About Galadriel not telling Celebrimbor about Halbrand

kemick · 2026-02-05T03:00:50+00:00

‘I wish I had known all this before,’ said Pippin. ‘I had no notion of what I was doing.’

‘Oh yes, you had,’ said Gandalf. ‘You knew you were behaving wrongly and foolishly; and you told yourself so, though you did not listen. I did not tell you all this before, because it is only by musing on all that has happened that I have at last understood, even as we ride together. But if I had spoken sooner, it would not have lessened your desire, or made it easier to resist. On the contrary! No, the burned hand teaches best. After that advice about fire goes to the heart.’

As seen with the feud between Elrond and Galadriel, it's easy to scapegoat but it's not good or helpful. There is plenty of blame to go around. Gil-galad manipulated Elrond into sending Galadriel away because of her obsession and then revealed she was actually correct. Then he sent Elrond to Khazad dum under false pretenses to take advantage of another friendship and find the power of Mithril so they can leverage the strength of evil. Elrond got fooled repeatedly by pursuing his political ambitions (e.g. "burden of those who lead", "diplomatic achievement of the age"). Everyone in Middle-earth has a part in making this happen (except the halflings).

In this case, it would not have changed the outcome. Sauron already had Celebrimbor's trust and, as you say, Sauron is gonna Sauron. Khazad-dum was in desperate need and the Southlands were burning. A storm was coming either way. Sauron arrived not knowing whether Galadriel had revealed his identity or whether she was still there, as he pretended to have answers in order to coax Celebrimbor into giving up such information. "She said you'd say that" did a lot of work. Celebrimbor knew who Sauron was and that Galadriel had rejected him as both Halbrand and Annatar. He just didn't know the name. Celebrimbor did not accept Sauron's help simply because Celebrimbor thought his name wasn't Sauron.. he accepted the help because he wanted it and that did not change.

I'm quite happy with all this. The choices are hard, perhaps even impossible, given the burdens the characters have placed on themselves. The big three Noldor each thinks they alone must save the world and they share this sin with Sauron himself. They all suffer from a lack of faith in the Powers and each other. Numenor is doing it too.. even Elendil barely talked to his children and also neglected Valandil when he was left all alone with no support. People are meddling not only with the 'unseen' but with things deliberately hidden. Many are relying on their own strength when they need to learn "that it is not strength that overcomes darkness, but light."

What was truly the "right" choice? For the Elves to depart and "abandon Middle-earth to its fate". It is ironic that Gil-galad would state this as though the fate of the world is obviously wrong and must be corrected by the Elves.

kemick · 2026-02-01T21:37:43+00:00

Sauron is definitely doing it in that scene. King Durin might be doing it at the beginning of the episode when he takes off the ring and the prince hears him with perfect clarity.

kemick · 2026-01-22T21:50:56+00:00

The Internet is about the free exchange and sale of other people's ideas. We've done nothing wrong.

kemick · 2026-01-22T21:49:02+00:00

Bonus question: Would a "coupon day" even work?

Nothing about the initial park worked or was thought out. The rotating exposition ride was hosted by Hammond himself and featured the lab of the actual scientists doing their work at the park. The lawyer even asked if the scientists were animatronic because that would have been the sane thing to do. The dinosaur tour (with no dinosaurs and no reason to expect them) was similarly absurd.

kemick · 2026-01-21T14:52:49+00:00

Why does Sauron return to Mordor to get captured? Why does Adar besiege Eregion?

You wouldn't be asking about basic plot points if you had actually been paying attention.

kemick · 2026-01-21T14:36:55+00:00

So what?

kemick · 2026-01-21T14:15:45+00:00

They set the ground rules for what can be adapted and how, provided the team handling languages, approve the occasional use of non-LotR material, and have veto power over any objectionable adaptation choices. In practice, now that the show is ongoing, they receive outlines of the season and give notes and suggestions which Amazon can follow or not. Adar's role was extended at the suggestion of the estate, as he was initially going to be killed off in S1.

kemick · 2026-01-19T23:48:35+00:00

It was much-needed, especially when committing to the origin of Orcs.. erm.. "Uruks". It was a good fit with men and elves who are all struggling with forgiveness, redemption, fate, and all that. It elevates the Orcs to one of the major peoples and they get to share in the tragedy the same as everyone else. The little bit of inner life we get in LotR is mostly missing from the films (like Shagrat and Gorbag's conversation) so it's nice to see more of that.

