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ophidion · 1 year

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i know what the lore says but ROP.... I have some questions

now I KNOW that there is no way Sauron and Galadriel ever met in Valinor as kids. I know the lore. But... the visuals of the opening scene of the show keep bugging me, especially after there were whispers of young!Mairon potentially being seen in S2.

“Nothing is evil in the beginning” is directly overlaid on a scene of a blindfolded boy who is being guided by a tapping sound from one of the children. (metaphor?)

“And there was a time when the world was so young, there had not yet been a sunrise” the camera remains focused on this boy. With reddish brown hair and light colored eyes that… well… having this boy and the young Galadriel be the first focused frames of the show is a certain introduction.

*Pause* I want to appreciate how the first thing this kid sees when taking off the blindfold is Galadriel and he gets… this expression. Like I’ve seen that expression before.

“Even then there was light,” is the voiceover when the boy looks at Galadriel and we and this boy are seeing her for the first time.

Notice how he is the ONLY one looking at her in this shot. As if he is the only one who can see her light.

As she is folding the origami boat, a young male voice is heard offscreen asking what is that. This is the second voice we hear in the entire show.

That’s alone is not what’s interesting. As the children approach Galadriel, the camera waits for the formerly blindfolded boy to peer his head around at her before switching to show Galadriel again.

(the boy just has a bit of a wry mischevious look to his face and VERY ambiguously shaped ears... like we know Halbrand has big ears and so are this little boy's but I've not found ONE shot where they look clearly POINTED.)

But he doesn’t talk to her though, that’s reserved for the rude boy.

*Also* the blindfolded-boy is wearing the simplest clothing out of ALL of the children. The two other boys have gold adornments on their tunics but the reddish-brunette has nothing. It's obvious even from behind how his clothing is the plainest of all of theirs... almost like a servant.

The episode don’t show who threw the first stone (👀). Nor they don’t show which of the kids’ throws finally sinks the boat. But… the formerly-blindfolded kid is running behind the pack for the majority of the time. Meaning he may have thrown it or did he stay out of the conflict, just remaining at the fringes.

But this boy in the simple clothing loiters in the back of the pack for the ENTIRE exchange of watching her ship. Like he wants to say something to her but isn’t.

This might be nothing... but if the show-runners truly had the main idea of basing the whole show around that line in the Mirror of Galadriel...

"blinded by the darkness, her light turned away from him, but nevertheless he gropes ever to see her. But still the door is closed.”

Somehow... this boy being the first to approach her, to almost be reaching out to see what the girl is doing... nothing is accidental in film and television. Particularly in the establishing shots of the show. It may be against lore. But nevertheless even in episode 2, Halbrand's introduction to the audience is a perfect mirror.

#lotr meta #rop meta #tolkien meta #sauron #mairon #halbrand #haladriel #galadriel #saurondriel meta #martanis #haladriel meta #mairon meta #rop #rings of power #rings of power meta

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fixing-bad-posts · 1 year

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From your tags: "if anyone wants to ask me about rings of power please do because i have thoughts™" This is me asking. (Also love your blog!)

i love you for asking, thank you 💛💛💛 this will be part three: parting thoughts & the funniest details from rings of power (part one; part two).

some parting thoughts:

i absolutely hate that all critics of the show are labelled as racists, misogynists, and anti-progressives, especially when the show’s treatment of women is tokenizing and pitiful, and it does nothing revolutionary nor makes a meaningful statement on issues of marginalized race. they don’t get to position themselves as champions of diversity just by doing the bare minimum and casting poc in side-roles, and having one original-character black elf whose plotline is tragically underwritten. they’re already taking vast liberties with the source material—why not a black galadriel? why not an asian elrond?

with that out of the way, some of my favourite* parts from rings of power:

* when i say "favourite" i mean i'm about to make fun of the show.

i love the part in the show where galadriel spends years of her life tracking down the ‘mark of sauron’—which looks like a little stylized pitchfork—only to discover it’s actually not a sigil. it’s a map, turned sideways, and sketched in modern minimalist style with the least helpful, least detailed, least interpretable shapes because apparently morgoth was really really bad at drawing mountains. and sauron, for some reason, is so forgetful that he carves this “map” into dead bodies and his tables and weapons and gloves so that he? won’t forget which mountain range he’s trying to conquer? wants to give his enemies fun clues about his favourite piece of real estate? unclear.

i love that one scene where galadriel and halbrand are on a raft and the set designers/director did not give morfydd clark enough stage business so she spends the whole scene pulling the same piece of rope tight, and then loosening it, and then pulling it tight again, on a random piece of wood.

in the same vein, i love the part where a conversation between nori and her mom happens except the stage business they were given for the scene was apparently… rub a rock on a piece of wood. and they just have to do that for the entire scene as if it’s normal.

i love the part where the writers seemingly forgot to actually go in and edit their placeholder dialogue and they have gandalf yell, “i’m good!” when he’s mistaken for sauron in the finale.

i love the part where galadriel discovers who sauron is and then goes inside and does not tell anyone what she learned for some reason. and elrond asks her what’s up and she’s just like, there’s no time to explain. and then never explains ever.

i think it’s really funny that the writers want sauron to be “like walter white, tony soprano and the joker,” when these characters have nothing in common except being well-written characters. i like to imagine they sit around the writers’ room examining every single piece of well-written television, marvelling over the very idea of multifaceted characters—a concept completely foreign to them.

and, for posterity—i have fun criticizing rings of power. i like to think i gave rop a fair shot—when i started watching it, i was fully hoping it would be well-done. when i heard the show was coming out, it gave me an excuse to re-read the silmarillion for the first time in years, and has connected me with the tolkien fandom on tumblr. i’m also a script writer irl and, so it’s been a fun exercise to pick apart why the show didn’t work for me both from a fan’s perspective and a writer’s perspective. a lot of tolkien fans are deeply hurt by this show and hate its existence and its fans—that’s not me. i would not be engaging with this material if i wasn’t having a good time doing it.

that's all for me, folks—thanks for tuning in; i'll shut up about this now haha.

