Greatly enjoyed that episode. Starting with the next one things look to get intense.
Television The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
- Thread starter DWelbz19
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Also just finished the latest episode. Think that was the best one yet. Lots of plot and most of it made sense.
Getting better with each episode, I'm enjoying this season after despising the first.
Not a lot happened action wise but there was some actual character stuff developing for once, and after the absolute nothingburger of an usurpation there was at least some sign that things will escalate in Numenor. And they remembered to give Kemen a personality! Even if it is fairly generic weedy bad guy. Progress is progress. I'll take this over the pointless, dull action of ep 4.
I too thought the episode was boring but I see lots of people online saying it’s great. I guess people who are into the books, enjoy this sort of episode watching the story play out. For a casual viewer like me, it felt like not much happened.
Sauron’s deceit feels obvious and rushed. But I guess there’s no good way to do it in a short span of viewing time.
Really liked the last episode. This season has been a lot more enjoyable to watch, keeping the Harfoot nonsense to the minimum
Try as I might, I just can’t enjoy it. There’s a real lack of atmosphere. I’m not invested in any of the characters. There’s no tension. And some of the characters just come across as cartoonish.
Gutted as I had been looking forward to this for years.
Gutted as I had been looking forward to this for years.
Excellent writing. Sauron is so good at manipulating people. Every episode is like a feature length movie.
Personally i don't find it modern enough without Sauron sexually seducing people.
Game of opinions innit - the Sauron wink wink manipulation stuff is currently the cringiest bit for me!
Really enjoying this season. Last week's was a bit shit, but the only dud. It's not exactly true to the books and is going at a breakneck speed, but it is working.
Really enjoyed the part when Gandelf met Hagrid.
How did Celebrimbor message to the high king take way shorter time than Galadriel and Elrond journey to warn him about Sauron? Makes no sense or am I missing something with this stupid travel plots
You aren't missing anything, contrivance is the main method they use to drive the story.
I’m guessing the destroyed bridge by Adar and the orcs on their way to Eregion was after and that explains why the elves had to detour and take the long way round through the forest?
That's what I thought but the message was written literally last episode and he got it within 25 minutes of this episode so the detour should have have affected the message too. I was surprised how fast he literally got it - I guess it's just a convenience for the story plot
I gave up in the end, at least I think I won't be getting back to it. also, after finishing S1 I gave it 7 on imdb, but I lowered it to 6 now.
it simply doesn't stimulate, like, I don't feel the weight at all. everyone on the screen is trying to convince me there's some big things coming up, but I actually forgot what exactly I'm waiting to happen.
the actress that plays Galadriel has been the best part of the show to me, but she's been more absent than active this season.
I could easily watch the remaining 5 episodes, but why even bother when I'm reading player performance threads every time.
who knows, maybe I'll change my mind in a week, but I'm honestly getting nothing from it. the issue isn't that this is a bad LOTR show, the issue is that such basic dialogues and acting I rarely tolerate in ANY show or movie. it's bland as feck.
second season and I honestly don't remember how the entrance theme sounds
it simply doesn't stimulate, like, I don't feel the weight at all. everyone on the screen is trying to convince me there's some big things coming up, but I actually forgot what exactly I'm waiting to happen.
the actress that plays Galadriel has been the best part of the show to me, but she's been more absent than active this season.
I could easily watch the remaining 5 episodes, but why even bother when I'm reading player performance threads every time.
who knows, maybe I'll change my mind in a week, but I'm honestly getting nothing from it. the issue isn't that this is a bad LOTR show, the issue is that such basic dialogues and acting I rarely tolerate in ANY show or movie. it's bland as feck.
second season and I honestly don't remember how the entrance theme sounds
What, like walking all the way to Mt Doom with the ring instead of flying on an eagle?
I’m not saying RoP holds up when compared to Tolkien but let’s not pretend the same devices aren’t used in the source material
It has the narrative depth of an average Among Us game.
The girl: I just saw someone vent!
