During season one of The Rings of Power, I reviewed each episode on Facebook, wrote a blog post here halfway through, and then collected all my reviews here after the season was over. I’m planning to do that again, so here are some things I think the show was worth producing in order to see in the first half of season 2.
10. Pretty much any time Durin IV and Disa are on screen. If Tolkien were around to think some more about dwarven marriages, I’m pretty sure he’d say “Yes: that’s exactly what I meant.”
9. Same goes for Elrond (except the scene where he jumped into the waterfall, which just looked stupid): Elven side-eye and incorruptible rectitude has never looked so good. Robert Aramayo is completely believable as Tolkien’s Elrond. Better than Hugo Weaving at being that.
8. Míriel’s coronation dress, and the tiny moment where she reaches for the sceptre but isn’t able to take hold.
7. The song the Elves sing in Lindon when they think they are leaving, right before the Elven Rings are used for the first time.
6. While we’re on songs, Tom Bombadil’s. And his speech about stars being newcomers, which could have come right out of Tolkien.
5. While we’re still on songs, the stone-singing. (Can we just give it up for Bear McCreary’s score in general?)
4. The dialogue between Nori, Poppy, and the Gund, with pictures of the Shire on the wall and the word Sûzat used.
3. Adar speaking to Galadriel in Elvish. In Quenya, no less. Boy, if that doesn’t hit on all the theological problems about the Orcs which Tolkien never solved.
2. Arondir apologizing to an Ent and an Ent-wife. In Sindarin. Man, that scene was perfect.
1. Galadriel’s vision where she hears the verse of the rings in the Black Speech for the first time. The seed-planting; Celebrimbor; just the whole thing. Absolutely brilliant.
Photo by Matthew Ball on Unsplash
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