LOTR Rants | Mostly Aralas

a rant abt a lotr fic and rings of power

no i am not done when will anyone ever be done talking abt this show???

so e3 of rings of power saw the arrival of our absolute ethereal majestic mesmerizing beautiful slaying wonderful lovely never the same unique powerful ate left no crumbs QUEEN galadriel in numenor (oh and halbrand was there too i guess)

and i obvi have THOUGHTS on the numenor design as well as a couple other things abt the episodes that have come out since i last posted

so first of all the NUMENOR DESIGN???? YES. ABSOLUTELY YES JUST 💳💥💳💥💳💥💳💥

like ik we already saw the main shot of numenor in the trailer (and yes as i predicted its less cheap cgi seeming in the actual show) BUT WHEN IT WIDENS AND WE SEE LIKE THE FULL MIGHT OF NUMENOR SPRAWLING ACROSS THE WHOLE ISLE---------

wow. literal tears in my eyes. it's so cool to see smth described as so glorious and such a big deal in the lore FINALLY onscreen.

and the imagery??? like the consistent use of sun and wing imagery which we see the remnants of in modern day gondor??? PERFECT. YES.

AND IN EPISODE FOUR SEEING THE GREAT WAVE???? THE GREAT FREAKING WAVE LIKE CONSUMING NUMENOR IN THE PALANTIR ARE YOU FREAKING JOKING ME???????

SO cool. i was shook because it's SO INSANE finally seeing that onscreen and if nothing else at least that's well done.

AND THE NICKNAMES OMG.

i think now is the time to tell y'all abt one of my many lotr subhyperfixations---NICKNAMES IN MIDDLE EARTH.

I JUST LOVE THE CONCEPT.

like elves just NOT AT ALL understanding the idea of nicknames bc they put so much weight in names and think its absolutely atrocious to shorten something with so much meaning and putting sm pride into their long ass names

and men, dwarves and hobbits hating it sm and using every opportunity to shorten their and others' names

so like imagine an elf and a human being friends and the human calling the elf by a nickname and shortening their long ass sindarin name to something semi comprehensible and then having to explain the concept of nicknames to then and the elf thinks it's the cutest thing ever and they just call each other by nicknames after that

LIKE I---- AHFWLHFWHFQFWHFAWFHKLWFWFLWGF

its everything. so obvi hearing valandil call isildur "isil" made me want to throw myself off a cliff but like in the best way possible yk??

however there are SOME THINGS that made me wanna throw myself off a cliff in a BAD WAY.

for example the complete disregard to archaic language and how anduic would've translated into english???

like i got SO EXCITED when miriel said "show THYSELF" by way of greeting to galadriel but then like five minutes later everyone's using abbreviations and acting like its 2022 and not 2000 S.A??

like yes i understand they're men and of lower class than miriel but it was the SECOND AGE. it might've made sense w PJ in the third age, but not here 

the second thing is isildur's non existent sister Earien who was made up for the show because...... because.... hmm i can't seem to remember why.... why DID they add her in... hmmmm..

*bangs fist on table* OH YEAH I JUST REMEMBERED.

THERE WAS NO REASON. HER CHARACTER IS COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY POINTLESS.

and LISTEN IM NOT USUALLY AGAINST ADDING FEMALE OCs IN A MALE DOMINATED STORY 

BUT THE FACT THAT SHE ONLY EXISTS AS A LOVE INTEREST FOR PHARAZON'S SON????

nope. does not pass bechdel. get out.

and SPEAKING of pharazon, why is this mans there?????

like the lore???? who is she??? don't know her

in the original numenor lore miriel never got to be queen. she should've been but the king's nephew Ar-Pharazon (later Ar-Pharazon the golden greatest and i think last of numenorean kings) usurped him and took miriel against her will as wife

SO OBVIOUSLY THATS DISREGARDED. bc in the show miriel IS queen and pharazon is her advisor.

i'm actually not too mad abt this bc i've always loved miriel's character and wanted to see her on the throne, so ig she'll get usurped later?? in the third episode i was more upset bc i didn't see how that would work since she's already queen and her ppl would back her up if anyone wanted to usurp her but since the fourth ep dropped i do see how that would work

bc at the end of the fourth ep (**SPOILERS BC THIS ISNT IN THE LORE AND U WOULDNT KNOW THIS UNLESS YOUVE WATCHED THE FOURTH EP**) Miriel decides to leave numenor w galadriel to go to middle earth w her

again, the lore??? don't know her

so obviously she'll get usurped while she's gone, the plot is predictable enough and i see how it would work now

HOWEVER IM STILL MAD ABT IT BC NUMENOR NON VISUALLY ISNT AS ACCURATE AS I'D HOPED

moving on from numenor tho, there are some more things i liked in these past two eps apart from all that

one, the blades. i feel like this is so random but the SWORD DESIGN IN RINGS OF POWER??? SLAYING. LOVED.

(and speaking of swords there are SO many weird narsil references in those episodes w elendil and speaking of elendil I LOVE THIS MAN AND I LOVE HIS CASTING OH MY GOD YES THEY UNDERSTOOD THE ASSIGNMENT)

((oh and speaking speaking of references there were SO MANY silmarillion references in ep3 and 4. like the mention of earendil and the silmaril that he carries??? OH MY GOD I DIED))

next is the MITHRILLLLLLLLLLLLLL. again, the thing that rings of power does w taking things that are described w sm glory and made so much out of in the lore and we FINALLY get visual representation of those things and it just makes it SO much cooler and more real

the discovery of mithril is one of those things and i loved it sm.

and on that note, I also FREAKING ADORE THE DWARVESSSSSSSSSSSS

like is the depth of the friendship between durin, disa and elrond accurate to the lore?? no, not even a little bit. BUT DO I STILL LOVE IT??? YES YES YES YES OMG.

the dwarves are my lifeline and they get way too little screentime for my taste. GIVE US MOREEE.

next, like literally everyone else and their mother rn, i loved the orc design !!!!

everyone was saying this but the use of practical effects and the exertion of the traditional orc-vibe (that's not a word but ykwim) as established by dnd lore and tolkien just makes the orcs SO PERFECT and more importantly so fitting for the second age!!! like the difference between PJ's third age orcs and amazon's second age is THERE and it is GIVING.

but now i'm being too positive. let's get into summore stuff i HATED.

one, the use of sindarin (adar meaning father in sindarin) when sindarin was a barely existing language back then?? and if adar is rly who we think he is (aka annatar) wouldn't it make more sense for him to be called father in quenya, seeing as that's the high tongue and not its grey-elven derivation??

that annoys me A LOT as someone who a) studies sindarin in her free time b) stans annatar and c) has a hyperfixation on languages and dialects specifically in the second age

two, the actors for bronwyn and her son are doing a shitty job i said what i said. maybe it's because they're characters are badly written if still good concepts but i'm sorry but so many of their scenes both w eac other and other characters felt fake af.

three, the ELF EARS. look closely nxt episode and tell me those elf ears dont look a LITTLE OFF to you. like the edges are curved, so they look almost hobbity?? this is so nitpicky but its annoying me okay

***

andddddddd cut!!!

tysm for sticking around ily <3

nxt chapter is abt legolas x elrohir 👀👀

love y'all smmmmmmmmmmm

out ✨