#ask fbp #anon ask #fandom posting #rop critical #anti rop #anti amazon lotr #anti rings of power #amazon rings of power #rings of power #rings of power negative #anti trop #rings of power critical #rings of power analysis #rings of power meta

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thegreatzombieartisan · 11 months

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The Finrod and young Galadriel conversation that should have happened

Related meta : The Mean Streets of Valinor | Superprivileged Underdog

#Galadriel #rings of power #rings of power meta #lotr trop #haladriel #young Galadriel #finrod #we have nothing to prove #much better than a pretentious parable #headcanon

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beyonddarkness · 1 year

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Yes.

We set some essential groundwork in the first three chapters.

Let us approach Sauron’s ultimate question and finally delve into the meat of this whole thing.

Sauron is Evil.

Galadriel: “One cannot satisfy thirst by drinking seawater.” Sauron: “Then what is it?”

“Why do you keep fighting?”

He knows exactly why Galadriel keeps fighting, and wants her to stop galloping for a moment, realize what has kept her fighting for centuries, and admit the truth. He has already given her the answer to this question several times. Does she keep fighting to avenge her brother, and everyone else she has lost? No. Then, what fuels her obsession?

Recall the showrunners’ statements.

1) Sauron sees Galadriel, and “knows that what she needs more than anything else is to find the evil that has plagued her for so long, and save Middle-earth. So, he self-styles himself as the person that she will trust” (JD Payne, TROP Podcast). When does he ‘self-style’ himself as Halbrand? Before they meet on the raft. In order for it to be a possibility that he did it specifically to make Galadriel trust him, he would have to be aware of her existence before the raft.

2) “Did she jump off the boat because she sensed Halbrand nearby?” (JD Payne, TROP Podcast).

3) “Is her obsession (which character after character in the show tells her is not a good thing)—Is he CALLING her to him?” (Patrick McKay, TROP Podcast).

Let us set this in stone, once and for all. I am 100% certain of this:

Sauron Called Galadriel to Him

“I strove to create a unique interval between each theme’s first and second note. If each major theme had a unique first interval, listeners would be able to identify that theme in only two notes, the smallest amount of musical information possible. This would be an exercise in efficiency! The more iconic I hoped a theme would be, the rarer should be its opening interval. […]

“Each of these themes has a unique quality in sound and tone, but by beginning with a distinct first interval, they all become instantly recognizable in a matter of seconds.” Bear McCreary, Bear’s Blog

On The Boat [0:07 in the clip below], a tiny voice echoes the first two notes of Sauron’s theme (the “sinister downward third,” as Bear puts it):

Here is what that exact voice sounds like in all its glory: ["Nampat burzum-ank."] Death into darkness.

I was genuinely disturbed when I saw where it was placed in episode 1 …

The little voice is Sauron himself, calling from afar. Galadriel (in a trance) is immediately pulled back by his lure. Thondir, who sincerely cares for Galadriel’s well-being, notices that something is horribly wrong, and desperately calls BACK to her, as if to counter the pull, and snap her out of whatever trance she is in. He knows that this is not normal. Someone is ‘tapping into the powers of the Unseen World.’

In the end, the voice is no longer a distant cry, but is at full-strength. Sauron tries to twist the motives of Galadriel’s friends, in order to make her believe that everyone else would hold her back. “All others look on you with doubt.” This directly calls back to Thondir, who (as Sauron might put it) mutinied against her and tried to drag her off to Valinor. Thus, we see his cunning.

Sauron vs. Thondir (and/or the Valar)

That small voice is not the only time Sauron sings.

"[…] in after years [Sauron] rose like a shadow of Morgoth and a ghost of his malice, and walked behind him on the same ruinous path down into the Void." The Silmarillion: Valaquenta

Thondir and Sauron have a contest. From the first ‘yoo-hoo’ to Galadriel, to the sudden cut-off in the music, there are many instruments and voices competing against one another. Meanwhile, Galadriel is disoriented (one indication being the morphing of Thondir’s voice, like she’s underwater).

Thondir is one who knew that Galadriel’s obsession was not a good thing. Galadriel. Give me your hand, he says anxiously. He knows that whatever is happening is so dire, that he has to guide her by the hand in order to ensure her safety.

That is why he panics in the end. All others on the boat are already immersed in the light, seemingly unaware of anything else around them. In a desperate attempt to save Galadriel from peril, Thondir calls her name once more, and is the last one to look forward; but his arm is still stretched out to her.

All the while, Sauron pulls back on Galadriel. No, come to ME! he says in earnest, somehow more alluring and inviting. He says some other things, too, but we will discuss that in a few moments.

The music alone sounds like a type or version of the contest between Ilúvatar and Melkor [Morgoth], in the Ainulindalë. It is ‘A Shadow of the Past’, one might say. The entire story applies, but for now, let us focus on the end—

Ilúvatar’s music: “Deep and wide and beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable sorrow, from which its beauty chiefly came.”

Melkor’s music: “Loud, and vain, and endlessly repeated; and it had little harmony, but rather a clamorous unison as of many trumpets braying upon a few notes. And it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of its voice.” [bray: to speak or laugh loudly and harshly.]

"[…] but it seemed that its most triumphant notes were taken by the other and woven into its own solemn pattern." The Silmarillion: Ainulindalë [Whether on purpose, or by accident, this is exactly what we hear in this music.]

Let us solidify the music in our minds, before watching the video. Just before the battle commences, there is a continuous, confusing stream of voices in the background, as if to clutter Galadriel’s mind, and it does not stop.

