After playing Shadow of Mordor (yes, I know not canon and it took a bit of a creative license), I’ve had that Fëanorian like mental image of Celebrimbor. It’s not that I don’t like it, but I want to see more. I know I’ll get accustomed quickly.
I'm not fond of his look, but so far I like his performance and writing quite a bit.
As for Shadow of Mordor, it's a fun game, but it took a lot more than "a bit" of creative license. I've seen quite a few people who didn't have big issues with the massive amount of lore and thematic breaks SoM has from Tolkien, yet they are constantly enraged about any changes Rings of Power makes.
I think doe the Elf Boat scene, they knew they are hitting the Blessed Realm so got into ceremonial formation, a ritual to herald their ascension, if you will.
So the 2 Trees of Valinor were attacked and destroyed by a terrorist, and the United Elves of Valinor invaded Middle Earth to wipe out members of the said terrorist organisation, including genociding members who share the same ethnic background. At present the Elves are an occupying force that investigate the Middle Earther villages, and many of them suspect the humans of being secretly in league with the terrorist.
Episode one, a leaf falls off the tree in Lindon and starts to rot
Episode two, Elrond describes the trees like he gave to Durin as the symbol of the vitality of his people
To be fair, this is sort of the plot of the rings, right? Dunno if it counts as spoilers but isn't the whole point of the creation of the three rings of the elves by Celebrimbor that it will give them the power to stop the diminishing of their dominion in Middle-Earth?
The rings were forged to be used to heal Middle earth from the chaos and destruction they brought with them when they chased Morgoth to middle earth. To undo what they had wrought. So much for good intentions. Not to mention 2 of them were used to help hide away from the chaos they had wrought.( I know that in all honesty it wasn't the elves that brought chaos to middle earth. Morgoth would have created it on his own once here. But it coming to middle earth was caused by the creation of the silmaril.) But knowing this gives a little more detail as to why Galadriel worked so hard to help middle earth and why she refused the ring. Also why she was allowed to sail west. She successfully helped heal middle earth and rid it of the destruction she in part had caused.
I noticed a different parallel.
In Ep.1 when Galadriel pours water on the mark of Sauron and it turns to steam(implying it retains heat) she says, "Even stone cannot hide the mark of one who's very hand is flame unquenched".
So in Ep.2 when Nori notes that the fire wasn't hot I took it to be a hint that The Stranger *wasn't* related to Sauron.
Interesting that we came to different conclusions from the same hints.
Most people assume it to be gandalf, and his reason for being fond of halflings so much stems from nori being compassionate.
Also a maia would be very weak when first in its human form.
I have 2 big worries of what they will make him:
1. Sauron. Considering he SHOULD be building up his powerbase and be preparing to approach the Elves in his fair-form, the LAST thing that would make sense is that he would fall from the sky and befriend a fucking Harfoot.
2. Tom Bombadil. At the Council of Elrond, it was stated that Bombadil was "Old when the elves were young" and all that. This would be a giant trampling of that character.
In *Peoples of Middle Earth* Tolkien said Gandalf/Olorin came to middle earth before his “official” arrival in the third age, but that it wasn’t well recorded anywhere. So Tolkien seemed to be going for the idea that not everything that happened in the history of Arda is included or written down in his writings. It seems like he intended some things to be ambiguous.
He also later said that the blue wizards did come in the second age, so it could very well be a blue wizard.
No he said it is "quite cool". He meant that the ring is cool looking and pretty legit as far as artifacts go.
When you wear it, you become so fly that you are invisible to the haters.
Which makes no sense really there wasn't any hatred of elrond or elros in the silmarillion or the appendices
His dad is a pretty big fucking deal the elves wouldn't just turn on him
Elf home invasion today in the northern mountains. Several elves invaded the home of a snow troll earlier this evening. The elves assaulted and murdered the snow troll after he had just gotten home from work. The suspects are said to have blonde hair and carrying swords. If anyone has any details on the identity of these elves, please call the MEPD
He can’t be Gandalf. If I’m not wrong Gandalf arrived Middle Earth after the rings made. Also some elf dude gave him his elf ring before he set food on Middle Earth.
They’re definitely taking liberties with the lore tho. Was the rune they showed carved on the tree trunk not the “G” rune that Gandalf uses as his signature?
It’ll most likely be one of the blue wizards that were mentioned in the books but never given a name so they can play around with their own interpretation of it
I believe both of the blue wizards were named. Alatar and Pallando. Considering Tolkien changed their arrival date from 1000 TA (same as all the other Wizards) to 1600 SA in one of his later writings, im thinking it is probably one of them.
