The Rings Of Power fights the war within in a visually striking penultimate episode
Galadriel shakes off the ash, Elrond gets digging, and Harfoots keep walking in an emotionally overwhelming season-best outing
TV Reviews Rings of Power
Anything worth doing takes a long time to do it, and Lord Of The Rings’ slow-burn approach to fantasy ended in the eruption of the Southland volcano last week. However, the audience’s patience wasn’t for naught. It imbued our heroes with integrity and resilience and Middle-earth with a logic all its own. These atrocities may be fated by minds greater than the Elves, Dwarves, and Men, but they may have a greater purpose if only we could see through the ash.
Last week’s action-packed blood feast finally delivered Rings fans the epic battles TV viewers crave. But that’s not really what Lord Of The Rings is about. It’s not about betrayals, political maneuvering, or fantasy violence. Those things exist in Middle-earth, but connection and collaboration across borders matter so much more. The darkness only makes the light shine brighter, and this push and pull between heritage and friendship can create division and strength in all forms of fellowship. It is within them to overcome their prejudices and find hope and love in their fellow Middle-earthling. The fantastic, visually striking, and season-best episode “The Eye” doubles down on these themes as Galadriel, Elendil, and Durin attempt to retain hope amid incalculable despair.
An eye is the first image we see in the red-soaked Hellmouth that is the Southlands. Cinematographer Alex Disenhof follows the breathless action of “Udûn” with a landscape that evokes photos of the California wildfires and the orange skies they brought to the west coast in 2020. Galadriel awakes in this ashen land, dusts herself off, and begins searching for survivors, finding young Theo. As the show teases another Bronwyn fridging, Queen Regent Míriel and Isildur search for survivors. The latter finds only death, discovering the lifeless eyes of his friend Otamno (Anthony Crum) staring back at him. As he considers Otamno, a beam breaks, and a house crashes on Isildur, leaving his friends to assume he, too, is lost. Later, when Elendil sees Isildur’s injured horse without a rider, he assumes the worst.
After weeks of wondering and wandering, the Brandyfoots finally catch up to the Harfoots at the Grove, which the volcano left scorched. Atop a nearby hill, The Stranger speaks unfamiliar words to a burned-out tree. As it did in the pool last week, the Stranger’s power explodes and frightens the Harfoots. Still, a flower grows from the tree’s trunk.
The passing shadow is all over this episode, bringing light and dark. Last week, Bronwyn reminded Theo that there is “light and high beauty forever beyond the reach” of darkness. Galadriel, who enlists Theo as a traveling companion, goes one step further, teaching Theo not to let hate into his heart. “It darkens the heart to call bad deeds ‘good,’” she tells him. “Every war is fought without and within.” Theo and Galadriel fight the external loss of life in the Southlands and each soldier’s internal responsibility for it.
Galadriel’s remorse is palpable from the first frame of “The Eye.” She tells Theo that she feels responsible for the explosion, and in many ways, she is. The obvious example is that she didn’t check the friggin’ hilt when she had Adar captured. But Elves have been missing warnings all season. As she rallied Númenor, the Elves in the Southlands missed a whole Orc siege under their noses. Like the Jedi in the Star Wars prequels, the Elves of the Second Age are high on their own supply. That’s what makes Elrond, the half-Elven, such a crucial character; he sees in Elves what they cannot see. He knows the cost of allowing that friendship to wither. Elrond didn’t even notice that he hadn’t seen his best friend in 20 years and is willing to change his thinking and admit when he is wrong.
Galadriel’s war goes deeper, and her distance is understandable. As she and Theo commiserate over the explosion, the Elf reveals that she was once a dancer (and an equestrian). Yes, she danced with her husband Celeborn, whom she lost at war. Unfortunately, the loss of both her brother and husband has left her with nothing else.
She’s fighting the war within, like Durin and Elendil. Elrond makes his play to King Durin (Peter Mullan), bending the knee and making promises of riches in return for the supply of mithril. But Durin rejects the offer, telling Durin that the Elves’ fate and the fate of Middle-earth are out of their control. If this is the Elves’ time, so be it. Durin breaks the news to Elrond, who must return to Lindon to tell High King Gil-galad that they’re screwed. It is a heartwrenching scene as Bear McCready’s Elrond theme tiptoes in as Elrond tells Durin that Elves “don’t say goodbye” but rather “go with goodness.” The way Durin shouts “namárië” turns on the waterworks. This show is wonderful.
Elrond begins his exit leaves and hands the mithril ore back to Durin, who pushes it to the edge of his new table in disgust. The mithril resurrects the plant when it lands next to the rotting Elven leaf, proving Gil-galad’s theory. The two better get digging.
Later, as the buddies chisel away at the mithril mine, the two share a series of loving exchanges, espousing how much the other means to them through gentle teasing and admissions. Director Charlotte Brändström jumps between intimate closeups as they deepen their relationship, becoming a chosen brother to each other, with Elrond stopping Durin before hearing his secret Dwarven name. It’s a scene destined to inspire thousands of pieces of fan fiction. We thank Elrond and Durin for their service.
Their emotional deepening resonates in the stone. Soon after they reach catharsis, Durin and Elrond discover the motherlode of mithril, but King Durin won’t be defied. He exiles Elrond from Khazad-dûm. Peter Mullan is fantastic discussing the night he nursed his infant son Durin back to health, beaming with joy as he predicts his son will “move mountains.” But Durin’s not convinced. “How can I move mountains when you crush my ambition.” The conversation doesn’t end well, with Durin telling his father that “he profanes the crown.”
