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#1 |
Dead Serious
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Well, with Hui not having done so, and having just watching Episode 2 (look at that: I'm caught up!), I shall continue this mad streak of thread-starting and get something up for Episode 2, "Adrift." Once again, my content is nothing more than stream of consciousness blather:
Overall... I'm kind of enjoying myself. Despite knowing the big picture of how this must end, I really have very little idea where this is going in the small or medium scale. I definitely didn't think very much about the canon in this story other than the, erm, pedantic points above, whereas Episode 1 did have me thinking quite a bit about the legendarium. So I'm not sure what that says exactly. But I am, generally, excited to see Episode 3 now, and I was DREADING the series a week ago... so, success? Good job, Amazon? Considering you had my household's Prime account before and will likely retain it after, I'm not sure this was worth your $150 million, but it was worth my two hours so far.
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I prefer history, true or feigned.
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#2 | ||
Shady She-Penguin
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: In a far land beyond the Sea
Posts: 8,093
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![]() Overall I think episode 2 was much better than episode 1, which I found genuinely boring (which is something I had not expected). It had better pacing; things finally got going in all the plots. Durin and Elrond's friendship - which we will hopefully learn more of, since it is an interesting addition that has no backstory yet - added a lot of depth to the story, and we finally got some interesting crumbs (the Númenórean ship, the "reverse Morgul blade", more of The Stranger) that might lead somewhere. I'm still in no particular hurry to see episode three though - if for any reason, then just to be able to come to the 'Downs to dissect it at the same time with everyone else. But without the communal aspect The Rings of Power would be one of those shows where you see a couple of episodes and then you think you might watch more later and it's a bit of a coin toss whether you do and how soon. If you ask me, one obvious shortcoming of good TV writing that the show suffers from is that they're doing very poor job of keeping the audience intrigued enough to tune in for the next episode. (I know I'm not alone in this, I just talked to a friend yesterday who said she nearly didn't finish episode 1 because it was so boring and all over the place and she was wondering whether to give episode 2 a try or not.)
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Like the stars chase the sun, over the glowing hill I will conquer Blood is running deep, some things never sleep Double Fenris
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#3 | |||||
A Voice That Gainsayeth
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In that far land beyond the Sea
Posts: 7,431
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On another note, I wonder if the rectangular window was an intentional callback to famous PJ's "rejection window" of Thorin talking to Bard from inside the mountain and very politely telling him to sod off. Quote:
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More ideas: Mr. Halbrand won't actually become a Nazgul, only his son (that's what Theo is, right? That seems to be the "big secret" of H's past) will, but Mr. H., by that time having become the king of some of the Southern folk, will refuse to go against his own son, thus forfeit his oath to Isildur, and will become the King of the Dead of Dunharrow. Dun dun dun.
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"Should the story say 'he ate bread,' the dramatic producer can only show 'a piece of bread' according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own." -On Fairy-Stories |
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#4 |
Overshadowed Eagle
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: The north-west of the Old World, east of the Sea
Posts: 3,857
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Thanks for starting this, Form! We finally got round to watching Episode 2 about six hours after you put this up.
