It's inconsistent. 50% of the time it's passable, 30% of the time it is excellent, and 20% of the time it is just god-awful. If they can maybe get that down to 5%, the show will be greatly improved.

 

It's amusing how Galadriel just continues making all wrong decisions. First she brings the Dark Lord from his retirement, then she convinces everybody he's the rightful king, then when he offers to work with her she goes for a kill instead of waiting to check how he behaves and for a better chance and then on top of that she doesn't admit all her previous mistakes to others which in future will bring even more trouble.

Charlie Vickers does play pretty great Sauron now that he's revealed. Definitely want more of him and the only problem in the next season will be that until he's back in Numeron, he probably won't have too many people to interact with.

Daniel Weyman too plays pretty nice version of Gandalf if only for few scenes.

With the finale done the show was better than expected, but the movies did it better with similar runtime. The show can improve since it was big enough hit that next seasons aren't in any danger of even getting budget cuts.

 

Fuck.

Fuckity fuck fuck.

FUCK.

I am not mad about how anything went down Sauron-wise. It was all rather predictable in the end. Some of the scenes regarding this were absolutely epic (the reveal, finrod, the raft, the crafting).

I'm mad about how all this crap about mithril and speedy fading was not a master manipulation on his part. I am mad that the 3 are crafted without his influence before the 9 and 7, meaning he's going to have to come back to Eregion and do the corrupted crafting plot in season 2, and then craft the One at the end of S2/S3, all while being unaware (or mostly unaware) that the 3 exist. Sloppy sloppy sloppy. And so unnecessary.

Le sigh.

I still don't think The Stranger is Gandalf, even with the quoted line. Fucking off to Rhun says Blue Wizard to me.

 

Unless someone says he's not in the next few days, he's Gandalf. It just doesn't really work to have everybody assume he's Gandalf for the next two years and then reveal in the next season he's someone a lot less famous.

 

Halbrand simply walked into Mordor.

 

Halbrand scenes were lovely. Stranger things were lovely. Unfortunately, I still can't take Galadriel seriously while the show keeps trying to push the righteous protagonist angle after all the shit she's done.

Honestly, the finale was about as good as it could have been, considering what came before.

We still dont know that it's not.

They weren't? Halbrand pretty much solo'd the creation of the first rings. The only thing he didn't have an input on was the final number, which is seemingly an attempt to stave off temptation from the wearers purely through competition.

 

Gonna be a whole swell of Galadriel/Halbrand fics coming out soon…

 

Vickers actually said in an interview today that Morfydd Clark taught him what shipping meant lol, he previously had no idea.

They definitely have a helluvah lot of chemistry, ignoring the whole “killed her brother” thing.

 

Yes I worded that poorly. The 3 are absolutely supposed to be made from Sauron's knowledge of the craft, but the Elven rings are also supposed to come AFTER the creation of the 9 and 7, as a direct result of Sauron's teachings from the the first two batches. But these 3 were made in secret from Sauron, without being sullied by his magic. When he forges the One and when he speaks the ringverse, binding all the ringbearers to his will, the elves instantly know they've been duped and Sauron instantly knows there are 3 rings beyond his grasp. The 3 are not fully free from the power of the One, having been derived from Sauron's knowledge, but they are free from the binding because he had no hand in crafting them. Galadriel, Gil, and Cirdan are able to remove their rings.

The logic of this really falls apart if he knows about them before crafting the rest of the lesser rings. It's going to take a lot of finagling to make it work now.

 

I think they’re gonna skip all that and simplify it to “we made three instead of two without your knowledge nyyyyyaaaaa!”

 

Do. Not. Want.

 

Personally I would like one with him actually trying to be good and Galadriel conflicted about it, but the problem with making Sauron a good guy is that he has no real enemy to prove himself against. It would take him confronting returning Morgoth and getting killed in that battle to once for all prove he's not playing a long game.

He creates the One assuming the elves have two rings and that miscalculation will prevent him from controlling them. Probably will even have a scene where he almost gets two people under his spell and then Galadriel stops him revealing the third one on her hand.

 

Now that it's finished, I liked the show as a whole. It has potential. If you keep in mind that they were limited by Covid rules for the first season, I believe Season 2 would be better.

In terms of lore, I think the show was full of it and it gave us a lot of fanservice. Durin x Elrond stole the show in my opinion and while I'm not yet on the Galadriel train I'm getting there.

And there still is some mystery left. We don't know for a fact that the other rings are already built or yet to be built. If you pause the show at the moment the mithril is put in the melting pot you can kinda see the eye of Sauron in there.

I still believe the mithril thing is a Sauron contraption and his goal for the entire season was just too corrupt Galadriel and that Durin the King already is wearing one of the dwarven rings.