Heavy is the head that wears the crown, as Durin and Míriel learn. After trying to rescue villagers from the flames, Míriel is stricken blind, only able to see grey, a potent metaphor for the state of the world. However, it’s not all blackness—light peeks through. Sunshine returns the further they get from the Southlands. The morning after the Stranger does his spell on the tree, the Grove is teeming with new life. The dead tree now bears juicy red apples. In return, Sadoc gives the Stranger directions to the big people, where he might find information on his lost stars. Nori gives him an apple before sending him on his way and telling her mother, “she’s just a Harfoot.” She will no longer get into mischief like this.
Yet all that glitters is not gold. Three fair-skinned figures clad in white hunt the Stranger, arriving at the Grove the night he disembarks. Nori bravely does her best to throw them off course. But when Largo spots them looming over Nori, he rushes over with a torch. The figure puts it out with their hand, blows the ashes into the air, and magically sets the Harfoot camp ablaze.
By the episode’s end, everyone is on the same page. Halbrand will bring “strength to the Southlands” and travel with Galadriel to Lindon and face the Elves. It’s easy to forget that the Elves probably assume Galadriel is sipping drinks out of a coconut on the beaches of Valinor. But they’ve got their own problems. On top of the whole mithril shortage in Lindon, King Durin awoke a Balrog when he casually tossed the Elvish leaf away.
As new enemies awaken, our heroes are on the move. The Harfoots will rebuild, facing challenges with “hearts as big as their feet,” as Largo says. Nori decides that she’s setting off to find the Stranger. The rest of the community admits to some misgivings, showing some of that contrition that Elrond expressed earlier this season. But she won’t be going alone. A fellowship Harfoots will hit the road and take their place in the wider world. They will move on and succeed as long as they stay true to each other and just keep walking.
Stray observations
- Robert Aramayo’s scenes with Owain Arthur were stunning in their warmth, empathy, and understanding. Aramayo’s been quietly crushing every episode he’s in, but the reunion between Elrond and Galadriel is something we’re anxiously awaiting.
- The same goes for Dylan Smith’s “just keep walking” speech, which beautifully recalled Aragorn’s line to Gimli and Legolas in Fellowship Of The Ring. “As long as we stay true to each other.” This is the essence of Tolkien’s work, as far as I’m concerned, and Rings Of Power explores and enriches this theme in surprising and effective ways.
- Halbrand’s mysterious absence in this episode will no doubt send conspiracy theorists into a tizzy.
- I’ve enjoyed the show’s living map, but the chyron burning was maybe a little more seasoning than I needed.
- “Every war is fought without and within” gets bonus points for using that archaic form of “without.” Tolkien loved old words and used old versions of words in his work. Many have criticized it, but this show’s dedication and care to how Tolkien wrote is really off the charts. There is an intense attention to detail in the show’s language.
129 Comments
So do we think they are taking huge liberties with the source material or are a few characters implied dead in this episode going to show up later?
I mean they woke the Balrog up a few thousand years before the source material, so who knows anymore. I hope Celeborn is still alive though. Otherwise the show is skewing incredibly, incredibly hard away from ‘adaptation’ and into ‘billion dollar fan fiction’.
Celeborn is definitely not dead. Galadriel says she ‘never saw him again,’ unlike her brother, whose body was recovered. They’re going to have to answer where he’s been, but there’s an emotional reunion coming up in some future season.
Finding out that she’s already met and married him is kind of funny because a lot of Tolkien nerds were complaining in the early episodes that Galadriel was already supposed to be married at this point.
Also, while the Balrog may be awoken, it was a loooong way down, so there’s probably a good long period between now and when the dwarves actually unleash it on themselves. They haven’t even built the Doors of Durin yet!
That’s the smart way to play it all. I’m not saying the show is being stupid and I’m still desperately trying to give it a chance so here’s hoping that’s what they do for both!
I would assume Berek has run off to find Isildur and that Celeborn will turn up in some future season having been bewitched by a dragon or something along those lines.But yes, there are changes aplenty, which is less a problem in and of itself and more confusing in terms of what we’re supposed to understand about the world being portrayed.
Celeborn and Galadriel separated in the past for long amounts of time. So they could just have had a falling out (maybe over Galadriel’s quest?). The real twist would be if Celebrian already exists. Though I’d be really annoyed with that from a characated perspective. Galadriel already having a kid seems important.
This is the concern, given who Galadriel’s daughter goes on to marry in the text, I agree it’s important. I’m sure they are setting up another horse saves his rider moment like in Two Towers, which, ok, fine. My other weird little niggle is changing Isildur’s brother to a sister, which wouldn’t be a big deal if the brother weren’t the other statue in the Argornath. For me, a lot of the fun of a prequel is watching puzzle pieces fit together and form the picture of the story we already know. The show runners are creating a lot of weird edges that dont seem to match up. Maybe it will make more sense when/where the Sauron reveal takes place.
Anarion has already been name-dropped on the show, they didn’t change him into Isildur’s sister, Eärien, she is a separate character.
My other weird little niggle is changing Isildur’s brother to a sister
FWIW, it’s not a change, it’s an addition. The weird choice the show has made is that Anarion’s the elder brother only ever spoken about in disapproving tones and the past tense. Apparently he’ll be showing up in a future season.My preferred complaint about Earien is mostly about Kemec, but it’s the thought that they started with the idea of star-crossed lovers from families that hate each other, but because it’s Tolkien and they can’t be horny, they’re apparently just weird Numenorean centrists (whose idea was it that the King’s Men would be afraid of Elven tyranny, anyway?).
My other weird little niggle is changing Isildur’s brother to a sister, which wouldn’t be a big deal if the brother weren’t the other statue in the ArgornathThey didn’t change Isildur’s brother to anything. Isildur’s brother is still Anárion in the show, who has been brought up and discussed of several times by Isildur and Elendil at this point Eärien is an original addition, but she hasn’t taken anyone else’s place in the setting.
