[+] The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - SPOILERS ALLOWED

[Sepulchrave II]

every bit of the production is exquisite and the writers actually get Tolkien's themes on a fundamental level.

I think it might be rather too early to make that judgement, as - for me, at least - the fudamental themes of Tolkien are about providence and surrender to the will of God/Eru.

That said, I agree that some of the deeper motifs have been articulated well, namely:

• Sauron's role as deceiver, and his (possibly genuine; probably not) desire for repentance. This is framed as an appeal to Galadriel in the show, but has echoes of his partial submission to Eonwe at the end of the First Age. In a sense, Sauron is a victim of Morgoth, and as much as we might revile him, he lost any true autonomy ages before.
• Halbrand-Sauron's nudging of Celebrimbor, being sufficient to arouse Galadriel's suspicion.
• The fact that the Elven rings are designed primarily to prevent decay. I found the mithril subplot a bit extraneous to this, but understand its inclusion.

I'm not sure how they are going to proceed with the Seven and the Nine, unless Galadriel either cannot convince, or does not reveal, Sauron's identity to Celebrimbor.

We may not learn the name of the Stranger, although his identity as a Blue Wizard "Going into the East" would definitely comport with Tolkien's later vision, and I have no problem with his arrival via meteor in the Second Age. I think it would be a mistake to make him Gandalf ("To the East, I go not."), but I suppose we'll see.

Overall, a mixed bag, but I feel it started to cohere within its own framework as the show progressed and the actors relaxed into their roles. Felt bad for Lenny Henry. Looking forward to Season 2.

 

[Parmandur]

I think it might be rather too early to make that judgement, as - for me, at least - the fudamental themes of Tolkien are about providence and surrender to the will of God/Eru.

That is one of Tolkien's most fundamental themes, and frankly one I think they nailed here, hard.

I'm not sure how they are going to proceed with the Seven and the Nine, unless Galadriel either cannot convince, or does not reveal, Sauron's identity to Celebrimbor.

Well, per the Appendixes of RotK, Galadriel does end up getting kicked out of Eregion for getting between Celebrimvor and his bromantic pursuit of power with Sauron. I think there will be political roadblocks to her being able to hold Sauron back, which can be a good engine for TV drama. Giving them an actual friendship, that seems to be not entirely artificial on Sauron's part (tying into the very Tolkienien theme of nobody being simply or fully "Evil") is kind of brilliant in my book. This show will not suffer from the "Big Angry Eye" antagonist problem.

 

[TheSword]

We never knew for certain we would get the Sauron reveal so I didn’t think it would be Halbrand. Though now the smithing elements do fit. It was interesting how Halbrand changed his demeanor when with Celebrimbor to best engage with him, and only when Galadriel was there too did it become jarring. I thought it was well done.

I will definitely now go back and watch the series again with that hindsight. There aren’t many series that I would want to do that for.

I also really like the characters, Bronwyn, Adar, the Harfoots, Halbrand, Arondir, Elrond, Galadriel, Elendil, the Stranger were all strong characters that I wanted to watch. I don’t get this dismissal of Galadriel, I think she was a brilliant character.

 

[Zardnaar]

I knew the Stranger was Gandalf the moment one of the Harfoots sang "not all who wonder or wander are lost." Instant giveaway. Halbrand, I thought they were building up to be Witch King of Angmar, but now I think that's probably Theo, we'll see.

The moment when "Halbrand" let's his mask drop at last was...very chilling. Charlie Vickers was talking in an interview about how he views Sauron as a supreme cosmoc method actor who wasn't just being deceitful, but climbed into his role "like Daniel Day-Lewis or something" and lived his chosen role with absolute conviction. And Halbrand never, ever, not once, actually lies in the season. He always tells the truth...but uses the truth as a weapon.

Well the stranger was to obvious to be Sauron left one option. I didn't get the song clue.

 

[Zardnaar]

We never knew for certain we would get the Sauron reveal so I didn’t think it would be Halbrand. Though now the smithing elements do fit. It was interesting how Halbrand changed his demeanor when with Celebrimbor to best engage with him, and only when Galadriel was there too did it become jarring. I thought it was well done.

I will definitely now go back and watch the series again with that hindsight. There aren’t many series that I would want to do that for.

I also really like the characters, Bronwyn, Adar, the Harfoots, Halbrand, Arondir, Elrond, Galadriel, Elendil, the Stranger were all strong characters that I wanted to watch. I don’t get this dismissal of Galadriel, I think she was a brilliant character.

Galadriel is fully formed as is and has not much character development. She gets a backstory.

She's the same character essentially end of the season vs the start.

cf HotD or GoT S1.

 

[TheSword]

Galadriel is fully formed as is and has not much character development. She gets a backstory.

She's the same character essentially end of the season vs the start.

cf HotD or GoT S1.

Well there is plenty to go. It’s a marathon not a sprint.

Nonetheless I think she genuinely did like Halbrand and was betrayed. She also spared Adar because of Halbrand.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Galadriel is fully formed as is and has not much character development. She gets a backstory.

She's the same character essentially end of the season vs the start.

cf HotD or GoT S1.

Yeah, well that's what you get for being 5000 years old.

I imagine she'll mellow as the show progresses.

 

[Zardnaar]

Well there is plenty to go. It’s a marathon not a sprint.

Nonetheless I think she genuinely did like Halbrand and was betrayed. She also spared Adar because of Halbrand.

Adar and Halbeand are more interesting

One of the weakness of the show though no particular stand out characters. There's a few likeable/interesting ones.

4/5 fantasy shows not bad. The other one is WoT.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah, well that's what you get for being 5000 years old.

I imagine she'll mellow as the show progresses.

Yeah there's nothing wrong with her backstory or anything like that.

Started out alright, couple of dud episodes in the middle, picked up final 3. Not the best character building could be a lot worse though.

 

[Tonguez]

I also really like the characters, Bronwyn, Adar, the Harfoots, Halbrand, Arondir, Elrond, Galadriel, Elendil, the Stranger were all strong characters that I wanted to watch. I don’t get this dismissal of Galadriel, I think she was a brilliant character.

to me it was the non-Tolkien characters - Nori and Lenny Henry, Bronwyn, Arondir, Adar who were the most interesting and there stories most compelling.
The Elrond-Durin Mithril story seemed a little superfluous in the end.

I think Galadriel being both a POV character and very competent from the start may have had her coming across as Mary-sue or DMPC. She was there to drive the high level plot while the other characters had smaller stories where they could just focus on their space.
Galadriels flaws made her interesting but the mystery was tied up on who is Halbrand and where is Sauron rather than ‘whats next from Galadriel’