#trop positivity

[sunderedseas]

i love them so much already

[madeleineengland]

The Rings of Power (1x01)

[arsonkindacutetho]

These little Harfoot gals are very cute ❤️❤️

Oh why couldn't I have been born a hobbit 😔

[lunamond]

I've just finished episode 3 of the Rings of power and I wanted to write down some of my thoughts. This is going to be a full on ramble, so be warned! ;)

So first of all NUMENOR!!! It is so beautiful and grand! I really enjoyed how real it felt, there was so much of the hustle and bustle in the background that you would expect from a city of that size. Also I absolutely loved the throughline of sea motives and I might have spied a statue of Uinen. (Also loved the puppets!!)

One thing I was waiting for though is an offhand mention by an Numenorian (either Elendil or Miriel) about their lifespan. Sth along the lines of "I haven't heard about that in fifty years" or "A hundred years ago..." But I can wait, the longevity is definitely sth they have to bring up at some point as it will be highly relevant for the whole Numenorian conflict and it calls back to Aragon.

The show is also slowly selling me more and more on Galadriel's characterisation and her relationship with Halbrand. I really like how consistently her stuborness and pride stand in her way (following the lore, flaws she will have overcome by lotr) But I also loved her smugness when she talks to Halbrand in the cell.

So let's talk about Halbrand. I've been pretty sceptical of all the Sauron=Halbrand theories, but this episode 100% cemented the idea that he is not. Because he is so clearly set up as an "anti-Aragon" figure. He is descendant from a royal bloodline BUT his ancestors didn’t fight evil they joined it, his land that he has to retake is already overrun by orcs, Aragon initially apeared to be a dangerous man until he is revealed to be a heroic figure, Halbrand on the other hand initially is friendly and charming but secretly steals from people, is leaving others to die to save himself and beats up people in backalleys.

Currently my predictions for his story is that he either will through the influence of Galadriel (and possibly Elendil) slowly morph into a more heroic Aragon-esque figure.

Or they will built up his arc to become this heroic person, which will garner sympathy from the audience. Until a turning point in which Halbrand will be put into a situation in which he has to chose between falling back unto his old ways or fully becoming a true hero/king, and he will chose wrong and either become a Nazgul or be set on the path of becoming one.

Outside of Numenor, I really enjoyed Arondir's story. Especially how much importance the elves put on the tree and specifically it's long life. It really went a long way of showing us the elven perspective. They feel a sort of kinship with the tree.

The orcs were great. They are really viseral in their appearance but also in their movements. They also came across as a serious threat, one thing I didn’t enjoy in the PJ trilogy was how often the orcs were used as comic relief, so I'm really glad that the show sofar hasn't done that. Also their was some genuine tension in all of the scenes in the orc camp, especially when one orc gave them water to trick them into letting their guard down.

Lastly, the harfoots are cute as ever, but his episode I was probably the least invested into their side of the story (still enjoyed it , though).

I do really love their little festival, where they seemingly reanacted some events from the first age (orc, wolves costume). Combined with reading the names of their lost ones, it made their whole culture seem much more real and genuine.

My final thing I have to mention is that thus episode really kicked of my theory brain. I'm going to post that seperatly, because this is already to long and disorganised, but as a small tease for my theory: I think Stranger=Sauron but he is not yet (fully) evil, Adar is independant of Sauron and behind all the orc activites

[maria-taiwin]

Rings of Power (2022)

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

[cowboyparadise]

I- 🥲

[galadrielspeaks]

I AM PHYSICALLY INCAPABLE OF BEING NORMAL ABOUT THIS

[ichabodjane]

No one:

Absolutely no one:

Me, in the kitchen by myself: dUrIn DiDn'T kNOoOwW.

[elrondsscribe]

6, 14, 17!

Favorite movies of the year?

I think those awards would have to go to Jupiter Ascending, Pride and Prejudice (2005, yes I know, stone me), Carrie (1796), Knives Out, and most recently The Rocky Horror Picture Show!

Favorite m/f ship this year?

Two words. Queen. Lionheart.

Although let me tell you, Darcy and Elizabeth came reeeally close to snatching this crown!

Your fictional true love of the year?

Oh, Kat. You know the answer to this. There can only be one conqueror of my heart.

[thewonderladie]

Last week, I wrote a 3,400 essay about the first two episodes of The Rings of Power because I couldn't help myself.

I forgot to share it on here. Feel free to read it.

I don't think I'm going to review the series weekly; that was just something I had to get out of my system. 😂😂😂😂

[she-gave-me-three]

Over Christmas I was able to finally have my mom watch Rings of Power. She's a HUGE tolkein buff, she's read & reread the books, annotated the shit out of them, as well as the Silmirilian, read a lot of the extra stuff that has been released, etc. ... she's a huge fan of his, basically. I wasn't sure what she would think of the show because she was a little critical of the films when they came out (although now I think she is more fond about them and also more chill in general).

