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TV The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | ST | Pre-release discussion, trailers, etc

chocolate_supra said:
I was more talking about how HBO is canning a ton of their scripted shows in favor of reality series because of the Discovery merger so we're finding out this month that we're losing a lot of good television, even successful series
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Yeah....more than that , the main concern with HBO is that David Zaslav is coming out as a notorious Trumper and Right-Wing shill who is canning every show/movie with "Forced representation". Under that criteria this show could definitely being canned as well or at least under the threat of it, since it has been under fire for quite some time by the youtube stinky lunatics of always.
 
This looks great. I haven’t seen the LotR films in like 15 years, maybe I’ll try and rip through ‘em before this.

Been really enjoying A League of Their Own, and will probably transition straight into this show after. Amazon been doing a good job on their originals
 
New trailer hit today:



Have to say, this is probably the weakest trailer so far, and it's entirely due to the music choice.

I'm actually really digging what's been shown of the dialogue so far. I know the showrunners are Shakespeare nerds, and it seems like they've been given license to go all in with elevated dialogue for the characters, which is great. But the music choice is just so boring and out of place with the tone of Middle Earth. Hoping this was just a trailer that got farmed out to a trailer house.
 
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JazzPotatoes said:
God fudging dang.

I haven't even seen the show yet, and This Wandering Day got me choked up worse than Deagol.

The OST has got amazing, epic fanfares and climaxes left right and centre, and here I am tearing up over a Tolkien-ass hobbit song about lands far away.

Jackson, why didn't you include Hey Ho To The Bottle I Go you absolute moral coward!?!



I'm skipping House of the Dragon. I watched Game Of Thrones to the end, and eight seasons of brutal nihilism, incest, rape and murder is all I could stomach. Now that it's all done, I don't particularly want to go back into a new story where the general tone is so damn cynical and miserable. Hope it ends up living up to your expectations, but I think I'm done with George RR Martin's particular brand of fantasy.
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Tenga su like for the bolded alone. Although i love Matt Smith so probably i will watch anyway, i totally agree.
 
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Social media impressions are coming out regarding the first two episodes.

I normally don't take them too seriously, but the consensus is overwhelmingly positive, and even Neil Gaiman is coming out and saying the show is really good.



Lots of other early impressions saying that the first two episodes contain a lot of lore, but that the production values and spectacle are off the chain, the actors do a great job, and everything feels suitably Tolkienesque.



Actual reviews will probably be soon forthcoming, as we're not far from the premier date now. If the show is as lore heavy as early impressions make out, I'll be intrigued to see how the reviewers respond to that. I'm all for a show that starts slowly and builds if it means we get a good easing into the Second Age, but I can imagine some reviewers wanting a strong narrative hook from the get go. Will be interesting to see how the showrunners threaded that particular needle.

We're nearly there boys and girls. Little over a week left, and we can finally see for ourselves how the return to Middle Earth has turned out.
 
This show is seriously affecting my mental health, every time I watch the new trailer as a giant fan (currently reading children of Hurin for a third time) I go to the comment section and my logical brain is completely violated. 99% of the comments are a variation of,
the Rings of Power the biggest tv production of all time has to all white, no blacks allowed.
Dwarf women have beards because Peter Jackson’s Aragorn said so.
Constantly praising Peter Jackson the maker of the Hobbit trilogy.
How dare you change something that Professor Tolkien wrote, yet lets keep praising Peter Jackson creator of the Literal eye of Sauron and the masterpiece of cinema that is The Battle of the 5 Armies.
Galadriel climbing a wall is woke and political.
My favourite Middle Earth content creators are now Amazon shills because they hope that the show will be good
and my personal favourite the Show is absolutely dreadful and embarrassing despite you never having seen it. Sorry rant over, I feel a little better now.
 