Sauron: That Celebrimbor guy is so sus *wink wink*
Eagles are conscious beings with their own agendas and masters, nearly always used for the thematic purpose of deliverance from certain death after doing something "good". They can also be shot down with arrows or attacked by fell beasts, which would not be ideal if they were carrying the ringbearer in Mordor. It's not a contrivance, it's something that holds true within the world.
In contrast, the whole Annatar story is dependant upon Celebrimbor not knowing who he is, and they've used multiple contrivances for that purpose (which weren't present in the Tolkien version, which they have entirely altered). See also Numenor, where the usurpation happened because the king decided to show Earien the palantir immediately prior to dying. Or a more recent one in the Rhun story, where the two hobbits get thrown hundreds of feet into the air by a tornado, and land (entirely unhurt) right next to the person required to advance the plot again. Or where Disa drops a stone and it rolls from a busy market into the spooky cave apparently next door, so she can hear the monster required to get her to change her mind on the rings. I don't think I'm nitpicking here, it's a common theme throughout the show (Galadriel swimming from the Valinor entrance to the raft Sauron is on, anyone?) and I think largely because they have to flit between so many separate stories to the extent that nothing has the room to develop naturally.
A: What were you doing there?
B: What were you doing there?!
A: I saw you doing something suspicious.
B: You have not seen what I have seen!
A: But…
B: I am good!
How can something so high budget be so cheap. I’m fed up of the cartoonish stupidity of everyone on this show, and the cliche “I sense this is a bad idea” character that gets ignored in every other scene.
“Hmm, these rings are corrupt. I know! Let’s make more (with the suspicious manipulative stranger who definitely isn’t Sauron) and give them to the most corruptible race! That will solve the problem.”
“Hmm, these rings are corrupt. I know! Let’s make more (with the suspicious manipulative stranger who definitely isn’t Sauron) and give them to the most corruptible race! That will solve the problem.”
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The eagles thing is such a lazy, tired argument.
The whole point of the quest was to be as covert as possible.
They didn't want Sauron knowing they intended to destroy the ring, nor did they want to bring undue attention to Frodo.
The eagles were also their own race, with their own agendas and desires.
Stick Frodo on an eagle and set off to Mordor, and Sauron is getting word of that very quickly and acting accordingly, starting with nine winged wraiths hunting them down.
Tolkien uses the eagles as a plot device to save characters and continue his story in both LOTR and The Hobbit and even admitted as much. There was no in-universe reason to not using the eagles, they simply didn’t because Tolkien decided it wouldn’t make for a good story. He was right, of course, but he still used them as a plot device where it suited him; escaping the orcs in The Hobbit, Gandalf escaping Orthanc, the eagles deciding arrows and a literally erupting volcano aren’t so dangerous for them after all to rescue Frodo and Sam.
Edit: Tom Bombadil is another one really. If he had been invented for the show to rescue Gandalf from a tree you’d all be shitting on it big time
The point isn't the danger to the eagles. The point is that using the eagles to transport the ring is an obvious danger to the quest.
There's also a marked difference between the eagles, as a sentient race of beings, picking and choosing when to get involved in the affairs of other races, and Galadriel, an elf, negating to tell Celebrimbor, another elf, who Halbrand is, instead just telling him not to trust him, despite having no issue with telling Elrond and Gil-Galad, yet more elves, precisely who he is.
The point I am making is Tolkien frequently uses them as a plot device, which is undeniable. The rest of what you have said is pure fan head-canon. For what it’s worth, I like the in-world explanation.
I also found Celebrimbor not being told who Halbrand is quite ridiculous to be honest, I just don’t see a point in someone watching something just so they can bitch about it. There’s far worse Telly out there than this; it’s not Tolkien, don’t treat it like it is and you won’t be disappointed
Probably worth pointing out that the dwarves largely stick to their mountain halls, and the elves to their various forest and river settlements during LotR (the latter also basically leaving middle-earth en masse).
