RoP : S2 Ep 6: Where Is He?

Just diving right in . . .

The Woods

• Deserter orcs. You know what? That tracks. Totally fine with it.
• Run [through the] forest, [Arondir]! Run!

Eregion

• The continued exasperation of Celembrimbor and the creepy manipulations of Annatar work well, but boy am I not buying that those nonspeaking Elven-smith assistants are in the story. They’re in a lot of shots but they never seem to inhabit the narrative. They look good but their faces don’t match the action. I do not blame the actors themselves. Their body language is stiff, like they’re just waiting for the director’s next words and wondering if any given shot is the one they’re supposed to do something in (or not). It kicks me out of the story every danged time.
  • When Celebrimbor shouts, “Must I do everything myself?” we get a slight reaction from the Elf-woman behind him. It’s not much but it’s something.
  • And when Mirdania says they’ve noticed Celebrimbor has been “ill-tempered of late,” one of the Elf-dudes behind her does a funny thing with his eyebrows as he looks to the next dude.
• I kind of like that the forge room is kind of a mess now. I bet that mouse (rat?) is a very clean one, though. This is Hollin, where the stones themselves are supposed to remember the Elves. Hmm, then again, this is The Rings of Power version of Eregion, which now doubles as a city name. This is Reregion!

• Every time we spend scenes among Elves in this show, Elves who are not Arondir or Elrond, my sensibilities just keep screaming: This show doesn’t know what to do with Elves. They don’t seem like the Firstborn Children of Ilúvatar by any stretch. They’re either too stiff and Vulcan-like or they’re just like regular humans.
• Case in point: Eregion’s poor defenses and ill-informed security. Why are the Elves of both Lindon and Eregion, the two mightiest realms remaining in Middle-earth, always at the bottom of their game? Always at disadvantage. I know this isn’t The Silmarillion, I know they’re not doing the Silmarillion, but all throughout this story there are mention of messengers and scouts, trackers, hunters. For the Orcs to get this close to Eregion and for the Elves to be clueless about it is rather appaling.
• Contrast this with how superhuman Arondir is. Arondir is a Sylvan Elf. He should be a skilled warrior and hunter and all that, yeah, but the Elves of Eregion and Lindon should include many Noldor. High Elves from Valinor. They shouldn’t be this . . . lackluster.
• The dead Elf with writing carved in his chest. Why are the Elves showing Annatar so unmoved about it? So emotionless? Can they not lament the loss of life, even just a little bit? Not just of this one dead Elf but apparently the entire search party they sent across the river and the artisans and merchants who’ve also probably been killed. Why aren’t these Elves very aggrieved about all that apparent death or capture? I suppose because “That would not be logical, Captain.”

Adar’s Camp

• Nice digs! Cool giant table. Makes me think of this.
• I like Adar’s wording quite often. Even this characterization of Sauron, how “his eye bores a hole and the rest of him slithers in.” BUT. But that doesn’t track at all with anything we’ve seen of pre-killing Sauron. Is he talking about this guy?

• That’s the Sauron who would like to speak to your manager. There’s nothing about that Sauron that slithers in anywhere. (And if it does, contact HR immediately.) So what timeframe is Adar even talking about? All Tolkien lore and rights aside, I want the show to cooperate with itself very badly. I WANT to like everything, but I can’t.
• Morgoth’s crown? This is definitive proof that this is a very different Middle-earth with a very different, alternate timeline of past events. In this version of Middle-earth, Morgoth’s crown was apparently not beaten into a collar around Morgoth’s own neck before he was cast out into the Void. That wast just a made-up story, in this tale.
• Adar’s plan about using the Elf-rings and the crown together to destroy Sauron for good is both wishy-washy and weak as heck as a plan. What would he, Adar, know about the powers of the Rings, anyway? Next to nothing.
• Later, Galadriel just spills her guts. I’m okay with her not being nearly as wise and serene as Fellowship-era Galadriel (aka late Third Age Galadriel), but she’s still allegedy been alive for some thousands of years. Why is it that nearly everyone who speaks to her (maybe Elrond aside) can trick her? Why the heck would she name both Nenya and Elrond aloud to Adar? That bus keeps running over her back and forth.
• Then Adar pulls a good one on her. A real classic, really. (Apparently.) I’m talking about the ol’ sneak-a-vast-orc-host-up-on-someone routine. Gets ’em every time! It’s a particularly easy thing to do with those Glamhoth, the din-horde, the Orcs.

“But, Adar, there IS no such force!”

Númenor

• I like the majority of what I’m seeing in Númenor in this episode, at least given what the changes have already been.
• I still think the romance between Elendil and Míriel is needless and almost pandering, but since I genuinely like these actors and their characters, it’s a minor point.
• As a character of questionable allegiances, I don’t dislike Númenor Hermion— Err, mean, Eärien. Her decisions bring emotions to the table that work. We’re mad at her. Not Kemen-level mad, but mad.
• I also really like Elendil’s principles, even though they’re a bit out of left field and weren’t all that present in season 1 (as if some rights changed and now they can make him more like the Faithful he’s supposed to be). He’s sticking to his guns. It’s easy to root for a guy like this. I like that he doesn’t want to compromise, not even to obey Míriel, who asked him to bow to Pharazôn.