When the season started and we had all these red herrings of Sauron, I truly believed that the show was exploring multiple timelines in the 2nd age and all of the red hearings were Sauron at the end, and the reveal would be that we had different timelines. (Halbrand is Sauron, the Stranger is Sauron, Theo is Sauron all that was missing was an Elf as the Lord Of Gifts)

In the end, we got a lost Sauron that needed Galadriel to bring him back to his evil ways. But I truly loved the reveal, the music and cinematography were on point during the entire season.

 

So we've reached the end of season 1 and I am finding it difficult to come to an overall view.

I think the most important observation I can make is this: I have eagerly anticipated each and every episode, and savoured every moment. Watching RoP has been the highlight of my week for the last 7 weeks. So everything I say has to be read in that context.

The second point I would make is that unlike many LotR fans, I do not object to completely altering the story as some do. I view all adaptations as derivative works, not the original work itself. Essentially very expensive fanfiction. This was true of the HP movies, of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, of the Star Wars prequels and sequels.

Indeed, even the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales are in some ways a form of licenced LotR fanfiction, because Christopher Tolkien very much had to make decisions over what to include and what to exclude, what version of particular events to prefer where multiple versions existed, and to write for himself a considerable amount of "bridging" material to join up the scattered fragments into something relatively cohesive. I don't view them as part of the core "LotR canon" but rather interesting insights into certain ideas Tolkien had over the years which he considered incorporating into the canon but never actually did.

So I have no inherent problem with the fact that even quite substantial changes were made, and indeed, in some ways I think it's a fascinating exercise to imagine an expanded backstory to Sauron and the forging of the Rings based solely off of LotR and its appendices without being constrained by the Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, etc. (similar to how I find it interesting to imagine alternative prequel trilogies to Star Wars, based solely on the original 3 movies).

So, for example, things I do not mind in principle being different from previous versions of this story:

- The time compression.

- Sauron coming to the Elves as a man rather than an elf-like emissary, especially where the spirit of coming in disguise and tricking them is kept intact.

- The order of forging being altered.

- The timeline of Galadriel and Celeborn's relationship being changed; Celeborn replacing Glorfindel as a reincarnated elf returning to Middle Earth (if indeed that is the direction they are going with him).

- Gandalf arriving early (if the Stranger is indeed Gandalf).

- Gandalf travelling to the east (if the Stranger is indeed Gandalf).

- The mechanics of how the One Ring functions and its relationship to the other rings, to the extent this is even really clear in the canon.

With all that said: I feel like the show made changes to the backstory which, to me, did not feel purposeful. There are changes that have me scratching my head as to why that change was made, as the changes do not appear to have any meaningful narrative or practical purpose.

The head-scratching changes include:

- The mythril backstory. It was executed well in terms of having Elrond tell the story, the visuals being great, etc. But I feel like the connection to the Silmaril is messy from a worldbuilding perspective and also from a narrative perspective because, while the show has the odd mention here and there of the silmarils, the casual view will really not understand what they are, their significance, etc. It would have been sufficient just to have them discover the metal and discover that it has unique properties which enable the forging of the Rings of Power without tying it into the Silmarils.

- The decline of the Elves being so literal. My personal preference for the depiction Elvish decline is that it is a theme which the reader can identify from a historical perspective, not a literal force in the world which determines its own outcome. The Elvish kingdoms of Middle Earth decline because of the collective accumulated decisions across thousands of years of the Elvish populations to slowly, steadily leave Middle Earth and travel to Valinor. Decline is a function of the decisions Elves make, and it was perhaps inevitable that they would make those decisions (because who wouldn't be tempted by the continual option to nope out and live in paradise whenever anything gets difficult), but inevitable as a matter of Elvish psychology and the exercise of free will, not inevitable in a biological or magical sense. And the Three Rings serve to arrest that decline because with their power in Middle Earth and in the hands of the Elves to kindle their spirits and produce great works, Valinor loses much of its pull, because Middle Earth can be just as great as Valinor.

- Tied into this is the acceleration of Elvish decline and its ability to be reversed by magical mythril. This just rubs in my face how literally the show chose to depict the decline of the Elves. Taking a theme and giving it literal physical presence in the world always feels like clumsy writing to me.

There are also changes which are not "head-scratching" level but which probably are not decisions I would have made:

- The Rings (or the first of the rings) being made so quickly after Sauron arrives in Eregion, and Sauron's contribution to them being relatively minor, in the sense of suggestions pointing the Elves in the right direction, rather than having a direct hand in the design and magic of what a "Ring of Power" is. I feel like there could have been a lot of interesting interactions if this section had been more fully fleshed out over a longer period of time. But I suspect the writers struggled to come up with actual substance of what contribution Sauron/Halbrand could make that didn't just amount to the LotR equivalent of empty Star Trek technobabble.