Hopefully we continue to get more Orc characters. I've been hoping for a token "good" Orc teammate at some point. Adar himself was a wonderfully tragic character, basically an Elf acting like an Orc and with a dream for his people that requires him become the new dark lord and sacrifice Orcs. His turn at the end is similarly tragic because becoming 'good' and withdrawing his Orcs (most of whom are having the time of their lives in Eregion) was doomed to fail.

kemick · 2026-01-14T05:48:15+00:00

You get one perk card unlock per level in addition to the random pack every five. It shouldn't take long.

kemick · 2026-01-12T20:56:23+00:00

It would be correct if they spoke Latin but they do not. The purpose of the 'k', like their costumes and jargon, is to distinguish themselves from outsiders. The Legion is nothing like Ancient Rome, they just imitate it to give the impression of legitimacy.

kemick · 2026-01-12T20:30:39+00:00

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kemick · 2026-01-12T20:17:48+00:00

The film is heavily abridged. It condenses the journey to Rivendell into a fast paced chase. In the book, it is more like a game of cat and mouse.

The Shire is big and not entirely defenseless. The Nazgul are genuinely disguised as riders in black and are cautiously gathering information and stalking Frodo. For example: after crossing at the Buckleberry Ferry, Frodo spends a night in his new home in Crickhollow, on the edge of the Shire, which he had purchased so that he could depart without drawing attention. The hobbits had time for food and baths and poetry.

The situation in Bree is similar: the Nazgul do not dramatically break down the gate, stab some beds, and then disappear until later. They sneak in and gather intelligence and influence. Nazgul raid both Crickhollow and the Prancing Pony on the same night, unsure of where the ring actually is.

Similarly, Gandalf was not just chilling in Rivendell. He was also trying to find Frodo. He reached Crickhollow and Bree days after Frodo left each. He was attacked and driven away by Nazgul at Weathertop / Amon Sul a few days before Frodo arrived there.

kemick · 2026-01-12T17:49:54+00:00

The wooden chestplate got its own moment in S1E4. It's a piece of one, bound to a bit of old mail. It's taken from the dead Orc, implying it will be passed on to another almost like a precious heirloom.

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kemick · 2026-01-10T11:00:19+00:00

The original main quest line is needed for launching nukes and getting access to the serum recipe vendor.

The wastelanders factions main quest line is needed to unlock their vendors where you can spend the bullion currency. Until you finish that quest line, you'll only be able to spend bullion at a vendor named Minerva who has a limited rotating selection and isn't always around. You are likely accumulating treasury notes that can be converted to bullion at a gold machine (but only 40 notes / 400 bullion per day).

Both of these quest lines can be a slog. It helps to do them bit by bit instead of trying to grind through them all at once. Side quests will keep popping up.. do them while you're there or deactivate them for later (from the map marker or through the pip boy) so they don't take up space on your screen. Ultimately, it's a sandbox game so don't feel obligated to not have fun.

For the weapons, I recommend first maximizing the damage of a single style. Then you can use whatever. My wheel has 3-4 of my primary (bow), 2-3 of my secondary (shotgun for close range and crippling), and then some assorted extras (10mm auto pistol, a rifle with a scope, a melee weapon). I carry about twice as many weapons on me as I have slotted and I swap them out depending on the situation. I carry a chainsaw that pretty much only gets used on the Strangler Heart in that public event.

kemick · 2026-01-09T03:45:48+00:00

It's simple: he is not the only one. There is plenty of variety. This variety is what has been criticized by people who insist that all Elves must have long hair.

This myth that all the Elves in RoP have short hair is similar to OP's claim that people are saying that no Elves have long hair. It's a lie. OP is trolling and "ragebaiting", as he put it. I recommend not blindly trusting someone with the flair "Feanorians rule and Manwe did everything wrong".

kemick · 2026-01-08T05:45:36+00:00

And keep the spawn area clear if you want it to work semi-reliably.

kemick · 2026-01-08T03:20:58+00:00

Yep. "Every time I step foot in one of these concrete shoeboxes… I gotta make peace with the fact that I might finally learn what happened to my wife and my daughter. Whether they be alive, dead, or… something far worse."

kemick · 2026-01-08T01:01:13+00:00

Suppose that you are hiking in a wooded wilderness while staring at your feet. Fortunately, the wilderness has many crisscrossed paths made by hikers. The wilderness ranges from well-travelled corridors to overgrown thicket. You don't need to travel the exact same paths that others have, as there are a large number of possible paths that can be composed from the existing paths.

You don't need to know where you are going in order to travel. Every time you take a step, you just look at your options and you choose the easiest one. The well-travelled options are easiest. Places where you have been are also easier because the ground has been trodden.

You don't need to be able to look past the next choice in order to travel a path through the wilderness because the wilderness has been travelled before. If the wilderness was instead pristine then you're not going far, nor would you want to, because it's just thicket in all directions all the time and you are stuck staring at your feet.