The clip below begins as the birds fly from Valinor through the clouds (which reminds me of the beginning of the Ainulindalë), and ends with Galadriel leaping from the ship.

“I hear it said that when you cross over, you hear a song. One whose memory we all carry. And you are immersed in a light more intoxicating than any sensation in all of Middle-earth.” -Elrond

Lyrics from Bear's Blog: The Lord of the Rings: 101

0:00 - ["Mélamar, eldamar, kene kala lessen."] Home, Elvenhome, light us-in.

0:12 - ["Yánalva fanyamar; Yo hapan lirilve."] Our holy place, cloud home and as one we sing, as one.

0:27 - ["Lennar, tul'valme; Entula lumequentalelmo."] We will come to you; returning upon the hour.

1:04 - ["Mélamar, eldamar, kene kala … "] Home, Elvenhome, light us-in.

1:17 – [" ... lessen."] Galadriel looks back at the dagger. Sauron begins tapping into the powers of the Unseen World.

1:19 – "Do you know why a ship floats …"

1:24 – ” … and a stone cannot?”

1:30 – Gil-galad, Elrond, and Celebrimbor witness the Stranger soar across the sky. “Means [Sauron’s] time is near.” – Waldreg (1×04). 1:46 – Sinister downward third. 1:55 – Galadriel momentarily snaps out of her trance. 1:57 – Cluttering voices begin and worsen until the end. 2:04 – Sauron calls for Galadriel; Galadriel is immediately pulled back towards the dagger. 2:08 – The Battle begins.

2:13 – “Galadriel!”

[sinister downward third]

2:30 – “Give me your hand.”

2:42 – Sauron’s horns blare to drown out Thondir. Galadriel looks back at the sounds of said horns.

2:45 – ” … the lights shine just as brightly reflected in the water as they do in the sky.”

2:49 – Sauron’s horns fight against the strings.

2:51 – “How am I to know which lights to follow?”

2:55 – ["Etsir … "] Near … “Sometimes we cannot know until we have touched the darkness.”

3:02 – [" … amna, vanyalyë."] … the rivermouth, you depart. Sauron’s ostinato accompanies Galadriel’s theme, as she decides to touch the darkness again. Sauron is now SCREAMING: “Come to me!”

3:15 – ["Sirya tumne lisse- … "] Flow deep by your grace. Thondir: “GALADRIEL!”

3:22 – [" … -lyanen. Namárië!] Farewell. (Go towards goodness.)

3:36 –

"In the midst of this strife, whereat the halls of Ilúvatar shook and a tremor ran out into the silences yet unmoved, Ilúvatar arose a third time, and his face was terrible to behold. Then he raised up both his hands, and in one chord, deeper than the Abyss, higher than the Firmament, piercing as the light of the eye of Ilúvatar, the Music ceased.” The Silmarillion: Ainulindalë

The pull that Sauron had on Galadriel must have been incredibly powerful, in order for her to reject the light of her home, right on its doorstep.

So, here’s the clip. Notice Galadriel’s peculiar attachment to the dagger. Even Thondir knows that something is incredibly wrong with the way she cleaves to it. He is relieved when she lets go: Whew! Okay. Everything’s fine, or so he thinks (his concern breaks my heart).

What did Sauron say to her?

Galadriel is not bound by an oath, as she believes (see Chapters 2 and 3). When Sauron infiltrates her mind in episode 8, he tells her (in a horrifically convincing manner) what she believes; but it was not the first time.

Galadriel: “No penance could ever erase the evil you have done.”

Sauron: “That is not what you believe.” Galadriel: “Do not tell me what I believe!” Sauron: “No.”

Sauron was the reason Galadriel leapt from the ship, but she is not lying when she tells Elrond this:

“I leapt from that ship because I believed in my heart I was not yet worthy of it. I knew that somehow, my task here was not yet complete.”

This is what Sauron wanted her to believe, so he planted it to push her closer to what will get him what he wants. One might say that Sauron thinks that what Galadriel needs more than anything is to find him and save Middle-earth. However, he does not care about anyone but himself; it is for his own gain.

“[…] W.H. Auden wrote an essay on Tolkien, and he said something along the lines of, “Evil loves only itself.” [“Evil, defiantly chosen, can no longer imagine anything but itself.”] So I think in his pitch to Galadriel, it cannot mean that he loves her or that there’s any kind of romantic relationship. There should be no ambiguity around the fact that Sauron is evil—he’s terrible, and he’s using Galadriel to enhance his power.” Charlie Vickers, The New York Times

Utilizing songs of power (with which he defeated her brother in a contest), the Master of Deceit calls to her, in order to convince her to leap from the ship, saying: You will not be worthy of a glorious rest until you fulfill the task to which you are bound. Find me, so that together, we can save this Middle-earth.

Here is the silver lining:

'[…] And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined.' The Silmarillion: Ainulindalë

The Epic Cue

Here is my personal opinion: I have come to the tentative conclusion that The Epic Cue has something to do with victoriously tapping into the powers of the Unseen World, at a perilous cost.

Instead of the [G#, A], I am specifically talking about the [D, C#, A], indicated by the timestamps before each clip below. The perilous results of tapping into said powers, in each instance, are shown in the pictures associated.

In the case of The Boat, it was not Galadriel tapping into the powers of the Unseen World, but rather Sauron himself, as established above. He coaxed Galadriel to leap from the ship, in order to pursue a perilous path. He wins. “Sometimes the perilous path is the only path” (Galadriel 1×08).

0:06

There is something to be said about Sauron ‘having the mastery,’ as it says in The Silmarillion.

