Dead Serious
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Perched on Thangorodrim's towers.
Posts: 3,319
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More sustained thoughts to come later... the TL R is that I generally liked things in this episode but generally feel--like last episode--that the pacing is wobbly and there are inexplicable adaptational choices made. I think it ends the season on a comparative high note, but that's not without many, many caveats.
- Wow, it feels like ages since I watched this--the recap feels ancient, including stuff that JUST happened.
- A mysterious apple-thief/spy? Haven't you introduced enough new--oh, oh never mind. It's the creepy white cloaks.
- Well THEY think he's Sauron, anyway.
- I will miss the opening credits being in my life each week.
- Lindon looks impressive--or is that Eregion? Does Eregion exist in this world?
- Oh, are the Rings supposed to be the back-up plan to the Mithril Sun-Baths? It's... quite the dramatisation, but...
- Elrond, YOU are the healer, right? Why aren't YOU doing any healing?
- "The only thing we can do" just doesn't hit--hackneyed writing!
- Oh, do we get an actual Celebrimbor scene?
- Even if Halbrand isn't Sauron, this is a good Annatar-baity scene.
- "A gift"--okay, that's even more Annatar-baity.
- "Forge a tomb"--you don't forge tombs, Pharazôn!
- Why are you talking to Númenor's apprentices? This sounds very plot-convenient, Pharazôn. You should be talking to the island's master craftsmen.
- While he's a bit atextual, crazy seer Tar-Palantír is effective.
- Gil-galad being the one who DISLIKES this plan feels out of character for THIS Gil-galad, but closer to the book. I don't understand this Gil-galad's motivations.
- "Return to Lindon"--okay, this hastily-erected city that looks ancient actually is Eregion. Gotta keep it.
- More Halbrand-is-Annatar bait.
- The fact that Galadriel is researching Halbrand's background feels like more Annatar-bait. But at what point do I have to admit it isn't bait but what the plot actually is.
- Well, that was ominous, Halbrand--the point seems to be coming. So, of course, let's switch to the Starman plot.
- Okay, but why are the stars strange in the East? That's not exactly how it works in this world. And, yes, Aragorn spoke of walking far in the east--but also the south!--where the stars are strange. Is this just bad research or a comment on the flatness of the world?
- Look, Harfeet, at some point you should just consider him lost on the road--this seems a very bad--oh, hang on: we have Blue Wizards, me thinks! Or some sort of weird duplication.
- Awww, no, it's not two Starmen--it's a disguise.
- These White Cloaks continue to be sufficiently creepy.
- Wait, the association with fire is supposed to be a Gandalf thing, isn't it?
- "Istar" well, that would seem to be confirmed, whichever Istar he is.
- This is an overly dramatic death scene--and your magic wizard is RIGHT THERE.
- Also, doesn't dawn seem to have arrived really conveniently? Like, right after midnight?
- "Does not merely mean one who loves the stars" is a nicely tight and understated--and unspoken--way of saying it.
- Well THERE are the black, erm, sails of the Númenóreans--kinda. Context is all wrong. Dramatic, but not consistent.
- "Ourselves," Galadriel? You're not quite part of the smithing, are you?
- Well, Halbrand, I guess you're Annatar by default now.
- I feel like Arondir or, say, Bronwyn should have told you this, Galadriel. The way they responded to "King Halbrand" makes this look like a last minute change.
- But it is a dramatic reveal. The music works, and that's some of his better dialogue.
- Oh yeah, that's what they thought Finrod looked like...
- This is a nonsense dream? mind-invasion? scene--but the lies Sauron is whispering are fairly in character.
- The Ring always offered power and rule, I suppose.
- I don't know if we can believe a word this Sauron says... but if we could, it's got some textual support.
- "Three Rings for the Elven-Kings," I guess.
- Giving up her blade for the Rings is... unexpected, but I suppose I like it.
- So we just need confirmation if Starman is Gandalf or a Blue Wizard--the indications would seem to be Gandalf. A Blue Wizard I'd enjoy... Gandalf annoys me: it's such a case of prequelitis (stuffing things into the prequel from the first story "because" when it doesn't have to be there.
- I do sort of thematically like the idea of Gandalf getting to meet the Hobbits before they can possibly remember it, but it offends my sense of timeline--and how is Gandalf to get Narya from Círdan as he arrives at the Havens?
- Hobbits imparting advice at parting is nice as a concept.
- Was that supposed to be a Gandalf pre-quote?
- You don't look hot next to this forge, Galadriel. An elf is supposed to always look cool, I suppose.
- Travelled to Mordor rather quickly, didn't we, Halbrand?
- It's weird getting end credits...
- So, do we get a new set of Rings at the end of each season? Dwarves at the end of 2, Men at the end of three, Sauron at the end of 4--and then the Last Alliance in Season 5?
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I prefer history, true or feigned.
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