He wasn’t changed to a sister. They mentioned Anarion in an earlier episode. They just added a sister.
Anarion has been mentioned in the show, we just haven’t seen him yet. Their sister is an original character.
The way she mentioned Celeborn certainly sounded like she didn’t think it was a separation, but who knows. My hunch is mostly that Celeborn won’t have been imprisoned, and everything else I can imagine would be goofier. But of those, ‘stared at Glaurung’ requires the least work to reconcile.
Celeborn and Galadriel separated in the past for long amounts of time. So they could just have had a falling out (maybe over Galadriel’s quest?). Falling out? This episode specifically mentions that Celeborn is assumed to be dead. Obviously he isn’t, but no one in universe knows that.
No, she said she lost her husband. Which is weasely enough to cover anything.
No, she said she lost her husband. Which is weasely enough to cover anything.When he went to battle in ill-fitting armour. Presumed death is the obvious interpretation.
Yeah… Which is why I called it weasely. There’s an obvious interpretation but they can have practically anything happen without contradicting her.
I just don’t see any reason for it to be more complex than the face value. And thus far the show seems to have been fairly on the nose about most subjects, even ones that I’d prefer to be rather more complex, like the mithril or the Balrog.
Normally yes, but if a kid’s talking about his probably dead mom, and mostly slaughtered town, putting your rough break up in the same category would make you a bigger asshole than Sauron.
Oooo, suddenly I am hoping Celeborn gets Celebrian’s backstory instead. He’s off being ravished by orcs so his daughter doesn’t have to be later.
I’m with you halfway—tbh I was trying to think of what would be a suitable Nienor parallel if it ends up being dragon-related, and I’m now rooting for Celeborn to be living as Elrond’s spouse when Galadriel sees them again.Not sure if they can make the Ellahad/Elrohir timing fit, but why should Elves be restricted to reproducing like humans?
I hadn’t considered dragon bewitchment, a little out there, but honestly not a bad explanation for him to have been MIA for so long. Personally I would have had them separated at the second kinslaying if it was deemed necessary that he not show up, but non-soap-opera excuses for them to stay apart for thousands of years are hard to come by. I’m guessing he’s going to turn out to be the elf involved with the whole mithril weirdness.
Given how much visual continuity it shares with the movies, i suspect the “dead” characters will show up again.
Celeborn is completely superfluous to Galadriel’s story, if he shows up again, cool, if not, I”m fine with it.
What? They are tied to the hip in trying to find a successful place for a Noldor kingdom to be. At this time in the show they should be the rulers of Lindon. Celeborn and Elrond fight at the siege of Eregion. Galadriel and Celeborn’s child marries Elrond. There’s nothing superfluous about that. At the end of the books Celeborn and Galadriel go to the grey havens together.
No, Celeborn doesn’t go with her to the Grey Havens. He stays in Middle Earth for a long time after she leaves although I don’t recall if it is said when/if he eventually takes a ship.
Close. Gil Galad rules Lindon, and her and Celeborn rule a fiefdom that’s a part of it until they leave to found Eregion, which she rules for 600 years, after which their family (which includes Celebrian now) moves to Lothlorien.
Celeborn did not go to Valinor with Galadriel. He even laments the fact that she is leaving him. Tolkien stated that no one knows when Celeborn finally chose to go West. Celeborn’s consistent refusal to go to Valinor is one of the reasons I think making him a Valinorian elf makes very little sense. I think the Sindarin take is the most consistent with the rest of the story.
You are correct I was combining the movies and the lore together in my head in thinking they left together.
Them not leaving together is one of those things that I find intriguing about Celeborn’s character. We’re told that he twice refuses to go to Valinor (his refusal to leave is one of the reasons Galadriel does not go in the beginning of the Second Age). He’s also completely uninterested in going at the end of LotR. So he’s got no sea-longing and seems even averse to the idea.
If I remember correctly, doesn’t Tolkien note somewhere that he and Cirdan were the last elves to leave Middle Earth?
I think Tolkien said different things (which makes it confusing). He did say at one point that it’s not recorded when Celeborn left, but he was the last elf who remembered the First Age on Middle Earth to leave. Cirdan was on the “last ship” to sale from the Grey Havens, but it’s not clear that it was the last ship of elves entirely or if Celeborn went with him.
They do in the movies, but not in the books. Galadriel leaves with Gandalf & Bilbo & Frodo & Elrond, but Celeborn sticks around into the Fourth Age, continuing his role as a protector over Lothlorian (& adding land in southern no-longer-Mirkwood). He doesn’t stay too long, though, & heads into the West a few years later.
They already DESTROYED most of the lore, so… anything goes at this point.But I bet Isildur will have all kind of adventures in Middle Earth, Elendil will be mopey and Celeborn will be a Mcguffin to pull out of the writer asses down the line.This writing is a disgrace to the craft.
They probably will met again in Lothlorien/Lindórinand after the fall of Eregion. Setting up the path for the Last Alliance of Middle Earth. So probably in season 3?
Definitely a ‘it can be both’ scenario. They *are* taking huge liberties but also we haven’t seen bodies for any of the ‘dead’ that really mess with canon so I’m betting on returns.
Both. Neither Celeborn or Isildur can be dead. When it comes to Isildur, even viewers who are unfamiliar with the books or movies know a fake TV death when they see it.When it comes to Galadriel and Celeborn? This show is so vastly different than even the appendices I have no idea where they are going with this. Celeborn never disappeared or was thought dead. Galadriel and he were never apart except maybe during the fight at Eregion for a short time. Their daughter marries Elrond for fuck’s sake. The show also seemed to just awaken Durin’s Bane a full age before it happens in the books and made mithril into something elves need to survive.
