The Hall of Fire

“Leaving behind” doesn’t only mean leaving them in the camp, it also means abandoning them if they fall behind on trail. Nobody besides Poppy (clearly a special exception from close family friendship) offers any help and they don’t ask for help because they know they won’t get it. Largo’s wife clear...

I actually like PJ’s use use of the flaming eye as a unified cinematic motif, besides the unecessary searchlight anyway. I’m aware it’s not actually canonically correct and Sauron has a physical body in the late Third Age (that said, the “outstretched arm” can easily be read metaphorically), but I t...

So a quick breakdown of Númenor: I like it visually and Elendil’s family. I’m neutral on the politics, it’s changed so much from the book version that it’s hard to judge at this point. I was worried they would go with “everything is Pharazon’s fault” so I’m glad they seem not to be doing that at lea...

Leaving people behind comes across to me as a standard practice, not something they reluctantly do under extreme circumstances. They don’t make any real effort to accommodate Nori’s father even before the Stranger is discovered (I don’t remember if everyone knows about the injury, but regardless he...

To be fair to SW, I'm going to guess he's referring to the Meteor Man/Stranger with the second statement as he's written high praise for it elsewhere. Which, well, I put my thoughts in the corresponding topic (overworn "mystery box" with some creative visuals here and there) so I won't rep...

I see things very differently, mixed with good moments but definitely tending negative, as a Tolkien adaptation and on its own merits. As it stands right now it is unlikely I will watch beyond the first season barring a dramatic change. And while PJ had his faults, some major, to me he captured far ...

There were parts of this episode I thought were the best so far (outside possibly Khazad-dûm). Númenor was uneven (maybe I'll post more about my reservations later) but had some very good moments, especially visually. I like Elendil's family. There were also major parts I truly hated, unfortunately....

If he's Sauron they're doing a lot of misdirection. Whoever he is though...I just frankly don't care. To me this comes across a generic dime-a-dozen mystery box, of the sort that was already getting tired when Force Awakens came out in 2015. Wouldn't be surprised if JJ Abrams' fingerprints were here...

I agree about Gil-galad replacing the Valar, and I worry that we're getting a Second Age virtually stripped of the religious elements (even more than the limited rights necessitate, even PJ mentioned the "Valar" once or twice). Which isn't much of a Second Age really. And this is admitted...

The possibility that this is their starting point for growing her into a wiser and less brash Galadriel did occur to me. I do have to wonder though, how much sense does it make give an immortal elf that much of a transformational character arc in a span of a few years (however long this show will co...

Yeah the whole discourse about “woke xenadriel” or whatever is dumb (Galadriel fighting is has more to substantiate from the writings than Arwen’s brief stint as action hero). However there are still serious questions about whether they’ve done her character justice, even allowing for a degree fanfi...

Galadriel seems to have been demoted from one of the greatest Noldorian nobles to a minor army officer. I mean she's a senior officer in theory, but the "Northern Wastes" comes across as a dead-end post where you kick someone upstairs to make them go away, and the "army" we've se...

I think it's more likely to be something related to the Southlands (maybe Arondir's homeland), especially mentioned in the context of building up the orcs. I do not think we are very likely to get any substantial treatment of the First Age, but we'll see. Lindsey Weber's description of the first two...

Well yes, a large portion of the show is basically fanfic as we knew it would be going in from a basic understanding of the rights and chronological structure. I do think there is a sincere effort to follow Tolkien’s themes from said fanfic, though I also worry that Amazon potentially interfered on ...

Yeah, if you go for that and want to be extra sure you don't give Amazon money might be best to wait until the first season is over or has a few episodes left.

I watched the first two episodes (Amazon surprisingly gave me another free trial which is nice). I feel very differently about this show from Stranger Wings...my impressions are mixed but certainly leaning negative, both as Tolkien and on its own merits as TV. Fundamentally I think the possibly-fata...

I've been out of the loop with the hype cycle (I like not to get too caught up in it with most media noawadays), but I've decided I will probably subscribe for at least the first month. Most of October I will be out of the country. When I get back I will have a good idea from both personal impressio...

Sauron as Meteor Man seems like such a lazy on-the-nose mystery box. Characters asking "gee, I wonder what happened to Sauron, and why are monsters reappearing?" + "who is this cosmic stranger?" will come across as super-obvious even to non-readers I think. I hope it isn't him bu...

How well this actually turns out we'll have to wait and see, but I actually quite like the idea of a series of animated films about various smaller Third Age stories, especially since (decently-budgeted) 2D animation is a dying art. Maybe we can get the kin-strife or the fall of Arnor if this one do...

There seems to have always been a little fudging given on the rights. Licensed games in the 80s and 90s used First/Second Age material sometimes. Alatar and Pallando even showed up in one card game , by name (I believe you could play any of the five Istari as your main character). Things of course t...