Cherry-Picking the Good Parts

[Blind Guardian]

I really like the Harfoots. I like the nod to Frodo and Sam / Merry and Pippin in Nori and Poppy. There is also a nod to the future in their last names: Proudfelllow and Brandyfoot (Proudfeet and Brandywine).

I also really enjoy all of the physical stuff. The sets look great, the costumes look great, the boats look great, the weapons look great. Each race is very distinctive looking. Kazad-Dum is amazing. The Harfoots houses are super cute and I like how they blend into their environment. You can clearly see the Hobbits that they will evolve into.

Orcs quietly digging under houses is creepy as heck... I don't like it but at the same time I do like it. Are they just trying to heist away that sword in the middle of the night via tunnels? Creepy. I dig it.

I like Durin and Dori better than I thought I would. She's so happy and friendly and talkative and he's gruff and stoic (somewhat).

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I actually can't get past their anachronistic and linguistically impossible names. Tolkien is all about the nomenclature, and if you can't get that right you have no business adapting Tolkien

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

I actually can't get past their anachronistic and linguistically impossible names. Tolkien is all about the nomenclature, and if you can't get that right you have no business adapting Tolkien

While I don't disagree--this sort of thing bothers me more than the completely mashed timeline--I fear you have misread the purpose of this thread: you have to pick out the stuff you DO like.

If, perchance, that turns out to be nothing... well, there are other threads.

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Because folks have complained about the ship to Valinor--and even I had a stab at calling the situation a Rapture--I thought a good post here would be to a post I found elsewhere which really helped peopl (including me) appreciate how the scene/event could be understood within this new narrative interpretation.

Looking at this with a very un-Tolkienic pair of spectacles, I can almost see ship-jumping Galadriel as a kind of warrior-Bodhisattva: She has been granted passage to the realm of eternal peace (Nirvana), but refuses it because she knows evil is still afoot in the world and she cannot/refuses to enjoy peace herself while others till suffer under evil.


Also I like the idea of this Galadriel and the veiled spectre-like psychopomps as severed aspects of one archetype. The Sorceress of Dwimordene is very much a spectral character herself, so she will have to integrate that other aspect at some time.

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

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.

Agreed. Even if Hobbits at this time didn't have script as per Tolkien, it's still a nice visual shorthand for legends and tradition.

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

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.

My first thought about this blade was "Do we know what happened to the shards of Gurthang after Túrin's death?" We do, they were buried with him, and anyway they can't use it because rights, but I sense some use of the 'vampiric black blade' archetype (à la Tyrfing or Stormbringer) in the offing. Not sure how that will fit into the narrative.

Originally Posted by Blind Guardian

Orcs quietly digging under houses is creepy as heck... I don't like it but at the same time I do like it. Are they just trying to heist away that sword in the middle of the night via tunnels? Creepy. I dig it.

Have you ever played Skyrim? The tunneling Orcs reminded me very much of the Falmer there. I hadn't considered that they were after the blade, but that's actually a valid idea. I saw it as the Orcs literally went underground after Morgoth's defeat and are now resurfacing here and there.


I liked the angular style of architecture and ornaments in Khazad-dûm - very fitting for a people working in stone. And I love Sophia Nomvete's Dísa! I have no idea what her ethnicity is, but considering that Tolkien likened the Dwarves to Jews, I wish the makers had made all the Dwarves of a more levantine type (rather than Scottish, which is just regurgitating Peter Jackson's Gimli).

[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

My first thought about this blade was "Do we know what happened to the shards of Gurthang after Túrin's death?" We do, they were buried with him, and anyway they can't use it because rights, but I sense some use of the 'vampiric black blade' archetype (à la Tyrfing or Stormbringer) in the offing. Not sure how that will fit into the narrative.

In the character bio for Theo it says "As he struggles with the questions in life and seeks to prove himself, he finds himself tempted by a dark discovery."

So, I don't think you're too far off on predictions about the sword. This might be better to ask in the spoiler thread, but did they reveal whose barn that was where Theo found the sword? I can't remember

Originally Posted by Pitch

I liked the angular style of architecture and ornaments in Khazad-dûm - very fitting for a people working in stone. And I love Sophia Nomvete's Dísa! I have no idea what her ethnicity is, but considering that Tolkien likened the Dwarves to Jews, I wish the makers had made all the Dwarves of a more levantine type (rather than Scottish, which is just regurgitating Peter Jackson's Gimli).

I particularly liked Disa talking about singing to the mountain. It will tell you where to mine, and which places to avoid. Not only foreshadowing, but I think it's a different idea that we didn't get with PJ's dwarves. Combined with Celebrimbor's "giddiness" telling Elrond how he's always wanted to see dwarves work their craft. The viewers probably weren't expecting to hear an elf immediately speak positively about dwarves.

Celebrimbor's my favorite canonical character. Disa's my favorite non-canonical character so far.

[Boromir88]

The best parts from Episode 3.

-How the Harfoots incorporate camouflage in their clothing to disappear in a moments notice, or in an emergency. Such as the Stranger being in camp.

-The orcs. The orcs are much better than in Peter Jackson's adaptations. They looked great in Lord of the Rings. I think they look even better in the Amazon series, but they are also developed better. Seeing them be hurt by sunlight and toying with their captives. They are wickedly cruel and feel like legitimate threats.

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

-The orcs. The orcs are much better than in Peter Jackson's adaptations. They looked great in Lord of the Rings. I think they look even better in the Amazon series, but they are also developed better. Seeing them be hurt by sunlight and toying with their captives. They are wickedly cruel and feel like legitimate threats.

Absolutely true with the orks! That the sun actually hurt them was excellent.

I rather enjoyed the appearance of Númenor too: it was exceptionally full, I thought, of things one could nitpick, but the overall effect was very well done: larger, more glorious than the Gondor of the movies, older too and with greater wealth. But what I especially liked was the variety: there was different architecture in Rómenna/Armenelos (whichever the royal city is supposed to be) compared with Andúnie, and there were different locations and people: naval, royal, Faithful, common. Again, I think there was plenty to nitpick in Númenor, but I very much liked the breadth and depth of it.