And knocking a leaf through a peephole is NOT “delving too greedily and too deep”. I’m hoping the leaf was an irritation that makes him tunnel deeper, and he doesn’t rage out until full-scale mithril extraction happens for a while and becomes un-ignorable.
Not sure what you mean. In some versions at least, Celeborn and Galadriel were apart for quite a long time. Galadriel left Eregion and Celeborn stayed. They didn’t meet again until a long time after Eregion fell.
I’m sure he’ll show up at some point. Although it would be far far funnier if instead Galadriel finds some random other Sindar, marries him, and forces him to change his name to Celeborn. I mean, why not, for all the importance of his role in the story.
Last week’s action-packed blood feast finally delivered Rings fans the epic battles TV viewers crave.Not really. What was far more significant was the first genuinely interesting bit of adaptation in the entire series – the creation of Mount Doom – and a much more compelling backstory for Adar’s motivations that even fits within the lore. Because of that, it was easily the best episode of the series despite all sorts of other problems with it, ranging from plot holes galore to repeated saved-from-death-in-the-nick-of-time false drama.This one? Back to the herky jerky narration that has delivered in fits and starts prior to last week with the additional burden of splitting up the storylines to obviously set up the plot for where they want to start Season 2. There’s Elrond departing for what we presume will be a desperate request for Celebrimbor to do his thing to save the trees, Galadriel and Annata…err Halbrand heading to Gil-Galad to give him a big ol’ assist, the Southlanders going to Numenor to shelter and set up the eventual Numenor invasion (via seer-queen-regent), Adar setting up Mordor since it clearly wasn’t obvious to anyone that was his new address before we’re told it, the Harfoots forming up their own fellowship to chase after not-Gandalf (I’m still holding out for a Blue Wizard, although that may be too much) thanks to a few apples, the weird pale humans showing the most magic of the series so far, and the Balrog awakening a couple thousand years early because of daddy issues. Even a show with a top notch writing staff would have trouble fitting all this into really compelling television for a single episode, and I’m not sure anyone is arguing they’re in that league. And then you get genuinely strange insertions like Celeborn, who now becomes a McGuffin for some future plotline when he’d have been just as well left out of the plot until it’s time to bring him in somehow. I know a lot of people are reading into the showrunners actions and praising them for their deep reassessment of Tolkien’s worlds versus the other group, which just has reactionary hatred for changes to it and millions of views on various outlets, but I don’t really care all that much for the turf wars here; I just want to watch halfway decent fantasy. Last week got there. This week didn’t.
Yup. Exactly.
“The same goes for Dylan Smith’s “just keep walking” speech, which beautifully recalled Aragorn’s line to Gimli and Legolas in Fellowship Of The Ring. “As long as we stay true to each other.” This is the essence of Tolkien’s work, as far as I’m concerned, and Rings Of Power explores and enriches this theme in surprising and effective ways.The little fuckers abandon the sick and the lame to die alone!! How the fuck can we not laugh when the one of them starts spouting “Our strenght is being together” like that!!??Are the writers no able to remember what they wrote in the previous episodes?!?
A pretty weird writing choice to portray King Durin as cowardly and unreasonable about stopping the digging, when we know the whole time he’s absolutely right and the episode itself even ends with a reminder that this project will eventually cause the total destruction of Kazad-dum.
To be clear, though, the need for the digging is urgent because these Elves are afraid of death!It’s a bit like when Galadriel shows up in Numenor’s court and asks for a ride back to ME, it’s framed as them sailing on her behalf because Numenor doesn’t have any of its own business in ME. Hence this week learning about Pelargir as an old colony.edit: I guess to be clear I’m having fun with the show but some of the choices they’re making are absurd.
But the elves can just sail to Aman and their problem is solved. Their justification for staying in Middle Earth is understandable (to be free from the Valar and make their own way) but still a choice. They established earlier that the elven stance is that Sauron is gone, so they don’t need to stick around to bulwark against him.
That’s not a justification they’ve given. You could imagine specifically that Gil-Galad would rather be High King in Middle-Earth than merely a vassal to Finarfin on Valinor, or something along those lines.Instead, Gil-Galad talks to Elrond about the ‘ensuring the doom of [their people]’, and Elrond kneels and asks Durin to save the Noldor. It’s framed much more dramatically than not wanting to sail west.
Yeah, I think that’s one of the few problems I have with the show. There are a lot of reasons they may wish to stay but none are spoken on the show. Is the ban still in place? Probably not if Galadriel was on a ship there.
That, I believe, is supposed to be the point, that even well-intentioned ambition to extend things beyond their allotted time is bound to end up poorly. It’s a true Tolkienian theme at work, but somewhat clumsily handled. I’m getting the impression of executive meddling at work, assuming that the general audiences can’t understand sophisticated ideas without simplifying them to the barest basics.
have you met many general audiences?
I’m excited for the Balrog. The show killed off my favorite orc, so I need another baddie to root for, and one that doesn’t look like Star Trek’s Data.I do not like Theo. As much as I do not like the Harfoots. There. I said it.My boyfriend gets teary-eyed when he talks about the lore of this world. I thought I matched him in sentiment but he loves the show and I am still on the fence, and here we are nearing the end of the first season. I made a joke about the episodes being like music videos and he did not like it so I will try to keep a more open and cheery mind this episode…
I’m surprised he’s that into both the lore and this show, because they are definitely not one and the same. I’ve read LOTR, Hobbit and the Silmarillion (but not the appendices, who reads those), but don’t consider myself -that- into it and can enjoy this show for what it is, even with its faults. I’d rather be watching this than House of the Dragon
From what I’ve seen online, fans who like both the show and the lore usually just tend to have a more chill attitude towards it all and a more generous understanding of what the show is trying to do. The loud haters on the other hand are rather the gatekeepy sort of nerd who tend to see fan engagement as a I-know-more-than-you-so-I-have-more-fan-cred dick measuring contest and it’s obnoxious as hell. So yeah, the show takes a lot of liberties (and knowing the reasons, that’s no surprise) but there are lots and lots of Tolkien fans who still enjoy the ride.
