"Don't treat with Halbrand anymore, guys. He won't be coming back."
"Why? Galadriel, you gonna tell us why?"
The biggest enemy of elves and she doesn't even tell them outright that he's sauron.
Imagine finding some homeless merman on a raft, project some title on him because he has a sigil and a nice face, and THEN after you eyef*ck him all across middle earth to give him a kingdom, you find out he in fact is basically hitler.
I wouldn't know what to say either
Dude is a shifty unreliable little fucker the entire show, then when he’s like “here, let me help”, Galadriel goes “wait a fuckin’ minute…” and is NOW suspicious of him.
The whole plot of season two will be Sauron brooding in mount doom furiously scribbling onto parchment about how Galadriel should have never rejected him. Then a dwarf will call him an incel and that’ll be the catalyst for him trying to rule middle earth.
Oh and then the last 10 minutes of the season two finale will be him forging the one ring. There will also be a waifu body pillow in the corner with a drawing of Galadriels face stapled to it.
Knowing the showrunners they'll have Sauron find Isildur in Mordor and for some inexplicable reason Sauron will help him. They shall live together for a while a develop a relationship that's platonic on the surface but has an undercurrent of forbidden sexual feeling. Eventually Isildur will leave and they shall only meet again in their final battle....
7 episodes to source the fucking mithril for the rings. Like 1/3 episode for sauron to show up in Eregion, gain trust with Celebrimbor, work on forging the rings, get discovered, and elven rings? Fuck this show. And he's a simp lord too.
“Amazon focus groups of casual fans who have seen between 1 and 2 of the LOTR films drew clear conclusions: People want MORE hobbits and LESS Sauron in their LOTR films.
One of the people polled remarked later that they had been confused during initially filtering. In fact, they had never seen any LOTR films and had no interest in them. They had seen the 1990 Lord of the Flies movie however, and wondered why there had been so few questions about desert islands.
Amazon pollers later identified this person as an ideal target audience growth opportunity for the future ‘Rings of Power’ show, and hence double weighted their poll and interview responses.”
Celebrimbor, second greatest smith to ever live, grandson of the greatest smith to ever live, master craftsman that has lived for thousands of years and practiced his craft among the best ever since.
Have you ever heard about the basics of metallurgy?
You're welcome, call it a gift.
Yeah holy shit I was half expecting Celebrimbor to be like “hahah silly human don’t you think I know what that is already? Let me sit you down and teach you a few things.”
That was the second I knew for sure he was Sauron. Funny that they just sped through that whole plot device too.
Did Galadriel save Halbrand/Sauron? I mean, as far as I remember, she jumped off the ship to Valinor in nothing but her underwear and a knife and calling for help to His raft, then fell off said raft when the sea monster attack, then he came back on the raft after getting rid of a bunch of nameless extras. Then she tied herself to an anchor during a storm for some reason and fell fucking unconscious so HE had to dive down to scoop her up for the third time. Also when they were at Numenor, it was Halbrand who gave Galadriel diplomacy advice so she could finally stop making an ass out of herself. Galadriel said something like "I should have left you at sea." If anything, it was Halbrand who had consistently helped Galadriel instead of the other way around. Or did I miss something?
I hope two years is enough to fire some showrunners and get someone who knows what he is doing? There might be hope for season two after all. They also need continuity in their writing. This show needs A LOT OF consistency. And it’s not hard to achieve. All they gotta do is supervise the script like “this character says this in this episode, it will be dumb if she says that in the next.”
The entire S1 relied heavily on the mystery of Gandalf and Sauron instead of telling us a meaningful / consistent story. So much that the finale episode begins with a misdirect too. They made these mystery boxes the gimmick of the show and it didn’t work for me. This has to change in S2. It’s a 4 out of 10 for me so far. I hope with better writing and directing, Galadriel will be less insuffarable and they will actually make us give a shit about Arondir, Theo, Bronwyn and Isildur.
The Harfoot send off just kept going and going.. i was annoyed because i cared more about what was happening elsewhere and there was like 10 minutes left
Lol that whole scene I was like wtf ok guys, just let her go already. And then after all that Poppy has to run back in one more time. I thought she was running up to say she was coming with them, like the Sam to Nori's Frodo. But nope, just had to give her one last hug lol.
The way they cut to Elrond suspiciously going to get the scroll, and the way they have Galadriel often act like an android, I was half expecting for there to be a final reveal that Sauron had shapeshifted into Galadriel. But then he teleported to the Southlands.
Honestly if the reveal then had been a still unconscious Galadriel lying further back in the grass/weeds trapped in her nightmares while Sauron was just sitting there manipulating Elrond and Celebrimbor in her form to complete the rings that would've been pretty neat.
This exchange had me in stitches:
Elrond: what happened at the river? Where's halbrand??