• What I don’t like is the confusion the Númenóreans seem to have about the Valar. But is that the Númenóreans or is it the show and its wonky rights?
• So they have an ability to summon a sea-worm. This is all very Seriphos, Andromeda, and the monster Cetus; and, when all is said and done, also very Clash of the Titans. And so these Númenóreans believe that whatever the sea-worm does is the will of the Valar. The sea and all its denizens, I guess, are “always right.” It’s just weird. What if a sea-bird craps on you? Will of the Valar?

• Míriel is badass in this episode! She’s truly queenly, Tolkien queenly, too. I really like her. First, she volunteers as tribute! She’s brave as hell, and it pans out nicely.
• So who does the sea-worm work for? The Valar? But it can be steered a bit by Sauron? Of course, it’s probably none of these, since the Númenóreans suck at interpreting beasts so far.
• And what’s up with calling Míriel the Queen of the Sea? I guess we’re supposed to wonder what will happen next! Successful.

Rhûn

• Jackson callbacks in overdrive! So now Gandalf . . . or if the Stranger turns out to be a different wizard, he later tells Gandalf about the one time when he met Tom Bombadil and Tom Bombadil said something about how many people who live deserve death, and some people who die deserve life, and can you give it to them? Riiiight.
• Here’s what’s off about Tom Bombadil to me, more than just his general temperment, which isn’t as whimsical and good-humored as it ought to be. It’s that he’s organized. He sees the big picture. He’s got a system. A plan. He tells the Istar what his job is, who he has to defeat, and what the stakes are. This is a very far cry from the deranged forest hippie in The Fellowship of the Ring who is both profound and important to the world itself without being intrinsic to that plot beyond getting the hobbits out of a couple of sticky situations.
• I don’t think The Rings of Power gets Tom Bombadil. Does anyone? Not necessarily. It’s okay. Not everyone—arguably no one should—understand Tom or know what to do with him. Tolkien barely did. But the problem is: The showrunners are acting like they know his purpose, or have given him a definitive one. They’ve made Tom Bombadil into a guidance counselor, and that’s awkward.

Khazad-dûm

• I kind of like seeing Annatar among the Dwarves, but I can’t stand the ubiquitous teleportation between realms. It’s worse when it’s between Eregion and Lindon, but it’s more common between Eregion and Khazad-dûm. Yes, I know they’re neighbors. But this is Annatar popping over to Khazad-dûm and back again while Adar’s Orcs are still camped, like, just beyond the tree line. It’s just so silly.
• Why is the only person we see properly traveling and taking a long time to do it Arondir? Just one Elf hoofing it through the woods on foot, at speed, and never quite getting to his destination? He, unlike everyone else, can’t travel at plot speed.
• Balrog saber rattling, ugh.
• I dig the piled-up gold around King Durin III’s throne. One must accept the accelerated power of the Seven Rings, of course. The inflamed greed for wealth. But if they’re going to do that, they’re doing it all right.
• All the Dwarf relationship interactions are great. Durin and Disa are a balm for all the insufferable soap opera relationships on all other shows.
• I laughed and was delighted by Disa’s waking up and calling down giant bats on Narvi and his team.
• But seriously, what’s Durin IV and Disa going to do next? Isn’t violence the next recourse? That would be nuts.

Back to Eregion

• Good on Relebrimbor for giving Rauron a shove against the wall. I like the growing spunk in him, even if it’s out of his usual character.
• So alarms are raised. Enemy armies have been sighted, I guess? Finally! Boy, do the city’s defenses stink.
• I actually really like Sauron’s ability to conjure powerful illusions (although having him cast his spell by closing his eyes and just concentrating feels . . . unoriginal). This may not be the deeper phantom-work of his Silmarillion counterpart’s talents, but this will do in a pinch. It was fun, and freaky, to imagine Celebrimbor sighing with relief and looking around all happy Elf-children (and Elf-dogs!) while actual distressed Elves were probably running all around him. More on that below.

• What would have happened if an Elf barrelled into him standing there like a doofus, like a cottonheaded ninnymuggins, not sensibly running for his life? Would the illusion be broken or at least disrupted? Just a fussy idle thought on my part. It’s the Dungeon Master in me wondering about the mechanics of Sauron’s illusion.
• But I do wonder: Why didn’t Upwards Momentum Temper Tantrum Sauron from the season prologue not employ this kind of power then? He could have put on a whole show and been way more convincing to the Orcs during his speech (but still, why the need to “convince” them at all?) if he used his presumably still-potent abilities. If he can project an illusion to fool the mind of the allegedly brilliant Celebrimbor, then a cave full of Orcs should be a breeze.
• Show, don’t tell, Sauron. Even Rush knew that! Even Guns ‘N’ Roses. Use your illusion(s)!
• Hey, look, actual footage of the Elves of Eregion:

• But seriously. These are supposed to be Elves. The Eldar. The freakin’ Quendi. The Firstborn of the Children of Ilúvatar. Many of them are High Elves, Calaquendi who saw the light of the Two Trees before the Darkening of Valinor. Why are they all incompetent? Screaming, tripping over each other, running around chaotically, panicking, like a giant-sized Gargamel has just come stomping into their midst.
• They don’t all have to be warriors, of course not. But they’ve made no effort to differentiate the grace of the Firstborn from regular mortal men and women, and that’s a damned shame. There is an inconsistency of depicting in their bearing. Are we to believe that Legolas, Arondir, and Galadriel are outliers?