- Numenor's rise being delayed. There was a reference to Pelagir, so we know that there has been some past Numenorean colonisation of Middle Earth, but there does not appear to be any substantial colonisation ongoing. This makes it hard to believe that Gondor and Arnor will be able to rise so quickly in the future, without the foundation of centuries of Numenorean colonisation.

- Some Galadriel moments. I am on board with her character traits of stubbornness and recklessness, and those character traits backfiring by inadvertently helping Sauron, but I feel like the execution could have been better in a few places - mostly around her motivations. I think this character arc might have worked better with a more selfish motivation such as the desire for a kingdom of her own, the desire to see her people achieve greatness once more, pride in defiance of the Valar, etc - essentially, Feanorean traits. Rather than having the single-minded motivation of wanting to hunt down and kill Sauron. I think this would have been a nice parallel to Sauron's own traits, with both of them sharing the view that the best way to achieve good is for them to be powerful and in charge, but then show how each of them ends up taking different paths despite a similar motivation. This avenue would also have given more opportunities to depict Galadriel as being of the highest station in Elvish society rather than depicting her as a relative outcast, albeit one who rubs shoulders with the great. And I wish when Celebrimbor asked for the purest materials it had been a request for her hair, not the dagger, but that would have required first setting it up in a prior episode that she had refused Feanor the same thing.

Things I did particularly like:

- The Halbrand/Sauron reveal. Even though very different from the book version, I like it because it captures the essential idea of Sauron coming from an unexpected place. All the reasons why the viewer has to say "It's weird that Sauron is Halbrand because...." are reasons why it's perfect for Halbrand to be Sauron. The whole point of it being a good disguise is that it should be strange and difficult to connect the two. But then once his identity was revealed, the actor really smashed the role. Some great lines there - "I have been awake since before breaking of the first silence", and him feeding Galadriel the line she would later speak to Frodo when tempted by the One Ring.

- The fine line toed with Sauron in terms of establishing his own narrative where he is the good guy of his own story. It's just right in terms of its ambiguity as to whether he actually believes his own narrative or if it is a cynical manipulation attempt to sway Galadriel. Would he really have remained in Numenor as a humble smith, had Galadriel not persuaded him to take the Southlands, or was that just another manipulation? We cannot say, and that ambiguity is how the manipulation has credibility - because if the viewer can't say, it is believable that the characters can't either.

- Morfydd Clark's performance and general vibe. Just an excellent Galadriel, especially in episodes 7 and 8. And come on:

 

Indeed. Agree on most points with Taure. I am very happy with S1 overall, despite my whiny nitpicks. It was amazeballs television visually, and much more loyal to the thematic aspects of Tolkien than the PJ films. And albeit there being room for improvement where the writing/dialogue just takes a massive dip in quality, it was above-average to great most of the time.

There are really only two valid ways to interpret Tolkien lore from a legendarium reader's perspective. Taure's way as mentioned above, and viewing the entirety of Tolkien and Christopher's works as multiple versions of "canon" (i.e. in universe, it is a collected body of many different versions of the same stories).

I subscribe to the latter philosophy. UT, Silm, Morgoth's Ring, War of the Jewels, they're all just iterations by various narrators and historians recounting the "true stroy" which has been lost to time.

So in terms of lore breaks, my main problems with RoP arise when the writers come up with something original that conflicts with lore for seemingly pointless reasons, or when the original thing they've come up with is far less compelling or sensible than any of the established versions (i.e. mithril myth, expedited fading, forging order, and ring mechanics).

 

I have written, rewritten, and re-rewritten this post a number of times now, so let's see how this one turns out.

Broadly, I enjoyed the show for the look of the whole thing. Numenor, Moria and Lindon looked great, and the actors did a very good job of inhabiting the roles they'd been assigned. Like Taure, I didn't really go into it expecting a 'perfect' translation from book to screen. If only for the simple reason that such a thing is impossible. Tolkien himself was constantly revising his vision of the world, and while Christopher did what he could with the Silmarillion and other works, the end result is still a canon which is frequently self-contradicting.

So taking some artistic license with the story we have in the appendices is fine in my book.

My issues come with the specific decisions the showrunners made. In general, when I'm considering a 'broadly canon-adjacent' fanfiction, I tend to think that departures from what is known should have a purpose that plays into the core of your story. Basically, AU elements should have some purpose. More than that, though; that purpose also needs to pass muster as being good itself.

For example, having a tree which takes on aspects of the general health of the Elves is fine by me. It was a nice idea. They can draw parallels between the Two Trees of Valinor and the trees of Numenor and Lindon. Great. It adds the potential for depth and meaning to how your present and tell the story.

On the other hand, having the tree be so literally tied to the lives of the Elves feels cheap compared to a more symbolic connection.