I’m a fan of the show and the lore, and I’m pretty happy with the whole thing, on the basis that we’re getting an adaptation at all. The source material is not particularly adaptation-friendly, and if it needs mucking about with to have it be a satisfying TV show, I’m ok with it because it doesn’t mean the source material isn’t there anymore.I can see it all cool and visualised on TV, and I’ve still got the book if I want to read the ‘real’ version.
That’s where I’m coming from as well! 🙂
Exactly. This is literally true of ALL film/TV adaptations! Nobody’s taking the original material away—fans will always have that. So to the self-proclaimed purists, I say: If you don’t like the adaptation, don’t watch it—we don’t really need to hear you complaining about it.
I was massively disappointed when they introduced the Balrog. It’s a massively epic fantasy series, can they not introduce a new baddie rather than just bringing back something we’ve all already seen?
Will depend on how things go from here. There are no records of Balrogs until the mid to late third age. So does it appear in such a way that it wouldn’t be recorded? That could be fair game.
Could be. Who’s usually doing the recording?
From our perspective, usually Bilbo and then Frodo based on their experiences and what they’ve been told by elves. Less clear on the Silmarillion, I think that is a collection of elven lore written by elves.
I have no problem with the Harfoots, but they seem to only be part of Rings of Power so they can introduce Gandalf. I don’t see any Harfoot battles, or anything else like that coming along. They also seem a bit dim on the rest of ME. That was the case even with the Hobbits. They also seemed to ignore most of ME, and didn’t even realize that they were being protected from its dangers by men like Strider.
Agreed. Best option for the harfoots IMO would be complete removal. Failing that, I definitely would have had Nori’s dad SUCCESSFULLY hiding the state of his leg, so that her back-of-the-line punishment could have been intended as a minor status thing, rather than what can only be seen as a collective death sentence.
Hmm, I dunno.I’m not digging the weird sisters, I find that kind of “fantasy cult group that don’t speak much and ooh ain’t they mysterious and creepy?” thing to be a bit of a tiresome trope (last I saw it was in that Pacific Rim Netflix anime and I gave up watching later on during that season – after a certain character death).I’ve no problem with the Harfoots or the not-Gandalf stuff, but I do find the story whenever it focuses there lacks charm? Nori and her sister got close a couple times throughout the season, and the old guy’s line about the proud one being always right was fun, but other than those examples (and the fun way their homes transformed in the first episode), I find anytime the show focuses on the tribe as a whole that it gets a bit tiring for me.As for the rest of the episode, it was all a bit of a bummer! Granted, it was meant to be, darkest before the dawn and all that, but with everyone so upset and angry all the time I can’t say I enjoyed myself very much.The Balrog end bit was fun, the Dwarven stuff was mostly all great as it has been all season, but I can’t say this was my favourite episode, not by a long shot really.But to each their own!Also, I lol’d a lot at the old Harfoot actually using the line “a new evil is rising” lmao.
The jarring thing to me about the Harfoots is that it feels like we’ve spent so much time on them almost exclusively for setup, but aside from the Stranger, potential conflict for the Harfoots is that they’ll all die. Not to say that everything needs tension or stakes, but for what it says about the Harfoots themselves, you could drop anything to do with the Stranger or the weird sisters and just do another full length song over a montage.As for the weird sisters, my take is they’re the Knights of Ren.
false. Halbrand is the Knights of Ren
Missionaria Protectiva has been at it for a very long time
I’m very much hoping the balrog is just a tease, and a lot more mithril gets mined, and time goes by before he ‘gets active’
What’s with the changing text from Southland to Mordor? Do they think the audience didn’t get it? With mount doom and all of the ashes. I’m glad Adar didn’t said Mordor when he said it’s not Southland anymore, then they ruined it.
The changing text was so jarring that I have a theory. They did a more sensible thing of pulling out to the map (as they’ve done before) and having that “Southlands” make a fiery transition to “Mordor.” But then found it didn’t work as a final scene. After all that visceral devastation and character moments with Adar, ending on a map view killed the emotional vibe. So we got a compromise of burning text over the ground level view.
Whatever. It’d be easy enough for Adar to say This is not the Southlands anymore, this is The Land of Shadow. Galadriel can report it to Gil Galad later as Mordor.
Most hardcore Middle-Earth fans probably knew that but I imagine there’s a lot of viewers of the show that aren’t super knowledgeable about Mordor’s history.
Yeah, honestly I think it’s obvious what has happened, and would have preferred that it just ended with Adar’s slight smile, but I think it’s probably a safe bet that a significant number of viewers still needed it spelled out for them. I’m not positive about the lower age bound on a show like this, but I can see 12 and 13 years olds probably being able to enjoy it, and at that age you might not immediately make the connection.
I was assuming that Adar was going to say “We’ll call it ‘Mordor’!” which would have been still fairly blunt (“Hey audience, here’s a Thing You Know”) but at least would have been less stupid than what they actually did.Leaving it with Adar’s smile and not saying anything would have been better; there was no real need to actually say that it’s Mordor. Audience members who didn’t make the connection automatically don’t need to make that connection right now; it can just be a dangling bit for later.
