[Legate of Amon Lanc]

I have to sadly say that this was, by far, the worst episode of the entire series. The start with the Hobbit song was nice, even if a bit cheesy, but after that it went quickly downhill. I have said earlier that I liked the Elrond storyline the most, in terms of characterisation and relationships (ignoring the fact that Dwarves continue to be portrayed as rude louts, but I accept that this was simply the filmmakers' choice), but the plot does not make any sense. And by that I mean internally. In the first episode, Gil-Galad tells Elrond to go to see Celebrimbor, and Elrond suggests going to see the Dwarves. (And there is the entire plot-wise illogical sequence of then being denied entry.) Now suddenly Gil-Galad tells Elrond "yeah nice when we sent you to these Dwarves, huh?" No, you sent him to talk to Celebrimbor, who himself did not come up with the Dwarf idea, but Elrond did. And it was pure chance (and through several hurdles) that Elrond managed to get the Dwarves' aid. Also, he had just learned about the mithril, but suddenly everyone knows about it (or knows that Elrond knows). Maybe I am missing something, but the way the plot is presented does not make any sense.

Similarly the dialogue during the whole episode went only from bad to worse. With only one notable exception, which I considered one of the best dialogues in the show so far - the talk between Galadriel and Mr. Halbransson in the smithy. It was the one thing that made sense, the dynamic of Galadriel's thoughts and him playing the tennis partner to bounce them off of. I felt like obviously, from Tolkien canon perspective, this is entirely made up, but that it makes sense within the context of Galadriel's character. For maybe the first time in a long while, Galadriel felt like she may be Galadriel (unlike in the sparring match. I never had any problem with showing Galadriel as a fighter to a degree, but this was Ciri from the Witcher, not Galadriel).

One reservation though that may make for example the character of Galadriel or some events make more sense overall in the context of the show - I think we, the Tolkien-knowers, are making the mistake of judging the events and people like Galadriel based on what we know: she should already have the First Age behind her etc. But it seems to me that the show really operates like a "prequel to Peter Jackson", so to say: yes, there was some murky First Age stuff with some Morgoth, but we are pretty much discarding it because we have no rights to it besides the literally two sentences in the Appendices, which are that there was some First Age and there was some Morgoth and that's about it. So for example when speaking of Galadriel, despite the fact that it is implied that she has some First Age history, this is her origin story. She is young, brash and inexperienced right now. (Whether Galadriel was ever thus is for another debate, but this is what we have, and the showmakers can start her character development from here.) I am just saying it because from this perspective, it makes all the canon-related stuff make considerably more sense than it does otherwise to me as a Tolkien-knower. (But nb., while it makes some of Galadriel's attitudes make sense, it still does not, in my opinion, demand portraying her as the angry teenager she seems like.)

One important thing to note is that I am watching this after having heard some spoilers - such as, I know who is the Stranger, or the history of Mr. Halberdsson. I don't know how I would feel had I not known. Personally, from my current perspective, it makes me care for the story more, but I am probably missing on the aspect of "oooooh who is this? Who is that? What is the dark secret here? Where is Sauron?" While I like a good mystery, I think actually not knowing would make the watching worse, because e.g. I would have surmised that some things are a red herring anyway, etc. And knowing things makes me care about some events or characters more and makes me make more internal sense of the show as it is.

Speaking of dark secrets though, let me say one thing - the worst possible thing about the show is leaving those vague hints in the form of unfinished sentences. This was partly what made this episode so bad, because there were so many of them. There's already one thing in contemporary cinema that mystery is overused and overrated, but RoP takes it into a completely new level. The audience needs to know things to be able to follow and care about the plot! And even if you are having a random dialogue between two characters, you could at least have them finish their sentences (I recall several such occasions with Gil-Galad and also Elrond and Durin. I also think there was something like that in a dialogue between Míriel and her father, and in any case multiple other occasions).

I don't remember the exact sentences, but to illustrate, LotR if written in the same way would be like:

Gandalf: "Frodo, I must tell you something about your ring. I fear... something."
Frodo: "What do you mean?"
G: "Something... dark."
F: "So is my Ring dangerous?"
G: "Yes. If left unchecked, it will..."
F: "Oh no! That is... dark!"
G: "Yes. For now, keep it secret. And don't... Because if you would..."
F: *stares in terror*, end of scene.

If the audience is to have anything out of the dialogues and the plot, this style has to change.

I hope the following episodes will be better (I am saying this already having watched the sixth one, so yes, that one is definitely better).