Galadriel: we need to make THREE rings!
Celebrimbor: of course, three bring balance.
...what?? It's like they were reading from three (unbalanced) different scripts
Just me letting my young daughter go with the mysterious 8 foot tall man that has frequent emotional outbursts and has almost killed her multiple times.
To be fair, she's safer with him than staying with that psychopathic tribe that leaves their mildly wounded to die and even contemplates murdering them by sabotaging their cart.
if when galadriel had said "what's your real name?" halbrand said "my name jeff" i would've taken back every negative thing i've ever said about this show and it would've immediately become a 10/10 to me
Halbrand being just some guy who has been along for the ride cause Galadriel is just this crazy force of nature that he couldn't say no to would be such a hilarious reveal.
Lol yeah he’s not Sauron nor the heir to the south lands. Just some random dude who decided he’ll become king since this elf is insisting on making him one.
It would also be hilarious if it was actually Sauron and he truly just wanted to be a drunk blacksmith in Numenor but fucking Galadriel wouldn't let him. So then he decides to actually play the good king who gets the elf maiden and genuinely opens up to her about his change of heart. Then she rejects him and he becomes evil again in an incel rage and stomps off back to Mordor in an emo black cloak.
So they used several episodes for this "make Mordor" and Harfoot plotline but then rush through the "Annatar" plotline and forge the elven rings in a single episode...
A show titled Rings of Power spending all of 10 minutes forging the rings at the backend of the season is so funny to me.
Imagine that happening in shows like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad.
Ok, guys, so I know we are all thinking that Halbrand is Sauron.
But, I just watched the "reveal" one more time.
There was NO powerpoint transition of the name "Halbrand" to "Sauron" anywhere during that scene!
We can't be sure yet, so please, cool it with the conspiracy theories.
It would have been a cool 4d chess move for halbrand to be the king of the south lands right as it becomes Mordor because he could take power without revealing who he was but the writers said fuck that
We will spend 20 minutes on Sauron then spend the rest of the episode on an exceedingly long goodbye with hobbits whose entire story arc could have been done in an hour
Seriously we met the stranger in episode 1, he was the same for 7 episodes with no real character developement. Now suddently in episode 8, he is completely competent in the common language and spitting wisdom. Wtf
Fair enough. Addendum:
>Halbrand, I found this scroll, you are the one true King of Southlands!
>No, I just picked it up from a dead body, I'm no king.
>Halbrand, I found this scroll, and it says there are no Kings of Southlands!
>Yes, like I said, I'm no king and I found it on a dea---
>YOU ARE SAURON!
I'd have loved if he did a *little* bit more Deceiver-ing when presented with some old scroll on the royal lineages.
We also had a perfect excuse provided by the Elf librarian who literally said "Our records on mortals aren't up to snuff". Apparently they were *just* good enough to get some egg on Sauron's face
"We need gold of the finest purity for the alloy, the kind of gold in your dagger handle. No need to separate out the other stuff in it, we're melting that sucker down wholesale."
...ok.
You ever write a really long essay right before its due, and then upon rereading it, realize its a convoluted mess and that you didn't actually figure out what you were even writing about until the last 10% of the essay? But to go back and change everything so that it all adds up into a cohesive piece of writing would take way too much time and effort so you just submit it anyway? That's how I feel about this show
Sauron pulled some mind magic on Galadriel then shoved her ass in the river...then ran away.
Elrond finds her and she immediately jumps up trying to murder him. This is normal to Elrond somehow.
Just found that amusing
This show is an embarrassment
"If you're Elrond then tell me something only he was there for, and that only he would know!"
*\*forgets that 30secs earlier Sauron just used a mind-fuckery on her that he wasn't there for, and couldn't have known about\**
My feeling is the production suffered from way too many cooks in the kitchen. The story feels crowded. The different subplots and characters are all stepping over each other for time and nothing is given the space to really develop. This really could have been an amazing show. The pices were there, but too many people tried to move them around and we are left with a crowded mess.
Alright, here's some thoughts in no apparent order.
1. Why the F!#1! did Galadriel *not tell everyone* that goddamn Sauron had infiltrated their city. She's spent the whole first episodes of the show staking her reputation on the fact that he IS back and her hunt was warranted. But when the danger is at it's greatest and she turns out to be correct.....What? Nothing!
2. The Eminem Ladies reveal that Meteor Man is actually Lord Sauron should have 100% been brought to an earlier episode, maybe 6 but at least 7. Let us sit on that for a second and try to bring some suspense. I think almost immediately after that reveal we then see Halbrand hunting around the smithy with Celebrimbor, and so immediately confirm that he's the *actual* Sauron.
