Been wanting to talk about the show with people and didn’t realize there was a discussion here on this site! Of course I realize this with one episode left.

The last episode did slow down a bit, but I think my favorite part of the episode were the scenes between Theo and Galadriel. You could tell that as Galadriel was giving advice to Theo, she was sort of realizing she could apply some of that advice to herself. I catch myself doing that a lot, so it was an interesting dynamic to see.

Was it this past episode that ended with the title card switching from the Southlands to spooky voice, MoRdOr!?!?! Totally cheesy. Felt like the volcano in the distance spoke for itself.

I’m sure people are tired of Sauron hot takes, but I think both Halbrand and the Stranger are red herrings. I’m starting to think Halbrand may still have a personal connection to Sauron/Annatar in his backstory, but I’m kind of hoping that Annatar will show up in the final episode, and we’ll realize he has been buddy-buddy with Gil-Gahad and Celebrimbor this whole time. Maybe Annatar was the one who told them about the mithril, and has been fueling their fears and ambition.

Anyway, I’ve been enjoying it. I like being able to watch this and House of the Dragon side-by-side. Scratching two sides of that fantasy itch.
This might be a lame crutch, but I think if I had been showrunner, I would’ve had the opening titles be a lot of artistic close-ups of an unknown person writing a book titled “The Rings of Power”. So basically any gripes people have with the story could be written off as the series being an in-universe “epic” written by some character who is putting their own interpretation of the events of the Second Age.