The Rings Of Power S2 finale
A mixture of notes written before, during and after the series 2 finale (and the behind-the-scenes programme)...
~ Yeah, I checked in the book after the previous episode and it does mention (sans detail) that Celebrimbor was slain by Sauron during the destruction of Eregion, as I feared! Aw, what a loss to the show. I was just desperately hoping they wouldn't kill off TWO of my favourite characters in the same episode...
~ One thing I forgot to mention in my previous review - interesting that Adar seemed to be personally familiar with Melian, I'd love to know more about how he came to encounter her! (Was it when he went down the river that time he mentioned in series 1? Moar backstory plz!!)
~ Incidentally Adar's hand seems remarkably fine and functional after Halbrand put a spear right through it last series!!
~ (Btw, am I the only person whose brain keeps comparing Adar to the old woman who lived in a shoe? I am? Oh right.)
~ So Durin doesn't send the army to Eregion because they're needed in Khazad-dûm, but then he just... wanders down by himself to deal with his dad? Could he not have sent the army on without him? :p The demise of the king was a bit silly too, just throwing himself at the Balrog for no reason!
~ Still not convinced this Saruman thing is ever going to make any sense. And I'm getting a little bored of Amnesiac Jesus Gandalf wandering around with no idea what's going on.
~ Sauron's sad puppy-dog eyes are also starting to get old now!
~ Oh vom, we get rid of one tedious implausible romance and now there's another one...
~ Well, they've done it again - got me enjoying the show before delivering a series finale I really disliked! This was just relentlessly horrible, and they did exactly what I hoped they wouldn't do and killed off Adar already (in a particularly brutal manner). Seriously such a waste of a character that had so much interesting story still to explore, both past and future. :/ I knew it was coming the moment Problem Child met up with Sauron, after all that foreshadowing in the previous episode, so there was quite a lot of groaning "oh noooo" before it actually happened - obvious trap was obvious. Ugh. The likeable characters are disappearing fast here (that's THREE in one episode, even worse than I thought) and I'm not sure who can replace them! Really need the likes of Anárion and Celeborn to be the pinnacle of awesome at this point... I can't even think where another great villain might come from. :|
~ Wait, did I miss something or was Arondir just magically fine in this episode without any explanation? Did Adar not run him through in the last one?! *flings hands up*
~ Meanwhile there is of course zero jeopardy for characters like Galadriel who we already know will survive, no matter how bad an injury looks!
~ Can't say I shed a tear when Problem Child bit the dust - he just got a "Serves you right", lol.
~ Second series finale in a row where I've said "Get on with it", this time thanks to Elrond taking about ten minutes to put a ring on his finger! Annnnd more long drawn-out goodbye scenes... sigh...
~ Oh, wasn't expecting Rivendell just yet!
~ "The sword or the shield" - the path of aggression or the path of defence, you say?! Sometimes it really feels like things have circled back to LOTR referencing Knightmare instead of the other way round. *g*
~ Well, I guess I can say the same as I said last time - I thought the withdrawal was going to be awful waiting for the next series, so they've done me a favour putting me off it again!!
~ OK, Sauron actor doing his behind-the-scenes bit still in character instead of using his real voice is a bit fucking creepy!
~ Oh, interesting that they originally planned to kill off Adar "earlier on" in the series (which is frankly what I expected) but Simon Tolkien wanted the character explored more. Shame they still didn't explore him quite enough!! I really wish they hadn't recast him, too - New Guy was giving off weird David Bowie vibes in the final episode and that was quite distracting. (We'll never know exactly what happened with the first actor; he made it sound like he chose to only do one series, which feels strange and improbable, and there were rumours that other cast members were uncomfortable with his method acting but I've no idea if there's any truth to that!)
~ "We looked at that shot and we said 'Hold it longer'" (regarding Elrond and the ring) - well you can see above what I thought of that!!
~ I avoided looking at any fan reactions online until the series was over because I was afraid of spoilers and spoilery speculation. This appears to have been a wise decision! It took fucking forever to catch up with what people have been discussing (and whoever invented infinite scroll deserves a special place in hell) but yeah, they were either correctly predicting things weeks in advance, or coming up with crackpot theories that would've really unsettled me after the Halbrand-is-Sauron crackpot theory turned out to be right!
