The Rings Of Power. Wait, come back! It has the Tolkien seal of approval!

[Immortalbulk]

I just watched the third episode and the show started to pick up. Numenor and Elendil were great, I really enjoy Elronds plotline. My least liked plotline is the love story of the Elf, the village woman and his(?) child, just doesn't feel earned, or even plausible, I don't know. Maybe if we saw how it came to be, I would be more up for it.

Some random thoughts:

-One of the plotlines seems to be that everyone will end up working on the rings together - Elendils daughter, Halbrand, Dwarves and Celebrimbor... After the great forge project is complete.
-Halbrand could be the Witch King - he helps to forge the rings, gets one because he is the king of southlands, gets corrupted etc. OR another thought - he is the King of the Dead cursed by Isildur for betraying him. I just don't think it is a redemption story, would be too much like Aragorn lite.
-Will Elrond "steal" the idea of dwarves to talk to stone to start talking with trees for crafting purposes? (I remember I read about it ~20 years ago, so don't remember all the details well, and even if the timeline adds up).
-While the meteor man seems like Gandalf, I agree it could be a misdirection. However I really don't think its Sauron or Saruman. If he is Gandalf after all, I wouldn't like it, because it overexplains why Gandalf has a liking to hobbits. I don't like when everything adds up too nicely in stories.

Glad to be in middle earth again, even though I have my hang-ups about the series.

[Captain Smith]

I am not being critical to be critical. I like the first two episodes but just felt the last one was not that great and details started to gaul. Too many shows nowadays are based on the great reveal - tune in next week. Meteor man is that. The story itself has enough strength not to add distractions. Also, I repeat some critique of technical aspects. Numenor was well done. Looked good. The orcs, warg, slo-mo fight - not so much. When makeup is obviously blobs of goo - as on the orcs and dwarfs - one could do better.

Hope it picks up.

[Frobisher]

I think a lot of people are going to get very bilious when the mystery box of the meteor guy is finally opened, haha. I'm thinking something along the lines of that time the makers of Star Trek swore blind that Cumberbatch wasn't Khan.

[choptop]

Why are orcs vampires now?

[Jackalope89]

LOTR was not a trilogy, it was a single fantasy novel too large to publish in one volume. The trilogy was the idea of the publisher, not Tolkien. And it is perhaps the greatest piece of fantasy literature ever written. That said, I don't care how faithful to all the unfinished bits of ancillary writing they are. As long it is good. I am enjoying revisiting Middle Earth again. Much more than going back to the grim Westeros.

On this, at least, I can wholeheartedly agree.

[MichaelC]

Why are orcs vampires now?

Orcs have always had problems with sunlight in LOTR. It was considered an upgrade when the new breed of orc came out that was resistant to sunlight, and even they didn't like it, they just could fight in it without issue. These are second age orcs, long before the 3rd age upgrade.

[Jackalope89]

Yeah, 90% sure meteor man is Gandalf, original appendixes/Silmarillion be damned. I guess as a way to establish why he always had a soft spot for Hobbits.

As for Numenor, height complaints aside (yeah, I know, hard to find 10ft tall giants to play the parts, sue me), I think we may see Sauron in episode 4.

[Sutekh]

Orcs have always had problems with sunlight in LOTR. It was considered an upgrade when the new breed of orc came out that was resistant to sunlight, and even they didn't like it, they just could fight in it without issue. These are second age orcs, long before the 3rd age upgrade.

Yeah, Uruk-hai had to be crossbred with something (goblins, trolls, I don't remember, possibly it was different between book and movie?) by Saruman so that they could fight during the day. It was both mentioned in the books, and the Peter Jackson movie, ever so briefly.

[CSTowle]

O we are still doing that thing were we say The Hobbit trilogy is bad just because it's not LOTR? I thought that died out with the starwars PT bashing.

Anyway this show is great at least the first 2 episode s.

It had a few things going against it. 1. It was being compared to the LotR trilogy which was beloved and was always going to be hard to be compared to. See the last two Star Wars trilogies (though I'd agree, like with the Hobbit, those trilogies were inferior to the original). 2. The cynical money grab of stretching a single book into three movies. Even if you like having more to watch (and I own the extended Hobbit trilogy, as well as the first, so I like more) it just feels icky.