"[…] Felagund strove with Sauron in songs of power, and the power of the King was very great; but Sauron had the mastery […]" The Silmarillion: Of Beren and Lúthien

In the beginning of the season, he is rebuilding his power, but knows much more about these things than the Stranger does at this point (who uses them instinctively). So, the Stranger’s cue is short-lived (playing over seemingly smaller stakes), while Sauron’s is mightier (involving higher stakes).

The Stranger taps into these powers at a cost, when he saves Nori, Poppy, and Malva from the three wolves.

Might I add that in both of these instances (the boat and the wolves) the ones using these powers are the only two known Maiar in the world.

Again, I am focusing on the [D, C#, A].

0:04

The next instance is a bit scary. Oh, sure, it is victorious, but not for anyone except Sauron. Depending on your loyalties, it could qualify as a perilous result.

If you are wondering what Sauron did this time, tapping into those powers, look no further than the title of the track in which this cue is found (taken from Episode 6): Transformed by Darkness. The track begins with the scene in the barn (which can fill up an entire chapter by itself, but we shan’t get distracted yet), where Adar says, “It would seem I’m not the only Elf alive who’s been transformed by darkness,” and ends with Theo’s dilemma (not an accident).

"When he saw that many [of the Noldor] leaned towards him, Melkor would often walk among them, and amid his fair words others were woven, so subtly that many who heard them believed in recollection that they arose from their own thought." The Silmarillion: Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor

The track includes the log conversation, where Galadriel tells Sauron to be free of whatever he’d done before, and that she felt the same thing he felt (after the ‘bind it to my very being’ stunt).

"[…] But there’s also a good case to be made that every step of the way, he sees her as his ticket back to power, and he’s playing hard-to-get to get her to dig in; to get her to do what he needs her to do.” Patrick McKay, TROP Podcast

He carefully crafted the words and ‘songs’ that he used, so Galadriel would trust him. This led her to say exactly what he wanted her to say: “I felt it, too.” All of this he could use as leverage in the end.

It is the same Epic Cue, as featured above, just shifted up a half-step, from [D, C#, A] to [E♭, D, B♭].

Behold his costly victory:

** Reached the daily Audio Limit with this post, so go to the blog to read and listen to the rest! **

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curufinrod · 2 years

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judith with the head of holofernes (ca. 1640) // lord of the rings: the rings of power (2022)

#web weaving #art history #baroque #judith with the head of holofernes #judith #massimo stangione #bronwyn #rings of power #nazanin boniadi #waldreg #geoff morell #tropedit #rings of power meta

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niennawept · 11 months

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Hey look - I'm just not on the side of the Rings of Power fandom that ever talks about the Harfoots, so forgive me if this has been remarked on before, but ... is that meant to be a Feanorean star on her necklace?

I kind of really like the implication that this just washed up on a river bank somewhere and she went, "oooh - this is pretty" and just stuck it there for safekeeping. I wonder if it's a fragment of armor or something.

#rings of power #rings of power meta #costume design

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wildwren · 2 years

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To be honest, I think the Rings of Power pacing and structure really work best on re-watch. As someone who is enthusiastic about the show and excited for each episode, I still struggle with feeling overwhelmed by the story in a way that makes it a little hard to sink in and really vibe on a first watch. Even with the (IMO) wise decision to cut one or more subplots from each episode (The Dwarves, Bronwyn & Theo in Episode 3; The Harfoots in Episode 4), there is still so much going on. Just the Númenor arc itself has like 3+ subplots progressing at once. But when I re-watch, I feel less dragged around by the storyline and can vibe in a deeper way with the characters and emotional arcs. It's definitely a challenge of the show, but I don't think that means it's failing in its storytelling.

Thinking about that interview with the showrunners where they said it could be just the dwarf show, or the Númenor show, or the elf show, but the thing that makes it Middle Earth is that it's all of them -- it's all these cultures interacting in the story landscape together. The Lord of the Rings books obviously had a specific device to deal with this -- showing them all through the eyes of one humble group, letting the reader interact with these different settings and people by means of one heroic journey. But even that had to splinter and change structure as the story progressed to maintain the sort of complexity Tolkien was going for.

It's an interesting conundrum, because the backstory and the lore and all the Silmarillion content doesn't have an easily accessible story structure built into it. And trying to re-create a hero's fellowship's journey arc to mimic it would no doubt be lambasted as derivative and forced. The arc of Galadriel, while certainly centered, feels to me a little less than a primary protagonist sort of structure. I would say we have the Galadriel arc (Galadriel = protagonist), the Harfoot arc (Nori = protagonist), the Dwarf arc (ironically I do feel like Elrond is currently the protagonist here), the Númenor arc (this feels Isildur-focused to me but you could make the case for another character), and the Southlands arc (Arondir = protagonist).

Additionally, if we're taking the Galadriel arc as primary (again, this isn't quite how the storytelling is landing for me, but I understand how it could be framed that way), it is essentially a direct opposite or inverse to the journey we followed Frodo on. Galadriel is an intensely powerful being already living in the shadow of her trauma, who will most likely travel a character arc towards accepting the need for a more simple and gentle existence. Of course it's not going to feel exactly like the Fellowship of the Ring, because it's working with essentially different story structures. But that in itself is not evidence of its failure towards the source material. I don't know, I just think it's more interesting to think about how the writing is dealing with the challenges of the structure than, like, nitpicking a little bit of plot armor or funny editing here and there, but what do I know.

Anyway, I will probably regret posting this because Tumblr hates good-faith critical analysis but be warned, my block hammer is swift and heavy.

#*squinting my eyes closed really tightly before pressing post*#the rings of power #rings of power #trop #rings of power meta

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mswyrr · 1 year

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galadriel meta

I read the intensity of Galadriel's reaction to Adar as about the ways his damage shows on the outside whereas hers is internal. Her vengeance is, in part, about her terror of being damaged forever - a thing elf culture clearly stigmatizes.