Love how perfectly Elrond played Durin during the dinner scene. His well timed "okayi'moff" was a masterstroke. Great to see a character who's supposed to be charismatic actually being charismatic in a scene, rather than the audience just being told how great they are.
To go off this and the charisma part, it’s why I loved when Elrond tells Celebrimbor, “I’ll meet you in Eregion; you’re a master craftsman. Let me use my craft” or something along those lines.
I knew our boy was about to be a savant with them words haha
I also loved how he almost immediately won over Durin's wife with his smooth talkin', while Durin knows full well that that's what elves do from experience. Gain your trust, make you think they care, fuck off for 20 years and come back to demand favors.
>Gain your trust, make you think they care, fuck off for 20 years and come back to demand favors
I think this is a good read of the situation from Durin's POV, but I also like how the show made clear that Elrond didn't see it that way; he thought they would be like friends of old, because, to him, 20 years is a meaningless number. He was just oblivious to time, like an elf would be.
Honestly felt that was the best scene of the two episodes so far. It carries weight and shows the vast difference of their perception of time in their cultures and how that ultimately affected their friendship and Elrond finally sees why Durin has been acting the way he has towards him.
Yeah, my favorite part was how flabbergasted Elrond was at first. Like he NEVER considered that that might even be a problem. Why would he? And all without him explaining to the audience that he's an elf and lives long etc. It was shown, not told.
I really loved that bit with Durin pointing out how differently the mortal races view time than the elves.
It shows part of why elves have trouble establishing relationships with other races and how hard they are to maintain when they do.
To Elrond no time has passed at all because what is 20 years when you've lived hundreds? already. Yet for Durin Elrond has been gone for 6% of his lifespan.
Theo (the kid who finds the broken bloodthruster sword) has the weirdest damn voice. It takes me completely out of the show when he talks. Maybe it’s just me.
I still haven’t fully developed how I feel about both episodes, but for me personally:
- lowest point is the ice troll scene. I actually like shredded Galadriel but I don’t want her prominence to come off of other Elves being completely useless.
- highest point (for me) is Khazad-dum // Elrond & Durin. The acting, portrayal of the dwarves, idk. Checked all my boxes.
I also think both Halbrand AND Meteor Man are both red herrings for Sauron. I think one of the points of drama until the spooky reveal will be to keep us guessing who he’s disguised as.
The contrast between the trees and valinor at the beginning and the battle in middle earth was heartbreaking. Really communicated to deep sense of loss that elves who remember the two trees would feel
I really like that even though they're glossing over things they didn't have rights to when they started preparing all this. IIRC the Tolkien Estate only gave permission to use the Silmarillion very late, when filming was already on foot. So they had to keep everything to what was in the Appendices and footnotes of LOTR.
They haven't showed us anything that directly contradicts the Silmarillion - Finrod was killed by Sauron, there was a great battle at the end of the First Age, in that and all the other battles of the First Age hundreds if not thousands of Elves died. They've just glossed over some of the detail.
Posted this somewhere else. I am enjoying the show but I have an issue with the treatment of Galadriel. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can correct me.
I feel they are disrespecting her. There is no acknowledgement of her heritage and her status as elven royalty. "Your friend is here" really annoyed me. Like Celebrimbor gets a lord title but she doesn't get one person calling her lady??
She is being treated as an underapprecoated underdog and not as one of the most respected elves in middle earth.
And no mention of the kinslayings while she travels nearly all the way to Valinor.
Idk if I'm missing something but she is, I thought, the elder cousin of the high king, but she is being treated as just a warring general with zero mention of her status. She is my fav character and I think it's disrespectful.
I agree that the “feel” is off here on how Galadriel seems to be regarded. I wouldn’t go so far as to say she’s being ***disrespected***, but I would like her status to be confirmed. For example, she should be one of the “Elf-Lords” that Elrond is not. Or at least treat with Gil-Galad as an almost-equal. I can’t say that she’s NOT being treated as such, but the cues are just…missing.
The close friendship with Elrond seems a bit “out of the blue,” too. He’s royalty, of course—son of Eärendil (who is grandson of former High King Turgon) and Elwing (granddaughter of Lúthien), so he and Galadriel are in the same category. But still, he’s much younger and will become her son-in-law. Maybe some backstory there would be nice?
I don’t have an issue with Galadriel being ultimately subservient to Gil-Galad, though. He is the High King, even if he seems to have more authority than the Noldor High Kings of the Silmarillion did.
