There are rings of power.
Powerful elven warriors are on their way to avenge. The cities werehewn into stone. Halflings, called Harfoots, are hiding from the big people. They were plucked from the pages of legend.
The new live-action fantasy epic is based on the appendices to The Lord of the Rings. J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay and their team of writers have taken a lot of liberties in bringing this story to life, but the notes and writings from this time were filled with a lot of holes and contradictions.
I found The Rings of Power to be a great return to Middle-earth, even though it wasn't a perfect two-part series premiere. If you want a review that doesn't give away anything, I wrote it here. There will be a lot of information about the characters, events and the two part premiere.
The weakest link so far is the elves.
Elrond and Galadriel are two people.
Galadriel has been set up, for better or worse, as the main character at the center of the cast. This Galadriel is very different from the one we met in Lord of the Rings, which was played brilliantly by Cate Blanchett.
Galadriel is a warrior on a dark quest who is reluctant to follow the advice of her fellow elves. Even though it doesn't ring true, I like this version of Galadriel. She would be given great respect and deference by her peers, including Elrond and the High King, Gil-Galad, who are both younger than her.
The show's creators decided to make her come across as younger and more hot-headed than she would have been at this point in the show. Galadriel is boring to watch because she is an austere and wise figure. It would be better if she was younger and more passionate. Wouldn't it be better to make a new elven warrior princess instead of Galadriel?
Galadriel has followed in her brother's footsteps. Her older brother is a mentor from her earliest days in Valinor. He was killed by Sauron and she continued to hunt after the last orc disappeared.
An ancient fortress in the frozen north is where she and a group of elves find a symbol of the enemy still burning. Galadriel slayed the ice troll with her blade. When all is said and done, she wants to go further into the frozen wastes, but her friends tell her she will have to go alone. They will return to Lindon if they have to.
Galadriel is eager to turn down the gift of the Grey Havens to Valinor that the High King gave her after she returned.
There are a few things that bother me about Galadriel's story. The fight against the Snow troll was too action-packed and boring to be considered a good movie. I understand that a little action is needed to keep the audience interested, but I prefer a more down to earth style.
The lore was being tinkered with worse. It was not possible for Gil-Galad to send Galadriel back to Valinor. After Morgoth's defeat at the end of the Second Age, she decided to stay and build a kingdom in Middle-earth. The golden ship is a bit odd because Gil-Galad wouldn't have the power to send her back.
Galadriel should be taller, if they can make the Harfoots small, and I wonder where Celeborn is supposed to be. I find the claims that Galadriel is a Mary Sue or Karen quite silly.
The half-elven lord he becomes by the time Frodo and his companions meet him for the first time in Rivendell is strikingly different than Elrond, the other main elven character. The younger Elrond is an advisor to Gil-Galad and a speech- writer. We learn about his friendship with Galadriel, his usefulness to the High King, and the prejudice he faces as a half-elf.
Celebrimbor is a famous elven smith.
Celebrimbor and Elrond are two people.
Celebrimbor wants to create items of true power in order to make Middle-earth great again. He is an ambitious craftsman who wants to create something like Fanor's Silmarils, jewels made from the light of the Two Trees of Valinor so beautiful they nearly bewitched and turned the heart of Morgoth.
In order to forge his creation, which has yet to be named, though we can safely assume it is the rings of power, he needs a forge constructed and he wants it done by the spring.
Celebrimbor needs the help of the Elrond to form the half-elf. He and Celebrimbor try to get the help of the master-craftsmen in the forges building.
Durin has other ideas once they arrive.
Both Durin and Durin are related.
Elrond told Celebrimbor that he can expect a lot more than a warm welcome. There will be lots of food. Beer and pork.
The doors of Khazad-dm are shut and the elves are told to leave. Elrond has a right of challenge and can enter. The elven diplomat is beside us. The caverns in Lord of the Rings were dark and frightening. They are a bustling subterranean metropolis filled with the clang of hammers and the wealth of dwarven civilization at its peak.
Durin greeted Elrond as 'The Elf' and encouraged him to say hello. We don't know what happened to the bad blood here. One of the challenges is endurance. Durin and Elrond need to cleave through as many boulders as possible before they give up. The dwarfs cheer for their prince and have fun.
The dwarfs are amazing here. There are two types of dwarfs. The former have less facial hair than the latter, but they both have bushy beards. It is quite the spectacle that everything about the people of Khazad-dm is lovingly constructed. The dwarfs are chantingKhazad. Their faces were covered in soot. The hammers have cracks.
Elrond asked Durin if he would walk him to the exit. Durin finally explains why he is so angry. It has been twenty years since Elrond last visited, and Durin is no longer alive. He wasn't happy that Elrond didn't come to his wedding.
Elrond wants to apologize to both Durin and his family.
They are Disa and Durin.
The dwarven prince told Durin that he should not stay for dinner after they arrived at his apartment.
Disa exclaimed that this must be Elrond when she saw them. You are staying for dinner, right?
The introduction to Durin's family is a nice moment of comic relief. We don't see his children's faces as they come in with their large bodies. Disa watches the tension in the air and plays peacemaker.
Elrond gave Durin a tree as a gift a long time ago. Disa says that he tends to it like it's his third child.
Disa explains where to carve into the stone and where not to. The meeting between Durin and his father hints at the doom that will befall Moria once the precious metal Mithril is found. What awaits them will spell the end for Khazad-dm.
Nori and poppy are together.
My favorite characters in The Lord of The Rings were the four hobbits who set out on the long journey to Mordor and comprised nearly half of the Ring.
