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! 😂

I wonder how much COVID messed with their schedule? Apparently it took them almost 2 years to get S1 made because of the delays, and that might have impacted how much they wanted to get done?

@RedToothBrush I agree with much of what you say. The script felt very wooden. My main problem with the elves is that they are not otherworldly enough. They are basically just humans with pointy ears. I do like Charles Edwardes though. The Gandalf storyline feels all wrong . He appears too early in the overall narrative . But that may be just my nerdishness re Tolkien.

Is he actually Gandalf? I noted a line Gandalf uses in LOTR. I really liked the scenes between Halbrand and Gladriel, especially how 'unviolent' he was towards her at the end. Physically passive.

I'm not taken with the elves. Thosw from Numenor felt more elf like. I really like Elendil and hope he has a good part to play.

I'm actually confused by Elendil and the family relationships. 2 children, brother and sister (whom I don't recall from the Appendices but never mind), and Elendil's widowed. So where's Anarion? Remarriage in the next season? The two sons are such a big plot line in LOTR, with Aragorn coming "but from the line of Isildur", and as the Appendices explained, the Stewards of Gondor actually refused the claim of that line back when they were still kings of Arnor.

Also somewhat irritated by Numenor. The optics can best be described as Santorini meets Italian Fascist architecture. All those huge ultra-flat pillars...

Well he may not be. There were 5 wizards ( ‘Istari’) though we only meet three of them in LOTR. So he could be one of the others. But the appendix to LOTR says they came to Middle Earth over the sea from the West at the beginning of the Third Age. So what this one is doing in Middle Earth a good thousand years earlier is a mystery.

I'm pretty sure Anárion was mentioned early on when we first met Isildur and his invented-for-Tv sister. I'll have to go back and watch that bit again ...

I did note in the closing credits that the Wizard was still credited as “The Stranger”, though it may be more a question of not wanting to give things away before the episode aired.

I did also like the reflection of the language used when Sauron invites Galadriel to stand alongside him and that used by Cate Blanchet’s version when she goes all scary in Fellowship.

This was such a mess of a series with scenes going on forever at the expense of (for example) explaining who the white clad women actually were. And what was the point of Earien popping up the stairs to find the palantir?

I think the white women might have been dark elves.

I think me and DH were the only ones who hadn't been suspicious of Halbrand at all, especially funny as DH is a detective 😂

He was always hanging around forges though

That was such a big clue!

Pity I missed it though I had no doubt it wasn't the Stranger.

Thanks. Was it actually stated on screen though? I'm generally an attentive viewer but I do miss dialogue if I forget to put the subs on.

No, just me speculating.

@PolkaDotMankini Okay thanks. Sounds like a reasonable idea.

I was quite sure that Halbrand wasn't Sauron until I realised he was. Looking back it's quite obvious.

1. Look how fast he acts to save himself on the raft. He cuts away his fellow sailors so the sea monster attacks them first.

1. One of the first things he tells Galadriel is that 'Appearances can be deceptive.'

1. In Numenor he's desperate to work as a blacksmith again and speaks of being apprenticed to a Master - which begs the question 'If he was truly King of the Southlands then why on Earth would he have trained as a blacksmith?'

1. When the other blacksmiths attack him he very easily fights off 5 of them.

1. When he meets Adar he's surprised that Adar doesn't recognise him.

Do you mean the three people who thought that the stranger is sauron? I thought they are some sort of Maia too...just ones supporting sauron.

But yes, omg how long can it take to say goodbye? I hope now that nori has split from the harfoots we don't have to see them.in season 2. After very uncharacteristically trying to save the stranger they returned back to form immediately after. They didn't even grieve sadoc for a minute did they?

i never thought to look here if anyone was watching.
I love Tolkien, i Have Thoughts about what Jackson did to LOTR and get positively animated when i think what he did to The Hobbit but. But. I decided to watch this as fan-fiction-ish-homage-to-middle earth.

A few thoughts: I love Disa (no beard? i can live with that, maybe she shaves)
Loved the waking of the Balrog. They really did delve too deep there.
Numenor looks a bit like MCU Asgard on occasion, but i do like the echoes of Minas Tirith. In fact i liked all the little nods to things from the books/films of LOTR and so on.
The Harfoots are cute, and while i hoped the stranger was going to be a (too early) Radagast, i am happy for him to be Gandalf realising how great hobbits are where nobody else knows of them.
Halbrand's northern accent is Lancashire, surely, as a baddie? I thought it was too obvious that he was Sauron, but hiding in plain sight, and sort of tricking/coercing Galadriel into what she did was pretty much Sauron at heart so i can live with that.

Biggest irritation: Galadriel speaking with her teeth clenched all the time. Really annoying.

Am now going back to the Unfinished Tales, will read all my books then watch TROP again. And just let it wash over me without worrying too much about discrepancies. It's very pretty.