Quote:
Originally Posted by Lalwendë
Did that Balrog have wings?
It better not have.
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That is, in fact, the most important question of all.
The episode, overall, had some pretty much better moments than the previous ones. There is still too much of slow-motion shots (seriously) and some clumsy buildups (or rather lack of buildups, see below).
I liked the resurfacing themes of friendship between the Dwarves and Elrond, and maybe I watched too much Game of Thrones-type stuff that my immediate association was that Durin was next going to poison Durin, but thankfully, I think (I hope) this won't happen. Those characters are interesting and the dynamic between Durin and Durin was nice, or it would be, if it weren't for the abovementioned lack of buildup. This show has these random mood swings with characters: one episode Durin Sr. has a conflict with his son, then it seems to get settled, but later they have a conflict again, and it is more like a back-and-forth random swinging rather than some linear development.
The whole "and you always criticised me too harshly, father" came out of the blue; I would have liked to see it actually first showed on some subtle hints throughout the series, but it simply was not there. And that is what relationships and decisions are like in this whole show (another example being e.g. in one of the previous episodes Bronwyn being all the time "we must fight, we must resist, who is with me" and suddenly she was the one who was "oh, we must surrender to the Orcs". And again: you
can have the hero lapsing like that, but it needs to have some buildup to that!).
Otherwise: Míriel's blindness is a nice touch, I wonder what will come out of it. Probably Pharazon claiming that she's unfit to rule, or more subtly, taking upon his shoulders the burden of responsibility, since she clearly cannot manage alone...
Bronwyn is back to her spaghetti top, unfortunately, again. But then she gets the red cloak so I kinda hope that she keeps it. (Sidenote: clearly the red cloak is made of the same cloth as Míriel's blindfold in the same scene. Probably the Númenoreans just had an excess red canvas lying around somewhere.)
I enjoyed Galadriel's brief trek with Theo, even though not so impressed by the referrence of hiding under the roots a la from Black Rider. Even though again (Legate 180!)... if Theo actually becomes Khamul, he gets bested by his own trick... that would be fun!
A tribe of Harfeet sending their only sage with a couple of Merrys and Pippins does not seem very wise to me.
And Evil Barliman lives! I hope he continues to thrive. Oh, will he become a double-traitor next time, since he originally wanted to serve Sauron, when the real Sauron comes?
We facepalmed with
Lommy at the end title with "Mordor". I was like "Adar's gonna say 'Mordor'" but when he didn't, I thought "whoa, they don't treat the audience like dumbsters who need spoon-feeding every information (that has been clear for at least four episodes to everyone, or at the least two to very very dumb people)", but clearly I was mistaken. To be honest it feels as if the title was added by some post-production nitpicker title-maker who
does think that the audience needs spoon-feeding.