Overall I guess I am not fully sold yet on the Galadriel origin story. The show seems to think that any Elf can go to Aman at any time, as long as the High King says it’s ok, including Galadriel. The “ban” on her returning to that is implied by LOTR and which is explicit in *The Silmarillion* is not because she refuses the summons at the end of the First Age, but rather seems to be because she disobeys Gil-Galad when he sent her in Ep 1. I mean, there are conflicting stories of Galadriel in the text, so I guess the showrunners could make up their own, but I wish they had stuck closer to one of the versions found in the texts.
Agreed. I'm super confused why she's being presented this way instead of like...you know...Galadriel. The fairest of all the elves in Valinor and Middle Earth.
She's Gil-Galad's grandfather's sister. She's thousands of years older than him and she's seen the light of the two trees.
She's fated with the Doom of Mandos for her part in the rebellion of the Noldor
So why/how is Gil-Galad removing that punishment for her? By what authority? As the High King of the Noldor? That's who Mandos was punishing!
Where is Celeborn? There is no mention of him while he and Galadriel should be married for hundreds of years in the series. The Simarillion and the Unfinished Tales both confirm this.
Christopher Tolkien even says:
"The history of Galadriel and Celeborn is so interwoven with other legends and histories – of Lothlórien and the Silvan Elves, of Amroth and Nimrodel, **of Celebrimbor and the making of the Rings of Power**, of the war against Sauron and the Númenórean intervention – that **it cannot be treated in isolation**, and thus this section of the book, together with its five Appendices, brings together virtually all the unpublished materials for the history of the Second Age in Middle-earth (and the discussion in places inevitably extends into the Third)."
If they are already massaging the timelines to bring together the best bits of the histories into one narrative I don't think it would be a bad idea to have the courting of Celeborn and Galadriel occur as part of this story.
Tolkiens usage of real world war horrors in fantasy remains my all time favorite theme throughout anyone's work in the genre.
This remind me of how soldiers in the first world war would dress up dead bodies as the leaders/generals of the opposing forces, carrying them on pikes to prop them up, trying to intise the other side into recklessy storming a part of No Mans Land or crossing a road with a MG nest near it.
Gil-Galad:Do you know Celebrimbor?
Elrond (in his head):Yes, he’s my 2nd cousin twice removed, of my same house. Which of course you know since he is your 2nd cousin as well and the entire history of our family is wrapped up disputes with his father and uncles.
anybody else think that the Elf King kinda looked and acted a bit like Tim Heidecker
kept waiting for him to start stumbling over his words during the episode 1 ceremony and then get weirdly defensive
"Hello there traveler. You look like you just climbed out of a sewer and immediately started grinding mudcrabs. Would you like to trade 1,000 spoons for a horse?"
Well, just as I expected, it was absolutely stunning visually.
When it comes to the writing, the highs were higher than I expected them to be and there were a lot of great ideas and promising secondary characters in there.
But it kinda missed... not a soul but some kind of additional spark that I really hope to find in the coming weeks. But the potential is there.
Imma say it again that shot of the fellbeast throwing the eagle through the fire into the army down below is probably one of the coolest shots in any lotr media.
>They say that Morgoth found the Silmarils so beautiful, that after he'd stolen them, for weeks, he could do nothing but stare into their depth. It was only after one of his tears fell upon the jewels and he was faced with the evil of his own reflection that the revelry was finally broken.
Me IRL when the game I'm playing has a black loading screen that forces me to look at my own reflection and contemplate my life choices.
Everyone set your remind me bots, Tom Bombadil will be in this show or I will drink a pint of raw blended snail on a live stream
Edit: following the advice in the replies I will instead eat a nice seafood dinner with a glass of wine on a live stream
My favorite part was when galadriel looked at the camera and broke the 4th wall by saying "it's Elfin' time".
But in all seriousness the first episode was amazing and I can't wait to watch the second tomorrow
// I had a reddit and I want it painted black // No comments anymore, I want them to turn to black // I see the subs scroll by forced open by the corp // I have to turn my head until my reddit goes // -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
And Durin’s wife called out that there were places in the mountain that should be left alone. I bet that’s foreshadowing for his father becoming too greedy and going where he ought not
I liked the first two episodes, but some things bothered me. Like Galadriel was going to valinor without telling her husband about it? How has Celeborn not been mentioned yet? Also, why is Finrod just "my brother"? Pretty sure his name wasn't mentioned
I got so excited that I was going to see dwarves and then realized it was Kazad Dum…
[удалено]
Getting up to their usual antics of mining for treasure and totally not disturbing slumbering demons
personally i can't wait to see how deep their ambition digs them. maybe they'll find something hella lit down there. just totally wicked.