They try to hush her up, to send her away. They have no room for people like Adar, they want only genocide for the Uruks.

She jumped from the boat in part because she felt connected to Middle-Earth but also because she felt unworthy of Valinor. She is running hard from what she fears about how darkness has tainted her IMO. I hope she and Adar interact more because the two sequences that brought out sides of her we didn't see a lot of were w/ him & Theo

Theo reminded her of the young person she was before all of this - the girl before the horror and the young soldier, eager to fight in response to it, not knowing what more horrors fighting would bring. And Adar represents what she fears and tries to conceal about herself behind her quest for vengeance, that she is a ruined and tainted elf.

I want them to dig deeper on those aspects of her going forward. I think they will: they’re parts of herself she needs to integrate and make peace with.

#galadriel #the rings of power #my meta #rings of power meta

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wizardheart83 · 1 year

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Rings of Power Analysis part #4

Disa and Elendil

Both are parents, support their respective heirs to the throne, are sources of knowledge or point to sources of knowledge about the setting they start in and the plot, occupy high status positions (but not the highest. They have good jobs but are upper middle class in power I guess).

Both are kind and warm, but both have lines that if crossed make people wish they hadn’t. Both are open to the elf outsider despite being in isolationist kingdoms, in part because of their relationships to the past, disa through Durin 4 and elendil through the history of numenor.

Interesting differences:

Disa is ambitious and Elendil isn’t.

Disa has a way she wants things to go and a view of herself as someone who can lead her people alongside her husband. Elendil is not yet in line for a throne and he doesn’t seem to want to be. He is doing his best to do the right thing, and trying to decide what that is.

This is interesting when compared with brimby and Pharazôn, cause she starts in the celebrimboresque “working within the rules of society coloring in the lines” place but moves towards the “mess up the coloring book” place just at the end, while Elendil is, for the most part, staying inside the lines.

Does Disa’s reaction to Durin4 being removed as heir foreshadow a similar change for Elendil if Míriel’s taking up the throne doesn’t go smoothly? Guess we’ll find out in a year and a half.

Elendil and Disa are at different places in their lives too.

Elendil has wayward adult children and Disa has fairly small rambunctious little ones. Elendil is widowed. Disa must be conscious of the fact that taking her husband from the line of succession robs her children. With his youngest child secured into an apprenticeship, Elendil isn’t free from parental concerns but his children’s fates aren’t as bound to his, and possibly won’t be unless he … idk… takes up a kingship at some point… then being Elendil’s heir might be of some importance.

Elendil is “the Tall” and Disa while probably still averaging taller than a harfoot is a dwarf. Not notable just funny.

To end on a similarity, let’s talk employment. Both of them are leaders and healers after a fashion. Disa can resonate, leading the miners to the minerals they crave (yes I’m old) and can also plead with the rocks and negotiate the release of the miners when they’ve delved too deep. Elendil can command men, but he can also soothe a horse and give comfort to others in difficult times. They are leaders who can serve and can delegate, and we love them for it.

Where else to go next but Durin 4 and The Queen Regent Miriel.

#rings of power #rings of power meta #wizardheart83 rants about parallels #the rings of power spoilers #elendil #disa

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otp-shipping-industry · 1 year

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Galadriel - Sauron’s lifeline to light

Yeah this is probably completely obvious to all Saurondriel shippers out there but.. I was re-watching the season and them feels caught up with me again on how in the beginning Sauron!Halbrand feels that there is no one who can help him, not even this tiny elf he gets thrown together with.

In episode 2 we have this moment:

“Look, elf. You didn’t cause my suffering and you can’t fix it.” “No matter how strong your will. Or your pride.”

And if we skip to the episode 6, when Galadriel bids Sauron!Halbrand to be free of whatever Adar did to him, and whatever evil he himself has done, he has changed his tune already:

“I never thought I could be. Until today.” “Fighting at your side I.. I felt... If I could just hold onto that feeling, keep it with me always, bind it to my very being, then I..”

Of course the moment gets interrupted after Galadriel confesses that she feels it too.

But buddy, pal, Galadriel may not have caused your suffering but you sure sound like you’re changed your mind on Galadriel not being able to fix your suffering.

And then the last episode, of course he even readily says so:

“And I knew if ever I was to be forgiven... That I had to heal everything that I helped ruin.”

And when Galadriel claims that as her king he would be the Dark Lord? His response is:

“Not dark. Not with you at my side.” “You bind me to the light. And I bind you to power”

“Together we can save this Middle-earth.”

Now I’m a simple gal. I just love how Sauron!Halbrand gets to see Galadriel for who she is, see how his first impression of her was wrong. Just love seeing him be affected by their relationship and how he grows to realize that having her in his life makes him strive to be better than he has been.

That’s what his confession in episode six is all about. I never thought I could be free of this burden (of my suffering). Until I met you, who believes in me, believes that I can do good. And he thinks that if he can just keep feel that, believe in that, then he really can achieve what he set out to do.

He can be what Galadriel sees him as. He can be worthy of forgiveness and be capable of good things, manage to set things right, bring order and heal what he helped destroy. With Galadriel at his side, he can be tied to light and goodness. She can connect him to it. She is his tether to it. She helps him understand what is the right path, the good option. His own mind is too corrupted to not see it without aid.

Of course Galadriel herself is not one dimensional, is not simply good. She’s more complex than that. And that part of her, he feels, is the part that can understand him. Can forgive him, because he thinks she understands him. It’s not just her being good. It’s her being a better person than him but yet not so pure that she cannot understand his darkness.

So I just.. Have a lot of emotions about this. It just gets me. But who know what’ll happen after this? Maybe the next season will tell us that this was all fake, he was lying, that Sauron was just trying to persuade and corrupt Galadriel. No clue, it’s Sauron after all.

But to me, these moments felt sincere, these confessions felt like the truth.

