This was a good canon refresher for the period of the series so far… An excellent channel overall also…
A little something on the side?
I wouldn’t risk it if I were him, his wife is formidable.
Lol. Bane.
Is it possible that Dain might make an appearance, or do we think they’ll stick to the characters we’ve already met?
Dain was the end of the Third Age, that would be very odd. Fangorn, Legolas and Thranduil are possible. I’m hoping we finally get Glorfindel and maybe Tom Bombadil.
I hope to meet Treebeard. They’ve hinted at that, in the meteor overview.
I understand-I misread which Durin he was descended from originally. And Glorfindel will hopefully live up to all of the hype, so to speak.
Maybe an Entwife as well? That figure did seem to be in deeper forest, though. But again I’m not sure of the timeline of the show. Treebeard spoke as if it had been quite awhile ago, but he’s perhaps not the best judge of time.
I don’t think anyone is at this point - I am 99% enjoying it, but sometimes I want to pull the writers thru the screen.
10 minutes of exposition here and there would help immensely - they seem to both want the audience to know the lore and to be oblivious to it at the same time - its maddening.
I’m watching with my lovely wife, who’s seen the LOTR films but not read the books.
Me: Now that you know “mithril” is “grey glitter,” then Gandalf the Grey–"
Wife: Mithrandir! Mithrandir!
Mind. Blown. Also, that’s kind of adorable if I may say so.
My guess would be that their ideal target audience is people who’ve seen the movies and maybe read the books, but aren’t familiar with the Silmarillion or the deep lore. Hardcore Tolkien nerds like us are probably a small minority of LOTR fans in general.
That’s a pretty narrow audience to aim for, isn’t it?
I think you underestimate the number of people who’ve only seen the films.
This Forbes article gets at some of what really bothered me in episode four.
Still, I would go even farther. An orc is about to cut off the young man’s arm, but of course he’s saved at the last second? Of course we know who is about to show up, there’s no tension at all in this scene. (I say let the orc take his arm, and then make him a real hero with some suffering!) Two young men go to rescue scores of people from potential starvation by getting a single cartload of food? Come on now. It’s just an excuse to get them down in town I guess. A young fella is under great suspicion by his friend, what’s the best way to make things better? Break into his workplace of course!
This is what happens when writers don’t actually know how to move the plot forward in a sensible, economical manner. Unlike the writer, I will watch episode five, but please let them stop plotting this like an episode of the OC.
The Entwive’s gardens were supposedly in the Brown Lands, which were devastated during the war with the Last Alliance. Of course, the Entwives could have gone missing much earlier.
I don’t disagree with anything in that article, but i was comparing the episode to the prior episodes, which were even worse. The whole thing with Galadrial on the ocean was horrible. Much more painful to watch than this episode.
And yes, Galadrial is my least favorite character, for any number of reasons. Including both that she totally violates what Galadrial should be, and also that nothing she does makes narrative sense.
But the Durin story improved, and despite the weird “send a message to humans” thing, i found the Arondir story satisfying.
I found it odd that, in sending him back through territory occupied by his own people (i.e. orcs), Adar thought it fit to give him his bow and arrows back. He could have sent him most of the way with an escort and he would have come to no harm. But that wouldn’t have served the story’s apparent need to have him rescue the kid and the kid’s mother. I agree, sloppy plotting.
Which would also have made the townspeople trust him less and maybe let him have some more information about Adar from his escorts both of which would have added to the tension. I agree that it could have been done better.
While I’m thinking of it, Elrond’s story about his dad was pretty good. Knowing your father was lifted up and made into a constellation has to do a number on your self-esteem. Not to mention that he’ll never see his father again.
Just the one star, not a whole constellation. And he’ll see him at Dagor Dagorath