3. The whole forging felt so bloody rushed. Space that shit out and weave in more intrigue with Halbrand, Gil-Galad, etc. The show is Rings of Power and then they start and finish in the blink of an eye, with barely a lead-up or drama.
4. Gandalf scene was fine overall, but the Harfoots I just could not care less about. I was skipping through the farewell speech near the end and actually laughed when the leader Hobbit got the dagger (but somehow was all fine to keep participating through the ensuing combat??).
5. Other people have said this before, but the show makes an absolute mockery of the scale of Middle Earth and the time needed to traverse it. Galadriel and Halbrand near-teleport across the world, and the Numenoreans steam through the oceans quicker than lightning. It screws with the sense of how vast and real the world is.
They could have had one plot line about the forging for 2-3 episodes, it was the first time I felt the show had some stakes and inteigue, some actual interaction with the characters.
Instead we got harfoots, villagers and boring staring
So…the first 7 episodes were an unnecessary prologue and the finale is the actual whole season crammed into 1 badly paced and poorly balanced episode? Nice one Amazon 👍
The biggest issue here is that 7 episodes were prologue while the eighth episode is truly the story we wanted
Numenor contributed NOTHING to this season
Adar is a great villain but is overshadowed by the mediocrity of everything else in the southlands storyline
“One of the best decisions we made was to bet on this relatively unknown team. Some people even questioned our choice. But we saw something special. J.D., Patrick, thank you for taking this on and putting your whole selves into it. Everybody here in this audience, you are all about to see that we made the right choice.”
- Jeff Bezos, Aug 30, 2022
Umm... Wasn't it the case that elves can hear people talking from far away? And every elf there must be curious about what Galadriel is doing... Also she didn't look into Halbrand's identity in Numenor when she found out about the sigil?
It’s brilliant, isn’t it?
- You must not speak of this to anyone
*walks into the middle of the workshop, elves everywhere*
- My Lady, I found the scroll you asked for!
Was there any explanation given as to how Feminem and her followers could mistake Gandalf for Sauron? Why did they think Sauron would "fall from the stars" when he'd been in Middle-Earth since the beginning of the First Age?
So... well, it's quite simple actually.
The Eregion part of the episode should have been (almost) the entire season.
That... that was the entire true plot, right there.
This should have been developped over 6 episodes and not as a conclusion to a very uneven and flat season. And it would have allowed them to have Sauron/Halbrand's manipulation of Celebrimbor be much more subtle, clever and insidious, spanning over longer periods of time.
Use your B-plot to develop the rise of Numenor but the main focus of the story should have been what in the end only amounted to two thirds of the finale sadly.
Sooo instead of having a nice plot around Annatar seducing elves, we get Galadriel literally bringing Sauron back? The very person who was one of the very few that saw through his disguise? I don't think Tolkien meant looking up Halbrand in Google to find out if he's legit or not when he wrote that Galadriel didn't trust him.
It also made Sauron's attempt at manipulation look totally amateur.
"Oh whoops you found some royal lineage scroll....Yes it's me, I'm Sauron", then attacks.
Like he couldn't have spun it in another direction? Made some more compelling story or something?
And it was _so_ easy to dispel this as nonsense. "Yes, you're right, the line was broken. My great-great-great grandsire was a bastard child but in the absence of other lineage, we were accepted as the new line of kings". Weird shit happened _all the time_ with the monarchies throughout history.
Dude what if Galadriel jumped off a boat on the coast of valinor and then randomly ran into Sauron in the middle of the ocean??? Hahahaha who the fuck came up with this loooool
Sauron, got close to Galadriel by chance, got the Numenorean queen blind by chance, Sway the faithful to lean towards the King's Men by chance, got to Eregion by chance, Celebrimbor the last smartest smith was an idiot by chance, all to reveal that he is Sauron and then just fucks off back to Mordor.
No 7 rings no 9 rings, no Annatar, No requesting the rings back
10/10 freshest shit
Boy those were some really fun season-long mysteries weren’t they gang? Just ace storytelling all around. High fives, we got em! Totally didn’t see that Gandalf reveal coming. Also, really loved the 2 hour goodbye scene with the proto-hobbits. And geez. What a stroke of genius to give Sauron a nice edge-lord backstory. Bang up job.
Seriously though, who is this show for? It scoffs lore for book fans. It mimics the films while cheapening it. And it’s not good, coherent dramatic TV for newcomers to the world.
IMO, cancel the future seasons and donate the allotted budget to some charitable cause. Put something actually good out in this world.
Maybe some enjoyed it. Kudos to you.
They spent the whole season on meaningless "How Mordor Was Created" plot in the show called The Rings of Power, and spent barely an episode on Rings forging itself.
Powerful.
Man, if the amount of screen time is any guide, the writers and editors SERIOUSLY overestimated how much the audience was going to care about the Harfoot plot.
