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Yet More Rings of Power Reviews I Wrote During Season 2

Yet More Rings of Power Reviews I Wrote During Season 2

Last updated on: October 8, 2024 at 4:08 pm by Jennifer Woodruff Tait

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Yet More Rings of Power Reviews I Wrote During Season 2 2024-10-05T16:37:43-05:00 Jennifer Woodruff Tait

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Five: Halls of Stone

– Several Internet reviews from people who have not overly been wowed by the second season said that this was the episode where it really finally “gets good.” It’s certainly very dramatic, and the dialogue is probably the best so far, but it was also missing some plotlines I like. It’s almost entirely dwarves, Eregion, and Numénor. We briefly get Elrond running a lot, and a little Galadriel.

-Boy, Sauron/Annatar is laying on the gaslighting this episode. Poor Mirdania. And to some degree Celebrimbor, though he dug this hole for himself. Charles Edwards is absolutely superb playing Celebrimbor’s dawning realizations. By the way, there are Sauron “gaslight gatekeep girlboss” memes out there, and they are hilarious, especially because of Annatar’s unfortunate wig.

-Mirdania’s vision was sooooper creepy but effective.

-I never thought before about the fact that the Three and the Seven don’t make people invisible but the Nine and the One do. This episode provides the beginning of a good explanation for that.

-The Doors of Durin make a cameo! And they can only be opened by a “password from a friend”! It’s a nice touch that the plans for the doors remain on Celebrimbor’s desk for much of the rest of the episode.

-We all love Narvi. Now I will have a face to put with the name when I read about the doors to Moria in future rereads of LOTR.

-When Dísa dropped her crystal Elizabeth said, “Oh, this is just like one of those regular stupid things they do in movies.”

-Finally, some Elendil. Lloyd Owen has mostly been reduced to stalking around looking upset this season, and he gets Things to Do in this. (Anyone else think of Dead Poets Society in the scene when he turned in his sword?) Hopefully this is the prelude for him getting more Things to Do next week.

-Is Míriel imprisoned in her rooms, or just ineffectual post-coup? And also, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anyone gaslight themselves before?

-I think this episode gives further evidence that the show is not treating the palantíri as inherently evil. And also setting up why Elendil takes one with him when he goes. (Actually he takes seven, canonically, but they seem to have simplified that.)

-Ar-Phârazon was referred to as such in dialogue and captions for the first time. (“Ar” is the kingly prefix for Numénoréans). He looked very imposing in his kingly getup and the kids pointed out he was wearing red AND white. His speech about the Meneltarma was great; it really gets at what Tolkien says in the books motivates him.

-The Numénoréan shrine was just absolutely beautiful and perfect. (Until all the sad things happened.) That last moment when the seashell floated out there after the…things…was so heartbreaking.

-Edwin noted that the show seems to have picked up on the Catholic subtext of Tolkien’s description of the conflict between Phârazon and Míriel, and is staging and playing Kemen as though he’s Henry VIII destroying the monasteries.

Still watching, still interested, still hunting up dramatic irony and Easter eggs.

Six: Where is He?

– All hail Tar-Míriel, true queen of Numénor, and that’s all I have to say about that.

PS both she and Ar-Phârazon were referred to by their royal titles for the first time onscreen in this episode. Tar- is the royal prefix in Quenya, Ar- is the royal prefix in Adûnaic, the language the Numénoréans adopted when they rejected the Elves. Míriel’s father was the first to return to the Elvish ways after a long line of kings (somewhat less long in the show) who rejected the elves, which is why he is referred to as Tar-Palantír (Palantír is the same word as for the glowy thing, and means “far-seeing”).

-Everything in Numénor was my favorite this episode. (Including the costumes). The scene where Elendil is accused begins to show who he really is underneath and why he becomes the great forefather of Middle-earth royalty and hero of myth. (Also, Amandil got name-checked! For those who don’t know, Amandil is literally the name Edwin in Elvish.)

-We all thought Charlie Vickers had a better wig this time. Also, his new costume was great.

-Whoever came up with Merimac’s hair ought to think twice next time, though.

-I thought I said no slo-mo last season, people.

-Yes, the word smial is from LOTR, where it is used in much the same way.

-The jury is very much out for me on the final scene in this episode between Bombadil and the Stranger. I found Bombadil’s description earlier of the trials the Stranger was facing to be descriptive more than prescriptive, so I don’t like the idea of Bombadil actually setting him a trial there at the end, and I really want to see how that whole business resolves. I think they can pull it off in a way that preserves the divine goofiness of this take on Bombadil but I’m a bit nervous.

-I like the idea of the arc that Galadriel in this age gets herself into trouble by being brave but rash and needs to learn to be more thoughtful (this is actually much more her arc in the First Age but they don’t have rights to that and I’ve been fine with exploring it here) but I’m about ready for her to learn her lesson and start getting wiser, thank you very much.

-(Mild spoiler) Given that Tolkien did not think much of bats we had a friendly argument around here about whether Dísa was commanding those bats or just knew how to get in touch with them. (Edwin maintains that a thoroughly good Tolkien character wouldn’t give bats the time of day and I maintain that Dísa slays, in the Gen Z sense).

-I like the take of Narvi being a decent person getting caught up on the wrong side.

-You can continue to be able to know who is good and who isn’t by how they talk about trees.

-We all wonder when the last time was that Celebrimbor had a nap.

-Bring back Elrond next week please!

Photo by Greta Farnedi on Unsplash

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