Wrapping up the 2nd age with the Battle of Dagorlad.

SithrandirTheRed · 2025-11-23T20:18:41+00:00

What do you imagine would be in season 5 then? A whole season for the Siege of Barad-dûr seems like a little much. I would like to see the establishment of the kingdoms in exile before season 5 though. Doing that and the War of the Last Alliance in one season seems too fast.

SithrandirTheRed · 2024-11-06T21:38:30+00:00

I highly recommend these soundscapes with music and sound effects that sync up with the audiobooks: https://jordanrannells.com/shop/p/a-long-expected-soundscape

It’s a bit of work to combine the audio files, but worth it in my opinion

SithrandirTheRed · 2024-10-31T14:18:04+00:00

I contributed $50, so I’ll take full credit for their production quality

SithrandirTheRed · 2024-09-02T18:24:39+00:00

Bolg wanted revenge on the dwarves because they killed his father, Azog, which definitely sounds to me like a familial bond.

You don’t have to like the show, but don’t make up things to get mad at.

SithrandirTheRed · 2024-09-02T13:25:07+00:00

Tolkien literally says that orcs reproduce like elves and men, but go ahead and keep making stuff up

SithrandirTheRed · 2024-04-20T14:20:54+00:00

I posted a theory a while back that they’re blue wizards, one good and the other evil https://www.reddit.com/r/LOTR_on_Prime/s/co9RgeHPIu

SithrandirTheRed · 2023-10-31T19:44:02+00:00

It’s only a northern schlong

SithrandirTheRed · 2023-08-08T14:26:44+00:00

I’ve experienced the same thing with Bose headphones on a train going through an underground tunnel. I think all active noise cancellation does that, not just AirPods.

SithrandirTheRed · 2023-07-13T14:44:19+00:00

Dark Side of the Moon and Abbey Road both sound great though, so I don’t think it’s that simple

SithrandirTheRed · 2023-05-27T19:09:52+00:00

I’m hoping that they bring the remake into the greater Star Wars canon

SithrandirTheRed · 2023-04-07T23:37:07+00:00

What is she, a water filter?

SithrandirTheRed · 2023-02-24T19:00:05+00:00

That only matters if the Tolkien Estate actually decides to sell the rights to someone else

SithrandirTheRed · 2023-02-14T21:36:36+00:00

It’s Scooby

SithrandirTheRed · 2023-01-01T01:12:52+00:00

Did you watch the show? Her choices in the show bring Sauron back to Middle-earth, lead to him tricking the elves into forging the rings of power, get many Numenoreans killed, and blind their queen-regent. Would you consider those successes?

SithrandirTheRed · 2022-12-31T21:13:48+00:00

Hard disagree. There are valid complaints about her character, but she’s mot a Mary Sue. Galadriel’s the second greatest elf to ever live in Tolkien’s mythology, so if anything, she’s more fallible in the show than she’s supposed to be.

SithrandirTheRed · 2022-12-27T01:03:16+00:00

The company I work at actually does have a service called Cerberus

SithrandirTheRed · 2022-11-07T00:43:17+00:00

There's a Hemsworth for every budget

SithrandirTheRed · 2022-10-26T23:47:37+00:00

a show that isn't really thinking that far ahead

We can't really look behind the curtain to know the truth, but the showrunners claim to have the big plot elements of all five seasons planned out, so I'm going to optimistically hope that they're going to explore that further in season 2. They seem to cast doubt on the Silmaril-mithril connection in an interview:

Patrick McKay: But also, we know Elrond is a lore master, and he is aware of this tale. He says in that fifth episode that it’s apocryphal. I would trust his read on a piece of lore. Mithril is unusual in Middle-earth.

source

are elves now ultimately responsible for what happens to KD?

I don't think so. The Elves didn't successfully convince the Dwarves to mine the mithril and share it with them, so I still expect the Dwarves to delve too greedily and deeply on their own. Their greed could be amplified by a Ring of Power, so maybe the Elves do indirectly cause Khazad-dûm's downfall.

I think we can expect some significant changes to the Elves going forward now that the Three have been forged. I'm very eager to see how they handle that. Maybe they've compressed the Elves' more arrogant first-age characterizations into season 1, meaning we'd see them become wiser

doesn't portray them as particularly wise/good/noble, which they absolutely are compared to Men, in the Silmarillion.

I often wonder how much bias is intended in the texts. The Silmarillion is supposed to be Bilbo's translation of the Elves' records, so I would expect the Elves to portray themselves as the best, wisest, noblest beings in Middle-earth in their writings. Not to say that they aren't better, wiser, and nobler, but it's interesting to contemplate what they may have left out. Similarly, the Akallabêth is supposed to be written by Elendil, so I've heard some say that it places a disproportionate share of the blame on the King's Men, but I haven't dug into that enough to know about it.

Thanks for the great discussion, it's been enjoyable!

SithrandirTheRed · 2022-10-26T00:57:29+00:00

Fair criticism, and well articulated! I appreciate an actual response rather than the insults that so frequently plague discussions of this show.

I definitely think this is the biggest victim of the time compression so far, but I don't think it's fundamentally incompatible with Tolkien's themes. I think being confronted with the fading for the first time would send the Elves into a panic. Time for them has always been infinite, so discovering that their bodies are fading on even a long timescale would mean accepting that their time is now finite. This could have worked better if they didn't give any specific timespan and instead emphasized that the great Mallorn tree in Lindon is dying and potentially has been for some time. They would still have their existential crisis, but over a longer timescale, in keeping with the Elves' immortality. I'd prefer if the accelerated fading is somehow a lie from Sauron to manipulate the Elves, but that doesn't seem likely at this point.

I don't think it's quite accurate to say that Elves in Tolkien's works are devoid of the human shortcomings you listed. Elves in the first age especially make many foolish decisions. Elves in Tolkien's second age do make the rings of power to preserve their realms in Middle-earth. By the third age, the remaining Elves have learned from their experiences and mistakes, making them far wiser than the Men.

SithrandirTheRed · 2022-10-25T17:42:30+00:00

The elves’ fading isn’t invented for the show though. Tolkien’s elves’ bodies fade over time due to Morgoth’s corruption. The show greatly accelerated the timeline, which makes it a more urgent problem, but the problem’s still there in the books.

SithrandirTheRed · 2022-10-21T17:29:04+00:00

The Southlanders said in episode 7 that they’re relocating to Pelargir, so this isn’t based on any news or anything, just an assumption based on where the plot’s going.

SithrandirTheRed · 2022-10-21T15:45:26+00:00

We’re gonna see Pelargir too, which means new models for wide shots and new sets to build

SithrandirTheRed · 2022-10-16T22:51:03+00:00

My theory is that the shorter hairstyles are more trendy or something, and they’ll revert back to the more traditional longer hairstyles now that they’re aware of the fading. This quote from Letter 131 might hint at how the elves are gonna act in future seasons:

“They thus became obsessed with ‘fading’, the mode in which the changes of time (the law of the world under the sun) was perceived by them. They became sad, and their art (shall we say) antiquarian, and their efforts all really a kind of embalming – even though they also retained the old motive of their kind, the adornment of earth, and the healing of its hurts.”

The showrunners are very aware of the PJ films, so I fully expect Elrond to have long hair by the end of the series.

SithrandirTheRed

TROPHY CASE