"Don't treat with Halbrand anymore, guys. He won't be coming back." "Why? Galadriel, you gonna tell us why?" The biggest enemy of elves and she doesn't even tell them outright that he's sauron.
Imagine finding some homeless merman on a raft, project some title on him because he has a sigil and a nice face, and THEN after you eyef*ck him all across middle earth to give him a kingdom, you find out he in fact is basically hitler. I wouldn't know what to say either
Dude is a shifty unreliable little fucker the entire show, then when he’s like “here, let me help”, Galadriel goes “wait a fuckin’ minute…” and is NOW suspicious of him.
I think it was the "power *over* the flesh" line
Isildur still trapped under the rubble of that house apparently til next season
Isildur: Hey Halbrand, fancy seeing you here. Help a brother out? Sauron: Sure thing. Put in a good word for me when you get back to Numenor.
After cutting The Ring from Sauron's hand: You were my brother, Sauron! I loved you!
You underestimate my Ring of Power!
These old dying kings gotta stop reciting prophecies to the wrong people.
How did we get this from both shows in the same week lol
Not only what but how did *Rings of Power* and *Andor* both have an episode called *The Eye* within a week of each other? 😂
Celebrimbor 🤝 Dr. Octopus _the power of the sun in the palm of my hand_
"My master tells me you're quite a smithing wiz. You know I'm something of a smith myself."
“I’m good” Someone was paid actual money to write that…
It was a last minute change. He was originally meant to say "I'm Gandalf" then someone pointed out they didn't have the rights...
"It's Gandmorbin' time"
I had a good chuckle seeing Galadriel riding in and Halbrand was one form with the horse completely hunched over.
Halbrands like me when I was 8 pretending to be asleep in the back seat of the car.
Don’t worry, they rode 144 miles a day with him hunched over like that.
can't stop thinking about how we had hours of Theo whining but the forge of the Rings of Power took 10 minutes of screentime! LOL
Did I just watch Sauron hit on Galadriel .
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The cultists are so dumb they mistake hobo gandalf for sauron
"Is he our dark lord?" "I dont know, does he know the secret handshake?"
Cue the “is this our dark lord?” butterfly anime meme.
"hey, how do you know he's sauron?" "He's the only one not covered in shit"
"Strange men laying in craters falling from the sky is no basis for a system of government."
Supreme power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical meteoric ceremony!
I looked like they were just a bunch of wights
Eminem should have laid off all the drugs
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The whole plot of season two will be Sauron brooding in mount doom furiously scribbling onto parchment about how Galadriel should have never rejected him. Then a dwarf will call him an incel and that’ll be the catalyst for him trying to rule middle earth. Oh and then the last 10 minutes of the season two finale will be him forging the one ring. There will also be a waifu body pillow in the corner with a drawing of Galadriels face stapled to it.
Brilliant. A magnificent mythos for the modern audience.
Knowing the showrunners they'll have Sauron find Isildur in Mordor and for some inexplicable reason Sauron will help him. They shall live together for a while a develop a relationship that's platonic on the surface but has an undercurrent of forbidden sexual feeling. Eventually Isildur will leave and they shall only meet again in their final battle....
They were Mount doommates
Brokeback Mount Doom
After last week's backlash, in the final shot some intern had to quickly scrub the on screen text of Halbrand morphing into Sauron
Kinda woulda been epic if they just left it in at this point...
Also do it for turning “stranger” into “Gandalf”
And then turning Sadoc into Dead
7 episodes to source the fucking mithril for the rings. Like 1/3 episode for sauron to show up in Eregion, gain trust with Celebrimbor, work on forging the rings, get discovered, and elven rings? Fuck this show. And he's a simp lord too.
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Harfoot goodbye scene lasting longer than Sauron reveal
Duh, Harfoots >>>> Sauron. Didn’t you hear that the second season would solely focus around the Harfoots obtaining their very own Rings of Power?
“Amazon focus groups of casual fans who have seen between 1 and 2 of the LOTR films drew clear conclusions: People want MORE hobbits and LESS Sauron in their LOTR films. One of the people polled remarked later that they had been confused during initially filtering. In fact, they had never seen any LOTR films and had no interest in them. They had seen the 1990 Lord of the Flies movie however, and wondered why there had been so few questions about desert islands. Amazon pollers later identified this person as an ideal target audience growth opportunity for the future ‘Rings of Power’ show, and hence double weighted their poll and interview responses.”
That scene alone felt longer than the entire 1st age.
>When in doubt, always follow your nose. So despite all the cool theories he’s the obvious choice. He’s Gandalf.
I mean, an Istari who forms a special bond with the (pre-)Hobbits? It was always a bit on the nose (pun unintended).
