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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

It wasn't really a downward trend for me. After the intro sequence of Episode 1 I immediately noticed that this was nowhere near LOTR so from then on I had low/no expectations regarding the series.

There was a noticeable dip of quality from episode 3 forward which may or may not have something to do with the director of Wheel of Time taking over and the writing in this show is also not getting better. I constantly wonder how the characters manage to talk that much and say so little at the same time.

At this point I just want to know where this is going regarding the legacy characters and hope for a couple of memorable moments along the way
 
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DigModiFicaTion said:
The response to the series will be such that Amazon cancels season 2 and we'll all wonder why we sat through 8 hours of weak story telling coupled with a big tv budget
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Do you really think they'll cancel it or is this more hoping on your part? :)
 
DigModiFicaTion said:
In the remaining episodes I predict that
Tall grizzly half naked man is revealed to either be Gandalf or Sauron
The Dritz dark elf dude will turn out to be some lame distraction of a character to misdirect us into thinking that he may be Sauron
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If they are trying to have any connection with the source material, even if vague, it would make zero sense for grizzly half naked man to be sauron. In fact, it wouldn't really make sense in light of what the show has already shown us either - that sauron has already been an active part of their history. This new guy is a new guy, and if he's not gandalf, he's one of the other wizards.

Dark elf dude does seem to be setup as a distraction somewhat, though the only figure I could consider him to be, based on what we've seen, is Morgoth. Morgoth fathered the orcs (and we've been told directly that this guy is their "father"). If he's neither sauron or Morgoth, they are going in their own direction entirely and I have no idea who he's meant to be.

I agree with you that foreshadowing is way too on the nose these days. I don't really see this as being any worse than a lot of other current shows though. Maybe this comes across as sacrelage, but I think all SW TV that disney have churned out has been pretty abysmal for the most part, so Rings of Power for me feels refreshing by comparison (as a franchise spinoff). I'm not including Andor in that yet as it's too early to say (and has already shown itself to be a step above).

Also, I highly doubt season 2 will be cancelled. They've already begun filming it.
 
I’m really struggling to see what is to hate so much. It’s not a home run by any means, but it’s better than TBotFA for me by a landslide. Like the Hobbit trilogy, it is probably stretching its source material too far, but Tolkien was known to take a bit too long to get where he was going as well. In the end, it’s fine. It’s not great and it’s not terrible. 🤷‍♂️
 
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I've just seen that bit where Galadriel puts those guys behind the bars. Pathethic level editing to say the least.
 
Gieferg said:
I've just seen that bit where Galadriel puts those guys behind the bars. Pathethic level editing to say the least.
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Ha, yeah I remember thinking that was an oddly executed scene.

Also, added spoiler tag to your post.
 
Gieferg said:
I've just seen that bit where Galadriel puts those guys behind the bars. Pathethic level editing to say the least.
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The second she starts the fight, they cut away to Halibrand telling Numinorian Karl Marx (forgot his name) to not bother joining in the fight. Then they cut back to Galadriel and she's shoving the last of four (!!) soldiers into the cell and closing the door behind them. :LOL:

Maybe Galadriel or one of the soldiers f-ed up the choreography they had planned in that scene and there wasn't enough left in the $60 Mio budget to do another take, which would be a little odd, especially after watching that whole sword dancing routine in episode five.
 
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One prediction I do have about the series is that Halibrand will be the one responsible for the death of Galdriel's brother.
 
Maybe Galadriel or one of the soldiers f-ed up the choreography they had planned in that scene and there wasn't enough left in the $60 Mio budget to do another take
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Well, it kinda looks like a scene from a fanedit where someone is trying to show something that wasn't planned / filmed. In a fanedit that may be acceptable but here it is laughable :)
 
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I hadn't really cared for the Elf and humans subplot, so I wasn't thrilled to be getting a whole episode on them but it turned out great. Maybe this show would work best if it stuck with one subplot per episode, instead of jumping all over the map.


Spoiler speculation...

I'm seeing the "All hail to the true king of the southlands" as more confirmation that Halbrand is Sauron. Plus the mountain that exploded is Mount Doom and the south land they are trying to save isn't going to be Gondor, it will be Mordor.

