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shallowness) wrote2023-06-18 01:49 pm
shallowness) wrote2023-06-18 01:49 pm
Entry tags:
RoP: should they stay or should they go?
The Rings of Power - 1.5 Partings
The Numenorian section really was much ado about nothing, wasn’t it? We knew they would go – we know that Galadriel and Isildur will go to Middle Earth – and although it was fun to watch Galadriel have to make her assertions about Halbrand come true, the promo department, by using a picture of her and Halbrand in armour riding horses as the image for the show, had given away that he’d be going. Yes, Miriel had to contend with her father’s warning, and yes, Isildur really needed to grovel and realise that there were implications to his burning through his chances, and most of all, Galadriel’s heart to heart with Halbrand got to both of their motivations: her fear about what the other Elves thought of her monomania being countered by what we were seeing going on at the court in Lindon; and his admission of why he didn’t want to return feeding into what we were seeing his people facing. So, they filled the time, and Galadriel’s Sword-fighting for Mere Mortals with added flying hair was so cool (but my heart ached for Eowyn.)
But…zero tension. I rolled my eyes at the fakeout of Halbrand (promoted to Lord as well as ironmonger) leaving his kingly necklace and then grabbing it before going to tell Queen Miriel that yes, he would be going with them.
I could have done with more clarification of why Elendil’s daughter was so against Numenor going to war. Did I miss something? Was she worried about her father and brother dying? Had she been brainwashed now she’d joined a guild? She’s entitled to have a different reaction to her elf-friendly West Numenorian upbringing, obvs, but I’d like to see what was motiviating it (and clearly, neither her name, nor her young man’s, has sunk in.) I was amused by his taking her exhortation to talk more loudly to his Chancellor father literally, but his motivation too, other than doing his lady love’s bidding and general anti-Elf insularity, was a bit unclear, given that he went as far as sabotage. Chancellor Pharazôn of the amazing facial hair gave a very ambitious politician power player account of his motives.
The Harfoots’ plotline was also slight, but, hey, we got a walking song, again, answering my plea for songs (and again, sung by a female character, yay.) It took me ages to work out that Nori was talking about perils. Was the Stranger one of them? She naively said no, and he pondered whether he was good, like Nori said he was. He used his power to stop marauding wolves (thus saving the Harfoots, including Marva who was blaming him for all their woes.) But then he used his power to heal his hand, and I don’t quite get why Nori’s instinct was to reach for the Stranger’s frozen hand when it was clear weird stuff was happening. But she did, she got hurt, and worse, feared him, ending her big-hearted innocence.
My main take out from the Harfoot section (other than New Zealand’s beauty) was realising that all these plotlines are taking different amounts of time, because their migration was clearly taking a long time, but at the Watchtower, we were talking hours, well, days.
I don’t know that Tolkien would ever have written a Bronwyn, village healer, as the unexpected leader of her people (maybe she’ll turn out to be of royal blood, or…could Halbrand be Theo’s father?) Anyway, she stood up and called on the others in the watchtower to fight rather than accede to Sauron’s demand, and got about half to agree. Sadly, Sauron’s fanboy took the other view and took the other half.
Really good job on the scene showing the true price of vowing allegiance to Sauron/Adar, and the perversity of killing a boy who hadn’t yet reached his full maturity. I have zero sympathy for Sauron’s grief about giving up sunlight.
Theo hadn’t found it in himself to betray his mother, and it looks as though he’s getting a redemption arc after all my previous hate on him. Bonus ‘I know my mum fancies you, Elf, but I have very complicated feelings about you as my step-dad’ vibes as Arondir gave him a quick archery lesson, and Theo revealed the dark concealed weapon to him. Arondir divined it was a key that would…bring about Mordor that only Theo could operate (ugh, the boy’s a Chosen One, too?). Bronwyn despaired a bit, and we had some riffing on hope from Arondir, who saw it in the fact that half the Men had stayed to fight. (Under Bronwyn, leaving me, again, aching for Eowyn.)
There was much talk of hope from Gilgalad too, as Elrond brought Durin (a delight) to visit the Elves, and realised he’d been lied to. While I can well believe the mithril origin story (I mean, c’mon, that’s THE Balrog), I’m not sure that I buy that mithril will be the way to stop the Elves’ decline. For one thing, Gilgalad has form for lying (also, the rationale for sending Galadriel away was plain ridiculous if he was worried about the encroaching darkness.) For another, using loads of it now doesn’t jibe with its appearance in the Third Age. Anyway, Elrond angsted a lot over whether his and his people’s (supposed) imminent destruction was reason enough to break his word, and decided it was. He fessed up to it to Durin. However, although I’ve liked the actor playing young Elrond a lot so far, I wasn’t sure what to make of his delivery in that scene.