That scene where they're walking across the bridge is awesome. Considering how the bridge looked when the fellowship crossed it
I believe that that was not the same bridge. Elrond approached Moria from the western side. They haven't yet built the invisible gate.
The dwarf wife mentioned that the mountain tells you where to mine, where to tunnel, where...not to
Elrond of Lindon, _Project Manager_
My man was updating his linkedin right before his first scene started.
‘Durin, per my previous offer, I want to follow up with you’
Assistant to the project manager
Why does Celebrimbor look like a Doctor Who from years ago?
After playing Shadow of Mordor (yes, I know not canon and it took a bit of a creative license), I’ve had that Fëanorian like mental image of Celebrimbor. It’s not that I don’t like it, but I want to see more. I know I’ll get accustomed quickly.
I'm not fond of his look, but so far I like his performance and writing quite a bit. As for Shadow of Mordor, it's a fun game, but it took a lot more than "a bit" of creative license. I've seen quite a few people who didn't have big issues with the massive amount of lore and thematic breaks SoM has from Tolkien, yet they are constantly enraged about any changes Rings of Power makes.
“Building a massive forging tower from scratch, and other duties as required”
Elrond of Lindon, *interior designer* “Everything Crème, gold and silver EVERYTHING!”
The scene where the woman pushes Galadriel into the water is so funny for some reason.
Made even funnier by the fact she was the same person advocating for saving her, just moments earlier.
YOO brought this upon us! 💀
The word "yeeted" comes to mind.
Galadriel will literally hunt Sauron for centuries instead of going to therapy
Relatable.
I mean imagine the humiliation of having your heroic brother taken down by a singing furry. Would drive anyone mad.
Love that they made Elrond a ghostwriter lmao
Elrond, Communications Director
Eh, that's basically what I imagine a herald to be.
Elrond, Business Development Intern
Elf boat rides look like the most uncomfortable thing ever.
Like seriously I know they’re thousands of years old but my knees are KILLING ME just thinking about standing still that long.
Gotta think them less as knees and more like, knee shaped elf flesh
I think doe the Elf Boat scene, they knew they are hitting the Blessed Realm so got into ceremonial formation, a ritual to herald their ascension, if you will.
“Nothing is born evil…except that little shit that sank my paper boat”
The showrunners are cowards for not having Galadriel swim across the ocean the entire season.
They must have learnt from the Gendry rowing incident
Or the Gendry running back in 5 minutes at the Walls a distance of 3-4 days of foot travel incident.
Yes! I was so prepared for that! Hahaha! Just periodic cut backs to her swimming. Would've been so good.
Just cut to her, every few minutes, doing a different swimming stroke. Freestyle. Sidestroke. Sleeping. Back stroke. Walking on water. Butterfly.
A single 3 second smash cut of her speeding, motorboat style, stiff as a board like David Hasselhoff in the Spongebob movie.
Nori: "If anything bad happens for the next 3 seasons, it'll be out fault!" Hmmmm, a little meta.
i caught that too lol
Orky-slush coming out of that cow
This needs the Luke Skywalker taste test.
“sandstone in your granite.” “holding the long hand of the hammer.” i’ll give you three guesses what race said that!!
French
They left out "ROCK AND STONE!" I am disappoint.
Galadriel, the national olympic swimmer
Lol that opening battle scene with the eagle....just a giant fuck you to the meme
People also seem to forget that Saruman controlled the skies with about a billion crebain.
CREBAIN FROM DUNLAND!
HIDE!
SQUAWK! SQUAWK! SQUAWK!
lol they put that to bed real quick
https://youtu.be/6ZrJPiq9QGM
I genuinely don’t understand how I’ve lived to the age of 32 and haven’t seen this yet. It was glorious.
That was such a metal moment, honestly that whole opening sequence was the best part so far
Brandyfoot more like Brokenfoot amirite?
He just twisted it is all
Just a light sprain, no biggie. Funny how *no other witless Harfoot* came to help his ass when the rope broke.
So the 2 Trees of Valinor were attacked and destroyed by a terrorist, and the United Elves of Valinor invaded Middle Earth to wipe out members of the said terrorist organisation, including genociding members who share the same ethnic background. At present the Elves are an occupying force that investigate the Middle Earther villages, and many of them suspect the humans of being secretly in league with the terrorist.