And they will stick as my headcanon no matter what direction the show goes in (which will not be a happy ending for any saurondriel shippers given we know where they end up)

Regardless of what lies in the future, at least we’ll always have this, the first season where there were possibilities, where redemption and the good ending still seemed achievable.

and ofc we’ll also have our headcanons and our AU fix-it fics. You can try to pry those from my cold dead hands, not before.

#the rings of power #rings of power meta #saurondriel #galadriel x sauron #sauron x galadriel #sauron!halbrand #galadriel

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conundrumoftime · 7 months

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Hello, I saw this post and liked it and remembered that someone wrote a fic exploring this very topic and I went off to find the link and add it to the post and then it was your fic lol! and anyway I just appreciate the thought you've put into the whereabouts of our elven forest prince, thanks!

Awww thank you!

I am trying to brace myself for the show not doing what I want on this one, because even if they write him really well - and they might! they are good at fleshing out characters! and they know their Silmarillion and there's so much background they can work with!... she says, desperately - he's probably not going to be the one I've headcanoned and have now got depressingly attached to. But they could do SO WELL with him and I live in hope!

#rings of power #celeborn #eyeofacat writing process #trop meta #rings of power meta

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fixing-bad-posts · 1 year

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I haven't watched rop myself but I would absolutely like to hear your thoughts. Like, this is your cue to vent (if you wanna) :)

okay so i just got three asks about rings of power when i didn’t expect anyone to actually message me about this at all!!! as such, i’ll be giving my opinion in three parts with this being, part one: rings of power as a bad adaptation.

basically, the failure of rings of power is two-pronged: 1) it’s a bad adaptation, and 2) it’s a poor piece of writing. charitably, it’s a solid first-try for a pair of newbie showrunners who have never written a big project before. and following that, a bad adaptation is actually easier to forgive than a poorly written story—with a text so beloved, and without the proper rights to all the material (they only had access to the appendices of lotr), it was always going to be impossible to make a perfect text-to-screen translation. that said, it’s (imo) a pretty bad adaptation (although still not as bad as the artemis fowl movie lmao) for a few reasons: thematic interpretation, use of characters/characterization, justification of setting, and fidelity to canon lore.

on: themes—a good adaptation requires both an understanding and an appreciation of the source material, two things which rings of power lacks. in this promo article, the rop writers summarize tolkien’s works as about “friendship,” “brotherhood,” and, “underdogs overcoming great darkness,” and cannot imagine a tolkien story without hobbits. from this, it’s clear that they were first peter jackson movie fans, and then read all other book material as auxiliary support for what is inevitably peter jackson’s interpretation of tolkien’s writings on the third age. whether or not i agree with pj’s interpretation is irrelevant against the fact that the first and second ages of middle earth are stories with completely different themes than the third age. interpreting everything though the same thematic lens as the third age is a fundamentally flawed approach to telling a second age story.

the second age is permeated by arguably recent, memorable trauma from the war of wrath—the human characters are further removed via the mortal generations that have passed, but many of the elves were alive to see these events in (relatively) recent memory. this dissonance between elves and men regarding the events of the first age fuels some of the most interesting wider conflict throughout the second age (ex. the númenóreans being manipulated to become obsessed with/envious of elven immortality & the powers of the valar). furthermore, the world impact (i can’t say global impact because the world is not yet a globe) of the war of wrath fuels the setting (political reformation, social, cultural, and technical development). but rings of power ignores all of this because the showrunners don’t seem know what to do with any of it. they are trying to interpret second age events as if they have the same story elements/are painted in the same thematic palette as the events of the war of the ring. they relegate the events of the first age to ‘ancient history,’ instead of using its fallout as direct motivation for anyone except galadriel (more on this in the following section). the tension between elves and men is flattened into an allegory for contemporary immigration, which neither makes sense in-universe (there is a scene in which a group of men gather in the town square to protest the elves ‘stealing their jobs’ even though there is only one (1) elf on the island and she has not to date done any labor or craft associated with the people present), nor adapts the canon themes of anti-industrialization, anti-materialism, and fear of mortality.

on: character—whether the writers were/are incapable of doing their own analysis of the text, or their analysis is flawed, the result is that they struggle to write characters and conflicts who don’t fit into stock tropes. for example: galadriel—she’s the only elf who has any trauma about the war of wrath/the wars in beleriand, and this makes her seem like a poor communicator at best and paranoid/unreasonable at worst (she claims sauron is still at large but the writers never give the audience a reason to believe this, which implies that her crusade is fueled by dubiously exceptional trauma). this is especially egregious in a scene played opposite elrond where she tells him he can’t possibly understand her pain, and he just kind of lets this accusation stand despite the fact that he was functionally orphaned in a slaughter, and then adopted by two mass murderers before losing them too. but i digress.

on: canon lore—many creative decisions were ostensibly made to appeal to casual fans of the peter jackson movies. characters with recognizable names are given top billing in the storylines. galadriel. elrond. the pre-hobbits are given an entire section. meanwhile, key players of the second age like celebrimbor and gil-galad are made side characters in elrond plotline. why? because no one who has only seen the films recognizes their names, thus they wouldn’t be profitable to feature, and they wouldn’t sell a show. it’s only so transparent because the writers spend every episode contemplating how best to recreate memorable moments from the lord of the rings movies. galadriel is constantly shot with close ups on her eyes to mirror her film introduction in fellowship. shots of bronwyn (one of the rop original characters) at the elven outpost are framed, blocked, and even written in word-for-word monologue to recreate iconic éowyn-at-helms-deep scenes. various characters are constantly quoting the lord of the rings movies. the worst is when bronwyn practically quotes a section of sam’s iconic osgiliath speech to her frightened son, implying that sam’s speech is a collection of common idioms.