terrornaught said:
This show is seriously affecting my mental health, every time I watch the new trailer as a giant fan (currently reading children of Hurin for a third time) I go to the comment section and my logical brain is completely violated. 99% of the comments are a variation of,
the Rings of Power the biggest tv production of all time has to all white, no blacks allowed.
Dwarf women have beards because Peter Jackson’s Aragorn said so.
Constantly praising Peter Jackson the maker of the Hobbit trilogy.
How dare you change something that Professor Tolkien wrote, yet lets keep praising Peter Jackson creator of the Literal eye of Sauron and the masterpiece of cinema that is The Battle of the 5 Armies.
Galadriel climbing a wall is woke and political.
My favourite Middle Earth content creators are now Amazon shills because they hope that the show will be good
and my personal favourite the Show is absolutely dreadful and embarrassing despite you never having seen it. Sorry rant over, I feel a little better now.
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oh no you've just described what it's like to be a starwars fan! 😢
although what's hilarious to me is how you can plug "George Lucas" into both Tolkien's and Jackson's spots in those. 😅
 
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el oh el

q2h3zoa58zk91.png


It's not even out yet. People just love to hate, I swear. 🤣
 
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They fucking did it. Thank God. I love Game of Thrones and I'm enjoying House of the Dragon so far but man, it's going to be so refreshing to watch something that isn't so cynical and grimdark. The Witcher was some relief, but this, this is that old school good versus evil high fantasy shit.
 
There's loads more reviews out there, but frankly, I trust Fami users to have enough keyboard skills to look them up if that's interesting. There's too many for me to be able to link using my phone.

Generally the consensus seems to be:

- The production value is off the charts. Amazon spent big, and it shows on the visuals, the sets and the special effects.

- The first episode is mainly world-building and introducing us to the Second Age

- The second episode is still mainly introducing us to characters and settings, but more of the story gets revealed and set up for the rest of the season

- The acting is uniformly praised.

- Durin IV and Disa are mentioned by many reviewers as a particular highlight

- The tone, as was hinted at before release, is in line with the Jackson films: the story and characters are sincere, and there's no GoT style snarkiness or trying to make it anything other than a big fantastical adventure
 
JazzPotatoes said:
There's loads more reviews out there, but frankly, I trust Fami users to have enough keyboard skills to look them up if that's interesting. There's too many for me to be able to link using my phone.

Generally the consensus seems to be:

- The production value is off the charts. Amazon spent big, and it shows on the visuals, the sets and the special effects.

- The first episode is mainly world-building and introducing us to the Second Age

- The second episode is still mainly introducing us to characters and settings, but more of the story gets revealed and set up for the rest of the season

- The acting is uniformly praised.

- Durin IV and Disa are mentioned by many reviewers as a particular highlight

- The tone, as was hinted at before release, is in line with the Jackson films: the story and characters are sincere, and there's no GoT style snarkiness or trying to make it anything other than a big fantastical adventure
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To all of this:

Good.
 
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It also sounds as though the showrunners have made the right choice, and kept the dialogue elevated and slightly archaic, rather then trying to modernize it.

That's pretty crucial for me, as I can't buy into a Middle Earth where characters don't talk in that more poetic mode. I'm glad modern dialogue wasn't mandated on the creative team.

I won't be able to watch the eps as they release this Friday, as me the the missus are off to see Les Mis, but I'll be catching up on them over the weekend, and am about as optimistic as I can possibly be about the show. Even if it doesn't take me back to being a twelve year old watching Fellowship for the first time (nothing could), it's great to have another Middle Earth story to dive into.
 
I'm loving all of the stuff I'm hearing so far but I have one weird hang-up:

I've heard that while it's been greenlight to proceed past season 1, which is good news, future seasons will no longer be produced in New Zealand, which I can't help but feel is bad news.

I'm probably being a bit of a pop culture lemming with all this but I associate New Zealand with Middle Earth so much that moving production out of NZ feels to me like moving LotR out of Middle Earth. How does the Fami feel about this?
 
They've moved production to the UK.

I'm actually ok with this. The UK has breathtaking scenery of its own, and much of this is what inspired Tolkien in the first place. I've never quite gelled with the Pelennor being barren scrub in the Jackson trilogy, or Rohan being a steppe as opposed to open grassland.