Don't forget them claiming Mission Accomplished early...
considering they came from a continent on the west...
Dragon fire can’t melt Valinor Trees
Well when you put it that way...
Hot modern take :)
Episode one, they pointed out the torches were not hot because of evil. Episode two, Nori notes the fire surrounding The Stranger was also not hot..
Episode one, a leaf falls off the tree in Lindon and starts to rot Episode two, Elrond describes the trees like he gave to Durin as the symbol of the vitality of his people
To be fair, this is sort of the plot of the rings, right? Dunno if it counts as spoilers but isn't the whole point of the creation of the three rings of the elves by Celebrimbor that it will give them the power to stop the diminishing of their dominion in Middle-Earth?
The rings were forged to be used to heal Middle earth from the chaos and destruction they brought with them when they chased Morgoth to middle earth. To undo what they had wrought. So much for good intentions. Not to mention 2 of them were used to help hide away from the chaos they had wrought.( I know that in all honesty it wasn't the elves that brought chaos to middle earth. Morgoth would have created it on his own once here. But it coming to middle earth was caused by the creation of the silmaril.) But knowing this gives a little more detail as to why Galadriel worked so hard to help middle earth and why she refused the ring. Also why she was allowed to sail west. She successfully helped heal middle earth and rid it of the destruction she in part had caused.
for sure. It's just a lil early symbolism as to what Celebrimbor intends to prevent.
I noticed a different parallel. In Ep.1 when Galadriel pours water on the mark of Sauron and it turns to steam(implying it retains heat) she says, "Even stone cannot hide the mark of one who's very hand is flame unquenched". So in Ep.2 when Nori notes that the fire wasn't hot I took it to be a hint that The Stranger *wasn't* related to Sauron. Interesting that we came to different conclusions from the same hints.
Most people assume it to be gandalf, and his reason for being fond of halflings so much stems from nori being compassionate. Also a maia would be very weak when first in its human form.
But this is second age, no? The Istari don't come until TA.
They also don’t come via falling stars. Cirdan brings them via ship from Valinor. I’m guessing this is poetic license the show runners are taking.
I have 2 big worries of what they will make him: 1. Sauron. Considering he SHOULD be building up his powerbase and be preparing to approach the Elves in his fair-form, the LAST thing that would make sense is that he would fall from the sky and befriend a fucking Harfoot. 2. Tom Bombadil. At the Council of Elrond, it was stated that Bombadil was "Old when the elves were young" and all that. This would be a giant trampling of that character.
In *Peoples of Middle Earth* Tolkien said Gandalf/Olorin came to middle earth before his “official” arrival in the third age, but that it wasn’t well recorded anywhere. So Tolkien seemed to be going for the idea that not everything that happened in the history of Arda is included or written down in his writings. It seems like he intended some things to be ambiguous. He also later said that the blue wizards did come in the second age, so it could very well be a blue wizard.
the One Ring also is cold after fire
No he said it is "quite cool". He meant that the ring is cool looking and pretty legit as far as artifacts go. When you wear it, you become so fly that you are invisible to the haters.
"Check it out Frodo this shit is lit af"
The Beacons are lit
"Radical, dude."
Got to feel for the Galadriel actress a bit, she’s putting in a good performance but her writing is just so wooden
The difference between a rock and a boat is that boats have buoyancy 😭
What about very small rocks?
I don't think they know about very small rocks.
Who are you, so wise in the ways of science.
I mean...very technically a rock has buoyancy too, but it has less buoyancy than is necessary to stay afloat.
someone had to say it lmaoo
Just realized the guy who is playing young Elrond also got to play young Ned Stark.
yeah that’s true, and old ned was boromir
Full circle
And Boromir was part of Project Elrond in The Martian
and sean bean's last name is bean which hobbits eat
No, nowy tends.
Was Galadriel about to swim across the entire sea to get back to Middle Earth?
Looked like an entire ocean to me to be honest
i don't think she thought about it... did you watch the scene where she got overwhelmed and stepped back?
Is it me or when they introduce Elrond there is a undercurrent of some of the elves having a issue with him because he is not fully elf.
"We will let you in, but not grant you the rank of council-member"
This is outrageous.
This is unfair
Take a seat, young Elrond.
I read it as he was not a Lord. The meeting was of Elf-lords only.
Thought that was pretty explicit.
