LOTR: The Rings of Power Spoiler Thread — Page 4

NeverarGreat said:

Now that Season One has ended, I think Poppasketti can take a bow 😉

Why, thank you! So happy my late night list-making wasn’t in vain.

Overall thoughts about the season: I liked it. Didn’t love it, but the effort is there and I appreciate parts of every storyline. I’ll certainly tune in for season two and see what Sauron is up to with his new volcano.

I agree with this exactly. Some of the elements worked really well, and overall I’m excited for season 2. I really think they paid of Galadriel’s storyline as set up. Everything with Finrod and Gil-Galad’s warning really came to fruition in the end and was not simply flowery language. I may be in the minority, but I also liked the Harfoot/Gandalf/wizard storyline, as it provided something I never expected to see: the early development of a new being. It may not be canon, but I found it a compelling alternative to the wizards simply arriving on a boat. I also just found his fear and child-like nature with Nori to just be constantly heart-breaking, but that’s me I guess!

I think my issues mainly stem from the pacing. The passage of time felt very inconsistent, sometimes too fast and sometimes too slow. Lord of the Rings did a good job of cutting around enough, allowing time to pass in each storyline so things felt like they were flowing forward together. The battle episode, Udun, was great but I felt some of the Numenor parts of it should have come in the previous episode so that they had more time to travel offscreen and build up the anticipation of their arrival. I also would have liked to see more than one episode of Celebrimbor/Halbrand/Galadriel to draw out that suspense a little more.

I hope in the 2nd season they can really find their footing, but I do feel a lot of this is really well-rooted in the spirit of Tolkien despite the criticisms.

Yep, as soon as Halbrand said, “a gift” I knew poppa was right!
I think seeing a lot of people speculate that Halbrand is Sauron online just made me think that there would be some kind of twist to it. It probably worked as a better twist for those who avoided the weekly online conversations! I think in the end a lot of these “Who is who” questions are likely the most obvious answers. I think they were trying to make the Stranger the clear Sauron red herring, but it felt like to me early on that he was Gandalf/Olorin, and the finale makes that obvious.

But the Halbrand=Sauron thing makes sense. It’s mentioned in other works that Galadriel knows Sauron more than anyone else, and that makes sense when you see their relationship play out this way.

I do agree that I wish the actual forging of the rings had played out a little longer, especially considering. Seems like such a significant event and it was kind of quickly brushed over. (Also seems like they should have consulted actual smiths/jewelers regarding how actual rings are made)

Regarding Udun, I felt like the cutaway showing the Numenoreans approaching on horseback was an unnecessary cutaway, and I think it would’ve played out just fine if we didn’t see them until they heard their approach.

I also enjoyed the stuff with the Harfoots. I felt all of the actors did a great job, and there is comfort to watching the Hobbits that feels like a warm blanket.

Also thought I’d share this nice little edit to the Mordor reveal someone shared on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LOTR_on_Prime/comments/y4rim3/i_fixed_the_mordor_text_reveal/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Much better. I’m not sure we need the sequence at all, but it’s a big improvement over the vanilla version.

Wow that works much better with the classic map style. Agreed it’s not necessary but for this show it would totally fit.

I finally watched the finale. I knew what was going to go down but, imperfect as the season was, I found myself putting it off because I didn’t want it to end.

I’ve still got a few hours of commentaries to watch/listen to, and I can’t wait for the edits to start rolling out, but two years is going to feel long.