**Spoiler Warning** Rings of Power S1E4 - "The Great Wave"

[Formendacil]

Another week... and am I the first Downer to watch it again? Dear me, how either I or the show have fallen if that's the case.

The stream-of-thought things I noted:

• ...still sounds like "Adan." That orks needs to work on his "r"s!

• Is Míriel having the Faramir dream? ... Seems so...

• Wait, I just heard the name "Míriel!"

• What--Pharazôn has a son? Are there two Pharazôns?

• Well, I like the populism angle of Pharazôn (however many there are) as leader of the King's Men.

• Did he say his name is "Kevin?"

• I'm not sure that it's intended for Míriel have more queenly presence than Galadriel, but she does--which I like on the former, but not so much on the latter.

• Isildur the dreamer doesn't make canonical sense--the one anecdote of we have of him in youth is as a DOER.

• "Dead brother!" Anárion is... dead? AND his older brother? Well, this doesn't bode well for the Line of Anárion, I must say.

• Okay, that time I heard the "r".

• Wait--"adar" = "father" = "do you know how the orks first came into being." It's the missing link! The archaeopteryx of Orks!

• Sirion or Ossir? I suppose both are verboten...

• Not a god yet has to be "this is Sauron"-bait.

• "Here to Orodruin"--I'm gonna say, "yup," this is the making of Mordor we're seeing.

• "Theo" is still a stupid name.

• The Southlands story still belongs to the horror genre, I see.

• If you tell me that Celebrimbor is inventing this recollection of Eärendil, I'd believe it...

• The whole "deception of Durin" story seems... I dunno, either like it made our intro to the Dwarves pointless or redundant or inconsistent or something...

• Okay, I like a secret knock!

• It's a bit a late to be finding mithril... but the whole timeline is pointless to nitpick in this show.

• Betcha that wee bit of mithril becomes an Elven ring or three.

• Why do the bars on Galadriel's prison look like a 21st century wrought-iron fence?

• A mortal Southron princeling should not be teaching the granddaughter of Finwë politics--never mind the granddaughter of Olwë or the student of Melian.

• Okay, Halbrand is a Mary Stu. It's okay. But he is.

• That the King of Númenor has declined is a very... Númenórean motif.

• Wait, is a that a palantír--it is! Why are six missing? I mean, it makes sense that they're in Númenor--and that's kind of under-developed by Tolkien: what were they doing in the 2nd Age? Did the House of Silmarien have them all? Were there others? How did Elendil end up with them all?

• Theo, I think you should really think of going back without that sack.

• Good timing, Arondir. But I still suspect you've saved a Nazgûl.

• This is very Boromir's death. Are we going to that well again?

• Saved by the Sun! Not a bad motif!

• Are we giving Elrond Daddy Issues™? I guess... that's not... terribly... inappropriate. Still.

• Durin and HIS dad have a very... Dwarven? thing going on.

• Well, this is a creepy bartender! An anti-Barliman?

• I like Míriel's look between without the leafy antlers.

• Making a public pronouncement indoors in a city that large seems like it's making an event rather exclusive...

• So, it seems we're going to get some Tar-Minastírian alliance PRE-Sauron... the timeline here is so muddled!