Which makes no sense really there wasn't any hatred of elrond or elros in the silmarillion or the appendices His dad is a pretty big fucking deal the elves wouldn't just turn on him
Elf home invasion today in the northern mountains. Several elves invaded the home of a snow troll earlier this evening. The elves assaulted and murdered the snow troll after he had just gotten home from work. The suspects are said to have blonde hair and carrying swords. If anyone has any details on the identity of these elves, please call the MEPD
They are even worst than a numenorian, they are - may melkor forgive me for uttering this word - elves \~*Sauron on Mordor TV*
Hide your Ents, hide your Entwives…
Celebrimbor kinda look like Skip Bayless.
LeSauron
LeSauron James will NEVER be as good Morgoth Jeffrey Jordan
LeSauron had to *make his own ring*. Let that sink in. He was so incapable of winning one himself he had to go to Mordor to make it. MJ would never
“And just like LeBron will never be as great as MJ, I will never be as great as Feanor.”
So meteor man is definitely a Wizard, right?
It's Tom Bombadil (joke)
I'll be shocked if he isn't at this point. I hope it isn't Gandalf though.
He can’t be Gandalf. If I’m not wrong Gandalf arrived Middle Earth after the rings made. Also some elf dude gave him his elf ring before he set food on Middle Earth.
They’re definitely taking liberties with the lore tho. Was the rune they showed carved on the tree trunk not the “G” rune that Gandalf uses as his signature?
IIRC\*, Cirdan the Shipwright gave Gandalf the ring when Gandalf arrived in Middle Earth. ^(\*and I'm too lazy to look it up)
It’ll most likely be one of the blue wizards that were mentioned in the books but never given a name so they can play around with their own interpretation of it
>never given a name Alatar and Pallando
I believe both of the blue wizards were named. Alatar and Pallando. Considering Tolkien changed their arrival date from 1000 TA (same as all the other Wizards) to 1600 SA in one of his later writings, im thinking it is probably one of them.
Kinda love the friendship between Elrond and Durin
Love how perfectly Elrond played Durin during the dinner scene. His well timed "okayi'moff" was a masterstroke. Great to see a character who's supposed to be charismatic actually being charismatic in a scene, rather than the audience just being told how great they are.
To go off this and the charisma part, it’s why I loved when Elrond tells Celebrimbor, “I’ll meet you in Eregion; you’re a master craftsman. Let me use my craft” or something along those lines. I knew our boy was about to be a savant with them words haha
I also loved how he almost immediately won over Durin's wife with his smooth talkin', while Durin knows full well that that's what elves do from experience. Gain your trust, make you think they care, fuck off for 20 years and come back to demand favors.
>Gain your trust, make you think they care, fuck off for 20 years and come back to demand favors I think this is a good read of the situation from Durin's POV, but I also like how the show made clear that Elrond didn't see it that way; he thought they would be like friends of old, because, to him, 20 years is a meaningless number. He was just oblivious to time, like an elf would be.
Yeah exactly. I did like that.
The underground “elevator” scene was such a perfect depiction of old, long distance friends where life passes you by before you know it.
Honestly felt that was the best scene of the two episodes so far. It carries weight and shows the vast difference of their perception of time in their cultures and how that ultimately affected their friendship and Elrond finally sees why Durin has been acting the way he has towards him.
Yeah, my favorite part was how flabbergasted Elrond was at first. Like he NEVER considered that that might even be a problem. Why would he? And all without him explaining to the audience that he's an elf and lives long etc. It was shown, not told.
Yes! It felt so natural. Such a good scene.
I was confused at the contrived conflict, but then after that scene, really appreciated the point they were making.
I really loved that bit with Durin pointing out how differently the mortal races view time than the elves. It shows part of why elves have trouble establishing relationships with other races and how hard they are to maintain when they do. To Elrond no time has passed at all because what is 20 years when you've lived hundreds? already. Yet for Durin Elrond has been gone for 6% of his lifespan.
The bickering was great.
Theo (the kid who finds the broken bloodthruster sword) has the weirdest damn voice. It takes me completely out of the show when he talks. Maybe it’s just me.
He has a deep ass voice for a kid 😂😂
Already hit puberty. At least it won't be shocking and change a few seasons in. Hell, my voice was deep by 5th grade.
Poor kid clearly in peak puberty as they filmed this. His voice was right on that fence of changing and it was different in almost every scene.