3. Like with Peter Jackson's King Kong, you could tell story and character development took a back seat to him showing off what he could do with special effects (which were impressive) and it ended up making for more of a spectacle than a story. That might work for a Disney superhero movie or a giant ape movie, but with something like the Tolkien-verse (ugh, different name please) the spectacle should enhance the story and not the other way around. Some of those fight scenes were just ridiculous, and not in a good way. Like the scene in King Kong where they're fleeing CGI animals/monsters down a ravine and it's just so over the top my eyes just glazed over and I waited for it to be over.

4. And yes, Legolas' inclusion was again a cynical "Eh, t'row da pretty elf in. Kids love da pretty elf" example of them caring more about fan service than telling the story. I'm sure it enhanced enjoyment for a good portion of the audience, perhaps more than were put off by it, but it's a valid criticism.

I'm enjoying this so far. Looks just as cinematic as one would expect. I've never been a huge fans of elves in Tolkien's works, and so far I am most drawn to Durin and the dwarves as well as the harfoots.

Yeah, I would like to see more of the dwarves and I'm enjoying the Hobbits. If anything the elves are the worst part for me. As some have said the epic/rising music any time they do so much as take a s##t, the OP nature of everything they do, the stilted formal way of speaking. Maybe it's to make young Galadriel more interesting by comparison with her overemotional/quick to anger attitude.

I have enjoyed this series more than the House of the Dragon, and have a few characters I'm interested in (Durin and Disa, Nori, Elrond, and Elendil seems interesting though we haven't seen much of him yet). Did like seeing the example of Elrond not having a good track of the way time works for the shorter-lived races, and the stubbornness of the dwarves at the same time. I was really worried after the awful "rock/ship" speech by Galadriel's brother, but may have helped by lowering my expectations afterward. Over all I'm interested to see where it's going, and care about a handful of characters, which is more than I can say about HoD (though I'll continue watching both).

[Frontier]

Can someone go into why the other races are so way of elves?

Also, is Adar like an emissary of Sauron who is working to get Mordor ready for him?

[Jackalope89]

Can someone go into why the other races are so way of elves?

Also, is Adar like an emissary of Sauron who is working to get Mordor ready for him?

Well, in Universe, only the ancestors of the Numenoreans helped the Elves fight Melkor/Morgoth. The ones in the Southlands had aligned the other way.

For the Dwarves, it goes back a long way as well, but far more personal. The Elves were elitest pricks, and the Dwarves were greedy assholes. So that led to several confrontations, and otherwise, a rather icy relationship. Well, outside of Moria at least. Where Elves and Dwarves would be friends and allies until Durin's Bane was uncovered. And to say nothing of their kin at the Lonely Mountain after being forced out by Smaug.

[Frontier]

Well, in Universe, only the ancestors of the Numenoreans helped the Elves fight Melkor/Morgoth. The ones in the Southlands had aligned the other way.

For the Dwarves, it goes back a long way as well, but far more personal. The Elves were elitest pricks, and the Dwarves were greedy assholes. So that led to several confrontations, and otherwise, a rather icy relationship. Well, outside of Moria at least. Where Elves and Dwarves would be friends and allies until Durin's Bane was uncovered. And to say nothing of their kin at the Lonely Mountain after being forced out by Smaug.

And humans feel bitter because Elves continually judge them for siding with Morgoth?

[Jared]

It's weird how the Numenoreans don't want them on the island...but the difficult solution is to keep them around a few days? If you don't want them there and Galadriel doesn't want to be there, just put her on the next ship headed to Middle-earth! Maybe Galadriel shouldn't have gone Full Karen when addressing the court.

The Harfoots are actually...cold blooded bastards? And maybe perverts who bang in public? Did thr writers not realize what they did here?!

[Tofali]

And humans feel bitter because Elves continually judge them for siding with Morgoth?

Do they feel bitter or are they just wrapped up in their failure since they lost the war?

[Frontier]

It's weird how the Numenoreans don't want them on the island...but the difficult solution is to keep them around a few days? If you don't want them there and Galadriel doesn't want to be there, just put her on the next ship headed to Middle-earth! Maybe Galadruel shouldn't have gone Full Karen when addressing the court.

The Harfoots are actually...cold blooded bastards? And maybe perverts who bang in public? Did thr writers not realize what they did here?!

I feel like the conundrum was they didn't want to give a ship to Galadriel or risk her bringing back more Elves. But she also doesn't seem to quite understand the idea of diplomacy.

They actually joked about the one guy who got left behind because he got killed by bees because he's an idiot...