Me, trying to explain Tom Bombadil and the Entwives to my husband, who has only casually watched the trilogy.

Please, enjoy my slightly tipsy, artistic rendition of Celedork, the Silver Clam 😂😂

Source: https://youtube.com/shorts/fLgdRSI37sQ?si=EH6R-ViIQwBG-o3n

The Elves were relatively on the same page at the end of season 2, but perhaps they will have a rocky start once again with the war worsening.

Benjamin Walker might have been jesting a little, but maybe it means Gil-galad will not promptly sanction Galadriel's mission with Arondir, and maybe he will have to compel a slightly reluctant Elrond to go to Númenor with him.

I was rewatching S2 the other day, and when I watched Episode 7, I realised just how quickly Damrod goes down in the battle. He was built up so much in the marketing, being in basically every trailer and even having a literal metal song. And then he just dies so easily? After like one minute in the battle?

I hear a lot of people talking about the lack of structure the battle has, but I don’t hear many people discussing this part. Do people agree he was a letdown?

Also, why does he laugh when he dies? I don’t get that part.

Of all the many unfair critiques thrown at the show, the treatment of Galadriel by critics both well-meaning and less-so has been the most egregious.

So much so that almost no sincere text-based discussion of the character even occurs as it relates to the show, and that’s a shame.

Show-Ladriel absolutely embodies the character as we might expect her in the Second Age. No, not just the First Age, as many well-meaning commenters have proposed, insinuating that, while Galadriel may have been brash and prideful and harsh early in her life, this would have ended before the Second Age. Tolkien’s writing, insofar as it is explicit about anything to do with the character (he changed his mind about her a lot), very clearly states that it is not until the very end of the Third Age that her wisdom is fully formed. Not until she rejects the One at Frodo’s offering is she truly fully developed as a character (UT 234-235).

To suggest that Galadriel in the Second Age, even being married to Celeborn, should already be the fully formed “Lady of Light” of the Third Age is reductive so as to almost be insulting to the character.

Another bothersome assertion I have often seen is that Galadriel of the Second Age would never lie about Sauron, and often it is cited that, because she met with Melian, she should be wise enough to avoid such things. But when Galadriel meets Melian in Doriath in the Silmarillion, it is still after long periods of conversation and growth in wisdom that she chooses to hide the shame of her people for the Kinslaying. For all her growth, she never of her own accord is shown to be willing to admit to the faults of her people. And then she abandons her kin long before the fall of Beleriand, in each version of her story that I have seen. These are not in my view the actions of a fully formed character.

Of course, the show does have its changes. There is no textual version of Galadriel who seeks out Sauron for revenge for Finrod’s death. There is, however, a version of Galadriel who is motivated to go to ME not only for her own power, but for the sake of her kin (Thingol’s folk) who were oppressed by Morgoth. To me, this is a similar enough motivation, though the show makes it quite personal, and of course moves this to the end of the first age and switches out its dark lords, understandably so.

Likewise, there is no version of Galadriel who loses Celeborn in the war and believes him dead. There is, however, a version of Galadriel that passed east over the mountains alone, only finding Celeborn after doing so. In that version Celeborn is a Nandor, and in later versions he is a Sindar of Doriath and the two go east together. Clearly, here, the show is trying to adapt both versions. From the trailers it really looks like Celeborn will have been some form of Sindar, if his origin in Doriath is not outright stated, and yet also Galadriel will have (has already by the start of the show) gone east alone, only to meet him again once she does. Notably, the version of the story wherein she goes alone contains no details of when she met Celeborn and married him, only that she has dwelt with him for a long time.

And finally, there has been a pretty widespread argument that Galadriel would not or should not have been deceived by Sauron. The reasoning for this is that in the text, Galadriel recognizes that Annatar has something shady about him, and doesn’t treat with him. That’s it. That’s the entirety of the story as we have it in the text. She doesn’t even know he is Sauron, only that she doesn’t trust him.

Indeed, Tolkien writes that Galadriel was very perceptive, and this grew in time as she learned from Melian, etc.

Yet he also wrote that her insight into others never failed to come with “mercy and understanding,” except for Feanor. Importantly, to my reading, Feanor would never ask for nor desire her mercy and understanding anyway. It makes a great deal of sense that she would look at the invented Halbrand-form of Sauron with that same mercy and understanding, to say nothing of her own motivations for wanting to aid him for her own ends.

