[Legate of Amon Lanc]

"Stone Age" Hobbits

I will be one of apparently many who are saying that the Harfeet are really great. I shall repeat what I have said elsewhere: I love how the culture is built. They indeed feel like "Stone Age Hobbits", the pseudo-nomadic gatherers with their way of dealing with the world... it somehow managed to capture the essence of those aboriginal cultures (amidst the "civilised", sedentary cultures who inhabit Middle-Earth at the time!) in such a manner that it fits so smoothly into the setting and you do not even realise how well it is done until you start thinking about it, because it simply does not stick out in any way.

I also liked Largo's chronicle and proto-Hobbit-script, as a different, yet somehow appropriate nod to their future bookworms like Bilbo and their genealogical and other interests.

Elven vs Mortal Perception of Time

Elrond and Durin: I think picking up the theme of immortality and the different concept of time is something that is not often tackled in such a manner even in fantasy in general, and if it is, it is often in the very extreme form of "member of one race loved the other and we know that one of them has to die". This sort of "mundane" take on perception of time and which events are considered important is almost... well, even a neuroscientist would be happy!

I think what the writers did right was to pick up a theme that exists in Tolkien (immortality of one race vs mortality of another) and explored what it means in practice in a way that the source material never does. Well done! This is how expanding on existing lore should look like.

The "Reverse Morgul-Blade"

I liked the idea and the visual effect of the "reverse Morgul-Blade", even if I know not how it works, what it should be, or anything else about it. It is visually cool, it instantly calls back the imagery it (I assume) is supposed to (i.e. the Morgul-Blade that disappears), the way it "drains blood" looks cool and it alludes to it being something creepy, evil and "vampiric", i.e. that drains one's life force and transforms it into power that is able to kill others (also a metaphorical foreshadowing of the wielder's future life path, if he stays on it).

But I like simply the innovative effect of taking something familiar and just reversing it, and what it looks like. (In fact, it is also a sort of metaphor for the story itself - of Sauron's - and his servants' - rise, as opposed to fall; a blade forming as opposed to disappearing.)

Incidentally, I could say that all the weapons so far in this show look very visually appealing and I find them overall more interesting than PJ's weapons.