on a tangible level, the writers also fail at the monumental task of presenting a large map in a way that makes sense to people who don’t already know the world. they represent “the southlands,” as two villages, giving the sense that mordor as a whole is about fifteen kilometers wide. the timeline is fucked because they tried to condense it, while giving no clear indication of when anything is happening in relation to anything else, so it’s incredibly difficult to grasp the scope of any project or journey. for some reason they invented a fourth silmaril of dubious origin. they had elrond, raised by sons of fëanor, swear an oath only to break it in the following episode. they’ve made the choice to have all the elves speak quenya without acknowledging the history of sindarin vs. quenya and the politics of why certain elves speak it or don’t (i would love to see even one nod to thingol’s influence on elven language).

tl;dr—rings of power misreads, misunderstands, and miscommunicates the crucial themes of the second age. this leads to a complete misinterpretation of the pre-known movie characters they feature, as well as a sidelining of important book characters who aren’t movie-fan favourites. their attempt to properly explore a vast setting is clumsy, and the show invents lore out of a source material that already has arguably too much.

(i have to go run some errands but i have more to say on rop as a poor piece of writing regardless of its status as a so-called adaptation. i’ll be back.)

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eveningspirit · 2 years

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On Evilness of Sauron

Now that the first season of Rings of Power is over, there’s a thing or two I want to say.

First of all, my overall impression is that the show is very Tolkien-ish. The plot may have strayed from canon a little, I won’t argue that. But it’s not what matters to me. The general atmosphere, the mood -- does.

We have a very strong fight of good vs. evil. Elves are all better-than-thou, with the exception of Elrond, who, of course, is half-human. Harfoots are funny and so, SO lovable <3. Numenor and elven cities are pompous and exaggerated. It fits. It’s all how I imagined when reading Tolkien ages ago.

Perhaps the show is not completely true-to-LOTR, but then, it’s not a continuation of LOTR. It’s a different interpretation of the source material, and I think that as a whole -- it grew into itself.

Now, interestingly, my gripes are the same as I had towards the original. I’m talking abut Silmarillion here and the origin of Morgoth and Sauron. Tokien based them quite directly on the Bible and the origin of Lucifer, the Satan. Morgoth was Iluvatar’s favorite child and the most powerful of all Valars (God-creator, Angels, the analogy is obvious). He thought himself better than, and decided that he can become a creator himself, so he split from Iluvatar and other Valars.

And THAT made him evil.

Now, there’s a lot to unpack here, and I’m not sure this small tumblr post is the place to do it, but it’s in conflict with my beliefs. Being a rebel does not make anyone evil. Telling your -- your superiors, your parents, your tribe leaders -- that you don’t fit in with them, and you want something else -- that does not make anyone evil. Even wanting to surpass your parent in something, does not make you evil.

However, believing you are better than others and because of it your word should be obeyed by others -- that is a road to evilness, alright. I like that The Rings made that a part of Sauron’s speech in the final episode (I alone am the salvation of Middle Earth, more or less: “Save or rule? -- I see no difference”). But I don’t really remember that from the Silmarillion. Granted, I really read it, like, thirty years ago, and I was younger, so some things might have escaped me.

Anyway. What I really wanted to say with this post, is that I’m not sure whether I can fully regard Sauron as evil, because the good guys in the show say he’s evil.

I want to stress however that it’s not because Halbrand is handsome (my fave is still Valandil. Mostly because of Kai Holman from NCIS Hawaii, but Valandil himself also ticks my boxes, but that’s for another post). I don’t ship, I’m not smitten with Halbrand. Also, I certainly don’t want Galadriel to be someone who could save him, I reject that notion.

I have sincerely always wondered if Sauron (or rather Morgoth, I think) really started off as evil, or whether they were pushed towards evilness because their -- well, Morgoth’s in this case, can’t quite remember how Sauron started -- Morgoth’s desire to be independent, caused complete and utter rejection from his father and his siblings.

There. That’s my gripe with Tolkien.

#the rings of power #sauron #morgoth #tolkien #silmarillion #es metas #rings of power meta #tolkien meta

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beyonddarkness · 1 year

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Always Watching: Part 2

[see Part 1] The Directly-Overhead camera angle is Sauron's camera angle. (I had to omit the reference Eye shot, because I totally missed another very important shot [which you will see at the end], and I've hit my gif limit. But it is in Part 1 twice, so GO LOOK AT IT. lol)

Sauron literally watched the making of the Rings, but he saw far more than that.

In the same sequence in Episode 8, He watched Elrond investigate 'what happened by that stream'.

Now he knows about Elrond's suspicion. But is this sequence the only time we see this camera angle?

No.

Episode 4: The Great Wave

Galadriel: "So, by your standards, I am in this cell, because I am yet to identify what the Queen most fears?"

Sauron: "My very low standards, yes."

Galadriel: "And I suppose you did, having met her for all of a few moments?"

Little does Galadriel know about the Eye of Halbrand. He watched Míriel in her dream. Not only does he know her fear, but he knows about Númenor's future.

After that conversation, he watched Galadriel in the Palantir.

At the end of the episode, he watched Míriel and Pharazôn as the petals of the White Tree fell.

In the same sequence, he woke Tar-Palantir up for a staring contest.

[Miriel: "Is our valor confined to the graves of our slumbering fathers?"]

The shot immediately following shows Sauron gleefully walking away. He sure is a fan of mocking and taunting people. "Look who's here, and guess who can't do anything about it."

[Míriel: "Or is it here, amongst us, even now?"]

It is no wonder that in the next episode, Tar-Palantir sits on the bed in defeat.

Tar-Palantir: "The Kingdom! The Kingdom is in danger!"

Míriel: "The danger is past, father. We are doing now what you always believed we must. We're restoring our connection with the Elves. I'm going to Middle-earth. :)"

Tar-Palantir: "Míriel. […] Don't go to Middle-earth. All that awaits you there is […] darkness."