~ Yeah, I checked in the book after the previous episode and it does mention (sans detail) that Celebrimbor was slain by Sauron during the destruction of Eregion, as I feared! Aw, what a loss to the show. I was just desperately hoping they wouldn't kill off TWO of my favourite characters in the same episode...
~ One thing I forgot to mention in my previous review - interesting that Adar seemed to be personally familiar with Melian, I'd love to know more about how he came to encounter her! (Was it when he went down the river that time he mentioned in series 1? Moar backstory plz!!)
~ Incidentally Adar's hand seems remarkably fine and functional after Halbrand put a spear right through it last series!!
~ (Btw, am I the only person whose brain keeps comparing Adar to the old woman who lived in a shoe? I am? Oh right.)
~ So Durin doesn't send the army to Eregion because they're needed in Khazad-dûm, but then he just... wanders down by himself to deal with his dad? Could he not have sent the army on without him? :p The demise of the king was a bit silly too, just throwing himself at the Balrog for no reason!
~ Still not convinced this Saruman thing is ever going to make any sense. And I'm getting a little bored of Amnesiac Jesus Gandalf wandering around with no idea what's going on.
~ Sauron's sad puppy-dog eyes are also starting to get old now!
~ Oh vom, we get rid of one tedious implausible romance and now there's another one...
~ Well, they've done it again - got me enjoying the show before delivering a series finale I really disliked! This was just relentlessly horrible, and they did exactly what I hoped they wouldn't do and killed off Adar already (in a particularly brutal manner). Seriously such a waste of a character that had so much interesting story still to explore, both past and future. :/ I knew it was coming the moment Problem Child met up with Sauron, after all that foreshadowing in the previous episode, so there was quite a lot of groaning "oh noooo" before it actually happened - obvious trap was obvious. Ugh. The likeable characters are disappearing fast here (that's THREE in one episode, even worse than I thought) and I'm not sure who can replace them! Really need the likes of Anárion and Celeborn to be the pinnacle of awesome at this point... I can't even think where another great villain might come from. :|
~ Wait, did I miss something or was Arondir just magically fine in this episode without any explanation? Did Adar not run him through in the last one?! *flings hands up*
~ Meanwhile there is of course zero jeopardy for characters like Galadriel who we already know will survive, no matter how bad an injury looks!
~ Can't say I shed a tear when Problem Child bit the dust - he just got a "Serves you right", lol.
~ Second series finale in a row where I've said "Get on with it", this time thanks to Elrond taking about ten minutes to put a ring on his finger! Annnnd more long drawn-out goodbye scenes... sigh...
~ Oh, wasn't expecting Rivendell just yet!
~ "The sword or the shield" - the path of aggression or the path of defence, you say?! Sometimes it really feels like things have circled back to LOTR referencing Knightmare instead of the other way round. *g*
~ Well, I guess I can say the same as I said last time - I thought the withdrawal was going to be awful waiting for the next series, so they've done me a favour putting me off it again!!
~ OK, Sauron actor doing his behind-the-scenes bit still in character instead of using his real voice is a bit fucking creepy!
~ Oh, interesting that they originally planned to kill off Adar "earlier on" in the series (which is frankly what I expected) but Simon Tolkien wanted the character explored more. Shame they still didn't explore him quite enough!! I really wish they hadn't recast him, too - New Guy was giving off weird David Bowie vibes in the final episode and that was quite distracting. (We'll never know exactly what happened with the first actor; he made it sound like he chose to only do one series, which feels strange and improbable, and there were rumours that other cast members were uncomfortable with his method acting but I've no idea if there's any truth to that!)
~ "We looked at that shot and we said 'Hold it longer'" (regarding Elrond and the ring) - well you can see above what I thought of that!!
~ I avoided looking at any fan reactions online until the series was over because I was afraid of spoilers and spoilery speculation. This appears to have been a wise decision! It took fucking forever to catch up with what people have been discussing (and whoever invented infinite scroll deserves a special place in hell) but yeah, they were either correctly predicting things weeks in advance, or coming up with crackpot theories that would've really unsettled me after the Halbrand-is-Sauron crackpot theory turned out to be right!