Yeah I see some comments here like “it’s for children and newcomers” but like, how would a newcomer recognize the name Mordor? That’s a nod to existing fans. What’s “A mordor” mean to new fans?
Well, the thing about Mordor’s history is that it’s the show’s future. At some point in the series, Sauron’s going to show up, build Barad-dur, and forge the One Ring, and in the meantime, other less well-described bad things will be happening. Prequel prerogatives are what they are, but it’s at least a little goofy that the show put so much prominence on the name of the hell on earth we saw Adar create.
Could be wrong, but I think ‘land associated with evil, containing a great big volcano’ was enough for the movie-only crowd.
They probably have a lot of young viewers, as in 11-15, who might miss what is obvious to grown-ups.
Whatever. Don’t pander to children. They’re much smarter and sophisticated about media than you think they are. While we’re talking on a website like olds, they’re all over this show on Twitch.
Oof, I just made a similar comment. Apologies to everyone for doubling up!
It screams “We showed this to some test audience and they didn’t get it so ughh I guess we’re doing this now…” though I would have preferred if they actually used the map to show the change.
“Do they think the audience didn’t get it?”More that one commenter here, who you would think would be at least as sharp as the average audience member, last week though Mt. Doom sprung into existence during the eruption despite having been shown previously.So that’s who they have to explain it to.
Yeah, that was cheesy. It would have been better just to have Adar say “Mordor”.
how could you not laugh when the “Southlands” graphic is replaced (evily!) by “Mordor”?
Wait, they spent a billion dollars on this and are only giving us 8 episodes? I mean, I know there’s gonna be another season, but still . . .
The showrunners have already told that the billion dollars didn’t accurately represent the money that went to the first season. It includes the marketing budget as well as the infrastructure built for the whole series, not just one season.
The reported cost of the first season is $715m but that includes $250m for the rights to make the show and the budget for creating sets, costumes, props that will be reused throughout the show. Those are costs which should be spread out across each season of the show. And on top of that, Amazon is likely getting some tax breaks for the sheer amount of spending they are doing to produce the show.Who knows what the true cost of the show is but wouldn’t be surprised if it was closer to $300-350m a season if you amortize the upfront costs properly than the $700m-$1b as people keep claiming it is.
The Mordor reveal at the end was just as surprising as finding out all of the main characters survived the volcano eruption. Those writers are clueless how to create tension.T
>>Halbrand’s mysterious absence in this episode will no doubt send conspiracy theorists into a tizzy.<
I was thinking this, too. But maybe they were just talking about how he disappeared for a while, & was just found by the side of the road? Implying that he was up to something in that interim? *shrugs*
Thank you! I was wondering if I somehow invented a scene in my mind. He gets a pretty big piece of this episode, thematically at least, if not time-wise.
And we still haven’t seen Theo’s ears…
I know how those young emo kids can be about their hair products, but even a volcanic eruption didn’t unsettle those thick locks.
And there was that reunion with Arondir with Bronwyn looking on…
You can see Theo’s ear when he and Galadriel arrive at the Numenor camp. I paused on it. It wasn’t pointy. Please pardon any misspellings. I typed this with a thumb and I’m lazy.
Morfydd Clark finally got some scenes where she got to look scared and traumatized! she sells those feelings 1000x better than tough, capable, brave, etc
The morning after the Stranger does his spell on the tree, the Grove is teeming with new life. The dead tree now bears juicy red apples. In return, Sadoc gives the Stranger directions to the big people, where he might find information on his lost stars. Nori gives him an apple before sending him on his way and telling her mother, “she’s just a Harfoot.” She will no longer get into mischief like this.That’s not what happens. At all. The Strangers spell breaks a tree limb that lands on Nori and a child. At that point the Harfoots are done with the Stranger. It’s then that Sadoc send the Stranger off. It’s only the next morning, after the Stranger is gone, that the Harfoot discovery his spell worked and that he was genuinely trying to help them. They still don’t go after him at that point. It’s only when Nori sees that the White Cloaks from Rhûn are clearly tracking the Stranger that she, rather foolishly, confronts them. Then the next morning Nori decides she’s going to try and warn the Stranger, and the others, knowing he was trying to help them, and having little to lose, decide to join her. Why in the hell would Sadoc send off the Stranger if the Harfoots had seen that his spell worked.Side note: The show, as far as I can recall, has hidden the Dweller’s ears which makes me think she’s going to end up being an Avari (elves that refused to return) from Rhûn. Tolkien didn’t touch on the elves from the far east much aside from some being corrupted by both Morgoth and Sauron.As to the overall episode, I agree with the review that the character work was fantastic and tug at the heartstrings of Tolkien’s themes of fellowship. The overall plotting dragged me out of some of that though. All the main characters were in the same small village, and rather than searching each other out and regrouping before departing they all just went separate ways? That had to happen to some degree because there’s an entire caravan that heads to the Numenorean outpost. Instead we get Galadriel bailing out with Theo without him even trying to find his mother. Elendil taking off without even knowing where Isildur or his possible dead body is. The show, in a very contrived way, revealing that Bronwyn and Arondir survived (which also shows they didn’t go through much effort to find Theo.) Then there’s the Isildur death fake out. As a viewer, you don’t even have to know Tolkien lore, or remember the opening scene of the Fellowship of the Ring movie, to know that’s a blatant TV non-death of a main character.Putting as the pedantic stuff, the character work did shine. The Aramayo, Arthur, Mullan and Nomvete work was particularly good.