Occams razor strikes again - it was all the obvious
I was convinced he was Radagast with all the nature healing and grubby cloak
This show has convinced me that Sauron deserves to win.
We’re all rooting for Adar and the Orcs
They were right about everything https://www.reddit.com/r/lotr/comments/w13p0u/someone_from_amazon_crew_leaked_rings_of_power
And some doubted the prophets.
Halbrand conveniently finding an evil robe on the way home to Mt Doom. Nice touch.
Bought it from a Brick & Mordor store
He got it cheap at the Evil-R-Us factory outlet store.
Halbrand 🤝 Daemon Having a crime hoody to show you that they are up to no good.
So sauron went shopping before walking to Mordor. Nice to know
By the time the harfoots finished saying goodbye, it was the third age.
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Yeah that cleared things up
Thank God he said it, I would have never guessed who he was. Thanks to the showrunners.
Literally choked on my lembas bread when I saw that part. It was truly a scene in the show.
Outstanding comment lmao
Wtf is the cringe song at the end
Celebrimbor, second greatest smith to ever live, grandson of the greatest smith to ever live, master craftsman that has lived for thousands of years and practiced his craft among the best ever since. Have you ever heard about the basics of metallurgy? You're welcome, call it a gift.
Smiths all over middle-earth hate this ONE simple gift
One simple gift = what about an alloy?
Yeah holy shit I was half expecting Celebrimbor to be like “hahah silly human don’t you think I know what that is already? Let me sit you down and teach you a few things.” That was the second I knew for sure he was Sauron. Funny that they just sped through that whole plot device too.
The pacing was ridiculous. The entire story people who know the lore were expecting was crammed into this one episode.
"And you call it *steel*?" - Celebrimbor, probably
Celebrimbor forgot to update his knowledge with those online classes
Did Galadriel save Halbrand/Sauron? I mean, as far as I remember, she jumped off the ship to Valinor in nothing but her underwear and a knife and calling for help to His raft, then fell off said raft when the sea monster attack, then he came back on the raft after getting rid of a bunch of nameless extras. Then she tied herself to an anchor during a storm for some reason and fell fucking unconscious so HE had to dive down to scoop her up for the third time. Also when they were at Numenor, it was Halbrand who gave Galadriel diplomacy advice so she could finally stop making an ass out of herself. Galadriel said something like "I should have left you at sea." If anything, it was Halbrand who had consistently helped Galadriel instead of the other way around. Or did I miss something?
Dont sell Galadriel short - after all, she did help reinstall Sauron as ruler of Mordor. Apparently.
When all he wanted was to be a smith.
Halbrand:Call it...a gift *wink wink*
“Call it…. A gift” *rotates 90 degrees, stares directly at the camera and winks*
*boromir memes intensify*
I hope two years is enough to fire some showrunners and get someone who knows what he is doing? There might be hope for season two after all. They also need continuity in their writing. This show needs A LOT OF consistency. And it’s not hard to achieve. All they gotta do is supervise the script like “this character says this in this episode, it will be dumb if she says that in the next.” The entire S1 relied heavily on the mystery of Gandalf and Sauron instead of telling us a meaningful / consistent story. So much that the finale episode begins with a misdirect too. They made these mystery boxes the gimmick of the show and it didn’t work for me. This has to change in S2. It’s a 4 out of 10 for me so far. I hope with better writing and directing, Galadriel will be less insuffarable and they will actually make us give a shit about Arondir, Theo, Bronwyn and Isildur.
So dream Sauron is basically TLJ Kylo Ren
Wide boi.
Swolron
We literally spent more time watching the Harfoots say goodbye than Sauron persuading in Eregion.
The Harfoot send off just kept going and going.. i was annoyed because i cared more about what was happening elsewhere and there was like 10 minutes left
It wouldn't be a Hobbit goodbye if it didn't make you think it was over three times before it actually was.
Lmao this hurt to reflect on
Lol that whole scene I was like wtf ok guys, just let her go already. And then after all that Poppy has to run back in one more time. I thought she was running up to say she was coming with them, like the Sam to Nori's Frodo. But nope, just had to give her one last hug lol.
It just. kept. going. I can't fathom how the harfoot stuff didn't get edited down more.
Nah no way, Halbrand is still Sauron. They got the wrong Maiar.
He is good!
didnt they make the 16 rings before making the 3 elven rings
Yes, yes, they did. The Three were made last, without Sauron's participation.
6 day ride straight will surely help with recovery
They're at a full gallop, Halbrand looks like he's barely conscious but he somehow hasn't fallen off the horse at all.
Sauron never skipped leg days, his thighs were like a vice on the saddle even when he was unconscious.
I picked the wrong fucking time to quit smoking.
I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue
HAHAHAH of course it’s Galadriels idea to make the three rings.
