The Rings of Power
Oct. 15th, 2022 09:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiI spent much of my early life re-reading The Lord of the Rings, including the appendices, so this series was not entirely what I was expecting. But it was fantastic!
I love that they made it The Galadriel Show, pretty much from start to finish (with side appearences for some Numenoreans, some dwarves, some hobbits, and also Gandalf, but mostly the Galadriel show.) I also love that whoever wrote this thing decided to commit 110% to Galadriel/Sauron. Everyone should have that much money to put into their ship manifestos. I love that they had an idea and they stuck to it. And now their little ship of one is going to be famous!
I mean, the whole boat sequence was basically an extended meet-cute engineered by Sauron once he realised Galadriel wasn't actually going to the West, right? I love that the season arc for Sauron was his failed seduction of her -- and that it ended with her recognition of his true nature. I love that she was right all along, but also that she is going to have to become more subtle to face the kind of threat Sauron really is.
(I should also say that as soon as Halbrand and Galadriel got to Numenor, Spartacus identified him as Sauron, and although at first I didn't think it was likely I did think it was a good thing to do with his character -- and obviously as the season went on the clues piled up, and he became more and more the top contender I became more and more hopeful that they would go there. It's always nice to have your hopes met by a narrative.)
Once I heard that they were pushing the whole narrative into a few years, to keep the same human characters, I knew they were going to be jumbling events together, cutting them and shifting them around. Overall it felt more like a reaction to Tolkien's narrative than an adaptation of it -- so for example the people of the Southlands actually get names and faces and choices, and we get at least a hint of pushback against the orc problem via the Adar plotline. I think I enjoyed the sequences with the dwarves and the Harfoots more than those focused on the elves, in part because those were also felt more like an opening out of Tolkien's world than an adaptation of his Second Age narrative. Or I guess those focused on the "fading of the elves" plotline, because both Adar and Arondir provided very different takes on Tolkien's elves.
I love that they included proto-hobbits, and that they saved Gandalf in his first moments in Middle-Earth, as a wizard without his power and knowledge -- and so he will spend the rest of his time there saving them in return. I feel like he does have to be Gandalf, if he is a wizard at all, unless he's one of the three who disappeared into the East.
So overall that was entertaining and satisfying! I did not love everything about it, but I loved more about it than I didn't.
I love that they made it The Galadriel Show, pretty much from start to finish (with side appearences for some Numenoreans, some dwarves, some hobbits, and also Gandalf, but mostly the Galadriel show.) I also love that whoever wrote this thing decided to commit 110% to Galadriel/Sauron. Everyone should have that much money to put into their ship manifestos. I love that they had an idea and they stuck to it. And now their little ship of one is going to be famous!
I mean, the whole boat sequence was basically an extended meet-cute engineered by Sauron once he realised Galadriel wasn't actually going to the West, right? I love that the season arc for Sauron was his failed seduction of her -- and that it ended with her recognition of his true nature. I love that she was right all along, but also that she is going to have to become more subtle to face the kind of threat Sauron really is.
(I should also say that as soon as Halbrand and Galadriel got to Numenor, Spartacus identified him as Sauron, and although at first I didn't think it was likely I did think it was a good thing to do with his character -- and obviously as the season went on the clues piled up, and he became more and more the top contender I became more and more hopeful that they would go there. It's always nice to have your hopes met by a narrative.)
Once I heard that they were pushing the whole narrative into a few years, to keep the same human characters, I knew they were going to be jumbling events together, cutting them and shifting them around. Overall it felt more like a reaction to Tolkien's narrative than an adaptation of it -- so for example the people of the Southlands actually get names and faces and choices, and we get at least a hint of pushback against the orc problem via the Adar plotline. I think I enjoyed the sequences with the dwarves and the Harfoots more than those focused on the elves, in part because those were also felt more like an opening out of Tolkien's world than an adaptation of his Second Age narrative. Or I guess those focused on the "fading of the elves" plotline, because both Adar and Arondir provided very different takes on Tolkien's elves.
