Cherry-Picking the Good Parts

[Formendacil]

In the Rings of Power First Episode Thread, in my stream of consciousness-esque list of first impressions, there were a few things I noted as genuinely liking. I'll start by quoting them here:

Originally Posted by Formendacil

• I like the round door "etymology."

• First impression: I LIKE young-Elrond but cannot picture him as the same being as Hugo Weaving.

• Graeco-Roman is far better for Elves than Celto-Nipponese

• I do like Gil-galad as a presence. N.B. I **DID** half-retract this later

• It's weird, but the in-between dynamic of Gil-galad's man and Galadriel's friend does seem right.

• Well, at least Celebrimbor LOOKS like a mad scientist Elf.

• Okay, the ship climbing the straight road is cool imagery, even if the dumbly-standing Elves are still ridiculous.

• This feels more 1st Age Doom of the Noldor but it'd make a cool setpiece in an Eärendil retelling

That is heavily excerpted--everything I said that had a definite positive spin to me, and that's what this thread is about: just a similar "I LIKED this part of RoP!"

You don't have to agree with my list--you can even like things I found baffling or distasteful (the same British sound on Haradrim as Noldor? What is this nonsense!), but that's not the purpose of this thread. This thread is--solely--for things you genuinely liked. If you want to go long and detailed on why you liked it, I'd love to read it, but I'm open to mere lists.

[Boromir88]

A few things that I haven't mentioned in the Spoiler thread, which I'm going to use more for my reaction/episode analysis. This one will be nice just to highlight the best tidbits.

-I appreciated that well made orc prosthetics are always superior to CGI. Also that orc was wicked strong, the entire scene I felt like the orc was a real threat. I hope this is how they do depict their orcs in the series. I got bored with The Hobbit's Legolas 101 ways to decapitate an orc. The orc scene in Episode 2, that orc was definitely not canon fodder.

-I loved the the "sinking" of Galadriel's origami boat and how it opened up into a swan. I thought it a clever nod to the Kinslaying of Alqualonde. With the copyright I don't think they could have gotten into details, but readers of the Silm I think would recognize what that scene represents.

-The best bit so far are the Harfoots (Harfeet?) How it showed simple hobbit "magic" to disappear, blend in with their environment and avoid the eyes of Big Folk blundering through. It was a nice and unexpected treat.

[Bêthberry]

Because folks have complained about the ship to Valinor--and even I had a stab at calling the situation a Rapture--I thought a good post here would be to a post I found elsewhere which really helped peopl (including me) appreciate how the scene/event could be understood within this new narrative interpretation. The people who responded positively to this are very knowledgeable, extensive readers of Tolkien and critical commentary on him.

this isn't about #Tolkien lore per se, but more about mythic mood and a possible nod to one area of Tolkien's many influences.
For me, the #Galadriel on the boat sequence seemed to show her struggling with accepting some traditional/accepted eternity after service done/graceful retirement of responsibility, and peaceful acceptance as expected of her, whilst here still grieving for both her brother and her perceived removal of agency by being assumed to be grateful for this "prize" of returning to Valinor with a group of elven warriors who are all seemingly very happy/honoured to receive their final reward of eternal respite in splendor following years of glorious battle.
Here she is at once one of the glorious "slain" or battlefield chosen, rewarded, and here being ritually disarmed by spectre-like veiled women who have (at some point in the past) already accepted their ritual roles. As if both her and the veiled women were somehow both halves or severed aspects of the same classic Norse concept of the #Valkyrie or dísir.
While the veiled women are portrayed as the ritualistic, anonymous #psychopomps of those deemed worthy of reward in a shining Valhalla-like eternity, she becomes their other side, the fierce armoured #Erinyes-like female warrior, bent on revenge (even shown earlier gathering up arms of the dead on the battlefield herself, placing helms on a vast memorial).
Here she is split into two (almost in front of us, as she literally finds herself struggling with the veiled maiden over the knife), forcing her hand as to which one she must become... at least for now (all long before her transformation into the Norn-like wise and patient "goddess" of fate we meet in the Third Age by her mirror basin of things past, present and future).

I very much like the idea of drawing inspiration from possible Tolkien sources.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

"Stone Age" Hobbits

I will be one of apparently many who are saying that the Harfeet are really great. I shall repeat what I have said elsewhere: I love how the culture is built. They indeed feel like "Stone Age Hobbits", the pseudo-nomadic gatherers with their way of dealing with the world... it somehow managed to capture the essence of those aboriginal cultures (amidst the "civilised", sedentary cultures who inhabit Middle-Earth at the time!) in such a manner that it fits so smoothly into the setting and you do not even realise how well it is done until you start thinking about it, because it simply does not stick out in any way.

I also liked Largo's chronicle and proto-Hobbit-script, as a different, yet somehow appropriate nod to their future bookworms like Bilbo and their genealogical and other interests.

Elven vs Mortal Perception of Time

Elrond and Durin: I think picking up the theme of immortality and the different concept of time is something that is not often tackled in such a manner even in fantasy in general, and if it is, it is often in the very extreme form of "member of one race loved the other and we know that one of them has to die". This sort of "mundane" take on perception of time and which events are considered important is almost... well, even a neuroscientist would be happy!

I think what the writers did right was to pick up a theme that exists in Tolkien (immortality of one race vs mortality of another) and explored what it means in practice in a way that the source material never does. Well done! This is how expanding on existing lore should look like.

The "Reverse Morgul-Blade"

I liked the idea and the visual effect of the "reverse Morgul-Blade", even if I know not how it works, what it should be, or anything else about it. It is visually cool, it instantly calls back the imagery it (I assume) is supposed to (i.e. the Morgul-Blade that disappears), the way it "drains blood" looks cool and it alludes to it being something creepy, evil and "vampiric", i.e. that drains one's life force and transforms it into power that is able to kill others (also a metaphorical foreshadowing of the wielder's future life path, if he stays on it).

But I like simply the innovative effect of taking something familiar and just reversing it, and what it looks like. (In fact, it is also a sort of metaphor for the story itself - of Sauron's - and his servants' - rise, as opposed to fall; a blade forming as opposed to disappearing.)

Incidentally, I could say that all the weapons so far in this show look very visually appealing and I find them overall more interesting than PJ's weapons.

[Blind Guardian]

I really like the Harfoots. I like the nod to Frodo and Sam / Merry and Pippin in Nori and Poppy. There is also a nod to the future in their last names: Proudfelllow and Brandyfoot (Proudfeet and Brandywine).

I also really enjoy all of the physical stuff. The sets look great, the costumes look great, the boats look great, the weapons look great. Each race is very distinctive looking. Kazad-Dum is amazing. The Harfoots houses are super cute and I like how they blend into their environment. You can clearly see the Hobbits that they will evolve into.

Orcs quietly digging under houses is creepy as heck... I don't like it but at the same time I do like it. Are they just trying to heist away that sword in the middle of the night via tunnels? Creepy. I dig it.

I like Durin and Dori better than I thought I would. She's so happy and friendly and talkative and he's gruff and stoic (somewhat).

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I actually can't get past their anachronistic and linguistically impossible names. Tolkien is all about the nomenclature, and if you can't get that right you have no business adapting Tolkien

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

I actually can't get past their anachronistic and linguistically impossible names. Tolkien is all about the nomenclature, and if you can't get that right you have no business adapting Tolkien

While I don't disagree--this sort of thing bothers me more than the completely mashed timeline--I fear you have misread the purpose of this thread: you have to pick out the stuff you DO like.

If, perchance, that turns out to be nothing... well, there are other threads.