Rings Of Power - anyone else watching this?

[Aimelie]

I’ve been sticking with it, just watching from time to time and hoping it ends up going somewhere (anywhere … please! ).

And now I’m almost positive who Sauron has been masquerading as (someone who’s good at smithing and is about to go off and hang out with the elves, possibly pairing up with Celembrimbor to lend him a helping hand—nothing better than a conflicted, complicated villain) … also, things are looking up for the Mithrandir spotting crew. (Plus, Darin’s Bane, to boot, yay! Papa Durin has the right if it, I’d say, but for anyone familiar with the books and films, we know there will be a workaround to thwart the king’s wisdom.)

Overall, it’s been slow going but maybe-kinda-sort of looking like the time spent watching will pay off.

I remain optimistic for what’s to come.

[catdaddy]

Originally Posted by posternutbag

I am so conflicted with respect to this show. I am a huge fan of the fantasy genre, but I am not a huge Tolkien fan. That being said, I have read The Hobbit, the trilogy and the Silmarillion, and I thought the Peter Jackson LotR trilogy was fantastic (The Hobbit trilogy, not so much).

I am constantly asking myself, “Why am I watching this show?” The answer is that I just can’t believe that the writing and pacing are as bad as they seem. I keep thinking, “They must have something really good to pay off the interminable boredom, the seemingly needless and arbitrary alterations of the source material, and the strange character notes.” I keep thinking that this has to go somewhere really cool…

STOP READING NOW IF YOU ARE AFRAID OF SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

That being said, I don’t have any actual spoilers, just rampant speculation that could turn out to be right, and then then this would retroactively be a spoiler.

I keep thinking Halbrand has to be Annatar. I am not the first or the only person to espouse this opinion; it’s fairly common online, but it seems to be the only way the writers can pull everything together and make Galadriel’s character arc make any sense. If Halbrand is revealed to be Annatar (Sauron in disguise) then Galadriel bringing him to Eregion and by extension to Celebrimbor makes her responsible for so much of the evil that befalls Middle Earth in the later half of the Second Age and the Third Age to come. It would explain the seeming discrepancy between her personality in RoP and her personality in LotR. It would provide fertile ground for character development. If this isn’t the case, if Halbrand is just discount Aragorn, I fear the show is lost, unless the writers pull off something truly spectacular, and fast.

You have the prescience of an elf!

[J Patrick]

The season finale was a good setup for what’s to come….(gratuitous Harfoot goodbyes to Nori notwithstanding)….my wife pegged Halbrands true character when he fished Galadriel out of the sea….I think there’s five seasons planned so they’ll be spinning quite a yarn before it concludes….

[Shuksan]

I watched the first two episodes and that was enough for me.

Poor story writing, poor acting by some of the actors playing main characters, cheesy dialog.

The actor that plays Galadriel bears at least some resemblance to Cate Blanchett and could pass for a young Galadriel, but the guy playing Elrond bears no resemblance whatsoever to Hugo Weaving. Every time he was on screen it took me right out of the show.

I really didn't like how the elves are portrayed. In the Peter Jackson films, they have an ethereal quality and there's no doubt that elves are distinct from men. In The Rings of Power, the elves struck me as nothing more than humans with pointy ears tacked on.

The scene at the end of the first episode where, after sailing all the way across the sea from Middle Earth to Valinor, Galadriel decides she doesn't want to go to Valinor. So, what does she do? She jumps overboard with her only option being to SWIM across the sea to get back to Middle Earth. Unbelievably stupid story writing.

I'm a big LOTR fan going back to the late 60s. This show was just not up to the task, IMO.

[M19]

We're liking it quite a bit, though it is slow in spots (just shut up and leave, Nori!!!). As I have read most everything that JRR and Christopher Tolkein published regarding this mythology, I enjoy looking (or waiting) for elements to be revealed, but also for the invented story lines and characters too, for the most part. Jackson took plenty of license with LOTR <cough cough "Elves at Helm's Deep"> so I'm not bothered too much by those occurrences.
If you want constant action and sex and gore, this is not the series for you.