The only real explanation I have for characters not regrouping within the village is that last week it looked like almost everyone bailed, or tried to, when they saw the eruption, and Galadriel just fucking tanked it. It might very well be that she and Theo were knocked out for a time, while everyone else was busy escaping, though the timing would then be skewed because they wanted to open on Galadriel. Everyone was standing pretty close together just before, but I think burning, man-sized rocks might give everyone an excuse to scatter pretty randomly, and you see Arondir grab Bronwyn and start running away while screaming for Theo just before the ash hits. I think Theo probably just ran for shelter in a different direction. Leaving and regrouping at a known rendezvous point is probably the right thing to do in this case, as it’s clear a lot of people were killed, and rescue is not really feasible, as we see when they “lost” Isildur.It probably would have been better if they showed Bronwyn and Arondir being corralled away by the Númenóreans like Theo was by Galadriel. But then they couldn’t drive the suspense up about what happened to them. I don’t know if I’m for or against that decision, since I’m not so certain that either one is going to even survive this season, let alone much deeper into the series. So the suspense worked for me, as I thought Bronwyn had died at the end and that Arondir was going to grab Theo’s hand before he could move the sheet. But the dramatic beats would have been virtually the same even if we knew that they survived and Theo didn’t. It might be a little cheap, but I think worked ok.
Its lazy writing.
I just found it a bit silly because we are not talking about a massive city here. It’s a tiny village and nobody got far in the short time in which it took for Mt Doom to erupt. Hell, Galadriel was literally laying in the street where she was chilling with everyone else before they scattered. Everyone would still be in shouting distance. It even shows Miriel leading people to try to find survivors until Isildur (fake) dies. Then we cut to the caravan of villagers and Numenoreans in a caravan back to the Numenorean camp. The villagers don’t know where that is, so the Numenoreans had to gather them all together somehow, off-screen, suggesting everyone spent a decent amount of time on search and rescue before departing. Which makes them not finding Galadriel or Theo more baffling, as well as Elendil’s weird contentment with not knowing where Isildur is. And, yeah, I personally found the show hiding Bronwyn and Arondir’s fates until the end to be cheaply manipulative, as was Isildur’s fake death. The whole Southlands plotline for this episode felt like writers who wanted to have certain scenes between characters and just stitched them together without logic. Which shows a lack of confidence in writing scenes where the audience is aware of things that the characters are not yet still make them compelling.
Instead we get Galadriel bailing out with Theo without him even trying to find his mother. Elendil taking off without even knowing where Isildur or his possible dead body is.
Elendil at least had an excuse—Miriel was injured and he left to escort/protect her. But the implication is that the Numenoreans sail away not just without Elendil figuring out what happened to Isildur, but without anybody in the deployment recovering the bodies of the soldiers whom they know are dead. Who exactly is going to be more motivated to join the second campaign than were the first one?
Didn’t they say a part of the troops will stay behind at the camp for that purpose?
It was particularly strange because it starts with Miriel and the others seemingly actively looking for survivors, as you would expect, and then it jumps to to the caravan of Numenoreans and surviving villagers, which would suggest everyone did actively seek each other out, look for survivors, and group up. Yet somehow the show also wanted it seem like everyone just scattered? I mean, Galadriel was literally laying in the middle of the street in this tiny village, where everyone last saw her. How could anyone miss her? And why didn’t she put more effort into finding anyone? And how the hell was Elendil just chill with not knowing where Isildur was? I mean, just spatially, the area everyone was in when Mt Doom erupted was within shouting distance of each other. It doesn’t make sense that anyone would have been separated. It was also a cheaply manipulative narrative device to not show that Arondir and Bronwyn were alive until the end of the episode.
When the episode started, I said to my wife, “Of course, all the main characters survived being enveloped in a pyroclastic death cloud,” which they did. It would have been hilarious if all of them died except Galadriel and Arondir, because of their let’s say elf saving throw bonuses.
I don’t think that was meant to be a pyroclastic flow—just ash & debris, but without the super-heated poison gas. (More like a pyroclastic fall.) Not even an elf as powerful as Galadriel could survive a real pyroclastic flow.
Oh clearly yeah, but that’s still enough to bury and kill (via suffocation, if nothing else) anyone it lands on. I know it’s fantasy and they can hand-wave away things like that, it’s fine, it’s just funny.
It was a bit on the nose at the end when the card said “The Southlands” and changed it to “Mordor.”
Look, I’m a casual LOTR fan, and even I am enlightened enough to pick up on what is happening here, that the Southlands are obviously becoming Mordor thanks to a certain volcano last week. What else would it be?It would have been better to leave the episode as it was, with Adar clearly pondering the Southlands’ new name with a pleased look on his face, then a pan over the barren land with no further explanation needed.Spelling it out so deliberately is just insulting to the viewer.
Didn’t need it spelled, but I liked the tone set by the ‘reveal’, if you can call it that. I have a minor issue with “It’s not the Southlands anymore”, geographically speaking.
I’m very much liking the series, but it’s a little silly to repeatedly endanger characters like Isildur who have the bulletproof plot armor of being historical figures with much yet to do. Also, randomly saying Celeborn is dead when we haven’t even met him in this show? Who’s that for?
Totally get where you’re coming from. I’ll admit I struggle with this to but try to remember that there are probably huge swaths of the audience for whom this is their entry to LOTR, particularly kids, which I think this show is perfect for. For a newcomer that’s enjoying the show, revealing that Galadriel has a husband (who we’ll more than likely meet) is probably pretty exciting. As for Isildur’s death: Sure, that’s a fake out for viewers like the ones I’m talking about, but it’s more about giving Elendil motivation for the finale. He’s ready to turn on Queen Regent for leading them to Mordor and getting his son killed. I predict he’ll take it up with Pharazon.