Mountain-landscape-Skye-Scotland-Inner-Hebrides.jpg


Llyn%20Llydaw%2C%20Snowdon%20-%20Yr%20Wyddfa%201400%20600.png


anicent-woodland-coed-nant-gwernol-and-coed-hendrewallog-14-jordan-mansfield.jpg


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Barring the tallest peaks of the Misty Mountains or the deserts of Harad, the UK has most of the required geography to film a Middle Earth series
 
Yeah, I can't wait for Friday evening. It's a difficult couple of months coming up for me so having this on Fridays is a really good bonus.
 
JazzPotatoes said:
There's loads more reviews out there, but frankly, I trust Fami users to have enough keyboard skills to look them up if that's interesting. There's too many for me to be able to link using my phone.


- The first episode is mainly world-building and introducing us to the Second Age

- The second episode is still mainly introducing us to characters and settings, but more of the story gets revealed and set up for the rest of the season
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I hate to assume the worst in people, but I am now fully expecting a bunch of "There was no action. This is so boring!" posts on the internet for the first few weeks.
 
Josh5890 said:
I hate to assume the worst in people, but I am now fully expecting a bunch of "There was no action. This is so boring!" posts on the internet for the first few weeks.
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Trying to inject action where there was none is one of the things I see Tolkien fans drag the PJ trilogies for a lot. Honestly with how harsh discourse has been getting lately (in all fandoms) I'd like to see this series appeal more to Tolkienists than the mainstream. I want to see the fans celebrating this and have the mainstream audiences salty and confused (which is the way fantasy should be).
 
chocolate_supra said:
Trying to inject action where there was none is one of the things I see Tolkien fans drag the PJ trilogies for a lot. Honestly with how harsh discourse has been getting lately (in all fandoms) I'd like to see this series appeal more to Tolkienists than the mainstream. I want to see the fans celebrating this and have the mainstream audiences salty and confused (which is the way fantasy should be).
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For me it goes far beyond LOTR. Practically the first episode or two of every MCU and Star Wars show on Disney+ has seen the same point. I'm sorry that The Falcon or Scarlet Witch haven't already niellated 50 bad guys each. Give the show a chance to breath! I even saw some of that sentiment with the last episode of House of the Dragon on Sunday.

I hate sounding like the old man on a porch (especially since i am a millennial myself), but it feels like this generation needs instant gratification and do not want to play the long game at all.


Ok /rant. Who is ready? Only ~6 hours away!
 
Josh5890 said:
For me it goes far beyond LOTR. Practically the first episode or two of every MCU and Star Wars show on Disney+ has seen the same point. I'm sorry that The Falcon or Scarlet Witch haven't already niellated 50 bad guys each. Give the show a chance to breath! I even saw some of that sentiment with the last episode of House of the Dragon on Sunday.

I hate sounding like the old man on a porch (especially since i am a millennial myself), but it feels like this generation needs instant gratification and do not want to play the long game at all.


Ok /rant. Who is ready? Only ~6 hours away!
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See and I loved the slow burn of WandaVision and Falcon & Winter Soldier. Actually my biggest gripe with She-Hulk so far is that they're moving too fast! Also not enough Titania. The whole point of these being shows and not movies is so the characters have time to be characters, instead of everything serving the required three big action setpieces per film.

SO YES

Bring on the storytelling.
 
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Impromptu review since Im still processing. But I’ve never seen television as breathtaking beautiful. Everything was just so fantastical and the actors…the actors were so perfectly cast. Robert as Elrond, the way he conveyed him as great. He’s my favourite so far. I’ll come back with more recollected thoughts but this is THE fantasy show rn
 
Two minutes in and I'm already choking up

What the eff is this
 
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So YouTube is usually throwing suggestions of Colbert's Late Show at me, but I've noticed that's stopped lately.

I got curious, went to check, and apparently the show has been on hiatus or something for like two weeks?

