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shallowness) wrote2023-07-22 06:41 pm
shallowness) wrote2023-07-22 06:41 pm
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Back to scorched Middle Earth
The Rings of Power 1.7 The Eye
We started with the volcanic red haze surrounding Galadriel. I could quibble that an Elf ought to have been able to hear the bulk of survivors, however spread out they were, and even if she’d been stood there in shock why would she have been thrown too far away from anyone else? So, it was really contrived that she and Theo found each other and nobody else. But who knew? Galadriel, with her sense of perspective and particular obsessions, made him less annoying. As he worried about his mother, she counselled him not to assume anything/despair, even though we knew she’d called for Halbrand twice.
It was confusing – I wasn’t sure who was trying to find who with Miriel’s help – but that’s fair enough, and although I’m glad they gave us the immediate aftermath of the big blow up, it was also good to learn what the other folk were up to. Well, until the Harfoots found that their grove was trashed – the first idea was that it was somehow linked to the creation of Mount Doom, although there was no suggestion they were anywhere near. Or it was the Stranger’s fault, because Nori, at least, was all doubting him. But before he was asked, he was whispering words of power at a tree, and because she’s no more sense than her older sister, a wee Brandyfoot got too close (little eejit) and a massive branch fell on her and Nori who was rushing to protect her. So, the Harfoots pointed the Stranger off to the Big People, and although Nori had the grace to give him an apple, she didn’t complain.
Meanwhile, Durin senior heard Elrond and Durin jenior’s mithril for the Elves deal, but rejected it where the dwarf lords were more open to the idea. Durin and Disa had a bit of a fight, where she was rude about her father in law. While he agreed his father was wrong, Durin pointed out that they had to respect his father as king. But when Elrond came to ask them what the king thought of the proposal, it became clear how upset Durin was at the decision. I loved the grace of Elrond’s words of farewell. And then I was confused at what the mithril was doing (but the dwarves weren’t.)
The Numenorians and some Southlanders regrouped, and Elendil grew increasingly worried for his son, Miriel and one of Isildur’s mates had bad news, and then it turned out the queen was blind. Oh dear. (On reflection, why no-one else? Why wasn’t she partially deafened, with chronic breathing problems or burns? Is it a symbolic royalty thing?)
Accidental recruiting officer Galadriel was talking Theo out of revenge and into soldiering, and had just dropped the revelation she is married to Celeborn, but thinks him fallen. (ME: !!! I should have paid more attention to dates in years gone by. Well, he’s not dead. That puts another wrinkle into the ship I don’t want to ship but am shipping anyway.) And then there was a tense bit with some Orcs. Apparently, Theo was meant to sleep once they’d left. Well, she definitely wasn’t mollycoddling him.
There was a slight echo of that scene in Nori’s night-time conversation with her mother, who might have started ruing that her daughter had become as insular as she’d wanted her to be. There was a sense of breaking down of co-operation between races.
But! Durin called Elrond back, they went a-digging where the mithril had told them to or something, Elrond stopped Durin from giving his brother from another mother his secret name, then they found a giant lode of mithril, but King Durin found them and chucked Elrond out of Khazad-dhun.
Nori woke up to find everyone else up and buzzing, because the Stranger’s magic had worked bigtime on the grove, making her feel bad (as she should.)
There was some business with Elendil and Isildur’s recalcitrant horse, which just reminded me that I hadn’t thought they’d set up the special horse and rider bond all that well in the previous episode.
Durin the son let rip at his father for being wrongheaded about helping his friend/the Elves. Papa Durin was all like ‘maybe their time has come’ and seemed quite happy with the thought of the immortal Elves dying out. He also let his son know that he’d been quite the runt when he was born, and was about as touchy as Elendil is about his dead wife.
(It occurred to me before Durin’s brothers were mentioned, that the King could exile him and make the grandkids his heirs anyway.)
Theo and Galadriel caught up with the Numenorians (you’d have thought an Elf and a healthy teenager wouldn’t have taken so long to get there), where Theo had to go into the sick tent to find out if his worst fears were realised. But no, Bronwyn was fine. (I thought she was a goner, because of the major trauma she’d suffered the night before the lava bomb went off.) And so was Arondir! And Theo was that relieved that he didn’t mind him being his future stepfather from the warmth of the hug. (Mynon: Arondir jumped on top of Bronwyn to protect her. Granted, she was wearing a cloak instead of her usual dress.)
