believable (yes I know it's about elves, orcs etc).

My favourite characters are Bronwyn and Arondir but since episode 7 I have gone off them a bit. It's very unlikely that they would have just happily wandered to the camp without looking for Theo. And why didn't elendil go back to look for isildur. Of course we know that isildur won't die so there is no tension there. And the harfoots are just becoming more and more whimsical with every episode.

I guess it was always difficult to beat episode six but seven was really abysmal. Hopefully sauron will make an appearance in the final episode.

It just gets sillier and sillier.

How did the Queen Regent get blinded with no visible injury to her eyes and still have immaculate eyeliner?

How come Halbrand was so badly injured that he could barely sit up, yet was suddenly able to ride a horse at full gallop with Galadriel?

And talking of Halbrand, what actual proof is there that he is King of the Southlands? Or king of anywhere for that matter? Galadriel and the Numenoreans hand him a crown purely based on a token he carries? Just like that! No further evidence required.

I just can't give a shit about the Harfoots. They contradict themselves. All. Of. The. Time.