A common theme of the story is the need to convince others of the importance of not waiting for the war to come to them.
Why is it so difficult to accept that the eagles basically didn't really see it as their fight, even if they did get involved at times?
A common theme of the story is the need to convince others of the importance of not waiting for the war to come to them.
Why is it so difficult to accept that the eagles basically didn't really see it as their fight, even if they did get involved at times?
I don’t think it’s difficult to accept that at all, I simply don’t think that was intended
I haven't watched past season 1.
I stuck with that in hope it got better, and it didn't. I hoped season 2 would be a marked improvement, and everything I've read about it has sounded laughably shite.
Something being a plot device doesn't necessarily mean it's bad, and especially not when it's something that can be consistently explained, as is the case with the eagles.
The Galadriel/Halbrand/Celebrimbor thing can't be explained beyond stupidity.
Every story has plot devices, not every plot device is contrived.
I also don't get the point of coming into a discussion thread telling people not to talk about it? You like it, that's completely fine, but some others don't and it's sometimes more interesting talking about why something doesn't work than just ignoring it. If it wasn't related to Lord of the Rings I (and probably most others) wouldn't even be watching it. I've watched the Hobbit through several times despite it being cack so I'm an easy mark.
I haven’t said don’t talk about it. I’m glad to see the thread getting posts and I frequently skim through and read, I just don’t understand the people here who are clearly watching it to complain about it, I wouldn’t waste my time with doing that with TV shows any more. I used to hate-watch TWD and gave up because I decided it wasn’t worth my time or energy.
If someone doesn’t like it that’s fine, and it’s great that they post why. But why continue to watch after deciding it’s not for you?
I wasn’t accusing you of that at all. For what it’s worth in terms of content I do think the second series is a lot better, though the bar was quite low. I thought the first series was a bit dull but was happy to see where it went.
I found it really perplexing the alarm was not raised across all elvendom upon the discovery of Sauron’s return to be honest.
I've read about the Galadriel/Halbrand/Celebrimbor thing, the general feckery with the timeline of ring creation, Durin being corrupted before the One has even been made, pacifist orcs, and Sauron begging on bended knee to get even a small band to follow him.
I've read about lines being directly lifted from LotR, both book and Jackson adaptation, and absolutely diabolical writing in the name of exposition ("as you can see...").
It sounds horrendous and a complete mockery of the works it's based on, and bar the brief write-ups and memes I've seen, I won't be devoting any serious time to it.
Because it's Lord of the Rings, and even if I haven't liked much about it so far the hope remains that it'll improve. If not, I'll just not think about it again for two years and hope the showrunners change in the meantime. There are definitely some hate-watching youtube grifters out there that I have absolutely no time for, it doesn't merit any kind of frothing at the mouth, it's just a 5/10 show that should probably be a lot better for the time and money spent on it.
It's far better than a 5/10 show. Why would you bother watching something you clearly don't like? I wouldn't watch show I rated 5/10(those awful Star Wars TV series...). RoP is a good show, it's not top tier but it's very watchable.
I do have it as a bit of a 5/10 unfortunately Spoons. But it's the only series I'm currently watching with my G.F who loves all things LOTR so I'm in for the long haul.
How are you watching it, Heaps? Must be painful but hey, your girlfriend's happy, so......
I don't find it a painful watch as I have no LOTR background knowledge outside of watching the films a few times casually over the years.
I just think it's a little shit but happy to stick on for an hour a week if it helps my pass out to disappear for the day every other week for the football.
It's maybe the most 5/10 show in existence
You can kind of tell this by the fact that even the people most positive aren't enthusiastic ("there are worse" "turn your brain off and enjoy the scenery"). It's not good enough for a 7, not bad enough for a 3... 4 and 6 are coward numbers so it can only be a 5.It's maybe the most 5/10 show in existence
That's your rating, though. Still don't know why you bother. It's no Foundation but it's watchable enough. Besides I want to see Halbrand go all Sauron.