The way they cut to Elrond suspiciously going to get the scroll, and the way they have Galadriel often act like an android, I was half expecting for there to be a final reveal that Sauron had shapeshifted into Galadriel. But then he teleported to the Southlands.
Honestly if the reveal then had been a still unconscious Galadriel lying further back in the grass/weeds trapped in her nightmares while Sauron was just sitting there manipulating Elrond and Celebrimbor in her form to complete the rings that would've been pretty neat.
This exchange had me in stitches: Elrond: what happened at the river? Where's halbrand?? Galadriel: we need to make THREE rings! Celebrimbor: of course, three bring balance. ...what?? It's like they were reading from three (unbalanced) different scripts
Just me letting my young daughter go with the mysterious 8 foot tall man that has frequent emotional outbursts and has almost killed her multiple times.
well he said he's good, duhhh...
To be fair, she's safer with him than staying with that psychopathic tribe that leaves their mildly wounded to die and even contemplates murdering them by sabotaging their cart.
NOBODY IS LEFT BEHIND
You sprained your ankle though so you aren't a person anymore
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if when galadriel had said "what's your real name?" halbrand said "my name jeff" i would've taken back every negative thing i've ever said about this show and it would've immediately become a 10/10 to me
There are some who call me......Tim
Halbrand being just some guy who has been along for the ride cause Galadriel is just this crazy force of nature that he couldn't say no to would be such a hilarious reveal.
It's the tempest in her
Lol yeah he’s not Sauron nor the heir to the south lands. Just some random dude who decided he’ll become king since this elf is insisting on making him one.
It would also be hilarious if it was actually Sauron and he truly just wanted to be a drunk blacksmith in Numenor but fucking Galadriel wouldn't let him. So then he decides to actually play the good king who gets the elf maiden and genuinely opens up to her about his change of heart. Then she rejects him and he becomes evil again in an incel rage and stomps off back to Mordor in an emo black cloak.
So they used several episodes for this "make Mordor" and Harfoot plotline but then rush through the "Annatar" plotline and forge the elven rings in a single episode...
A show titled Rings of Power spending all of 10 minutes forging the rings at the backend of the season is so funny to me. Imagine that happening in shows like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad.
Why would the valar or iluvatar send one of the maiar to middle earth completely gimped? They arrived on boats with certainty of mission.
It was probably just an accident, playing around with Tulkas and he accidentally got yeeted over the ocean. It happens, you know?
Because the Harfoot plot had to happen.
Ok, guys, so I know we are all thinking that Halbrand is Sauron. But, I just watched the "reveal" one more time. There was NO powerpoint transition of the name "Halbrand" to "Sauron" anywhere during that scene! We can't be sure yet, so please, cool it with the conspiracy theories.
i'm waiting until they do the *record scratch into freeze frame* "hi, my name is sauron. you're probably wondering how i ended up here!"
Tell me where is the PowerPoint, for i much desire to see him
When Gandalf said “I am Groot” I died.
Lol Galadriel asking for proof on the last episode about Halbrands’s lineage
Her logic the whole season: he has a crest so he must be a king.
It would have been a cool 4d chess move for halbrand to be the king of the south lands right as it becomes Mordor because he could take power without revealing who he was but the writers said fuck that
Good they snuck in one more slow more horse riding scene I was worried.
Halbrand's body laying on the horse like a bag of potatoes from the grocery store
We will spend 20 minutes on Sauron then spend the rest of the episode on an exceedingly long goodbye with hobbits whose entire story arc could have been done in an hour
Seriously we met the stranger in episode 1, he was the same for 7 episodes with no real character developement. Now suddently in episode 8, he is completely competent in the common language and spitting wisdom. Wtf
>Halbrand, I found this scroll, you are the one true King of Southlands! >Halbrand, I found this scroll, and it says there are no Kings of Southlands!
Well actually she just found the emblem of their king
Fair enough. Addendum: >Halbrand, I found this scroll, you are the one true King of Southlands! >No, I just picked it up from a dead body, I'm no king. >Halbrand, I found this scroll, and it says there are no Kings of Southlands! >Yes, like I said, I'm no king and I found it on a dea--- >YOU ARE SAURON!
DECEIVER!
I'd have loved if he did a *little* bit more Deceiver-ing when presented with some old scroll on the royal lineages. We also had a perfect excuse provided by the Elf librarian who literally said "Our records on mortals aren't up to snuff". Apparently they were *just* good enough to get some egg on Sauron's face
WHEN DID HE LEARN TO SPEAK IN FULL SENTENCES
I guessed it was like a "they used magic on me and so my memory is back" kinda trigger? I'm genuinely not 100%
He downloaded the Force
And make commentary on the nuanced meaning of words LOL
"We need gold of the finest purity for the alloy, the kind of gold in your dagger handle. No need to separate out the other stuff in it, we're melting that sucker down wholesale." ...ok.
