Amazon goes insane: LOTR prequel series incoming

[Aiken_Drumn]

They seemed pretty bubbly in the sun.

 

[Evie]

Fictional Volcanoes (of which Mount Doom is definitely one, as Frodo and Sam can attest) don't tend to play by normal volcano rules. Lava and flying bombs will kill you, heat and ashes/clouds/etc not so much.

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

I'd love it to be a Red Wedding and everyone involved is kaput.

 

[Evie]

Well I was still leaninf toward the notion that Maiar each have a specific gender they always incarnate as, but a certain someone going Lady Macbeth this episode makes her a hard suspect to ignore...

 

[Lexicus]

Well I was still leaninf toward the notion that Maiar each have a specific gender they always incarnate as, but a certain someone going Lady Macbeth this episode makes her a hard suspect to ignore...

Isn't it canon that they can present as whatever gender they want?

 

[Evie]

Actually, in at least some texts, Tolkien noted that they each have their own gender and present as that gender, always...

...but now I wonder if those texts weren't only in The Nature of Middle Earth, which was published late last year, and would definitely have been too late for the show to incorporate them...

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

Heat and ashes/clouds/etc not so much.

So do you think there will be lots of coughing and patting off of dust but our main characters plot armour will save them?

 

[Samson]

So do you think there will be lots of coughing and patting off of dust but our main characters plot armour will save them?

Spoiler Last episode :

Yes, but the spars of the buildings will be mostly burnt through. Totally accurate representation of a firestorm. Lack of oxygen is totally not a problem.

 

[Evie]

Someone pointed out to me that the buildings were already burning from the fire bombs, so I'm not sure a fire storm is an accurate description of what happened.

 

[EvaDK]

Once again, the highlight was Elronds interaction with the dwarves. I really wanted to slap Nori when she called out to the cultists and got their attention. The main cultist is a magic of sort; no doubt after what she did to the Harefoots. This is interesting as I'm not aware of the race of men being granted the ability to wield magic on such a scale as she demonstrated, in Tolkien's Middle-earth. So who are they really? Are they other beings just shapeshifted into being humans?

 

[Evie]

The race of man could learn sorcery from evil sources: quite aside the Nazgul who were great sorcerers (but maybe due to the Ring), you have the Mouth of Sauron who is noted to have studied sorcery.

Less thoroughly evil, you have the supposed magic-cult that may have been formed by the two blue wizards.

 

[EvaDK]

Well, they are supposedly from the 'far East', which means they are Easterlings. I wonder what their nick names are meant to tell us about their origins or beliefs.

 

[Evie]

They are also supposedly from a culture that Tolkien mentioned in the core books (LOTR/Hobbit) never seen in screen. So not generic Easterlings (seen in TTT).

That I believe leave the options at:

People (men/elves, a much debated fandom point) of Dorwinion
Men or Variags (may be two groups) of Khand
Wainriders or their relatives the Balchoth.

My current money's on the Variag. Tolkien using a random norse word for the people of the East is an unlikely accident, and the reference to Nordic settlement along the Volga/Black sea (hence varyags in Russia, Varangian in Byzantium) is unlikely to be an accident, and it reconciles neatly their very Northern European appearance with their Easterling role.

 

[Synobun]

I have been gone for the past few weeks and so fell behind by three episodes. I ran a marathon night tonight to rewatch episode four and then catch up on all the rest.

I... find myself starting to agree more with the people who don't like this show. It has taken on more and more shades of Hobbit than Lord of the Rings. Many things simply are not making sense. Lots of cheap references that hit weak, and scenes that could potentially be amazing are relegated to schlock when they instead focus on minute character dramas. The formation of Mount Doom, in particular, was a total wash.

Elrond's story arc is at least very nice, with the interactions with the dwarves, even if mithril healing a magic tree is stupid and a balrog wakes up and becomes testy because there was a leaf near it.

I do not think there being one episode left gives it enough time to get back on track for me.

 

[Kyriakos]

This must be the most calm horse that is on fire
Probably is thinking to itself: "Sure, those humanoids are just fine, but I have to be half-burning "

 

[Chukchi Husky]

This must be the most calm horse that is on fire

 

[Kyriakos]

^I suppose this one has being on fire as a feature, not catastrophic development

 

[Evie]

In fairness, explaining to the horse that it's on fire when the horse knows dang well it's not would be , ah, somewhat difficult, , and actually setting the horse on fire would be all kind of (very justified) trouble.

 

[Kyriakos]

In fairness, explaining to the horse that it's on fire when the horse knows dang well it's not would be , ah, somewhat difficult, , and actually setting the horse on fire would be all kind of (very justified) trouble.

Some filmmakers have tried such
But they could at least have used a special effects horse or horse head on the rest, assuming it's not in the scene for long

 

[Synobun]

I think I end at 6.5/10. There was a lot of promise in this, but it suddenly took a turn to horrifically amateur choices that baffled me. Very pretty, of course. They certainly got their money's worth when it comes to visuals. But it fell short.

I have no stake in the Tolkien fandom, so my disappointment rests solely in what was possible and what could've been. I saw so much potential. Sad.