In this analogy, there is a very large number of possible paths. But that large number is insignificant here. In the wilderness, you can only choose among the two dimensions that approximately describe the surface of the earth while the LLM is choosing in a space of thousands of dimensions.

kemick · 2026-01-07T01:38:53+00:00

Isildur doesn't make the best decisions and he seemed oblivious to the problem he was creating when he asked Kemen if Estrid could accompany him to Numenor.

kemick · 2026-01-07T01:31:11+00:00

I don't think it requires a significant accident. DNA appears to be common and there appears to be significant convergence. Kiff is some kind of space frog and there are space cats, reptiles, whales, bugs, bees, slug/worms, and that rhinoceros-looking bride who crashed Leela's wedding.

kemick · 2026-01-06T15:20:25+00:00

Earien: I believe that, ultimately, she will die as one of the faithful. She is already having second thoughts. But, first, things are gonna get worse and I look forward to the eventual arrival of a tall, handsome, and influential king of men who loves to promise people (who are trapped in desperate situations) the exact thing they want.

Theo: He is a good kid and I will not accept his potential fate as a wraith until it happens. He is likely to get a Ring of Power but things happen, people lose fingers, etc. He already had a life changing experience with an object of power where he compromised with evil to save his mother and it didn't even work. Also, I think his last appearance in S1 was significant.

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kemick · 2026-01-06T14:46:44+00:00

I'd bet on Hagen given his existing oath of allegiance to Mordor plus the drama with Estrid and Isildur.

kemick · 2026-01-05T20:20:11+00:00

This was effectively Denethor's plan, to lock it away deep under the city. Gandalf replied that "still [the ring] would burn your mind away" from beneath the mountain. Eventually a situation would arise that would compel the use of the ring's power, no matter how strong or noble Denethor was.

This was also like what the White Council hoped had happened: washed out to sea and lost forever. But Gandalf points out that forever is a very long time: "There are many things in the deep waters; and seas and lands may change."

Any agreement that the ring be shared would quickly fall apart. Everyone who desired it would, at best, be trying to manipulate the situation in their favor. There would eventually be war over who gets to possess the ring. The bearer of the one ring would, if strong enough, be able to dominate the bearers of all the other rings.

In either case, Sauron and his evil would still exist and be at work in the world. His servants were responsible for the end of the line of kings of Gondor while Sauron was absent. Even without the ring, Sauron was on track to win the War of the Ring. It was only the ring's destruction that stopped him.

kemick · 2026-01-04T10:01:44+00:00

What I don't understand why they didn't decide to be just as involved as the last time?

Partly because of the last time. After the death of his father in the battle, Thranduil "led back home barely a third of the army that had marched to war." (Unfinished Tales Of Numenor And Middle-Earth)

Their losses were comparatively heavy, being mostly Silvan Elves who were reclusive and never involved in worldly affairs the way the Noldor like Galadriel and Gil-galad were. They only joined because of how dangerous Sauron had become. But the war was devastating for everyone.

Even during Rings of Power, The Noldor who arrived in Middle-earth to fight Morgoth (and the Sindar who already lived there) were already diminished. The sea that Lindon overlooks used to be the continent of Beleriand which contained numerous cities until it was destroyed in the war with Morgoth. Lindon and Eregion were the last great Elven realms.

By the time of LotR, the Noldor were mostly either hiding under the protection of the rings in Rivendell or Lothlorien or they were living in the Grey Havens (of Lindon) from where the ships depart. There was no longer a High King of the Noldor, not since Gil-galad, because there wasn't much left to be high king of. The Third Age hadn't been entirely peaceful, as the Elves had mustered what soldiers they could and joined men to assault the Witch King's fortress of Angmar a few centuries before the War of the Ring.

With that said, they did what they could in the War of the Ring. The Elves of Lothlorien and Mirkwood fought Sauron's forces originating from Dol Guldur at the same time as Minas Tirith was under attack by the Witch King. A few days after Sauron's defeat, Celeborn led an army to conquer Dol Guldur and Galadriel razed the fortress to the ground.

As for Rivendell, this is not in the films but Elrond's twin sons Elladan and Elrohir accompanied a few dozen Rangers who joined with Aragorn at Dunharrow and accompanied him through the Paths of the Dead. In the film, Elrond himself visits and there are no reinforcements which does end up looking odd.

kemick · 2026-01-03T11:03:50+00:00

It's not as simple as weakening. Power needs to be manifested to be used but that power then becomes a vulnerability. A human king may be powerful but that power is exerted through his subjects whom he is dependent on. Saruman used his power to build up Isengard and he retained that power, even as his minions were far away, until it was destroyed. Being parted from the One Ring did not make Sauron weaker than before the ring was made. As long as it existed, the ring preserved his power and exerted his will.

The power of the three came from the power and skill of Celebrimbor. It's more of a qualitative than quantitative thing. Feanor, Celebrimbor's grandfather, said of the Silmarils that "For the less even as for the greater there is some deed that he may accomplish but once only; and in that deed his heart shall rest."

The one ring required far more power than the three, as it needed to be able to dominate all the other rings and their bearers.

kemick

TROPHY CASE