So yeah, not a lot actually happened in this ep. It’s only now sinking in that these episodes are about twice as long as ‘hour-long’ dramas made for channels that show adverts.
The Numenorian section really was much ado about nothing, wasn’t it? We knew they would go – we know that Galadriel and Isildur will go to Middle Earth – and although it was fun to watch Galadriel have to make her assertions about Halbrand come true, the promo department, by using a picture of her and Halbrand in armour riding horses as the image for the show, had given away that he’d be going. Yes, Miriel had to contend with her father’s warning, and yes, Isildur really needed to grovel and realise that there were implications to his burning through his chances, and most of all, Galadriel’s heart to heart with Halbrand got to both of their motivations: her fear about what the other Elves thought of her monomania being countered by what we were seeing going on at the court in Lindon; and his admission of why he didn’t want to return feeding into what we were seeing his people facing. So, they filled the time, and Galadriel’s Sword-fighting for Mere Mortals with added flying hair was so cool (but my heart ached for Eowyn.)
But…zero tension. I rolled my eyes at the fakeout of Halbrand (promoted to Lord as well as ironmonger) leaving his kingly necklace and then grabbing it before going to tell Queen Miriel that yes, he would be going with them.
I could have done with more clarification of why Elendil’s daughter was so against Numenor going to war. Did I miss something? Was she worried about her father and brother dying? Had she been brainwashed now she’d joined a guild? She’s entitled to have a different reaction to her elf-friendly West Numenorian upbringing, obvs, but I’d like to see what was motiviating it (and clearly, neither her name, nor her young man’s, has sunk in.) I was amused by his taking her exhortation to talk more loudly to his Chancellor father literally, but his motivation too, other than doing his lady love’s bidding and general anti-Elf insularity, was a bit unclear, given that he went as far as sabotage. Chancellor Pharazôn of the amazing facial hair gave a very ambitious politician power player account of his motives.
The Harfoots’ plotline was also slight, but, hey, we got a walking song, again, answering my plea for songs (and again, sung by a female character, yay.) It took me ages to work out that Nori was talking about perils. Was the Stranger one of them? She naively said no, and he pondered whether he was good, like Nori said he was. He used his power to stop marauding wolves (thus saving the Harfoots, including Marva who was blaming him for all their woes.) But then he used his power to heal his hand, and I don’t quite get why Nori’s instinct was to reach for the Stranger’s frozen hand when it was clear weird stuff was happening. But she did, she got hurt, and worse, feared him, ending her big-hearted innocence.
My main take out from the Harfoot section (other than New Zealand’s beauty) was realising that all these plotlines are taking different amounts of time, because their migration was clearly taking a long time, but at the Watchtower, we were talking hours, well, days.
I don’t know that Tolkien would ever have written a Bronwyn, village healer, as the unexpected leader of her people (maybe she’ll turn out to be of royal blood, or…could Halbrand be Theo’s father?) Anyway, she stood up and called on the others in the watchtower to fight rather than accede to Sauron’s demand, and got about half to agree. Sadly, Sauron’s fanboy took the other view and took the other half.
Really good job on the scene showing the true price of vowing allegiance to Sauron/Adar, and the perversity of killing a boy who hadn’t yet reached his full maturity. I have zero sympathy for Sauron’s grief about giving up sunlight.
Theo hadn’t found it in himself to betray his mother, and it looks as though he’s getting a redemption arc after all my previous hate on him. Bonus ‘I know my mum fancies you, Elf, but I have very complicated feelings about you as my step-dad’ vibes as Arondir gave him a quick archery lesson, and Theo revealed the dark concealed weapon to him. Arondir divined it was a key that would…bring about Mordor that only Theo could operate (ugh, the boy’s a Chosen One, too?). Bronwyn despaired a bit, and we had some riffing on hope from Arondir, who saw it in the fact that half the Men had stayed to fight. (Under Bronwyn, leaving me, again, aching for Eowyn.)
There was much talk of hope from Gilgalad too, as Elrond brought Durin (a delight) to visit the Elves, and realised he’d been lied to. While I can well believe the mithril origin story (I mean, c’mon, that’s THE Balrog), I’m not sure that I buy that mithril will be the way to stop the Elves’ decline. For one thing, Gilgalad has form for lying (also, the rationale for sending Galadriel away was plain ridiculous if he was worried about the encroaching darkness.) For another, using loads of it now doesn’t jibe with its appearance in the Third Age. Anyway, Elrond angsted a lot over whether his and his people’s (supposed) imminent destruction was reason enough to break his word, and decided it was. He fessed up to it to Durin. However, although I’ve liked the actor playing young Elrond a lot so far, I wasn’t sure what to make of his delivery in that scene.
So yeah, not a lot actually happened in this ep. It’s only now sinking in that these episodes are about twice as long as ‘hour-long’ dramas made for channels that show adverts.