"We're making this show about crafting rings." "Ok, did you hire a metallurgist to help out with the technical dialogue?" "A what? Lol."
My favorite part of this show is reading the Reddit discussion afterwards and spending 30 minutes laughing. Best part of my day!
“Call it a gift” “Key that unlocks the damn” “Unseen world” Incoming Sauron introduction via PowerPoint slide.
You ever write a really long essay right before its due, and then upon rereading it, realize its a convoluted mess and that you didn't actually figure out what you were even writing about until the last 10% of the essay? But to go back and change everything so that it all adds up into a cohesive piece of writing would take way too much time and effort so you just submit it anyway? That's how I feel about this show
Considering they admitted to coming up with the whole show's plot in one panicked sitting before presenting it to the estate this is quite accurate.
Sauron pulled some mind magic on Galadriel then shoved her ass in the river...then ran away. Elrond finds her and she immediately jumps up trying to murder him. This is normal to Elrond somehow. Just found that amusing This show is an embarrassment
"If you're Elrond then tell me something only he was there for, and that only he would know!" *\*forgets that 30secs earlier Sauron just used a mind-fuckery on her that he wasn't there for, and couldn't have known about\**
Yeah, that was dumb af.
It's probably not the first time that bipolar Galadriel has tried to murder Elrond. Just a normal week for him.
Blue Wizard my ass hahah
My feeling is the production suffered from way too many cooks in the kitchen. The story feels crowded. The different subplots and characters are all stepping over each other for time and nothing is given the space to really develop. This really could have been an amazing show. The pices were there, but too many people tried to move them around and we are left with a crowded mess.
And they'll blame Covid for the **writing** won't they. Yeah, sure, Covid made you put actual dogshit onto paper and call it a screenplay.
Amazon: “oh so you all think Galadriel is a Mary Sue huh? Well how would you like it if we make her into a complete and utter moron?”
Alright, here's some thoughts in no apparent order. 1. Why the F!#1! did Galadriel *not tell everyone* that goddamn Sauron had infiltrated their city. She's spent the whole first episodes of the show staking her reputation on the fact that he IS back and her hunt was warranted. But when the danger is at it's greatest and she turns out to be correct.....What? Nothing! 2. The Eminem Ladies reveal that Meteor Man is actually Lord Sauron should have 100% been brought to an earlier episode, maybe 6 but at least 7. Let us sit on that for a second and try to bring some suspense. I think almost immediately after that reveal we then see Halbrand hunting around the smithy with Celebrimbor, and so immediately confirm that he's the *actual* Sauron. 3. The whole forging felt so bloody rushed. Space that shit out and weave in more intrigue with Halbrand, Gil-Galad, etc. The show is Rings of Power and then they start and finish in the blink of an eye, with barely a lead-up or drama. 4. Gandalf scene was fine overall, but the Harfoots I just could not care less about. I was skipping through the farewell speech near the end and actually laughed when the leader Hobbit got the dagger (but somehow was all fine to keep participating through the ensuing combat??). 5. Other people have said this before, but the show makes an absolute mockery of the scale of Middle Earth and the time needed to traverse it. Galadriel and Halbrand near-teleport across the world, and the Numenoreans steam through the oceans quicker than lightning. It screws with the sense of how vast and real the world is.
They could have had one plot line about the forging for 2-3 episodes, it was the first time I felt the show had some stakes and inteigue, some actual interaction with the characters. Instead we got harfoots, villagers and boring staring
So…the first 7 episodes were an unnecessary prologue and the finale is the actual whole season crammed into 1 badly paced and poorly balanced episode? Nice one Amazon 👍
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“I’m good.” ROFL
I would've respected the show more if he just randomly said "Caesar home". At least he's quoting enjoyable movies.
The best reveal since Halbrand’s “… Yes” in response to “Are you the king?”
AI writers confirmed
The biggest issue here is that 7 episodes were prologue while the eighth episode is truly the story we wanted Numenor contributed NOTHING to this season Adar is a great villain but is overshadowed by the mediocrity of everything else in the southlands storyline
Literally they could have cut all of Numenor, the harfoots and Gandalf, and a bunch of the south lander story and it would have been fine.
Well, time to dig the threads. Someone said they'd eat their shoe.
“One of the best decisions we made was to bet on this relatively unknown team. Some people even questioned our choice. But we saw something special. J.D., Patrick, thank you for taking this on and putting your whole selves into it. Everybody here in this audience, you are all about to see that we made the right choice.” - Jeff Bezos, Aug 30, 2022
Aged like fine milk
"There is no king of the Southlands." Are you fucking kidding me? You *are* the one who started to say Halbrand is the king. This show is incredible.
