The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Amazon Prime, Sept. 2, 2022) TV Show • Page 27

Yeah, if they end up having it not be Gandalf, the follow your nose thing is very cheap and annoying.

 

I think if it was Gandalf this show would have outright said it, unless there is a copyright thing where they can't say the name "Gandalf" that i'm not clear on.

 

But this episode did a lot of that, where stuff was *heavily* implied but not outright stated. Like all the stuff with Galadriel figuring out who Halbrand was and then not actually telling Elrond and Celebrimbor, and Elrond fishing around in the river for the scroll - they didn't talk much to each other during these scenes.

I was a little confused on the scroll: logically to me it seems like the scroll just presents the information that Halbrand is not who he says he is, and it confirmed a lot of Galadriel's suspicions that she already had, but to Elrond it's just going to say he's not who he says he is, it's not going to say that he's Sauron - but the show kinda treated it like Elrond would see it and connect all the same dots that Galadriel did. As far as I could tell, Elrond didn't have any of the same suspicions or thoughts Galadriel did at that time. I feel like he'd just be kinda confused, and even moreso after seeing the scroll.

 

Well, my take at the moment is that they haven’t referred to him as Gandalf by name yet because that’s a name given to him later on by the men of Arnor. His original name is Olórin and, given that his memory is somewhat fuzzy at the moment, I have simply assumed he doesn’t recall his name either. To the Elves he was typically referred to as Mithrandir. Eventually Gandalf became the most commonly used. So, my take is that they couldn’t outright have him open his mouth and say “oh I just remembered, my name is Gandalf” because that’s a name that is given to him later. So instead they opted to give us all of the overtly clear indicators that, yes, this is Gandalf.

 

I had forgotten about the name Olórin. I was thinking in my head while watching the show that this time being shown might be way before he was referred to as Gandalf, but I was waiting to hear Mithrandir.

 

I can’t remember exactly what she said to him but I think he can put the pieces together based off her response and words. Something about a mistake I’d have to go back and see

I guess technically it’s not revealed he knows it was Sauron too so I’m not sure

 

Enjoyed the season but questionable wigs in movies/tv are my pet peeve and for as much money as this show cost they should've thrown a few extra bucks at the wig budget.

Also I accused literally everyone in this show of being sauron at some point lmao

 

Loved the whole season. Can't wait for season 2!

 

Man that was good

 

Yeah the Harfoot stuff got me good at the end. Very onion smelling in my house

 

Quick thoughts from someone not well versed in lore and doesn't even really remember that much about the movies.

- Very good season. I was engaged and intrigued throughout. Zero complaints about anything production wise. Not one moment looked cheap... I didn't like the design of the boar things but it wasn't like they looked bad, just not a good design choice.
- A few corny moments, but I think that LOTR was corny at times I would also would argue that that's part of its appeal. It's fantasy, it mostly always has been and always will be a little on the corny side, especially when it's old school good vs evil fantasy and not the modern everyone is gray fantasy. There's a clear good and bad, and everyone speaks in grandiose, eloquent quotable bites.
- The Sauron reveal was cool and unexpected and will make a re-watch before season 2 pretty different.
- The Gandalf reveal was okay, but one of the moments that bordered on corny, and I guess technically it isn't revealed yet, but I agree with everything that everyone else said for why it wasn't more clear.
- I actually really liked the 'Mordor' moment with the text over. I don't think it was acting like the audience was dumb and needed to be told that. It was just a stylistic choice to go along with a moment that I thought worked really well and made it impactful and cool.

I absolutely loved the Dwarf characters and they stole the show. The Harfoots were fine overall but I want more Dwarf stuff next season. The father/son dynamic was fantastic and far from resolved.

My only complaints:
- A lot of last minute save the day moments that I just don't like in general, and some of these were done poorly.
- A few pacing issues with how the stories were split/integrated but nothing major.
- Some overly extended scenes. I think the Harfoot scenes in this last episode went on a bit too long and it was milking the moment. Some episodes too had a few okay, that was the last scene, oh wait there's more moments (but again, LOTR did that too).
- Some of the combat was a bit over the top (like the Orc and Elve battle while digging the tunnels). The movements just weren't natural and it came across as a bit silly with a lot of high wire stunt action.

 

The mordor thing was the worst part of the season imo. It was obvious throughout the show no need to beat us over the head with it.

 

But if that's the worst part then you know it was a great season lol

 

I thought the Balrog reveal was a bit lackluster and anti-climactic, but I can't really put my finger on why... The Mordor text on screen felt like an odd creative choice and I wasn't sure why they didn't just have the leader of the orcs guy just say the name as dialogue. Maybe Sauron officially names it himself later on.

 

Honestly the (only) part I thought was bad was when the stranger went "I...AM...GOOD". Felt sooo cheesy/out of place.

 

It's funny, because I have heard this mentioned a lot by a lot of different people, and I am someone who was lukewarm on the Harfoot storyline pretty much through the entire season, but this last episode really won me over and I was fully on board with everything going on in the Harfoot scenes. The him yelling good thing wasn't even a blip on my radar as being even a little bit odd or cheesy.

 

It was just felt like a weird way to explicitly release the tension of the scene. It didn’t really affect how much I loved the season/finale.

I was kinda hoping we’d see some balrog action, but it makes sense to leave it there. I am really curious where they’re going with the palantir cliffhanger and the numenor plot.

It’s a shame we have to wait now!

 

They said there were things meant for season 1 that got moved to season 2 and I’m guessing the Balrog was part of it since we don’t even see the dwarves in the last episode.

 

Oh yeah, none of my complaints were anything major that bothered me really, just little things I noticed. I liked this show a lot right from the premiere and it got better and better for me as the season went on.

 

I hope they do full on corruption of numenor shit

 

it feels like they set the stage for it!

 

Oh 100%

 

The part that felt the most Lord of the Rings to me was when the Harfoot goodbye scene in the last episode took like 20 minutes

 

Harfoots were far and away my least favorite part of this season. I found Nori’s father and Poppy pretty grating. Hoping next season Nori is the only Harfoot we really see at all. Did like Sadoc pretty well.

 

Man y’all really hating on those Harfoots. Loved every second of them