In that last episode , whenever they had harfoots on the screen, I just skipped over it . Numenor might get that treatment soon if they don't tighten that up. Give me elves, Sauron, Adar, and orcs. The stranger is just kinda meh last episode. Started off better. Anything a harfoot touches turns to shit.
The storyline is fine, the only dumb part is the stupid rock singing that sounds like singing opera that they invented for some unknown reason.
Well shit. Thought we were getting somewhere. My girl G seems like a nerfed version and weak. Sad. Sauron is the best thing going making everyone do his thing.
The Dissa character is such a terrible character. I feel like the dwarves storyline would be 100% better without her.
fantastic episode. you know those awesome GoT battle episodes where 95+% of an episode focuses exclusively on one storyline? yea. also, they've done a phenomenal job making Sauron terrifying and powerful. we've never really gotten a good look at what an unstoppable force he was when he was corporeal save like 15 seconds in the first film but he seems like such an inevitability.
That was awesome! Seems like next week could be just as good too. I don’t know all of the lore, so I can’t quibble. I just sit back and watch and love the backstory of the things I know. This season has been great IMO.
What is the extent of Sauron's power at that point in time? He is able to make 5 elves stab themselves, control their minds etc. Could he have waved his arm and flung whole waves of orcs to their deaths?
So Sauron's plan was to have Adar attack and then use the pressure of the imminent destruction of the city to cooerce Celebrimbor to finish the rings? Or is that just kinda how it all happened but it wasn't actually all his plan from the start?
enjoying the show for what it is, but that squad of elves who showed up in TTT movie would’ve wrecked that entire orc army. I’m assuming Sauron was behind the scenes causing them to not be able to properly defend the city, but was disappointed in elven defenses
there's no easy answer to this but he's basically a god. he has immense physical power but he chooses to walk behind the lines and sow chaos and deceit. that's just who he is, Melkor was very different and far more of a "might makes right" character. Sauron is happy knowing people think he's dead or doesn't exist, that's why those rings exist, to control the people who control the people. but worth mentioning nobody in Tolkien's works is impossible to kill which is also why he's not just openly trying to beat everyone face-to-face. they might not permanently die but being killed can be an enormous setback to say the least. no, his plan was to reclaim the orcs and by doing it his way, where the orcs no longer see Adar as leader and father, they will openly accept Sauron as the new leader. Adar's obsession with Sauron is what will cost him in the end, even though he genuinely does love the orcs and his obsession in ridding the world of Sauron is actually righteous in nature. he only wants Sauron dead and to go somewhere with his children and know they're safe from being hunted by the elves but his obsession with getting to that point is his downfall. elves aren't what the movies make them out to be. they're flawed. they're not impossibly strong, they're not impossible to beat in a fight. they're not preternaturally badass, the badass ones spend decades/centuries/millenia getting that way. think how good a boxer Mike Tyson would be if he never aged and lived to be 3000 years old. Celebrimbor is the most talented of all Elven smiths, he's also that good because he's been doing it for centuries. plenty of elves are just famers or seamstresses or what have you and can't fight. they're also not an impervious fighting force, that's why they've always needed Dwarves and Men when times were most dire.
The lore bombs ITT are great Definitely said when the orcs first started rushing over the dried out bank that Eregion looked a little under-staffed itself on the walls and stuff. The elf army that showed up - was that all they had (as far as a formal army) or just all they could get together on short notice and there are other elf cities with armies that didn't have time to get there? Seemed like everyone that showed was on a horse so I'm assuming there's plenty more out there
Lindon (Gil-galad) is sooooooooooo far from Eregion. we're talking probably every bit of 500 miles on the low end. this is why they were all cavalry, zero chance to raise an army and march there in time. if you don't know the world it's kind of difficult to understand some of what is going on as the show doesn't do a great job showing time and distance as a factor. also important to point out all Elvish cities didn't have massive armies on standby. Eregion was a trade capital, it was full of craftsmen and tradesmen (like Celebrimbor). that's part of the reason it fell to Sauron. going to link a good map. Lindon is on the far west-northwest coast then go find the big chain of mountains in the center and about midway up on the western side you'll see Eregion and that will give you an idea of the separation. you can see Moria (Khazad-dum) right below Eregion which is why Elrond tried to get Durin IV to help. scale is a bit difficult to describe but huge LOTR nerds will say Frodo and Sam did every bit of 1200-1800ish miles walking. near Harlindon on the west coast find Arthedain and look just NE to see the Shire. they walked east to Bree then east to Rivendell (right against the mountains) then they walked down to Moria, through the other side of the mountains, mostly walked along the river through Rohan to the SE to Mordor just to kind of give you an idea of Lindon to Eregion.