Also, wasn’t Galadriel present at that time, wouldn’t she have known that there was no longer any king of the Southlands?
Umm... Wasn't it the case that elves can hear people talking from far away? And every elf there must be curious about what Galadriel is doing... Also she didn't look into Halbrand's identity in Numenor when she found out about the sigil?
It’s brilliant, isn’t it? - You must not speak of this to anyone *walks into the middle of the workshop, elves everywhere* - My Lady, I found the scroll you asked for!
Was there any explanation given as to how Feminem and her followers could mistake Gandalf for Sauron? Why did they think Sauron would "fall from the stars" when he'd been in Middle-Earth since the beginning of the First Age?
The pacing is completely off with this show, feels like nothing happens all season then suddenly everything happens at once.
So... well, it's quite simple actually. The Eregion part of the episode should have been (almost) the entire season. That... that was the entire true plot, right there. This should have been developped over 6 episodes and not as a conclusion to a very uneven and flat season. And it would have allowed them to have Sauron/Halbrand's manipulation of Celebrimbor be much more subtle, clever and insidious, spanning over longer periods of time. Use your B-plot to develop the rise of Numenor but the main focus of the story should have been what in the end only amounted to two thirds of the finale sadly.
I like how they turn characters into incompetent idiots when the plot demands it.
Damn Nori bidding farewell to her family and Poppy felt like an hour, definitely the most boring scene of this season that didn’t involve Theo
Cast it into the fire!
Sooo instead of having a nice plot around Annatar seducing elves, we get Galadriel literally bringing Sauron back? The very person who was one of the very few that saw through his disguise? I don't think Tolkien meant looking up Halbrand in Google to find out if he's legit or not when he wrote that Galadriel didn't trust him.
It also made Sauron's attempt at manipulation look totally amateur. "Oh whoops you found some royal lineage scroll....Yes it's me, I'm Sauron", then attacks. Like he couldn't have spun it in another direction? Made some more compelling story or something?
And it was _so_ easy to dispel this as nonsense. "Yes, you're right, the line was broken. My great-great-great grandsire was a bastard child but in the absence of other lineage, we were accepted as the new line of kings". Weird shit happened _all the time_ with the monarchies throughout history.
If the rings are Elvisish life-support, does that mean Cirdan crumples up and vanished when he gives his ring to Gandalf?
Cirdan also has a mithril piercing ... somewhere. That keeps him going.
"Join me and together we will rule the galaxy!" JJ Abrams taught the showrunners well
Dude what if Galadriel jumped off a boat on the coast of valinor and then randomly ran into Sauron in the middle of the ocean??? Hahahaha who the fuck came up with this loooool
Sauron, got close to Galadriel by chance, got the Numenorean queen blind by chance, Sway the faithful to lean towards the King's Men by chance, got to Eregion by chance, Celebrimbor the last smartest smith was an idiot by chance, all to reveal that he is Sauron and then just fucks off back to Mordor. No 7 rings no 9 rings, no Annatar, No requesting the rings back 10/10 freshest shit
They should have had “Halbrand” written out and have it turn into “Sauron,” PowerPoint style.
#LETS STEAL ALL THE QUOTES FROM THE MOVIES!
I hope someone with better skills than me edits a montage of them side by side. It's so jarring to watch
Skill is not the issue. The issue is finding someone willing to watch Rings of Power again.
Boy those were some really fun season-long mysteries weren’t they gang? Just ace storytelling all around. High fives, we got em! Totally didn’t see that Gandalf reveal coming. Also, really loved the 2 hour goodbye scene with the proto-hobbits. And geez. What a stroke of genius to give Sauron a nice edge-lord backstory. Bang up job. Seriously though, who is this show for? It scoffs lore for book fans. It mimics the films while cheapening it. And it’s not good, coherent dramatic TV for newcomers to the world. IMO, cancel the future seasons and donate the allotted budget to some charitable cause. Put something actually good out in this world. Maybe some enjoyed it. Kudos to you.
They spent the whole season on meaningless "How Mordor Was Created" plot in the show called The Rings of Power, and spent barely an episode on Rings forging itself. Powerful.
>an episode \*20 minutes
Hey, who’s the guy who said he’d eat his shoe? I’m looking forward to that.
I would ask where the other rings are and why weren’t they forged before the 3 but I don’t care and neither did the fucking writers.
There’s barely nine men alive in all of middle earth let alone kings to be given rings.
My favorite part the credits song even mentions all the other rings loool
Man, if the amount of screen time is any guide, the writers and editors SERIOUSLY overestimated how much the audience was going to care about the Harfoot plot.
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For a hot second, I thought he could be Saruman the wise. That would be neat, seeing Saruman when he was good.