One thing that makes me wince every time I hear it in this show is Isildur being referred to as "Isil". It's not Tolkien's style to have characters shorten their names, announcing themselves as "Arry", instead of saying things like "My name is Aragorn, son of Arathorn. Captain of the Dunedain. Ellesar, Elf Stone of Elendil. Bearer of Anduril, flame of the West, forged from the shards of Narsil, the blade that cut the ring from Sauron's hand. King of Gondor and Arnor and I'd like a Big Mac, fries and banana milkshake.". Also the Isil thing brings back memories of Ani from the PT.

Does anyone know for sure where the Hobbits are on Tolkien's map. The Amazon blurb says they are in the Rhovanion/Wilderland region, so I assume they are somewhere between Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains. Which IIRC is where Tolkien said the early Hobbits came from in the intro to LotR.

Looking at the relevant maps, I didn't realise that Eregion and Moria were right next to each other (only 25-miles orless according to the maps scale), I thought they were on the other side of the map. So the apparent teleporting of Elrond and Durin between the two places is actually fine. Still they could've explained things like that much better.
 
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I’ve been enjoying the show all along. Like TM2YC, the southlanders story was the one I was least invested in. This episode made me care a bit more about it. And the bringing together of two or three (at least) different storylines helped tremendously. This was by far the most action packed episode and the action was pretty amazing for TV. While I understand there was a lot to cover in this episode, I do wish other storylines were touched on. Maybe it’s intentional but it all feels a little too disparate. I know it will all come together but I want it to feel more cohesive in doing so. I still have issues with the music, which feels like it’s trying to be a Shore-like score but doesn’t land it. Instead it often feels schmaltzy and undermines the emotion rather than enhancing it. It’s still better than a Zimmer-esque score though. All in all, I’m very pleased with this show. I continue to struggle to see the cause for hate. It may not be your thing, but I can’t see why anyone would be so invested in hating this. 🤷‍♂️

Edit: @TM2YC

I think the show has established that the land this episode took place in becomes Mordor. So clearly we saw that beginning with the eruption of Mt. Doom. Please, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. But I don’t think Halbrand is Sauron. Perhaps the Witch King.
 
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Now THAT'S more like it!!! SO much better than the last few episodes. May be down to the fact that it was more action and visuals based, but I found I cared FAR more in the dialogue scenes as well, (minus one laughably stupid one I noted below). What a huge difference a single director can make! It's clear to me that J.A. Bayona (surprisingly; I haven't seen Fallen Kingdom but I have heard good things about his other works) and Charlotte Brändström are FAR better directors than Wayne Che Yip...

(Side note to admins: How do I do the new spoiler tags where it blurs the sentence instead of creating a spoiler section in my post?)

"One cannot quench thirst by drinking sea water" I get the metaphor but it seemed a little too absurd and obvious at the same time. It was trying desperately to make a Tolkien-esque metaphor and make a trope-y scene where the hero struggles with sparing the villain (nothing necessarily wrong with that) more unique or interesting, but it made me laugh out loud in a scene that's supposed to be dramatic. I don't know what everyone else thought of it but it'd be one of the first things I'd cut in an edit.

Anyway, I admired how they "wrapped up" Galadriel's "flat arc" while delving deep into her own conflicts and insecurities, while Halbrand accepted his role as king (while planting the seeds of his presumably dark future). Which is why I was surprised that the episode ended the way it did--I thought the season was going to be 6 episodes for some reason and it looked like the episode was wrapping the season up! My jaw dropped when the sword was struck in the stone platform and the mountain erupted (Mount Doom & Mordor confirmed in my eyes) and I can't wait to see where it all leads for the next two episodes!
 
Moe_Syzlak said:
I think the show has established that the land this episode took place in becomes Mordor. So clearly we saw that beginning with the eruption of Mt. Doom. Please, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. But I don’t think Halbrand is Sauron. Perhaps the Witch King.
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I'm not discounting that possibility but the witchking of Angmar's kingdom is in the far north, not the south.


Gieferg said:
Merry and Sam would argue on that ;)
Yeah, I know they're hobbits, not kings but still...
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You mean Meriadoc son of Saradoc and Samwise, son of Hamfast. Plus Frodo, son of Drogo and Peregrin, son of Paladin. It's sad that I didn't need to look those up :LOL: . But yeah good point, the more light-hearted characters do get more familial but I don't think Isildur should be one of those.
 
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