I agree - there was pretty much nothing there that made sense or went in the right direction.
Legolas Send a noteboard - 23/09/2022 09:47:46 PM
View original post26:58 This isn’t wrong for Pharazon, but they are really trying to cram centuries of gradual change into a sudden impulsive policy. First they went to aid other men in Middle-Earth, then they turned to trade and enriching themselves, and finally began establishing outposts and client realms and exacting tribute. The riches and successes of their expeditions made them proud which would have been a key element in turning them against the Valar. The show offers no reason for the estrangement between Elves and Westernesse (unless you consider the depiction of Galadriel to be sufficient to explain why people would start hating them)/
The sad thing is that Pharazon is one of the strongest things about the series so far.
View original post32:40 I love how this so-woke show, with its feminist flexing by having women running around and making nonsensical assertions in most of its plot lines, decides to just have a woman sitting there silently at a diplomatic feast where important political decisions are made
If only the Elves had a well-known female leader who could've been present in that meeting if the writers had done their job... oh wait.
View original post35:13 Why would Elves believe that nonsense, much less make policy around it? The fate of the Silmarils is known, each one being determined by one of the men closest to father-figures for Elrond, so he, in particular should be scoffing at this legend of the origin of mithril, much less any connection with the Silmarils. Not to mention the idea that an Elven warrior with so pure a heart could duel a Balrog without the rest of Elf-kind not only knowing his name, but having three or four more for him! Elrond is a descendant of both Finwe and Elwe, two of the first three elves to go to Valinor, only six and four generations removed, respectively, from each one. These people don’t have dim antiquity like humans do. Elrond’s great-great-grandfathers Fingolfin and Thingol were among the first elves to make weapons, and fight the forces of Morgoth. Hell, Morgoth that was named by Fingolfin’s brother. They would not have forgotten this mythical warrior or the details of his fight with a Balrog.
Yeah, this whole thing is idiotic. Having a conflict brewing between Elves and Dwarves over mithril is plenty plausible in itself - but spare us the moronic pseudo-arguments or the ridiculous notion that the Elves will die, stat, if they don't immediately get all the Dwarves' mithril.
View original postAnd the idea that something could be made stronger by combing the powers of evil and good is completely antithetical to Tolkien’s writing. It is impossible that the power of Morgoth could do anything other than weaken a substance and create flaws in it. The idea that the strength of mithril comes from evil is offensive in its disregard for the source material.
True.
View original post50:13 If Elrond and company could not distinguish Galadriel from the evil she fought, her every action thus far has been wrong. She should have used that fact to reflect and make some attempts at self-improvement, rather than dragging so many others down her path to damnation. This does not make her cool, just an utterly selfish idiot.
I do kinda like Not-Galadriel and her persistence - definitely she doesn't give me the same icky vibes that Gil-Galad and to a lesser extent even Elrond do.
View original post53:16 That was kind of pointless because we haven’t seen enough of Waldreg or the younger guy to care about their fates, or be invested in Waldreg’s choice. What did the kid matter to him, that made his choice easy or difficult? Did he have any loyalty to his neighbors, that this was a sacrifice he was willing to make? Is he an eager adherent, or merely desperate to survive?
I guess the point was to add another piece to their 'is either Meteor-Man or Adar actually Sauron and if not then who are they' puzzle - but as you said about Meteor Man, that's getting old fast. But you're right about the scene lacking sufficient build-up to work well.
View original post1:03:07 So, if Halbrand is going along with Galadriel’s plan, why leave behind with sigil necklace? And who took it? Isildur seems the mostly likely one for no reason other than no one else on this island has a motive to be so furtive, but why?
Pretty sure the idea was to show him stepping out of the door intending to refuse, then having a last minute change of heart - he's the one grabbing the necklace.