Poppy saw a footprint, and I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be the Stranger’s or some Peril’s, but she let her bucket drift, to be found by a group of creepy women that we’ve seen before, who seem to have wandered in from some other canon. Nori would later encounter them and try to misdirect them about where the Stranger went, her father tried to scare them off with fire, but the top lady snuffed it out and then redirected it at all the trees and their stuff where they’d been storing it. (Thus suggesting they were the ones who destroyed the grove in the first place.) Thematically, fire was linked with mostly bad stuff all episode: these creepy cultists, the eruption/inception of Mount Doom and the Balrog who we saw after Durin dropped a leaf (symbolic of the death of the Elves) down the shaft that Durin and Elrond had found and he ordered closed. I mean, everyone had already got there mentally, but it did make him seem to have a point when he said that digging for mithril was too dangerous. The only exception on the fire front is that it was stated, for the dwarves, that was part of their make-up, and the part of them that sought the truth.
Disa’s reaction, where she turned from frustration with the father-in-law to plotting treason was A LOT. I note also that she made sure she and Durin would be co-rulers.
Elendil was all bitter about having lost Isildur, but they had some misdirecting build-up before the Queen’s promise that Numenorian military would return. (Of course, she might not be able to make good on her promise.) I didn’t get why they blindfolded her, it done seemed more for the visual impact, ironically enough. Finally, we and Galadriel learned that Halbrand had been found, but was in that singular position of being so badly injured that he needed Elven healing but was able to ride. He had also really embraced his kingship, despite so little time. Is it me, or did they wuss out here, because no-one died – we know Isildur is alive (as per Celeborn)?
I rolled my eyes at Largo’s rousing speech about Hartfoots, although I was glad to see the girls and Marigold (and Sadoc) are going to make it up to the Stranger. It was a very yay, women (apart from Disa, maybe?) episode.
And then a kind of pointless closing scene where we pointlessly saw Adar and the Orcs sing ‘Home Is where The Twisted Heart Is.’ Or the title The Southlands turned into Mordor as if that hadn’t been easy to work out the previous ep.
I note how so many relationships here are mirroring LotR relationships: Poppy is Nori’s Sam, and Nori is Frodo (and Bilbo) to the Stranger’s Gandalf (aptly.) Durin and Elron are Gimli and Legolas, Galadriel and Halbrand are a bit Legolas and Aragorn. They’re not even mixing up which races they are…
We started with the volcanic red haze surrounding Galadriel. I could quibble that an Elf ought to have been able to hear the bulk of survivors, however spread out they were, and even if she’d been stood there in shock why would she have been thrown too far away from anyone else? So, it was really contrived that she and Theo found each other and nobody else. But who knew? Galadriel, with her sense of perspective and particular obsessions, made him less annoying. As he worried about his mother, she counselled him not to assume anything/despair, even though we knew she’d called for Halbrand twice.
It was confusing – I wasn’t sure who was trying to find who with Miriel’s help – but that’s fair enough, and although I’m glad they gave us the immediate aftermath of the big blow up, it was also good to learn what the other folk were up to. Well, until the Harfoots found that their grove was trashed – the first idea was that it was somehow linked to the creation of Mount Doom, although there was no suggestion they were anywhere near. Or it was the Stranger’s fault, because Nori, at least, was all doubting him. But before he was asked, he was whispering words of power at a tree, and because she’s no more sense than her older sister, a wee Brandyfoot got too close (little eejit) and a massive branch fell on her and Nori who was rushing to protect her. So, the Harfoots pointed the Stranger off to the Big People, and although Nori had the grace to give him an apple, she didn’t complain.
Meanwhile, Durin senior heard Elrond and Durin jenior’s mithril for the Elves deal, but rejected it where the dwarf lords were more open to the idea. Durin and Disa had a bit of a fight, where she was rude about her father in law. While he agreed his father was wrong, Durin pointed out that they had to respect his father as king. But when Elrond came to ask them what the king thought of the proposal, it became clear how upset Durin was at the decision. I loved the grace of Elrond’s words of farewell. And then I was confused at what the mithril was doing (but the dwarves weren’t.)
The Numenorians and some Southlanders regrouped, and Elendil grew increasingly worried for his son, Miriel and one of Isildur’s mates had bad news, and then it turned out the queen was blind. Oh dear. (On reflection, why no-one else? Why wasn’t she partially deafened, with chronic breathing problems or burns? Is it a symbolic royalty thing?)