....interesting timing for Stephen to be away from work. 🤔
 
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Big Silmarillion fan and Akallabeth Stan. I loved it, but now I’m even more anxious as I really really don’t want them to fuck it up after such a promising start.
A Galidriel/Sauron romance would make me instantly stop watching. Although not a complete deal breaker I don’t want meteor man to be Gandalf as that would be stretching the lore a step to far for me and he is not a young version of Gandalf (don’t think wizards age?) so having a Gandalf that is not Ian Mckellen would be super distracting. Really hoping it’s a blue wizard as lore wise the timing lines up and as Tolkien wrote basically nothing about them they are a blank canvas so the writers could really do some cool stuff.
 
terrornaught said:
Big Silmarillion fan and Akallabeth Stan. I loved it, but now I’m even more anxious as I really really don’t want them to fuck it up after such a promising start.
A Galidriel/Sauron romance would make me instantly stop watching. Although not a complete deal breaker I don’t want meteor man to be Gandalf as that would be stretching the lore a step to far for me and he is not a young version of Gandalf (don’t think wizards age?) so having a Gandalf that is not Ian Mckellen would be super distracting. Really hoping it’s a blue wizard as lore wise the timing lines up and as Tolkien wrote basically nothing about them they are a blank canvas so the writers could really do some cool stuff.
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Tolkien suggested that the Blue wizards may well have arrived in the Second Age, and that it took Istari a while to adjust to their physical forms, so I think a blue wizard or original Istari is likely.

Not sure where the Sauron/Galadriel romance idea comes from, but I seriously doubt they'd go there.
 
Loved it. The biggest difference for me between this and LotR films is really just how many stories are being juggled, and how I’m unfamiliar with any of the source - the production is otherwise like stepping right back into the world.

MisterSpo said:
Not sure where the Sauron/Galadriel romance idea comes from, but I seriously doubt they'd go there.
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Is the theory that Halbrand is Sauron? I don’t want to read too much into peoples theories but that’s a weird direction. Hope it’s just nonsense
 
karmitt said:
Loved it. The biggest difference for me between this and LotR films is really just how many stories are being juggled, and how I’m unfamiliar with any of the source - the production is otherwise like stepping right back into the world.



Is the theory that Halbrand is Sauron? I don’t want to read too much into peoples theories but that’s a weird direction. Hope it’s just nonsense
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Yeah, I really don't see that being true. Halbrand I see more as a character (like Bronwyn) who shows the Elves that the regular humans of Middle Earth can defy the temptation of evil. They were pretty big on Elf/Human tension the first two episodes.

I doubt, outside of the flashback, we've seen Sauron in any guise. His whole deal right now is secrecy and operating through minions precisely because he wants to avoid the attentions of someone as formidable as Galadriel. I'd guess we only see him in disguise later in the season.
 
So, having watched both episodes now:

- This might be the best looking TV show ever. Not only are the special effects blockbuster -tier, but the sets, costuming and prop work are all stellar.

- I actually wish Detective Galadriel in the North went on longer. That stuff was fantastic, and really helped connect the threat of Sauron with the wars and demise of Morgoth. I also think the mystery format works really well in keeping the intrigue up for Sauron's inevitable return.

- Not entirely thrilled with the way they tried to pack Galadriel off to Valinor. While I get how it builds tension between Galadriel and Elrond, in the books I always got the impression Galadriel was too full of pride to even think about returning West. Also, surely hey husband would need to know?

- The Southlands plot was great. I love how they portray the way that for elves it was literally yesterday that men were serving Morgoth, but for the men and women living there, it was untold generations ago. The idea of a single orc being a horror movie threat to a family of normies was really well done.

- Loved the Harfoots, not entirely sold on the Stranger plotline, but it is certainly an intriguing mystery. I hope he doesn't turn out to be Gandalf, but my partner did point out that the fire in his crater had no heat, the same as the fiery torches the Elves were carrying in Sauron's fortress. Coincidence?

- The music fits the show so well. Bear McCreary has really outdone himself, top tier music throughout.

- Weirdly, it reminds me of the Dark Crystal TV series in terms of tone. Probably because they was also a series where a lone warrior has to convince a bunch of different kingdoms trust the super helpful evil looking people are actually evil. Also in how sincere it is. Not a problem for me, as I love The Dark Crystal.