View original postThis episode put out a lot of motives they seem to think were dramatic, but were undermined by the lack of characterization or their redundancy. Nothing really happened with the Harfoots, aside from our being told that off-screen, Meteor Man's powers have made an impression. What are we supposed to think of the conflict between the Elves and Dwarves after Durin's gag with the table makes a mockery of their dealings. Also, while to a Tolkien fan his claims might have sounded screwy, they were about par for the course with all the other invented or adapted mythology of the show, which does not help their world-building. It's not parody of Tolkien, because there was never anything like that in Tolkien. He didn't put a lot of rituals or customs into his world-building, except to explain particular actions. It seems like we are supposed to be worried over Elrond's conflict with Gil-Galad & Celebrimbor's revelations and his oath to Durin, but he kept the oath and all he would have had to do is say "They already know" and only extremely unreasonable hostility on Durin's part could hold that against him. But we don't know how or why he will act. Is he touchy and upset about Elrond's ways? Being sneaky on behalf of his father? A true and loyal friend to Elrond? Scamming the Elves out of a tabletop for lolz?
Thinking about the whole Elven-Dwarven storyline, the weird thing is that it makes sense on the bigger points - as I said above, a conflict about mithril is perfectly plausible - but then the details and stated motivations are utterly asinine nonsense. Surely they have writers there who know their Tolkien lore even if the showrunners don't, so if the larger plotline works just fine without this crap, why are you putting it in and infuriating all the fans? I have a bit more tolerance for them deviating from Tolkien lore than you probably - if there's a reasonable explanation for it. I don't see any here, unless infuriating the fans is actually the goal.
View original postIn "the Southlands" we have a generic conflict of normal people against evil conquerors, but we know nothing about these people besides Bronwyn and Theo. We don't have any sense of who or what they are or what they are for, or why they might care one way or another about Adar and his orcs. Their despair at the odds and their heroism in the face of them are not earned, because the stakes are not established.
The one thing we are supposed to know about these people is their ancestors supported Morgoth, hence the Elves keeping guard over them and the friction that went with that. But considering that we are supposed to be at the end of the Second Era - which they did implicitly confirm in this episode, something about someone doing something for 'an entire Era' - that support for Morgoth would have been nearly three thousand years ago. The Elves may not have forgotten, but these humans themselves certainly would have.
View original postIn Numenor, we can't be sure what the popular mood is. First the people were anti-Elf, but now Miriel had a dream and has decided that the proper interpretation is to send an expeditionary force, and the people are so firmly behind it that the top politician on the island feels he has no choice but to go along and spin this expedition to the profit of the nation. This great naval kingdom, whose Sea Guard is a prestigious institution, only has a handful of ships to spare for the expedition, and when one burns, they have no replacements. Isildur's depiction to date supports the decisions of Elendil and Valandil to reject his request to join the expedition, but he is placed on it, with no resolution of those issues, just an authorial mandate. And what was all that about his being drawn to the West? ITB, at the outset, it was forbidden for the Men of Numenor to sail farther west than the sight of Numenor, and it was ultimately the violation of this prohibition that caused its downfall. There is nothing to suggest a sinister temptation being proffered to Isildur, so what is the point?
I'm not sure - but there's also the mystery of his brother Anarion linked to that. And yeah, not sure what was up with the ships - besides, how would Galadriel have the slightest clue of how many Orcs or other enemies she'll encounter in the Southlands and hence how many Numenoreans she actually needs to bring?
View original postAnd what is the position of his sister in this? She wants her love interest to oppose the expedition, and when he protests that Pharazon won't listen, she tells him speak louder, with no further clarification, and the next scene he is in, he questions Pharazon's actions and gets an explanation. How this was a result of his presumably figurative "speaking louder", is not apparent. And the explanation, though he didn't argue against it, failed to convince him, because he burned one of the ships. Was it solely because the girl asked him to?
I approve of the sister's addition in general, but you're right, her motivations are murky to the point of incoherence.
View original postThis was just a wasted hour. Nothing was advanced, nothing was developed, plot just happened and characters went along with it regardless of their characterization.
Yeah. Safe to say our opinion of the show and its writers only went downhill.
Rings of Power episode 5
- 23/09/2022 10:18:36 AM
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I agree - there was pretty much nothing there that made sense or went in the right direction.
- 23/09/2022 09:47:46 PM
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