Celeborn isn’t confirmed to be dead, Galadriel just hasn’t seen him since he left for war. Seems pretty clear to me that they established him here because he is going to appear in the future.I do kind of agree on the Isildur thing…but the second movie also kind of did the same thing briefly with Aragorn when he falls of the cliff. If next week they show Isildur’s POV and it is impactful to his character growth, think it will be fine overall.
You’re right. I went back and rewatched the scene. I wasn’t paying close enough attention the first time and heard “Celeborn was his name” as “Celeborn was slain”.
Regardless, it seems clear that Galadriel believes he’s dead, as it’s in response to the question “have you lost anyone close?” and he lists him with her brother. I very much hope they don’t use that as an excuse for manufacturing some sort of romance for Galadriel, but I wouldn’t put it past them. Season 2 tagline: “Oops, I slept with Sauron!”.
This is something I’ve seen a lot of criticism over, but despite the fact that a lot of LOTR fans will be watching the show, realistically you have to write it as if a lot of the audience haven’s seen a 21-year-old (Fuck I’m old) nine-hour fantasy trilogy and treat them like idiots.Like, the whole Southlands => Mordor thing was dumb, but some people genuinely might not have made the connection and the show needs to be for them too.
I get what you’re saying, but I submit that “treat them like idiots” is bad practice for writers. You could achieve the same result by putting one of the original characters in danger (which they briefly did with Bronwyn, Theo’s mother). Unless, of course, the plan is to motivate Elendil into some sort of heel-turn, which is also silly, as his history is also well known.
yeah I was like wait didn’t this same revelation happen last episode? The Southlands to Mordor thing took place in my head when mount doom erupted so this was like “hey in case you didn’t get it were going to whack you over the head with it now”.
OMG IT WAS MORDOR ALL ALONG?!
I continue to love this show. I even sneak out of work early on Fridays just to get home and watch the latest episode. I don’t know what I’m going to do when the season wraps up next week. 🙁
Just got Prime free trial I can watch this show before it expires. I’m not really feeling House of Dragon so is this show better.
Yes. HotD is a misconceived cash grab with no reason to exist. Rings of Power is genuinely inspiring and entertaining. Characters you can root for go a long, long way.
Yikes. Terrible opinions abound.
A pox on both their houses.
I mean, to be clear: the acting in HotD is great. The sets are amazing. Love the scenery and the insane grandeur of how it’s shot. But it’s all a bit sad, when you remember GoT and all the great characters in that, to think of what could have been if they hadn’t rushed the ending. And now it’s like they’re spending twice the effort on a story that’s little more than a sketch, consisting of mean-spirited arguments between unlikeable people bickering over power for its own sake. I know people used to love watching Dynasty in the 80’s: maybe this is that demographic.
I can only speak for myself, but I’m watching Rings of Power and House of the Dragon and loving both. Maybe fifteen years ago, the idea that we’d have multiple high-quality, high-production value fantasy TV shows would have been ludicrous. I think we are getting a bit spoiled to so quickly discard these.I mean for God’s sake, both of these are FUN. Feels like being twelve and getting lost in these worlds all over again.
I’m glad you’re enjoying it! I wish I could, there’s so much fun stuff in there. Just surrounded by very much not fun characters. Maybe I’m missing a black comedy element to the whole thing. I’m sorta hate-watching it right now but perhaps with a different mindset…
This show is just full of dumb writing. It totally lacks Tolkien’s elegance and grandeur. It’s written by a bunch of screenwriters in a writers room, and it comes off that way, they’ve got no style and no idea how to tell Tolkien’s takes so they’ve gone off on there own. Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh got it. They made Tolkien’s world work. These folks are just grabbing a bunch of names and trying to create their own world, and they don’t have the magic. The Celeborn story was just clumsy, the whole he saw me dancing in flowers in Doriath and fell in love thing is just invoking how Beren saw Luthian. It’s weak, lazy writing. Christopher Tolkien was smart to keep The Silmarillion out of these folks hands.
I’m getting a tad irritated with not knowing who The Stranger is, and hoping they don’t go down the Gandalf route. Just tell us!
This episode was atrocious. I’m sorry. No matter how good the CGI or the actors can be if the writing is unpardonably bad. For most part of the show I had the impression that if I were to ask the showrunners what LotR is about, I feel their answer would have been people delivering passionate sentences, full of pathos, and beautiful scenes, occasionally in slowmo, and orcs and hobbits and elves. Basicly the facade of it. Because that is what I’m seeing. And it is awful.What was that sequence with the three pale wizards? They grab a flame and throw it on the hobbits. And there is no follow up except a lot of shocked hobbits. Where are the wizards? What are they doing? For all we know they are still standing there, watching the aftermath, or I dunno. What was that editing? Nobody in the studio watched this and felt that this is poor continuity of cuts? I dunno.And then a bunch of hobbits decide that they are gonna find and warn proto-Gandalf who has twice as long legs and can walk twice as fast and has a headstart before the three pale whoevers who have twice as long legs and can walk twice as fast and have a headstart could get to him. But I guess if they are still just standing there watching the ashes it could work.Oh, and the Balrog. Oof. I guess the Balrog is no longer a warning against greed but instead a warning against helping allies, (which would fit in with a certain central european PM’s attitude towards helping out a neighbour who got attacked, but I digress.)A ton of talent and a ton of money sabotaged by a handful of contributors without any of the former and any understanding of themes or common sense.
Cr@p
I remain amused by how this show continues to receive gushing praise from its AV Club reviewer, while the vastly superior House of the Dragon continues to receive far more tepid praise from its barely-seems-to-be-actually-watching-it AV Club reviewer.