Overall: I really enjoyed it. I hope the Galadriel plot picks up a bit over there next episodes, but I like that they've laid a lot of groundwork. In particular, I'm a big fan of the dialogue: they've kept that archaic, poetic manner of speaking from the books, rather than having everyone talk modern and sarcastic all the time.

I think next episode is when we see Numenor, so that'll hopefully be a blast.
 
"Ok, thank you for your time Mr Annatar, sir. Sorry to have taken up so much of your evening, I'll get out of your hair now.

...Oh, there's just one more thing! You said that sigil burned into the rock couldn't have been your mark, as you've never been up north to Utumno. Except... I never said it was burned into the rock, just that I found a sigil. Which makes me wonder: How could you have possibly known it was burned into the rock if you haven't been there? Kinda funny, don't you think? I mean, you're here in Eregion, showing everyone how to forge magic rings, and there's a forge up north in Morgoth's old fortress with your name on it! And, I don't mean to seem rude sir, but it's these little things that bother me: Your very hand is flame unquenched. Kind of a coincidence, don'tcha think?"
 
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I am loving it and can't wait for more. It's absolutely gorgeous, and the plotlines are gaining steam.

Also, fuck the bigoted haters.
 
Caught up over the weekend. This feels like Lord of the Rings. The wait was definitely worth it.

  • The first episode covers so much ground/time that I need to rewatch it. Not necessarily a bad thing since I get why they had to do that. It is just a lot to absorb.
  • There was some excellent casting, but Galadriel was probably the best pick of the bunch (so far).
  • Seeing younger Elrond is weird, but awesome. He gets a reality check from his dwarf friend, which makes their relationship feel more real. He shows a lot of admiration for dwarves and their craft. Which is interesting considering in the Fellowship he doesn't speak too highly of dwarves.
  • I'm guessing that the dwarves are looking at the arkenstone at their end of the episode?
  • My theory on naked comet man: It is Sarumon, not Gandalf
  • Not sure I buy Halibrand as Sauron, but we will see.
So, question for the lore experts. Is there a specific reason why all the elves can't return to Valinor? From what I can tell, the elves that originally left did so voluntarily so that they could take on Morgoth. Did they just decide to chill in Middle Earth and make their homes there?
 
Josh5890 said:
  • Seeing younger Elrond is weird, but awesome. He gets a reality check from his dwarf friend, which makes their relationship feel more real. He shows a lot of admiration for dwarves and their craft. Which is interesting considering in the Fellowship he doesn't speak too highly of dwarves.
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This is more of a Jackson thing, as far as I can remember. In the Hobbit book, Elrond is incredibly warm and hospitable, and welcomes Thorin and company in with no issues at all. Even in the Fellowship book, he's repeatedly described as being incredibly hospitable and kind.

Jackson made the decision to portray him as aloof and bitter, which I actually really dislike about the films.
Josh5890 said:
  • I'm guessing that the dwarves are looking at the arkenstone at their end of the episode?
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I don't think so personally, as that's a Lonely Mountain jewel.

I reckon we're looking at the discovery of Mithril.

Josh5890 said:
So, question for the lore experts. Is there a specific reason why all the elves can't return to Valinor? From what I can tell, the elves that originally left did so voluntarily so that they could take on Morgoth. Did they just decide to chill in Middle Earth and make their homes there?
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Originally there was a ban placed on the Elves who left Valinor, as they were pretty much calling out the Valar as they went and daring them to stop them.

That ban was eventually lifted, but many elves (including Galadriel) were too proud and/or spiteful to go back. In one of the few bits of Second Age dialogue that Tolkien actually wrote, he has Galadriel ask why she should go back to Valinar on the good graces of the Valar when she can stay in Middle Earth and be a ruler.

Second Age Galadriel was a very different character to Third Age Galadriel.
 
Yeah, I didn't mind this show's interpretation of Galadriel refusing to return to Valinor. They were going out of their way to set her up as a hero, and so of course she'd be offered the chance to go to Valinor. But it's absolutely true that, in Tolkien's writings, pride is the overarching motivation for her to remain in Middle Earth.

