**Spoiler warning!!** Rings of Power S1 E3 Adar

[Blind Guardian]

Well, here we are, back for episode 3.

For some reason the pacing of this felt all over the place. Fast and then slow and then fast... this episode just made me tired and I can't for the life of me remember everyone's names nor do I feel like I have a reason to. Plus there were long bits where it switched to one perspective then to another for a short while then back to the first....

I don't get Elendil's interaction with his kids. Like...at all. Why is he upset about the boy wanting to defer? What does that even mean? Skip a year at school? Sounds good to me...

The Queen Regent who's name I can't remember is underdeveloped. She's your bog standard queen and she wants the Elf dead.

Galadriel finds out that the symbol is actually sideways and is really a map of Mordor. There's a contingency plan that Sauron is following: in the event of Melkor's defeat break glass... lol. I actually kind of like this plot thread. It shows foresight on the enemies part prior to the end of the War of Wrath. They're not completely narcissistic to think they are undefeatable. I can get behind this.

I've said my piece about Halbrand and the Stranger in another thread. Halbrand = Sauron; Stranger = Gandalf. The Harfoots are still cute. I like their story and want to see where it is going.

I feel like Arondir is coated in some very thick Plot Armor. The fight with the Orc was pretty good, but those Elves and Men got SLAUGHTERED...except Arondir. He was fine.

The Evil Sword did not make an appearance this episode.

The outfits and sets are still gorgeous. The only music I remember is the Orc music which was similar enough to the LOtR Orc music.

[Lalwendë]

Agree, the pacing was a bit patchy. And wasn't quite clear enough about who was who in Numenor. The events there made me think there could be something unsavoury about Halbrand yet again, both the violence and his ability to charm, but they then threw in a curve ball about his ancestry.

I think they'll keep chucking those curve balls about both him and the Stranger so we're never quite sure.

Numenor looked great, if very overcrowded, the city built on every hill like Rio de Janeiro. Wish we'd seen more of those main characters before going off with Elendil.

I enjoyed the parts with the orcs though it was a really desperate situation without much sense of hope at all, and why would you just kill your enslaved workforce if you were an Orc that couldn't stand the sunshine? Interesting to see the beginnings of Mordor too, and really sad to think of the lush green lands being destroyed - I like how Tolkien's green message is strongly portrayed. The elf character (I'm still not up on all the new names) continued to be a strong actor in this.

Now, the Harfoots....I really enjoyed this, we got a fairly deep look at their culture. It's not a wholly pleasant culture, but it was fascinating. Kicking off it was very Wicker Man, I was half expecting Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward to pop up and I really enjoyed that. I love a bit of jiggery-pokery and creepy folksiness. But there was a genuinely sinister side - the idea that Harfoots who get left behind when they 'migrate' are really left behind. Very Darwinian. And realising that Poppy was all alone. I get the feeling that this is going to be part of their story.

A bit messy, but some interesting potential plot development seeded.

[Tar Elenion]

*Harfoots:
'we have each other'

Call and response:
'Nobody goes off-trail."
"And nobody walks alone."
(repeatedly)

"And should any Harfoot fall behind this migration, they likewise will be carried with us..."
Exactly, because you have each other, and nobody walks alone. So sweet.

"...in our hearts and in our memories. In life, we could not wait for them."

Uh...

So you are just going to let them die...

...and later laugh about the 'ijits'

[Blind Guardian]

I wonder if we're going to find out that some of the Harfoots "left behind" started burrows under hill.

[Tar Elenion]

At this point I'm waiting for the 'left behind' to be turned into something more useful for hungry *harfoots...

[Formendacil]

Another episode, another list... lightly edited.

• Oh hey, it *IS* Howard Shore!

• This is a different director--will I notice?

• It's under covers, but this seems awfully sunny for an ork camp.

• Are we supposed to believe ALL the Elves in that watch-tower company were captured? This doesn't seem plausible to me... or is just the only three we've happened to see so far? Is that more plausible?

• Come on! No black sails! Look, I know that's a UT thing, not a an Appendices thing--but the black sails of the Numenoreans is iconic.

• I don't love the split-mast sails.

• Megalithic carving in Númenor! I mean, of course there is! Argonath weren't a new idea.

• Númenor looks a bit overpopulated. I mean, it's big, it's old--but is it THAT populous even in Romennarmenelos?

• In Númenor it's about SA 3000, it seems--in Middle-earth it's about SA500.

• I'm digging the fantasy-Byzantine vibe.

• Why does no one kneel in Númenor? Is this a call-something to Aragorn kneeling to the Hobbits?

• Evil Chancellor Pharazôn is not Tar-Calion, but he does have slimy Merlin vibes.

• Does Halbarad have some history with the Captain? That was a weird hug.

• Why would Númenóreans talk of avalanches? There are no snow-covered mountains on Númenor, and we seem to be lacking in one of Tolkien's favourite Second Age themes: the Númenórean ships exploring back to Middle-earth (and none of the avalanche-bearing mountains are near the coast, really).

• Wait--that's Elendil? So is Halbarad actually Isildur?

• Okay, no, scratch that--Isildur is this other sailor guy.

• Isildur has a sister? Okay, that's plausible. Anárionya? What's the feminine for Anárion?

• Why "queen-regent"? This is weirdly topical--it's the reverse of "Queen-Consort Camilla." Can 21st century people not tell by context which is meant when someone is called "Queen." But why "REGENT?" Why not "regnant"? Regent suggests it's on someone's behalf--which is the exact backwards fact of Mîriel's story.

• Wait, is Míriel not in the Appendices? Is that why?

• These orks are much more frightening than anything in the Hobbit movies--and I do like the shawls (if they're to hide from the sun).