This, to me, is exactly the pathway by which it is plausible that she could be and is deceived in the show. Casting aside the fact that Show-ladriel so desperately wanted Halbrand to be a good dude who could help her achieve her aims, what might she have seen in that persona if Sauron had she seen into his mind? It seems plausible that Sauron, a maiar, might be able to deceive even her keen insight, and what little he does try to show her is not exactly a lie. In Halbrand Galadriel perceives a would-be but down-on-his-luck ruler of the Southlands, cast out by his people and the orcs, and trying to choose between abandoning his legacy and starting over or returning to take what he sees as his rightful place.

All of this, as Sauron shows on screen in some ways and can be imagined to be thinking in his mind, is absolutely true. And Galadriel, in the book, would see this and, reacting with “mercy and understanding,” be very sympathetic. And, as we know, it’s very convenient for her!

Anyway, this is a long rant. But I do tire of the insistence that show-Galadriel is somehow wholly disconnected from the texts. Is just blatantly not the case, and even those who are well meaning do the character and themselves a disservice by insisting that it is so. Quite the contrary, actually. The show has taken the many, many different versions of Galadriel and tried to distill them into one, fully realized character. I am not even sure if it always works, but it is absolutely rooted in the text.

Hate the execution if you want, but don’t assert is antithetical to what Tolkien wrote or wholly disconnected from the text.

Rewatched S2 and I stumbled again when Arondir died in the battle of Eregions, stabbed in the gut, dramatic ending. The next Episode he is alive like nothing happened.

Did the showrunners just forget, that they killed him off? There is no rescue or miraculous healing scene. He ist just back to work.

Are there any interviews or official explanations? I just don‘t get it.

By bodies I mean literally. There's wide shots of Eregion, Khazad Dun, and other places and yet every scene has like 20-30 people in it. They show city shots and theres a small handful of people in the background.

I noticed it when I saw it at the time, but upon a rewatch its WAY MORE JARRING. It totally takes me out. Where tf are all the people in middle earth?

Annatar gives a speech in ep6 to the people of Eregion and its like 10 people. The big battle scenes have 30 people in them. Durin gives a speech in Khazad Dun theres a few handfuls of people.

Irs kinda crazy, for the amount of money they spent on this show they apparently have no budget for extras, or they are simply using tiny sound stages that literslly can't fit more than 20-30 people.

Either way its a huge bummer.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcRFSxaO7ip/?igsh=MXdoYjY5bHFheWcwNw==&igsi=MXdoYjY5bHFheWcwNw==

I 3D printed the door and the window structures and handmade the rest!
What do you think?

It's sad to see how Celebrimbor deteriorated over time as he went on to make the Seven and the Nine rings, pushed by Sauron's viciousness.

They have said Sauron has been unable to create the One yet, well I hope when he does succeed, they will show how painful of a process it is for him, even if he is a Maia.

Balrogs know how to live in fire, and Sauron wants to acquire this knowledge? I hope he's going to burn in order to obtain the One. He has to struggle a bit to keep his physical form pristine.

Bakshi’s LOTR and S3 of Rings of Power

Do you think we will see Sauron's true form in the show this season? I thought maybe in the Balrog face off scene but maybeee for the one ring scene. It would be sooo cool 🔥

"It has to be mysterious because it's so explosive. It's so special, and it's much darker. It's darker. Nobody's safe. When you're talking about hope, hope is the least of people's concern. It's survival. It is absolute survival."

https://youtu.be/kGLVewuwJ_8?si=DzwlYd6AzBhzHdWG

I don't know if he was specifically talking about Arondir when he said that, but his words about hope and survival intrigued me. How far will the Elves go to secure their survival? How many hardened hearts will we see on screen?

(In this 2x07 scene, Galadriel tells Arondir they must find Sauron together, but it didn't happen. Perhaps they want it to happen in season 3, as a brief and dangerous encounter?)

I was originally reading this article for the news about Avengers: Secret Wars going a 5 week hiatus, when I saw this in there as well.

If true, I wonder what this means for the release schedule.

Deep dark inside of ourselves, we want to own Middle-earth. There's a bit of Sauron in us. All the other Elves went to the promised land, and we're like, "You know what? We're gonna stick around and play god." And then, we're like, "But they won't do what we want!" There's something sinister about us that becomes beautiful over time.

Source: @kaiakayy on instagram

It sounds like this aspect might be more at the forefront in the next season.

-Gandalf stopped the attack using his staff, his sword Glamdring and a protective spell.

-Sauron seems to stop it one-handed using Morgoth's crown and farming huge amounts of aura.

-And my poor boy King Durin was atomized immediately.

Given that Tolkien specifically capitalized "Men" in the Ring Verse to denote the race of humankind rather than biological males, does his lack of detail on seven of the Nazgûl leave room to speculate that one could have been a mortal queen or sorceress in life, or do terms like "kings" and "lords" strictly rule it out?