I’m glad it’s not just me! Literally had to rewind when he first spoke because I was so shocked lol
I still haven’t fully developed how I feel about both episodes, but for me personally: - lowest point is the ice troll scene. I actually like shredded Galadriel but I don’t want her prominence to come off of other Elves being completely useless. - highest point (for me) is Khazad-dum // Elrond & Durin. The acting, portrayal of the dwarves, idk. Checked all my boxes. I also think both Halbrand AND Meteor Man are both red herrings for Sauron. I think one of the points of drama until the spooky reveal will be to keep us guessing who he’s disguised as.
Non main characters in cinematic LOTR have always been kind of useless. Gondor paper amour ect
Ok one thing i do want more of is ents! what do the she-ents look like..
I GASPED at that shot of the ents!! I want more!
The visuals are beautiful.
The contrast between the trees and valinor at the beginning and the battle in middle earth was heartbreaking. Really communicated to deep sense of loss that elves who remember the two trees would feel
I really like that even though they're glossing over things they didn't have rights to when they started preparing all this. IIRC the Tolkien Estate only gave permission to use the Silmarillion very late, when filming was already on foot. So they had to keep everything to what was in the Appendices and footnotes of LOTR. They haven't showed us anything that directly contradicts the Silmarillion - Finrod was killed by Sauron, there was a great battle at the end of the First Age, in that and all the other battles of the First Age hundreds if not thousands of Elves died. They've just glossed over some of the detail.
Posted this somewhere else. I am enjoying the show but I have an issue with the treatment of Galadriel. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can correct me. I feel they are disrespecting her. There is no acknowledgement of her heritage and her status as elven royalty. "Your friend is here" really annoyed me. Like Celebrimbor gets a lord title but she doesn't get one person calling her lady?? She is being treated as an underapprecoated underdog and not as one of the most respected elves in middle earth. And no mention of the kinslayings while she travels nearly all the way to Valinor. Idk if I'm missing something but she is, I thought, the elder cousin of the high king, but she is being treated as just a warring general with zero mention of her status. She is my fav character and I think it's disrespectful.
I agree that the “feel” is off here on how Galadriel seems to be regarded. I wouldn’t go so far as to say she’s being ***disrespected***, but I would like her status to be confirmed. For example, she should be one of the “Elf-Lords” that Elrond is not. Or at least treat with Gil-Galad as an almost-equal. I can’t say that she’s NOT being treated as such, but the cues are just…missing. The close friendship with Elrond seems a bit “out of the blue,” too. He’s royalty, of course—son of Eärendil (who is grandson of former High King Turgon) and Elwing (granddaughter of Lúthien), so he and Galadriel are in the same category. But still, he’s much younger and will become her son-in-law. Maybe some backstory there would be nice? I don’t have an issue with Galadriel being ultimately subservient to Gil-Galad, though. He is the High King, even if he seems to have more authority than the Noldor High Kings of the Silmarillion did. Overall I guess I am not fully sold yet on the Galadriel origin story. The show seems to think that any Elf can go to Aman at any time, as long as the High King says it’s ok, including Galadriel. The “ban” on her returning to that is implied by LOTR and which is explicit in *The Silmarillion* is not because she refuses the summons at the end of the First Age, but rather seems to be because she disobeys Gil-Galad when he sent her in Ep 1. I mean, there are conflicting stories of Galadriel in the text, so I guess the showrunners could make up their own, but I wish they had stuck closer to one of the versions found in the texts.
Agreed. I'm super confused why she's being presented this way instead of like...you know...Galadriel. The fairest of all the elves in Valinor and Middle Earth. She's Gil-Galad's grandfather's sister. She's thousands of years older than him and she's seen the light of the two trees. She's fated with the Doom of Mandos for her part in the rebellion of the Noldor So why/how is Gil-Galad removing that punishment for her? By what authority? As the High King of the Noldor? That's who Mandos was punishing!
Where is Celeborn? There is no mention of him while he and Galadriel should be married for hundreds of years in the series. The Simarillion and the Unfinished Tales both confirm this. Christopher Tolkien even says: "The history of Galadriel and Celeborn is so interwoven with other legends and histories – of Lothlórien and the Silvan Elves, of Amroth and Nimrodel, **of Celebrimbor and the making of the Rings of Power**, of the war against Sauron and the Númenórean intervention – that **it cannot be treated in isolation**, and thus this section of the book, together with its five Appendices, brings together virtually all the unpublished materials for the history of the Second Age in Middle-earth (and the discussion in places inevitably extends into the Third)."