Did a second viewing over the weekend and:

  • not sold on the accents. Regional/national accents are great, but we don't need every dwarf to be Scottish or every Harfoot to be Irish. The Harfoots especially are a little problematic; too close to some of the anti-Irish cartoons peddled in British newspapers in the past. Plus, we've been deprived of the wonderful Lenny Henry's native Brummy accent. The Jackson adaptations got by fine with groups of Hobbits and Dwarves having noticeably different accents.
  • I think the Stranger is going to be a red herring, but out of Gandalf and or Sauron, Gandalf is less likely. The writers are adapting the appendices, and the appendices give specific dates in the Tale of Years for the arrival of Gandalf, Saruman etc, as well as a specific location. They arrive by ship at the Grey Havens. I also don't think it fits for Sauron to return as a flaming ball witnessed by half the continent when he is attempting to remain hidden; the High Elves are still powerful and numerous at this point in time, hence why Sauron attempts deception rather than outright confrontation. An original Istari would fit for the Stranger; perhaps he leads the Harfoots West, to the shores of the Anduin and even to Eriador - the two geographical areas where Hobbits live in the Third Age. Tolkien did suggest at one point that the Blue Wizards may well have arrived during the Second Age, so perhaps the show is riffing off of that.
  • agreed on praise for the show's language/diction, Galadriel's casting, and the music.
  • agreed on praise for how they handled the mortal/immortal difference between Men and Elves. Jackson handled it effectively in Fellowship (Elrond recalling the distant past as a vivid memory); I think the show did a great job here. The Elven vigilance in Middle Earth must seem pointless to humans, given so many generations have passed. This nicely sets up the tensions we should see in Numenor between the Elf-friends and the King's Men.
  • the other thread this might set up for the future also relates to Numenor. Numenor goes from a peaceful maritime society to an Imperialist one, including establishing ports and colonies in the south of Middle Earth, not so far from where our Southlands Men feel angry at being monitored by Elves. How will they feel when it's Numenor building fortresses and manning outposts? Are the writers thinking this far ahead? I hope so.
 
Red Monster said:
The worst part about this show is the fact that it’s a television show, and this episodic. I want it all right now.
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Very yes. I definitely would rather be openly weeping while watching this in a theater with fans than privately weeping at home like I've been doing.
 