But, she loved it! (Obviously, there are spoilers ahead in this post...) She thought it was all very creative and interesting what they were doing with the story and the characters. She loved the Harfoots. I was able to keep most of the spoilers from her except for The Stranger/Gandalf (she pressured me LOL), but I think for her it just made her like it more, knowing him as Gandalf. She really liked that it explored how Mordor became Mordor.

She didn't really like the violence but that did not surprise me. I didn't like some of it, myself!

At first she was blindsided by the Halbrand reveal, but when we were talking about some of the things he said and did, she thought it was interesting. (When he said, "Consider it a gift," was when she began to get suspicious 🤣)

[sunderedseas]

Finrod Felagund

The Rings of Power (2022)

[specificallymythoughts]

Just got into an argument with a hardcore conservative Tolkien “fan” on twitter about the new show. He didn’t really have any arguments, just referring to me as a mentally ill socialist. Which, true. So I guess that’s my brand now :)

He also threatened to hit me in the face with a Tolkien book, but didn’t say anything else after that. Did he get muted for threats of violence? I actually have no idea.

[magnetic-rose]

“robert aramayo looks bad as elrond” in two episodes robert aramayo has fully convinced me that elrond deserves the title “kind as summer.” he’s sweet, caring, a little nerdy (him mouthing along the speech he wrote for gil-galad was so cute pls), enthusiastic about the world and still a little naive as a relatively young elf. pls he’s perfect. his friendship with durin and disa is easily one of the best parts of the show. “he looks like he’d call me a slur” say you didn’t watch the show without saying you didn’t watch the show. 🙄

[galadriel-blue]

A Small but Lovely Detail from The Rings Of Power That I Love Is...

The way Elrond says Galadriel's name. The way he says it is just so pretty. He speaks it so uniquely compared to the other characters and I adore how beautiful he makes it sound. I don't know, it's just something I love, and it is satisfying to hear when I watch the show. I think it's in his pronunciation, like he says every piece of her name separately but together at the same time. Does that make sense?? This might be a whole lot of my overanalyzing every tiny detail nonsense and it may be such a small thing to note, but I can't help but admire it every time I hear him say "Galadriel." I don't know if that's a weird thing to think about, but it's something that's stuck with me ever since I watched the show.

And even the way Galadriel says Elrond's name is wonderful too. You can tell how close these two are just by how they address each other each time they reunite. They are THE besties of all time and their friendship means everything to me.

If there are two things I am always going to be obsessed with it's going to be people's/character's names and people's/character's voices and/or speaking traits. I always find it fascinating.

[technoturian]

Branching off of my RoP rant, I am completely unsurprised to find out that the showrunners and entire writing team are six white men and two white women after feeling the whole season that the women were underwritten and the POC felt token-ey.

I’m getting serious deja vu to the Star Wars Sequels from this whole situation. J.J. Abrams giving lip service about making something inclusive and everyone getting excited about the diverse casting and then we find out it was all calculated and performative, Finn becomes a joke and Poe becomes a stereotype and Rey is a Strong Female Character who doesn't need narrative consistency she just needs a damaged white boy foil and a male relative to make her whole story about. The way everyone who criticizes it gets lumped in with bigots, which makes it super easy for them to be ~progressive~ without actually doing anything.

Seriously though:

- The obscene budget and corporate overlords looking to leverage it into merchandising/franchising.

- Comments about being super diverse but then the ~diverse casting~ is mostly side characters who aren’t given nearly as much narrative weight as the white characters.

- The Strong Female Lead who was clearly designed by white men, too busy punching her way through problems to listen to anyone or communicate effectively.

- The dark ~bad boy~ narrative foil who forms a ~connection~ with her and whose storyline somehow seems to have both the most time and least thought put into it of everything. (Sure dude, you were on that raft in the middle of of the sea on purpose. That makes total sense.)

- The shallow and unsatisfying writing. Scenes and dialogue written to make good trailers or twists but don’t make any sense when you’re actually watching them.

- A convenient shield for all criticism in the form of a large contingent of bigots who make it really hard to have legitimate conversations about its massive flaws, with the fans and the (reminder, white and male) creators being way too quick to let everyone know that if you don’t like it, it’s because You’re One Of Those.

The one difference is that we made fun of the Star Wars sequels for crashing and burning because they didn’t even bother to have an outline before they took off. Meanwhile RoP has actual cliffs notes to reference and they managed to make the same soulless mess of things. I’m not sure if that’s more impressive or less.