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09-12-2024, 08:45 AM | #1 |
Drummer in the Deep
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Next Sunday A.D.
Posts: 2,141
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**Spoiler Warning** Rings of Power S2E4 - 'Eldest'
Here we go! Here there be Barrow Wights!
Of a sort. They're not even from Cardolan. This episode is a bunch of callbacks and references and dialogue lifted directly from different circumstances. More than usual. Tom Bombadil gaslighting the Stranger when he hears a woman's voice is unintentionally hilarious though? I have to admit I cried a little hearing Bombadil's words from FotR. I haven't read the books in a long time and I might have to soon. I can't figure out if Arondir & party meet the ents while still in Pelargir or if it's supposed to be Ithilien? And I can't even remember if it was this episode or the last, I appreciate hearing an elf lord sing. We've had tavern songs and walking songs and leaving-these-shores songs and songs about lilies and mountains but this is an...administrative song? Gil-Galad got to take notes for the meeting this time and he knocked it out of the park!
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But all the while I sit and think of times there were before
I listen for returning feet and voices at the door Last edited by Oddwen; 09-12-2024 at 08:57 AM. |
09-13-2024, 05:08 AM | #2 |
Overshadowed Eagle
Join Date: Nov 2017
Location: The north-west of the Old World, east of the Sea
Posts: 3,881
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This one was so much fun. I was giggling the whole way through.
So yeah, this was amazing, best episode so far, A+++ no notes (except TURN THE LIGHTS ON ISILDUR). hS
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Have you burned the ships that could bear you back again? ~Finrod: The Rock Opera |
09-14-2024, 08:52 AM | #3 | |
Laconic Loreman
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Quote:
Bear McCreary has done a wonderful job bringing images and memories of reading Tolkien to life through his music. I daresay, I actually prefer it to Howard Shore's. This episode was the best of the series, then I watched Episode 5 last night. I won't spoil it, I'm just going to say wow...Charlie Vickers (Annatar) and Charles Edwards (Celebrimbor) are so much fun to watch.
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Fenris Penguin
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09-15-2024, 11:36 AM | #4 | |
Dead Serious
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To start the end: yes, the Bombadil end credits song was an excellent surprise! I feel like I said every episode last year that I loved the opening credits, and that's still true (and the broader statement, that I like the music generally, is true too).
Moving on to the baby-in-arm notes: Quote:
Overall, I found a lot to like in this episodes: much like the Movies, whenever the dialogue comes from Tolkien, it tends to beat what they come up with themselves. I like the actor portraying Tom and the fact that he's taken seriously, but I can't quite get over anything to do with geography here--for a franchise where The Map has SUCH an important value, it's amazing how little this show seems to understand it.
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I prefer history, true or feigned.
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09-15-2024, 05:04 PM | #5 |
Wight
Join Date: Jun 2023
Location: Treading the Narrow Way
Posts: 198
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I concur, taking Tom Bombadil from his wood is just wrong.
Sure, he probably wandered a little in the older days, but living in the middle of a desert?? I really dislike this injection of Tom as a mostly irrelevant character in a mostly irrelevant plot. Everything to do with him felt off. And Old Man Wil-- er, I mean "Ironwood" was the biggest eye-roll moment of the episode. They don't even bother pretending that they aren't copy-pasting things from the books into their capricious plot. I also appreciated that they didn't drag out Estrid's "betrayal" all season long. This plot-thread with Isildur and Theo (whiny emo-child though he is) I like the most, which is ironic condsidering that it is totally original and also the least pertinent to the overall story. The quicksand scene felt suspiciously reminiscent of that bit in the Princess Bride...but they needed a redemption bit somewhere, I suppose. And the Princess Bride can't boast a man-eating quicksand worm anyway. Their music really is the shining point in the series. The dwarven/Khazad-dûm theme especially is really well-fitting.
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For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 Last edited by Alassë Estel; 09-18-2024 at 01:09 PM. |
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