  • A couple of qualms, but still mostly hooked for the near 70 minutes, which says a lot. The episode again, was packed. It says quite a bit that we've actually had very little of Gil-Galad and Lindon so far, and that we saw nothing of Khazad-dum, Elrond, Celebrimbor or Bromwyn in this episode. This is a big show, with a lot of foundations to establish. Broadly I think they're doing well, but I wonder how this attempt to balance world building with narrative is working for more casual viewers.
  • Starting with my bigger bugbear, Halbrand being some lost king feels lazy to me, and it was the concern I had with the Harfoots: introduce a storyline analogous to Lord of the Rings instead of being a bit more imaginative. I'd prefer it if we got more perspectives in Middle Earth other than fated secret Kings. Maybe this is an attempt flesh out the history we get of 'evil' Houses of Men in the First Age who turn on the Elves and side with Morgoth, but I don't think Halbrand remotely needs to be some hidden king for that to be effective. Surely more powerful if he's just an ordinary man, not blessed with the riches of Numenor or some distant kingship, who still stands up to resist evil.
  • Numenor was great, and I respect the difficulty they have in handling the politics of the kingdom in such a vastly compressed timeline. They've got a huge amount of work to do introducing this narrative and putting things in place, and I think they did a fairly good job here. Hopefully just enough so that casual viewers (people not familiar with the lore) might have cottoned on that Queen Regent Miriel's performance in public is for the sake of court politics as opposed to her true principles. Presumably this is something we'll see soon - including Miriel and Galadriel making common cause, as well as a certain Numenorean king who shares his name with a particular kind of orb.
  • They have, importantly, introduced several key ideas about Numenor: its isolationism, the elf-friends, its connections to the Elves and Valar, and the fact Numenor considers itself superior to the humans of Middle Earth. These are all ideas that are key in the kingdom's narrative. It's also this kind of active world building (like the fight scene that reveals Numenorean snobbery towards the "low man") that speaks to the strengths of the show. I wish they were this confident with the material throughout, as opposed to near directly planting analogous storylines (Halbrand basically being Second Age Aragorn).
  • Numenor being so grand, colourful, and technologically advanced (those boats!) was great. I was a little confused as to why the show waited to introduce a location that will be vital to the story, but it really worked for us to arrive there as strangers through Galadriel and Halbrand. The pair turn up in the middle of a packed court for the Queen Regent, completely ignorant of the political currents in the realm. It's as much a crash course for them as it is the viewer.
  • there were tiny narrative info dumps here that I thought deserve more attention and, hopefully they get it. While I'm not keen on what they're doing with Halbrand (yet), I love that it led to Galadriel revealing more depth to her motivation: she views her role in fighting Sauron as redeeming her family for taking part in Feanor's Rebellion. It's a good use of the lore, but it's something I think they'll need to return to. It felt like an Easter egg for lore nerds rather than properly fleshing out the character motivation, but as a lore nerd, it's difficult for me to judge. I hope this isn't the last we hear of it.
  • I like the way they revealed Elrond and Elros were brothers. It's a nice illustration of how Numenor has drifted away from the Eldar. Once, they were literally siblings.
  • the Harfoot stuff is fine; I still love their design and their hidey holes. The scene with them reading through the left behind was excellent - touching as well as funny. Still not keen on their uniform Irish accents; it leans too much into stereotypes for me and races all having the same accent seems unnecessary. The Stranger helping Nori's family with their migration makes me wonder if I was thinking along the right lines (that the Stranger is an Istari sent to lead the Harfoots to their eventual homeland).
  • Ending with another red herring for Sauron I think, as episode 3 made it clear that Halbrand isn't Sauron (as if this was ever likely), and presented the Stranger in a more benign light.
Edit:
speaking of lore references, Sadoc had a glorious line when talking to Nori about the Stranger and it really suggests Sadoc is extremely well versed in the history of Middle Earth. He said he's never known of someone being born from a star, but that he knows of people who became stars. He is, of course, referring to Eärendil, Elrond and Elros's father.
 
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Galadriel’s brother is Finrod, right? The one who got caught in a hole and Sauron sent a wolf to eat his entire party? I wonder why they didn’t name him in the show.
 
Red Monster said:
Galadriel’s brother is Finrod, right? The one who got caught in a hole and Sauron sent a wolf to eat his entire party? I wonder why they didn’t name him in the show.
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Galadriel had 3 brothers but yes, the one caught by Sauron was Finrod. My guess is a combination of them wanting to keep the story accessible (the fact she had a brother matters, not the name) as well as potentially rights issues. I don't have a copy of LOTR with me, but if Finrod isn't named in the Appendices then the show might not be able to specifically use him.

The show brother essentially is Finrod, given how he dies, but Galadriel's two other brothers also die during the War of the Jewels so show Finrod is also a composite character. They've made a lot of changes either due to not having the rights to anything other than the Lord of the Rings book, or due to wanting to make things accessible for a big audience.
 
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Putting Rings of Power in perspective:

We've had over 3 hours of screen time so far, and it took that long to introduce the major locations and the cast. That's one Jackson film done right there.
 
New Halbrand theory:

Halbrand unproblematically being a secret chosen king do-gooder is so boring I don't think that's what the show is doing. The parallel with Aragorn is obviously very deliberate, and at first glance seems designed to help audiences familiarise themselves with this different version of Middle Earth. However, one problem with Halbrand doing what Aragorn does thousands of years before Aragorn does it is that it makes Aragorn - who is meant to be the most exceptional Man since the time of Numenor - less special, less fated, less heroic and grand. What's the big deal about resisting Sauron if another fated king did it first?

So while I do think Halbrand will become a King of Men, I don't think his story has a happy ending. He's going to be one of the great Kings of Men given a ring of power, and who therefore (like his forefathers and unlike Aragorn) falls from grace and into the service of Sauron. That's a more interesting storyline, I think, and it'll allow the writers to try and pull some twists and turns.
 
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