I love that they included proto-hobbits, and that they saved Gandalf in his first moments in Middle-Earth, as a wizard without his power and knowledge -- and so he will spend the rest of his time there saving them in return. I feel like he does have to be Gandalf, if he is a wizard at all, unless he's one of the three who disappeared into the East.
So overall that was entertaining and satisfying! I did not love everything about it, but I loved more about it than I didn't.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-16 08:20 am (UTC)Verily. That's the one ship I think no one pre show came up with but the show's writers, and now it's getting massive traction at AO3!
I mean, the whole boat sequence was basically an extended meet-cute engineered by Sauron once he realised Galadriel wasn't actually going to the West, right?
Yep, and I think he summoned the sea monster to provide the appropriate menace as well.
I should also say that as soon as Halbrand and Galadriel got to Numenor, Spartacus identified him as Sauron
Wow, that's way earlier than it ever occured to me. I thought Halbrand would turn into one of the Nine, presumably the Witch King at that point.
I love that they included proto-hobbits, and that they saved Gandalf in his first moments in Middle-Earth, as a wizard without his power and knowledge -- and so he will spend the rest of his time there saving them in return. I feel like he does have to be Gandalf, if he is a wizard at all, unless he's one of the three who disappeared into the East.
Given they gave him the "always follow your nose" line from the FotR movie in the finale, and given all the thematic reasons you named, I think it's safe to say he really is Gandalf.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-16 08:56 pm (UTC)I'm just completely amazed that the idea behind this whole series was (a) let's make Galadriel the main character (b) let's ship her wiith Sauron (c) what if Elrond and Durin were bffs? It's fanficcy, but in the best way, as a way of taking a bunch of characters who mostly "are" rather than "do" in the main text, and giving them stuff to do. Actually I think that's also true of most of the other plotlines too -- the people of the Southlands, and Adar and his orcs, are also examples of character types who have no voice in the novels but who get a lot of it here.
But the shippiness was off the charts. I completely agree that the sea monster was just there to help them bond -- he obviously had been watching her closely and knew wxactly how to get her on his side.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-16 01:22 pm (UTC)I am totally here for this ship I had never once considered before because they absolutely made it work with Galadriel's particular brand of grief/anger/guilt, and I definitely want to check out all the AUs where she says yes for any number of really terrible reasons (e.g., she can mitigate his fascist tendencies; she can get close and kill him later; she can help him as he put it stay tied to the light; etc.) and of course gets more corrupted as time goes on until they are once again enemies but all of Middle-earth is laid waste between them. *g* Not my usual style of ship but I am here for it!
I also really liked the Adar plotline and how it complicated the orcs and the Southlanders, and the Dwarves were the very best part to me! Durin! Disa! Their marriage! Their friendship with Elrond! So great and I thought the closest to the spirit of Tolkien and an exploration of an area he didn't write much about.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-16 09:05 pm (UTC)I saw a lot of speculation that Halbrand would turn out to be one of the Nine, but I do really like that he turned out to be Sauron. And this whole Galadriel/Sauron ship really IS up my alley, in a way Galadriel/Halbrand really wasn't most of the time. I think I'm adding this to my Yuletide signups!
no subject
Date: 2022-10-16 08:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-16 09:07 pm (UTC)And as you can see, I actually gave in to the urge to post about it!
no subject
Date: 2022-10-28 10:04 pm (UTC)The padawan and I watched the show right on the heels of finishing a read-aloud of The Lord of the Rings, and she's *obsessed* now. Galadriel was an instant favorite and I've spent more time than I can count looking up Elvish translations of common 5th grade slang.
I love that they included proto-hobbits, and that they saved Gandalf in his first moments in Middle-Earth, as a wizard without his power and knowledge -- and so he will spend the rest of his time there saving them in return. I feel like he does have to be Gandalf, if he is a wizard at all, unless he's one of the three who disappeared into the East.
Yes!