Accidental recruiting officer Galadriel was talking Theo out of revenge and into soldiering, and had just dropped the revelation she is married to Celeborn, but thinks him fallen. (ME: !!! I should have paid more attention to dates in years gone by. Well, he’s not dead. That puts another wrinkle into the ship I don’t want to ship but am shipping anyway.) And then there was a tense bit with some Orcs. Apparently, Theo was meant to sleep once they’d left. Well, she definitely wasn’t mollycoddling him.
There was a slight echo of that scene in Nori’s night-time conversation with her mother, who might have started ruing that her daughter had become as insular as she’d wanted her to be. There was a sense of breaking down of co-operation between races.
But! Durin called Elrond back, they went a-digging where the mithril had told them to or something, Elrond stopped Durin from giving his brother from another mother his secret name, then they found a giant lode of mithril, but King Durin found them and chucked Elrond out of Khazad-dhun.
Nori woke up to find everyone else up and buzzing, because the Stranger’s magic had worked bigtime on the grove, making her feel bad (as she should.)
There was some business with Elendil and Isildur’s recalcitrant horse, which just reminded me that I hadn’t thought they’d set up the special horse and rider bond all that well in the previous episode.
Durin the son let rip at his father for being wrongheaded about helping his friend/the Elves. Papa Durin was all like ‘maybe their time has come’ and seemed quite happy with the thought of the immortal Elves dying out. He also let his son know that he’d been quite the runt when he was born, and was about as touchy as Elendil is about his dead wife.
(It occurred to me before Durin’s brothers were mentioned, that the King could exile him and make the grandkids his heirs anyway.)
Theo and Galadriel caught up with the Numenorians (you’d have thought an Elf and a healthy teenager wouldn’t have taken so long to get there), where Theo had to go into the sick tent to find out if his worst fears were realised. But no, Bronwyn was fine. (I thought she was a goner, because of the major trauma she’d suffered the night before the lava bomb went off.) And so was Arondir! And Theo was that relieved that he didn’t mind him being his future stepfather from the warmth of the hug. (Mynon: Arondir jumped on top of Bronwyn to protect her. Granted, she was wearing a cloak instead of her usual dress.)
Poppy saw a footprint, and I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be the Stranger’s or some Peril’s, but she let her bucket drift, to be found by a group of creepy women that we’ve seen before, who seem to have wandered in from some other canon. Nori would later encounter them and try to misdirect them about where the Stranger went, her father tried to scare them off with fire, but the top lady snuffed it out and then redirected it at all the trees and their stuff where they’d been storing it. (Thus suggesting they were the ones who destroyed the grove in the first place.) Thematically, fire was linked with mostly bad stuff all episode: these creepy cultists, the eruption/inception of Mount Doom and the Balrog who we saw after Durin dropped a leaf (symbolic of the death of the Elves) down the shaft that Durin and Elrond had found and he ordered closed. I mean, everyone had already got there mentally, but it did make him seem to have a point when he said that digging for mithril was too dangerous. The only exception on the fire front is that it was stated, for the dwarves, that was part of their make-up, and the part of them that sought the truth.
Disa’s reaction, where she turned from frustration with the father-in-law to plotting treason was A LOT. I note also that she made sure she and Durin would be co-rulers.
Elendil was all bitter about having lost Isildur, but they had some misdirecting build-up before the Queen’s promise that Numenorian military would return. (Of course, she might not be able to make good on her promise.) I didn’t get why they blindfolded her, it done seemed more for the visual impact, ironically enough. Finally, we and Galadriel learned that Halbrand had been found, but was in that singular position of being so badly injured that he needed Elven healing but was able to ride. He had also really embraced his kingship, despite so little time. Is it me, or did they wuss out here, because no-one died – we know Isildur is alive (as per Celeborn)?
I rolled my eyes at Largo’s rousing speech about Hartfoots, although I was glad to see the girls and Marigold (and Sadoc) are going to make it up to the Stranger. It was a very yay, women (apart from Disa, maybe?) episode.
And then a kind of pointless closing scene where we pointlessly saw Adar and the Orcs sing ‘Home Is where The Twisted Heart Is.’ Or the title The Southlands turned into Mordor as if that hadn’t been easy to work out the previous ep.
I note how so many relationships here are mirroring LotR relationships: Poppy is Nori’s Sam, and Nori is Frodo (and Bilbo) to the Stranger’s Gandalf (aptly.) Durin and Elron are Gimli and Legolas, Galadriel and Halbrand are a bit Legolas and Aragorn. They’re not even mixing up which races they are…