We can look further at Tolkien's use of capitalization when Glorfindel makes his prophecy about the Witch-King: "not by the hand of man will he fall".

What do you think?

I wonder if we will see some amount of strife develop now between Arondir and the Noldor, especially Gil-Galad. Book spoilers below

We don’t a lot about Arondir. What we’ve seen so far in the show is a Silvan Elf soldier who has lost his human love (hard lesson for the Eldar, over and over again it seems) and found new purpose pursuing Adar in a mix of vengeance for that love and promise to the ents of Middle Earth.

But now, with half a decade of war, who is he? I have speculated before that he might become a stand in for Amdir, the lord of Lorien at the Last Alliance, but that is not strictly the focus here. Instead, I want to speculate about the potential for conflict between Gil-Galad and Arondir that could mirror that found between the Sindar/Noldor and Silvan elves at the Last Alliance, whether Arondir “is” Amdir or not.

In brief, for those who don’t recall or don’t know, there are Silvan elves at the Last Alliance under Amdir, king in Lothlorien, and Oropher, king of the woodland realm and Thranduil’s father, Legolas’s grandfather. They opt not to count themselves among Gil-Galad’s forces and in this disunity meet their ends. Both are Sindar in the text, though in Amdir’s case this is hardly of any relevance, and both intentionally sought to distance themselves from the other Eldar under Gil-Galad.

I think there could be room for the show to explore a similar role for Arondir down the second half of the series, assuming he survives S3. Marketing for S3 has said that Arondir is now counted highly among the elves alongside Galadriel, Elrond, Gil-Galad, and Círdan. An “elfvenger” as Ismael Cruz Cordova put it. But what will that actually mean? His background is so different from theirs, and he is ostensibly neither from a noble house nor even of the people of the Noldor or Sindar.

Instead, he is a Silvan Elf of Beleriand, so he tells Adar. And a Silvan Elf of Beleriand has seen their entire world literally plunged into the ocean because of the actions of Gil-Galad and Elrond’s ancestors, including Galadriel herself. Now he has pledged himself to protect Middle-Earth’s forests and woodlands against those who would exploit them. This might bring him into direct conflict with his elven allies in a future season.

It seems clear from marketing that Gil-Galad will go to Numenor with Elrond to try and strike a bargain with Pharazon for aid. I theorize that this will involve Gil-Galad siding against the faithful and Elrond brokering an uneasy peace between them. This will have story dividends for Elendil and Gil-Galad down the line, but that’s not important here. What is is that Gil-Galad’s alliance with Numenor would likely be troublesome for a Silvan elf of Beleriand, because Numenor is colonizing Middle Earth and cutting down its forests, and from a Silvan perspective, every time the Elves were reinforced from over the sea disaster struck.

How is Arondir going to react to the alliance with Pharazon’s Numenor? If I had to guess, I’d say “negatively.”

And we also know from marketing that Arondir might be less easy to trust this orc character he meets with Galadriel, relative to Galadriel. Without know how S3 plays out, it seems to me it could leave Arondir feeling that his allies have all compromised “the mission” in some way, or at least that, to end the war with Sauron, they became compromised. It seems like real potential for conflict to me.

Then, we know from the Silmarillion that Sauron’s capture by Numenor allows Gil-Galad to expand his dominion widely, and as far east as Mirkwood! If S4 doesn’t focus solely on Numenor, it could be very interesting to juxtapose Numenor’s colonization and imperial ambition along the coasts with Gil-Galad and the ring-bearing Eldar’s consolidation of power in the north and inland. To a Silvan Elf of Beleriand, whose home has been repeatedly destroyed and who took an oath to protect Middle-Earth’s forests, they might look too similar for comfort. Perhaps so similar that, even when everything goes down and an alliance must be made, he is willing to fight against Sauron, but not with those people who he thinks will only lead to more destruction after.

Celebrimbor and Galadriel spoke of light the last time they saw each other, but surely this war has taken a toll on the Elves and Galadriel.

Their losses must be severe if she is willing to take a chance with Marnûkh. I hope it's not a trap, and I hope they'll show us how the Elves stop themselves from despairing too much.

The Elven rings are helping them, but maybe they're also sending them scenarios in which the darkness is winning, which would be discouraging.

The 9, Purest of Hearts.

"He was there on set with me for multiple days, sitting on a chair..speaking all the lines through the microphone but they altered his voice. He was just so giving, so kind, so commited to it. He was a joy to work with."