There are moments where I can see slivers of some interesting thoughts concerning Tolkien's mythology. Adar's reflection on the evil nature of Orcs was one that stood out as it is something Tolkien himself wrestled with for a long time. Something else which I thought was an interesting possible connection, was the Elvish fear of 'death'. The effort and time they were willing to expend in order to avoid their seeming mortality seemed like the kind of thing that could have played well against the ideas which might be taking root among the Numenoreans.

But each of these moments was left unaddressed, or simply dropped entirely. It was Durin, not any Numenorean, who pointed out the Elves' desire to cheat death, and now that the Three have been created, it seems unlikely that this will enter into any Elf-Numenorean conversations in the near future. The existence of Orcs as thinking, feeling beings was mentioned, but then soon discarded so that the show could continue to use them as cheap bodies for the heroes to hack at.

My other concern is a feeling of a lack of historicity in what we've been shown.

Tolkien, sometimes to his own detriment, was always acutely aware of the historical context of events, and how historical events can shape the world, language, and people of today. The show does not feel like it is nearly so aware. It felt to me like elements were introduced because they were what the plot needed now, and little thought was given to their historical context.

The most obvious example of this is the rot which is overcoming the tree of Lindon. Why is it doing that? Why is it doing that now?

Now, as I sit here, I can almost see the lines of thought that led to the Tree-Mithril plot line. The desire to reduce the Elvish perception of withering to a human-appreciable timeframe, the attraction of invoking the Trees of Valinor, the benefit of a more immediate threat to push the Elves into potentially rash action. Mithril's ability to combat the darkness is not even completely without source in Tolkien, though it requires a fairly loose reading to get close:

And Mithril, of course, is sometimes referred to as 'true-silver'.

But where I run into problems is in the context that this all takes place in.

What evil is causing the disease within the Tree/Elves? Is it Sauron himself doing this? If that is the case then we have to suppose that Sauron is not really repentant as he claims to be, and that instead every event has been by his design, including meeting Galadriel on a raft in the middle of the ocean. That stretches my credulity. Galadriel's decision to jump into the ocean was incredibly stupid as presented (come on, give us some indication of divine inspiration or something at least, so that her faith doesn't look like someone jumping out of a plane with a shout of 'Jesus catch me!') and Sauron's plan somehow including that seems far-fetched.

If on the other hand this is a manifestation of Morgoth's taint, why is it growing, and why is it happening so suddenly? It feels a bit... 'somehow, Palpatine returned!' A bad thing happened because the writer wanted it to. It's not satisfying to me at all. The Tree is not the only example of this, but it is the most obvious.

Ultimately, aside from the honestly baffling decision to occasionally squirt some cgi blood onto the camera lens, the technical side of the show was good enough. The acting was sound, and the dialogue was generally okay (even if they leaned far, far too heavily on the word 'light' for every-fucking-thing). The visuals were pretty great, and in some places were genuinely stunning, but the decisions made in the story itself have left me feeling disappointed. The interesting ideas they've touched on, were left to languish, and the ones they did focus on were often overly straight-forward.

All in all, I'm glad it exists, but I'm still unable to completely banish the feeling of disappointment at what was in my view a near miss when it came to the actual writing.

 

This is nice little interview on some of the choices made during S1. Paywalled but you can incognito it.

https://www.vulture.com/article/rings-of-power-ending-explained.html

 

There was nothing clever or elegant about the series. Gandalf’s fondest for the Hobbits being shown was a cool idea that wasn’t handled awkwardly.

I could nitpick: design of the elves, Celebrimbor miscast (although the actor was charismatic enough), etc. I feel like I could do 50 of those but it’s too petty and pointless. The show also borrows heavily from Peter Jackson, he should be getting a royalty.

Describing the show as fanfiction is not incorrect. That said I don’t feel offended or angsty about the series after watching it completely. I actually feel somewhat hopeful, Tolkien is cool and relevant and will be read for much longer than Amazon will be around. I think the chances of getting a production that visually captures the elegance and power of Tolkien will come someday (hopefully sooner rather than later) Tolkien isn’t going anywhere.

 

Honestly, I wish this had the feel of the Appendices/Silmarillion. This is the Second Age where a Fallen Angel corrupts the Golden Ages of Man and Atlantis Sinks. The runners wanted LoTR where small hands come together to herald the end of the Ages of Heroes and Myth. Except this should still be that.

Cast all the Numenoreans over 6ft, make everyone else short etc. Lean into the mythos. Let there be magic rather than 'Alloys man, use them!'. The terror of making a fantasy story fantastic is something they need to get over for a name this big no matter what they make people will watch it - case in point despite finding the series thoroughly mediocre in its own right regardless of my disagreements on interpretation of the source material, I still finished watching it.