It is no wonder that my favorite characters in The Rings of Power are the nomadic Harfoots, who are free but in constant danger of wolves and giants.
Nori is a young person who dreams of adventure and lives according to her own rules. She went to investigate after a comet came down and found a crater with a giant at its center.
There is a stranger.
There are a lot of theories about who the man is. A mysterious figure, unable to speak, but able to draw runes with a stick, and later, command fireflies to form symbols in the sky, is called the Stranger. I think this is a magic user, even though I think it's unlikely that this is Sauron or any other villain. I thought it was one of the Blue Wizards, but now I think it is Gandalf, who has come to Middle-earth in the Second Age and will leave again before returning in the Third Age.
I believe that Gandalf will help guide the Harfoots to safety, and that this early encounter with the little people will be the reason that he continues to visit the area. It is possible that fate draws him to the ancestors of the hobbits because they will be the key to Sauron's downfall.
The Harfoots have cute Irish accents. The leader of the group is a wise old halfling with knowledge of the sky and stars. Megan Richards is the best friend of Nori. Many more live in a traveling camp that they can hide from danger.
The wandering Harfoots have won my heart, even though I never thought I would find any other halflings like them.
Arondir andBronwyn.
The shadows can be seen over the village of Tir-harad. The men and women who fought with Sauron are still suspicious and hardscrabble.
A dark land that has grown more verdant over time has elves watching over them from their high towers.
I don't like the idea of Gil-Galad sending elven soldiers to patrol over the realm of men for thousands of years, but I like the world that's been created here. They are hostile and querulous. Arondir is a soldier who watches over the villagers with a solemnity we don't see in the golden forests.
Arondir has fallen in love with a human who lives outside of the village. Arondir's elven countrymen and the men and women of the village don't approve of their love.
It is unlikely that the elven hierarchy would work this way, and any elves watching over the land that eventually becomes known as Mordor would be doing so of their own. It is not clear if Arondir intends to stay or invite her to come with him.
It is not time for that. A man and a cow are near each other. The cow came back sickly after wandering off to the east. Arondir and Bronwyn went to find the cause of the strange illness and ended up in a village that was destroyed by great rifts in the earth.
There was no human corpse to be found.
Arondir enters one of the tunnels that were dug beneath the village to warn the people of the danger.
Theo and another youth stole a broken Morgul blade from the basement of a barn. The blade starts to grow when a drop of his blood touches it. The symbol that Galadriel found in the frozen north is visible on the blade.
Theo's blade.
Arondir makes his way through the tunnels and encounters a monster. He tries to get away, or at least find a position where he can fight the thing instead of in the cramped tunnels, but as he waits above a pool, clawed hands appear behind him and drag him off.
The villagers shrugged off her worries as she made her way to the inn. They are not going to leave their homes because of a small hole. They don't trust the healer because she has a crush on an elf
Theo hides in a cupboard at the house. He tells her to run, but she hides in a closet as a masked man makes his way up the stairs. Theo stabbed it in the back while it was trying to find her. The two manage to kill the creature but only barely, and Theo takes a few good hits in the process before his mother takes it off and brings it back to the village.
The orc head has a person on it.
When we see any of them, the villagers are going to walk off in a line from their homes, and the villagers are going to pack their things and leave if they can't.
The show has props toTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,TrademarkiaTrademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia,Trademarkia The orc is an amazing creation that we know of as kind of the canon fodder of Middle-earth.
Galadriel is the name of ariel.
When Galadriel decided to return to Middle-earth and face whatever evil she believes still exists, the words of her brother lingered in her mind. He told her that she can't know the difference between the light and the water until she touches the darkness.
She swims and finds a group of people in bad shape. Their ship was destroyed by a Wyrm, and as her rescuers realized she was an elf, she was pushed back into the water. She swims hard away from the raft which is destroyed by the sea monster after she was shoved.
One of the humans is still alive. HalBRAND is a roguish figure, handsome and rugged, but also self-serving, choosing to save his own skin rather than that of his companions.
Galadriel and Halbrand are not on good terms. He doesn't want her sympathy for the loss of his home. She told him that it would take more time than his lifetime to list her lost friends. She was surprised to see that his tales of orcs had shown up in the south. She wants him to take her to their last known location, but he says he has his own plan.
The storm arrives. The tranquil waters are replaced with heaving waves and Galadriel is thrown into the sea by a beam. Halbrand pulled himself down into the deep along the rope Galadriel was tied to. He saved her at the last moment by cutting her dagger. They get on the raft and fall asleep.
A ship pulls up alongside the raft and a mysterious figure looks down on them. Next week, we will find out who this person is. Arondir has been taken and we will learn more about that.
There are rings of power.
This was a great start to The Rings of Power. The first two episodes are a bit slow at times, but they are still enjoyable. Even if it is a slightly different version of Middle-earth than Peter Jackson's films, I'm happy to be back in it. The show shows the same themes of friendship, courage and honor that he included in his books and notes.
The title of the show is written by Howard Shore, who was the composer for Lord of the Rings.
J.A. Bayona and his team have created something special here. I enjoyed it more the second time I watched it because my screeners didn't offer 4K.
I have heard of complaints about the casting, but I think every actor did a great job, and I don't think they should complain about the script or dialogue. Even if they didn't nail every line of dialogue, this was still very Tolkienesque. His writing could be a bit stiff and his dialogue a bit dull. I think it works for me.
I will review episode 3 after it airs on Friday. Did you like the show? You can let me know on social media.
My review is here.
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There are more rings of power reading from yours truly.
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