Mr Owl, how many dwarves does it take to subdue one old mother fucker? Ah-one, ah-two, the whole dwarves army, apparently.
more I think about it, the more I think they're gonna make Ar-Pharazon the Witch-king. I don't think there's anyway they end his story like they do in the books because it's too difficult to do/explain and his exact death is an unknown plus most tend to believe the Witch-king was a Numenorean. if there's not some brand new character in the S3 Numenor storyline next season that gets almost as much screen-time as Ar-Pharazon then it's definitely gonna be Ar-Pharazon. Numenor will be a lot better next season, Sauron's gonna be there the entire time.
Don't forget Talion from the Shadows of Mordor ends up as one of the ringwraiths as well.** **it may not be canon, but it's real to me**
the Witch-king founded Angmar, he wasn't born there. nobody knows for sure but the overwhelming theory is he's Numenorean just because of their history and importance in the lore and their ultimate failure. the Numenoreans were meant to be the best of all Men, that's why their corruption and downfall at the hands of Sauron is all the worse.
quick thoughts: - ended about as one would expect, which is fine. no huge cliffhangers but most people kind of know where this is all heading so that's not a big deal. - no big problems with much of anything, although my eyes rolled out of my skull when they called him "Grand Elf". cmon. - I really loved what they did with Ar-Pharazon and it sets up Numenor next season perfectly (used palantir to see Halbrand is Sauron, connects Miriel to Sauron to claim the throne easily) - Narsil! - Adar's death was shot very similarly to Sauron's in the first episode, thought that was a great touch - the Balrog looked incredible (how they got Durin's ring out when the walls collapsed is dumb but whatever) - not sure how good they can make the Dwarf storyline going forward, probably the biggest question they'll have to handle in the writers' room - Sauron going to craft the One Ring with Feanor's hammer is such a fantastic touch - the individual plots by themselves were all done well imo (the Halflings are probably going to get very little screen time for a season or two, hooray) but it did feel a bit rushed, episode probably could have been 15-20 minutes longer just to tidy things up. - Charlie Vickers as Sauron was great every single episode, terrific casting. does a great job showing how fucked up Sauron is at this point, he's still broken (mentally) and quite vulnerable, just also incredibly dangerous. S2 on the whole was an improvement from S1 and I think as we continue down what I'd describe as a path of iron-clad lore where Tolkien is doing more and more of the lifting for the writers then the show should continue to be better and better. the downfall of Numenor should be really good, looking forward to it. also, just for fun, go back real quick to the 2nd episode about 8:15 in and watch Galadriel's dream. that was a very heavy book nod but was neat to see the foreshadowing.
Knew they were going to do it, but still mad about Gandalf, and then they pulled a Hodor with his name which is even worse.
I don’t really have a problem with creating new lore but when they change stuff that was already written I’m not a fan. It’s also kind of dumb that they found the balrog. So they aren’t going to like write down for future generations “hey don’t fucking mine any further, there’s a fucking fiery smoke monster down there”?
Loved season 2. Have no idea what the book lore is so just enjoying the show. Last two episodes were amazing television
When the Dark Wizard told the Stranger they were friends and that the Stranger had persuaded the Dark Wizard to go to Middle Earth with him I was positive they were the Blue Wizards because that’s part of their arc in one of Tolkien’s notes. But then the Grand Elf stuff began. Question: Is the Dark Wizard Saruman (like I posted a while back, that beard sure looks familiar) or a Blue?
I fast forwarded through the halfing segments and Numenor stuff. The Sauron, elves, orcs, and dwarves story lines are so much better that I just can't stand watching halfings and Numenor stuff.
The orcs are so fickle they turned on Sauron , ended up with Adar, then turned on Adar without blinking an eye. They could have at least spent a little air time explaining how Sauron convinced them to do that. Adar was a pretty good non book character.
you think it's possible these stories might come together a bit and you will want to know what's going on?