![]() And it was so much better. Partly that's the lack of the immensely irritating sailing to Valinor, but mostly I think Episode 1 suffered a lot from being an extended prologue. All of its stories consisted of 'here's some wandering around, and look! One scene suggesting the actual plot at the end'. Episode 2 takes those plots up and pushes them forward at exciting speed, and I actually have no (new) complaints. I do have comments though. ![]() Finrod - only in the 'previously on', but I happened to pause on his deathbed and noticed that he has what appear to be claw marks on his arm. Given the rest of the episode, these could be Orc claws, but I choose to believe it's the mark of his fight with the werewolf. You can't prove it's not. -_- The Stranger - is deliberately ambiguous. They clearly want us to see Gandalf in him - his face, and his speaking firefly (a fantastic line from Nori) - but equally he killed the fireflies, suggesting something more sinister. The subtitles give his first words as "Mana úrë?" which would be straight Quenya for "what heat/fire?"; but it could also have been mána/manna, "blessed", the whole coming very close to meaning "Secret Fire". Formhas jokingly suggested he could be the Man in the Moon, but I have my own crackpot theory: could he be Earendil? He fell from the sky and seems to want to get back there, and Earendil floating through the sky in a boat is in LotR, so they definitely have the rights. It would be extremely bizarre, but... Harfeet - are adorable, no notes. I watched the LotR stage play many years ago, the pre-show part of which was hobbits running around the auditorium catching fireflies; I like to think the lanterns were a deliberate reference. Halbrand - is from the Southlands, which (based on the Dunlendings) makes him distant kin to the Haladin, which makes his name actually appropriate. It's essentially a mix of Haldir and Brandir; the Haladin even have form for triple-consonant clusters, -nth-. Given how separate he was from the rest of his raft crew, I almost wonder whether he was supposed to be a slave, and the rest of the Numenoreans. I don't think there was enough evidence to support that, though the fact that there are corsairs way out in Numenorean waters is puzzling. Interesting that the 'lifting her hair' scene wasn't even Halbrand! It wasn't a Sudden Realisation that she was an elf, but just a "ha! You can't hide it." If they're Southlanders, Episode 1 established why they don't like elves: the elves are essentially acting as guards on a vast open-air prison, though whether that's in Mordor or Gondor is still unclear. Galadriel - was apparently indeed planning to swim all the way home. I guess when you realise you shouldn't be going to heaven after all, you don't have many alternatives? Eregion - or Ost-in-Edhil rather, is on the river? I guess that makes sense from the maps (and the fact that it has heavy industry!); I've been misled by the movies' glimpse of it on a hilltop. It looked very pretty, and I think we may have mistaken it for Numenor a few times in the trailers. Elrond - likes to save up his conversations until the last second. It's pretty clear Gil-Galad sent him with Celebrimbor specifically so he could get Khazad-Dum involved, but they didn't discuss that until they reached Ost-in-Edhil, and they apparently didn't discuss why they were going to Moria until they reached its (pre-West Gate!) doors. That's slightly clumsy, but the actual events make sense. I enjoyed the squabble between Elrond and Durin! There was a shot in one of the trailers that felt like they were playing off Legolas and Gimli for Elrond and Durin, and I think that's definitely the case. In an alternate LotR where Legolas was sent as messenger to the Lonely Mountain, you can imagine them having this kind of friendship. A few replies to Form:
And a quick comment on dwarves... my view, from the Appendices and the family trees, is that the dwarven path through life is incredibly ritualised. They have their first child at almost exactly 100 years, and 2-3 more at exactly 5-year gaps. Tolkien goes so far as to say you can spot a daughter by finding brothers 10 years apart in the records. The glimpse we had of the boys looked maybe 10 or younger, so yes, Elrond has managed to miss the most significant part of Durin's life: his courtship, marriage, and the birth of all his children. And a dwarf would have known that. They clearly hung out long enough that Elrond should know his age, so he would have known the 5 years or so in which he would get married (if he was going to). He would have known that there would be children immediately afterwards, and roughly how many. To dwarvish eyes, Elrond seems to have deliberately skipped over all the personal parts of Durin's life, and then swanned in in his frilly tunic to ask for a helping hand. I'm not surprised he didn't want to talk to him! I think he only caved in when it became obvious that Elrond didn't actually know what he'd done. hS
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Have you burned the ships that could bear you back again? ~Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#5 | |
Laconic Loreman
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I hope that's the diversity they continue diving into. As well as, finding out why the Southlanders didn't like the Elves occupation. The Watchwarden said the land was a desolate wasteland when they first arrived and now it's a lush, growing valley. But the Southlanders joined Morgoth and still have "evil in their hearts." I don't think we've been given reasons they do not welcome the Elves other than they're just "bad people" for joining Morgoth.
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Fenris Penguin
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#6 | |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,359
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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