This show is good. I am liking it, but i don't think i will ever rewatch it like i did the film trilogy.
Rewatchability is key for me in rating a series. That's why I admire TOS, DS9, B5 and The Expanse among SF shows. I can go back to the great episodes and feel like I'm spending my time wisely. This series just doesn't have what it takes to make me want to revisit anything we've seen so far. At least, it doesn't yet.
I imagine that horses were hard to come by in ME, with few cultures settled enough to be breeding them. I doubt there were none but the Southlands looked pretty hardscrabble. Explain this
That's just Saruman creating Uruk-hai. When he was talking to Lurtz about the origin of Orcs (when explaining how Lurtz and his Uruk-hai were a perfected form of them) he said that the Orcs were once Elves.
Yes, the whole nature and origin of Orcs (and similar creatures) is best not examined in too much detail to avoid the implications of genocide at the end of the Third Age. My own personal (and incorrect) view is that some of the more powerful Maia could create soulless creatures (similar to golems in Jewish folklore) to do their bidding, particularly if these Maia had been trained by Aulë, Yavanna or Melkor, but this doesn't agree with Tolkien's various writings as others have noted upthread. I agree that only Eru could imbue living creatures with a soul.
This is in line with my view, with the corrupting influence basically rendering them in to near automatons, having the impression of life, without the actual soul.
I've been working, so this is the first chance I've gotten to get on here for more than a few minutes. This last episode was my favorite so far. This one really had some great action, tied in with some nice character moments. The end was crazy, that was not at all what I expected the sword to do. So was this the origin of Mt. Doom? The whole speach Elendil gave Isuldur about his horse, is actually pretty close to reality, they really can feel our emptions and will often react to them. One of the things I always get a kick out of doing is try to figure out is when it comes to things like riding motorcyles or horses, or things like that when the person doing it is a stunt person or the actor. I noticed with this that it looked like a lot of the cast members, or at least Morfydd Clark and Charlie Vickers were actually doing a lot of their own horseback rididng. Not sure Joseph Mawle though, they seemed to be hiding his face a lot more than the others. Galadriel's horse is awesome.
That was actually one of the potential origins for Orcs that Tolkien considered after rejecting the "they're corrupted Elves" origin. He had this idea that Morgoth was able to siphon off parts of his spirit and infuse them into other things and beings. He bred the Orcs from animals or created their bodies and then infused them with parts of his soul. So they were just emanations of himself instead of independent beings. It actually works quite well with the concept that Orcs were a twisted mockery of the Children of Eru, since in that version they'd be imbued with a twisted mockery of a soul. That's also a possible origin for dragons like Smaug and Glaurung.
Eh...maybe. He regarded reincarnation as poor theology in the real world but usable in a sub creative work.
Variety has posted an articles about the last episode, and it touches on the horses a bit. Apparently Morfyyd Clark had actually never ridden horse before she was on Rings of Power, and the horse she rode was named Titan.
Just saw a new promo for this week's episode during The Masked Singer, where they talked about "evil being revealed", had a line about Sauron having many names, and then at the very end they showed what appeared to the big S himself. So it looks like we'll find out if one of the character's we've been following is Sauron. I was looking around on the Amazon page last week,and noticed they have been doing individual trailers for each episode. Here's their trailer for episode 7, it's not promo I saw tonight.
I expect my own personal theories will turn out to be incorrect, which is fine. Some level of misdirection is to be expected to maintain interest. It might well turn out that the Annatar form of Sauron has been working with Celebrimbor all this season, that Halbrand is just a dude, and that the Stranger is a wizard - perhaps blue or new. The white-clad cult followers are probably key.
That scene of Galadriel and Theo hiding behind a tree from the Orcs reminds me of something but I can’t place it.
If i never rode a horse in my life and was given one named Titan i'd maybe get second thoughts Reading the theories here about Meteor Man and Halbrand i find them quite interesting but i fear the solution might be much simpler than anyone thought or it's something quite different. I wonder if we'll get anwers in the season finale or if it's just more questions.
Certainly seems like the storyline is building to a time-jump between S1 and S2. The Isildur stuff is interesting in that we've seen his fate, it was shown in the movies. So he didn't die in that burning house unless they just are completely rewriting things (which I doubt) although that brings up the Galadriel's husband (Celeborn bit) We've seen him with her in Lothlorien in the movies. So she likely 'believes' him to be dead, but the question is whether he is captured or whether his soul is reincarnated like Glorfindel. I'm leaning towards captured and possibly Isildur ends up where Celeborn is.
Even these showrunners aren't going to kill off Celeborn and Isildur. That would be idiotic. At least one of the three women in white (WIW) seems to have Maia powers, acts evilly, and carries a staff bearing the Eye of Sauron, so we know which side they're on. Supposedly, they also bear the Stranger's rune (which is the Cirth form for either 'gh' [ɣ] or 'ghw' [w]; I think it looks more like the former), but I haven't looked too closely to spot this myself. There might be meaning to this sigil, but I haven't divined it. The Stranger somewhat behaves like Mairon would have before he turned bad. He is frightened of the harm that his power appears to cause. The WIW are perhaps searching for him because he is one element of Sauron's fëa and hröa that they wish to bind with one or more others - to meld them like alloys of metal. I think Halbrand is a second element. There might be a third - I don't think it's Adar, but there are three WIW so there might be a trifold symmetry that requires the binding of a trinity. Adar did not appear to have any idea who Halbrand was, although Halbrand recognised Adar. Possibly, there is a third element, Annatar or whatever name they go with, already in Eregion influencing Celebrimbor. I hope Celeborn turns up soon to stop Galadriel gettin' it on with Halbrand.
It was pretty-much a direct call-back to the scene in Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring, in which Frodo and the hobbits are hiding beneath the log / tree roots when the Nazgûl is sniffing around above them - and Frodo is tempted to put the ring on. Quite well done, I thought. I just about Squee’d out loud when I heard Galadriel mention Celeborn!!! He’s out there somewhere, and is totally gonna appear! And I can’t wait! My question is, who have they cast as Celeborn? Let the sleuthing ensue! If I heard correct, The Stranger is heading to Greenwood the Great (pre-Mirkwood) which is where Thranduil and his kingdom of Silvan elves reside [EDIT: just realised, unless there is time-compressing happening, during the second age, Greenwood the Great was ruled by Oropher, Thranduil’s father, and Legolas may have only been a young elven child, or not yet born…] So much to ponder…
Why would Celeborn be dead or believed to be dead? The backstory of them meeting in the First Age in Doriath is only mentioned in the Silmarillion, something the creators of this show have no rights to. So it seems more likely to me that in this version Galadriel and Celeborn haven't met yet. I find it more likely that Galadriel will at some point travel north from the Southlands/Mordor to the Vales of Anduin and meet Celeborn there, possibly in the very future location of Lorien. Though I really wonder whether they will show or mention Lorien, what with Lindon already made up to look pretty much exactly like Lorien (a golden woodland, and the leaves of the trees appear to be the same design they used for the Mallorn leaves in the movies) minus the giant trees.