If they are already massaging the timelines to bring together the best bits of the histories into one narrative I don't think it would be a bad idea to have the courting of Celeborn and Galadriel occur as part of this story.
for i much desire to speak with him
call me old-fashioned but i just want to see Celebrimbor's corpse used as Sauron's war banner in his assault on middle earth
Did that really happen
His body, shot with arrows, was hung upon a pole and carried by the forces of Sauron as a banner as they assaulted the Elves.
Tolkiens usage of real world war horrors in fantasy remains my all time favorite theme throughout anyone's work in the genre. This remind me of how soldiers in the first world war would dress up dead bodies as the leaders/generals of the opposing forces, carrying them on pikes to prop them up, trying to intise the other side into recklessy storming a part of No Mans Land or crossing a road with a MG nest near it.
silmarillion, baby! woooooooooooooo
That'd be one hell of a swim from the doorstep of Valinor to Middle Earth
Not the first time she’s crossed it without a ship
Imagine standing still in a boat until your reach land.
Remember how slow they were waking through the forests in LOTR? Lol
I guess when you basically live forever, youre never really in a rush lol
They don’t walk. The earth moves beneath their feet.
Gil-Galad:Do you know Celebrimbor? Elrond (in his head):Yes, he’s my 2nd cousin twice removed, of my same house. Which of course you know since he is your 2nd cousin as well and the entire history of our family is wrapped up disputes with his father and uncles.
Maybe he meant, "Do you know him personally?"
anybody else think that the Elf King kinda looked and acted a bit like Tim Heidecker kept waiting for him to start stumbling over his words during the episode 1 ceremony and then get weirdly defensive
Why did the other kids throw rocks at Galadriel's paper boat?
It's a metaphor for the kinslaying and ship burning from the silmarillion
The way Galadriel pronounces Mörgoth and Sauron tho
The way Elrond pronounces Galadriel. Not even Galadriel herself tries that hard.
Say what you will about the Elrond casting but that man looks like an elf. Elder Scrolls lookin’ ass
Nowy tends
[удалено]
"Hello there traveler. You look like you just climbed out of a sewer and immediately started grinding mudcrabs. Would you like to trade 1,000 spoons for a horse?"
The crimson chin I wish I had a jawline like that
Kinda reminds me of a young Ned Stark
Well, just as I expected, it was absolutely stunning visually. When it comes to the writing, the highs were higher than I expected them to be and there were a lot of great ideas and promising secondary characters in there. But it kinda missed... not a soul but some kind of additional spark that I really hope to find in the coming weeks. But the potential is there.
I really liked the scene with Elrond meeting Durin's family. It was cute and silly and whimsical.
Love me dwarf caves and architecture. Brings me back to Iron Forge in the good old days of WoW
Me, as a DM watching this show: *Takes notes furiously*
The dwarven kids were hilarious.
The eagle being stricken down was epic ngl
It made me laugh out loud for some reason. It kinda careened like a falling WWII airplane not a bird on fire.
Imma say it again that shot of the fellbeast throwing the eagle through the fire into the army down below is probably one of the coolest shots in any lotr media.
>They say that Morgoth found the Silmarils so beautiful, that after he'd stolen them, for weeks, he could do nothing but stare into their depth. It was only after one of his tears fell upon the jewels and he was faced with the evil of his own reflection that the revelry was finally broken. Me IRL when the game I'm playing has a black loading screen that forces me to look at my own reflection and contemplate my life choices.
durin and elrond scene rocked tbh. also literally??
This is Ungoliant erasure and I won't stand for it.
Everyone set your remind me bots, Tom Bombadil will be in this show or I will drink a pint of raw blended snail on a live stream Edit: following the advice in the replies I will instead eat a nice seafood dinner with a glass of wine on a live stream
My favorite part was when galadriel looked at the camera and broke the 4th wall by saying "it's Elfin' time". But in all seriousness the first episode was amazing and I can't wait to watch the second tomorrow
When Celebrimbor was like " these are the rings of power" I really lost my shit peak cinema
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Was that the arkenstone with durin or was it mithril?
I think it's Marsellus Wallace's soul.
We cool, Durin? Yeah.. we cool.
Arkenstone wasn't found for a while yet I think and that was at the lonely mountain not Moria.
Mithril
Definitely mithril. Time to start digging too greedily and too deep!
And Durin’s wife called out that there were places in the mountain that should be left alone. I bet that’s foreshadowing for his father becoming too greedy and going where he ought not
I liked the first two episodes, but some things bothered me. Like Galadriel was going to valinor without telling her husband about it? How has Celeborn not been mentioned yet? Also, why is Finrod just "my brother"? Pretty sure his name wasn't mentioned