We are going out of order, but there is so much more.

Episode 7: The Eye

He saw more than what Elrond and Dúrin IV saw. (wait for it)

He watched Dúrin III throw the leaf into the mountain. (wait for it)

He followed the leaf down the cracks of the mountain, to the fellow servant of Morgoth.

We now see that he knows about all of that already. But we are not done yet.

Episode 3: Adar

In the scene after his fight in the alley, Sauron watched as Galadriel discovered the meaning of his own symbol.

Galadriel: "It is as Halbrand said."

Galadriel: "If Sauron has indeed returned, the Southlands are but the beginning." [the music: "Nampat burzum-ank." Death into darkness.]

He absolutely knows what Galadriel found in the Hall of Lore. What does that say about his behavior, later in the same episode?

Galadriel: "How fares the quest for peace?"

Sauron: "Better than expected."

Galadriel: "You are more than you claim."

"I found this in the Hall of Lore."

There is yet more. Does he need to be absent to see things from a Bird's Eye View?

No.

But first, in Episode 4: The Great Wave …

Sauron: "I wouldn't advise that."

Pharazôn: "I can't very well let her leave."

Sauron: "You could, if you knew exactly where she was going."

What was discussed after the cameras cut?

In Episode 5, Pharazôn told Kemen: "It's folly to kick against the current. […] But the trick of mastering the current is to know which way it will turn next." That is exactly what "you could if you knew exactly where she was going" means. [master = red flag word. Abort mission; get out while you still can.]

So, we know that Sauron either planted that idea, or explained it to Pharazôn, outright.

In addition, that is the approach that Sauron takes with every conflict in the whole season. This leads us to another time we see Sauron watching.

Episode 2: Adrift

To everyone on the raft, he urged, "Be still!" Then, he watched from above, to see where the Worm was going.

As he 'washed' his hair, he watched. Why? He was probably keeping an Eye out for danger (he is a target, still).

Hence the shifty eyes in the very next shot.

And what does that say about him watching Galadriel pull him onto the raft, after he saved her from drowning? (he is a target, still; gotta keep an Eye out).

But those are not the only overhead shots in all eight episodes. No, no. Sauron was watching before we even met him.

Earlier in Episode 2, he watched Bronwyn and Arondir in Hordern, and saw what the Orcs were doing. (wait for it)

(notice the eye shape while Arondir is holding the torch, leading to the overhead shot)

So, not only do we know that the Key and the Dam was originally a plan conjured by Sauron himself (Adar using it for his own purposes), but he knows of Bronwyn and Arondir's existence. After seeing that the trench-digging is under way, Sauron knows what Adar is up to. That sheds a whole new light on this exchange:

Míriel: "And where did the Enemy head next?"

Sauron: "Further south, I should think. Towards the watchtower of Ostirith." (Because, you know, Sauron knows where the dam has to be unlocked. Speaking of which … )

Episode 6: Udûn

Right after being hailed King of the Southlands, Sauron saw who unlocked the dam, without his permission. (Oh, you better believe Waldreg is in trouble; and not just for swearing fealty to Adar.)

Earlier in the episode, he saw Arondir try to destroy the key.

Finally, remember when Sauron said this? "A sea that you were on because the Elves cast you out! They cast you out for deigning to beg them for a few, petty soldiers! What will they do when you tell them that you were my ally? When you tell them that Sauron lives because of you?" (1x08)

We think, Oh, of course he must have figured it out at some point. But as luck would have it, he knows a lot more, a lot sooner than we think. Like I said before, he was watching even before we met him.

Episode 1: A Shadow of the Past

Galadriel: "This mark's very existence proves Sauron escaped. He's still out there. The question now is where! [Right above you.] I intend to ask of the King a fresh company. If he supplies enough to—"

Elrond: "You have only just arrived! […]"

Galadriel: […] "I am not some courtier to be placated by idle flattery. I demand to speak with the King directly."

Elrond: "You have made that plain. So, I will be equally plain. It was not your company who defied you out there. But rather you who defied the High King, by refusing to heed any limit placed upon you. In an act of magnanimity, he has chosen to honor your accomplishments, rather than dwell upon your insolence. [Like Sauron will in the end.] Test him again, and you may find him less receptive than you might have hoped."

Sauroncam:

Again, if you have not yet read Chapter 4 on my blog, please do so. These last two shots nearly made me jump out of my seat.

The Boat.

(I have not finished Chapter 6 yet, but it will be done very soon. In that chapter, we will explore the story of Beren and Lúthien, and how it perfectly parallels Halbrand and Galadriel [meaning they're the same, but also completely opposite]. Look at this, read Chapter 6 when it is published, then come back.)

Sauron watched as Galadriel was sailing off to Valinor.

The very moment he saw that his precious Golden Ticket to Power was about to cross the border …

… he called to her, and pulled her back.

When Patrick said, "It's all there," I didn't realize just how true that statement was. All of this makes Sauron even more creepy.

In a future post, I want to thoroughly analyze every one of these shots, what they mean, and how they affect the rest of the story. I am not a pro gif-maker, but I will do my best to include higher-quality gifs (and stills) on my blog, so that you can look at them more closely and analyze them for yourself. :) The music has an enormous role to play in all of this, but I will save that for the blog as well. Consider Chapter 4 a warm-up. It is only going to get more mind-blowing from here.

Update:

WHOOPS! Missed one.

Galadriel: "Year gave way to year. Century gave way to century. And for many Elves, the pain of those days passed out of thought and mind. More and more of our kind began to believe that Sauron was but a memory, and the threat, at last, was ended. I wish I could be one of them."

Hello?

This wasn't just an intro to Galadriel. Sauron was right there from the beginning.

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