• This water ration psychological warfare thing is complicated for an ork!

• There is no way an Elf cutting a tree down can turn out well.

• You know, I like Elendil's presence. I buy this is Elendil the Tall, even if his story is clearly amended (I see no Amandil, Cousellor and Cousin to the King, in this story).

• Why the slow-mo horse riding? Goofy!

• The problem with Halbarad is that he looks more like a Númenórean than the Númenóreans do! At least if you take movie-Aragorn as the type. And he's TALLER than them!

• Look, someone needs a different accent here.

• Wait--is Halbarad Sauron? Are we going to spend all season trying to guess who Sauron is? That's not a bad mystery, an it were.

• I like that the architecture--the arches--are different in Andunie.

• Wait, are we merging Tar-Meneldil and Tar-Palantír? I guess that explains Queen-Regent.

• I like his Tar-Wozzizname is just slipped in before the Big Reveal.

• I'm trying to understand the in-universe reason for a table-carved map of that detail.

• "There's common sense and nonsense" is a great phrase!

• Not sure I love Merry and Pippin-styled thieving.

• Oh, we're doing a Bilbo-speech...

• Are all these names just taken from the Automated Hobbit Name Generator? Give me a Deágol!

• Also, how anthropologically likely is it that the community would just leave Dad behind? What about chewing food for old folks with no teeth of their own? And it's not like these... sigh... Harfoots seem like a community that isn't rather loving of their own.

• "Beings turned into stars"--I see what you did there!

• Only 1000 years? Why 1000?

• "Destiny" really doesn't sound like a Tolkien word, does it?

• "Just for a season"--Isildur Skywalker, I see.

• Oh good, Anárion does exist!

• Wait, is Anárion older or younger than Isildur here? Surely the HoME could sue if he's older.

• Something bad's going to happen to the noncanonical daughter, in the end... right? Handmaiden to Tar-Míriel? A Nazgûl? Something...

• "Builders Guild"? Builders of what?

• Okay, I am getting more Sauron vibes from Halbarad.

• Halbarad is King of the Southlands? Gondor? And he's an Aragorn-expy? That's too obvious--give me back my Annatar theory.

• Okay, look--yes, all the men who were not Edain generally fall into Morgoth's camp, but the idea of a pro-Morgoth bloodline of royal men in Middle-earth just doesn't FIT: 3000 years of the South Age wipes out memory: this is the Dark Ages. I mean, I like the idea of some connection, but this is both too borrowing of Aragorn's story and doesn't fit.

• Nori's sister is cute (but seriously, why Nori? Why not Nora?)

• Chain-fighting is a tiny bit better than shield-surfing, I guess.

• Yay, sunlight hurts the orks!

• How hard is it to make a Warg that looks like a Wolf? That is a Hyena.

• Boromir moment--I guess arrow-deaths HAVE to be slow-mo.

• "Adan" is just "man" in Sindarin. Seriously, that's what they're calling Sauron in Black Speech?

So... I'm only realising now that Elrond/Celebrimbor/Durin/Mom/Morgul-blade are all missing from this episode. I suppose we really don't have room for them. It'll be interesting to see what drops in and out, episode to episode.

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

The elf character (I'm still not up on all the new names) continued to be a strong actor in this.

I think she's called Galadriel?

[Tar Elenion]

*Adar, father in Sindarin.

Making *Wargs look like they should (Wolves) would likely be... frowned upon...

Tar-Miriel is mentioned in the App A:
"His daughter should have been the fourth Queen, Tar-Míriel, but the King’s nephew usurped the sceptre and became Ar-Pharazôn the Golden, last King of the Númenóreans."

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Tar Elenion

*Adar, father in Sindarin.

Is that what the orks were calling him? If so, that's probably WORSE than Adan. I could have sworn it sounded like an "n" at the end.

(In the event it's not clear, I am looking up absolutely no ancillary data for this series, have watched no trailers, and was being quite resolute about ignoring it till it happened--so some of my spellings/assumptions may be quite disprovable did I but know!)

Originally Posted by Tar Elenion

Making *Wargs look like they should (Wolves) would likely be... frowned upon...

I suppose the Wargs in the PJ movies were also quite hyena-like. To be honest... I'd mostly forgotten.

Originally Posted by Tar Elenion

Tar-Miriel is mentioned in the App A:
"His daughter should have been the fourth Queen, Tar-Míriel, but the King’s nephew usurped the sceptre and became Ar-Pharazôn the Golden, last King of the Númenóreans."

Well, then, it make no sense to me why she's not ever named, unless it's to spare us too many names to remember.

Now that I think of it... we're probably not getting Tar-Minastír's mighty army driving Sauron from Eregion, are we? No pre-Last Alliance last alliance of Elves and men. That's probably going to get folded into (Ar-?)Pharazôn's fleet landing at Umbar, isn't it? Pity. Well, I'd best go predict it...

[Oddwen]

Why is everyone calling the series 'woke' when Elendil is blatantly favoring his failson over his daughter? :P


An episode called "Adar" strongly featuring fathers & fatherhood - Galadriel name-dropping Finarfin, Elendil and his expectations for (two of) his children, Halbrand rejecting his birthright, the Brandyfoot family being threatened by the father's injury and Nori being directly compared to her father, Tar-Miriel(?) warning her father, the orcs revering the guy with the menacing gloves.



I thought Halbrand was going to be revealed as Telchar/the forger of Narsil when he first started eyeing the forges.



Poppy appears to be an orphan who lost her whole family in a landslide, she has to pull her own cart all by herself.


I've gotta say it - BEES?!?!



The Stranger: "What's the common word for 'Mellon'?"



The chain-fu was kinda cool..



The warg looked like what a chihuahua thinks they look like.